The Archer’s Mark Throughout many of this nation’s streets, and certainly in its bars, the celebration of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday to those who skipped out of French class, will herald the arrival this week of…Valentine’s Day? That’s right, that amorphous holiday purporting to celebrate romantic love by venerating saints executed in a Roman […]
Visitors Growing up, I was a fan of the science fiction miniseries V. The “V” stood for “visitors” and it was an imaginative take on what would happen should visitors from another planet come to our own planet. The series I remember had a trademark gaseous compound that would, however, cause the visitors to remove […]
Homeward Bound “Ladies and gentlemen. As you can see the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign indicating that we have begun our initial descent into Honolulu. As the crew moves through the cabin to collect any remaining service items, please return your chairs and tray tables to their full upright and locked position. […]
A Shared Blessing Who is your minister? You might be thinking of the person you see on Sundays delivering a sermon. Or you might be thinking of some other person who was a minister of the church in the past. But most of us have an idea of what a minister is, right? But think […]
Getting In Line I turn off the ringing alarm. I pack up my documents. I get in my car and head down. I want to arrive early so that I can beat the line. Surely, there can’t be too much of a line before they open, right? And if I get there early it’ll go […]
Talk About The Weather I never spent a lot of time worrying about the weather. And being here in Honolulu has effectively cured me of any lingering habit I might have had to worry much about checking the weather or fearing for what it will bring—surely some rain here and there, but nothing to get […]
Skip My Turn Well, here we are again, my friends. Every year we put Thanksgiving behind us, we vault out toward the winter holidays, and then we are here, in this space together. We traverse this distance, this final leg of our journey together through the Bermuda Triangle of the holiday season toward the New […]
Reason for the Season This time of year it’s common to hear people saying, “Remember the reason for the season.” And the implication is to remember that this is this time of year that we remember the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to his parents Mary and Joseph. In orthodox theological circles, this is called […]
Always Remember I think I will always remember last night, when Doug Jones defeated his opponent in the special election for the seat in the Senate vacated by Jeff Sessions in the State of Alabama. I think I will always remember a few days ago, hearing from my close friend, a native of Alabama, who […]
Leftover So, who’s still eating leftovers? That’s OK, there’s nothing wrong with leftovers. I know some people who appear to be constitutionally opposed to eating leftover food, but more and more, the big meals of the holiday season seem to lend themselves to the pleasure of picking at sweet and savory dishes for days, maybe […]
We Give Thanks A Meditation and a Prayer for First Unitarian Church of Honolulu In a space out of time, out of our human knowledge and understanding, A spark lit the flame of the existence, the reality, the web of life we share today. In a space out of sight, beyond vision we know today, […]
Gentle Mercies I once led a children’s chapel service on the subject of “generosity.” This was during the annual fund drive at a previous church. As the grownups were asked to give money to support the important work of the church, the children and I talked a little about what generosity really means. When it […]
Moments of Silence One of the most memorable vacations I ever took as a child was to a place famous for its lazy river. For those of you unacquainted with a lazy river, I feel for you. For those of you only acquainted with a lazy river constructed in a water park or hotel pool, […]
In a Holy Place I missed you all this Sunday. I took a trip to nearby Moloka’i with some friends to do some camping. We were able to make use of some property a church owned. There was even a rickety old church piano in the corner of one of the rooms we could use. […]
Boo! Is anybody else as shocked as I am that Halloween is next week? I know that must be a really “new-to-the-island” thing to say, but I feel like it crept up on us this year…almost like it wanted to scare us! And that’s entirely appropriate. Worlds Collide See, Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, is […]
Winds of Change Greetings and Aloha, my friends. I hope you’ve been enjoying some of the shifts in the weather this week. I know that the swell we had in the ocean made for some very happy surfers, boogie boarders, and fans of those sports. Yesterday I was able to see more than a dozen […]
Not Only the Lonely This week, the Harvard Business Review ran a very interesting cover story. I encourage everyone to read it (you can click here). You will see that it was not written by a business professor or by an economist. The article is by a doctor—and not by just any doctor. It’s written […]
I Am Angry I am angry. The scenes of chaos, terror, and dread on the streets of yet another city made me sad for a time, but now, mostly, I’m angry. Violence in Our Lives The New York Times Editorial Board ran an article on Monday about mass shootings. In the 477 days since June […]
Send in the Clowns Greetings, friends! Have you ever felt that some ideas are better in the planning than in the execution? I learned this last night. A friend asked me to see the movie It, the most recent adaptation of the Stephen King novel. The movie was showing at a deep discount from the […]
Boston Calling Greetings and Aloha! These past three weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. It’s hard to believe that today marks three weeks of being here with you at First Unitarian. In my first two weeks I spent a lot of time to getting to know my way around the church and the island. […]
