Been a bad blogger

I've been a bad blogger of late. No posting and really very little reading. It's been busy at home and busy at work. I've been thinking a lot lately about the old joke that every minister has only one sermon, and just uses variations of it in each sermon.

A couple weeks ago I definitely lived out this idea. Because I give a sermon occasionally at my home church, I know the people listening and tend to focus on themes that balance out other Sundays.

I almost always include a little challenging traditional language and often at least tangentially relate my theme to RCL readings for that week. I believe we can grow spiritually through the confrontation with language that we may initially find uncomfortable. I also like to remind people when it ends up that the Bible is more radical or better said than any alternative I might come up with. (I will try to elaborate on this later).

In my home congregation, I try to serve as a foil for another member who likes to emphasize the freedom of our faith and for a faction that is especially interested in personal spirituality. I try to focus on commitment.

Even when you know that your values may change with time, and even if you are free to find your own values, it is necessary to commit and live up to your values at the time. I want people who play Unitarian, Universalist or Unitarian Universalist to understand that they are standing on the shoulders of giants, and that we owe it to our ancestors to live up to the inheritance.