Sermons

I’ll start with a feeling. One morning after church I was sitting in my chair, not ready to leave the sanctuary to head home. This seems to be happening a lot to me these days at First Parish – this not wanting to leave here feeling. Something drew me into the Heart of the Matter discussion in the nearby room – and for those of you who are new – it’s a monthly get-together led by Rev Sophia to share what’s on your mind and to consider the topic of the month. It only took a little bit of...

What does FPW mean to me? Well, that question is going to require a walk down memory lane, because FPW has meant so much to me and my family over the years, and like all things, has evolved a great deal. So, the year was 2008, Matt and I had moved to the Boston area about 18 months earlier for work and graduate school, and had been living in Watertown for the past 6 months (just down the street on Summer street). Aside from some colleagues, we didn’t know anyone in the area. Growing up, I...

A couple of weeks ago Rev. Sophia asked us, “How has First Parish affected your heart and soul?” If I listed all the ways there would be no time to hear from anyone else.  But I’ll tell you about a few of the most meaningful. I first came to First Parish in 1988. I was recently divorced and a single mom.  I had been working with a bunch of mothers at the former Phillips School to start an afterschool program.  I learned that most of them attended the church around the corner from me.  So I...

This reading comes to us from Black Elk, a renowned holy man of the Oglala Lakota people. Black Elk’s vision was written down and published, with his permission, by John Neihardt in 1932 in the book, “Black Elk Speaks.” “I was still on my bay horse, and once more I felt the riders of the west, the north, the east, the south, behind me in formation…and we were going east. I looked ahead and saw the mountains and there with rocks and forests on them, and from the mountains flashed all colors...

READING: By Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor from her book An Altar in the World in a chapter entitled, “The Practice of Wearing Skin”: “…I think it is important to pray naked in front of a full-length mirror sometimes, especially when you are full of loathing for your body. Maybe you think you are too heavy. Maybe you never liked the way your hipbones stick out…Are you too hairy? It is always something. Then again, maybe you have been sick, or gone through surgery that has changed the...

READING: Fault Line,” by Robert Walsh Did you ever think there might be a fault line Passing underneath your living room: A place in which your life is lived in meeting And in separating, wondering And telling, unaware that just beneath You is the unseen seam of great plates That strain through time? And that your life, already Spilling over the brim, could be invaded, Sent off in a new direction, turned Aside by forces you were warned about But not prepared for? Shelves could be spilled out,...

READING: “Wild Geese,” by Mary Oliver You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in...

READING: Self Portrait, by David Whyte It doesn’t interest me if there is one God Or many gods. I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned; If you know despair Or can see it in others. I want to know If you are prepared to live in the world With its harsh need to change you; If you can look back with firm eyes Saying “this is where I stand.” I want to know if you know how to melt Into that fierce heat of living Falling toward the center of your longing. I want to know if you are willing...

“Love After Love,” by St. Lucian poet, playwright and professor, Derek Walcott. The time will come  when, with elation  you will greet yourself arriving  at your own door, in your own mirror  and each will smile at the other's welcome,  and say, sit here. Eat.  You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart  to itself, to the stranger who has loved you  all your life, whom you ignored  for another, who knows you by heart.  Take down the love...