-
Sunday Sermonette: Burning Love
“I love you,” I say.
“I love you,” she answers.
“I love you more,” I say.
“No, I love you more,” she says in a voice you could pour on waffles.
And so we continue, amid giggles, until it just gets too silly (a relative measure).
It’s true - I love my wife, and she loves me. We’re usually quite happy and content, doing little things for each other ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Lysistrata
In 411 BC, Arisophanes’ play Lysistrata was first performed in Athens. It was a comedy about a woman’s attempt to end the Peloponnesian War by persuading all women to withhold sex with their husbands and lovers until they stopped fighting and made peace. The ploy didn’t quite work, the battleground simply moved from the Greek city-states to the ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Mother's Day
It’s Mother’s Day. The first Mother’s Day in America was celebrated by a church service on May 10, 1908. It’s been a big hit ever since. A quarter of all flowers and flowering plants sold in this country are sold on this day. Approximately 122 million phone calls are made. Hallmark says that 141 million Mother’s Day cards are sent each year.
Many ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Talking to Yourself
Last Thursday was the National Day of Prayer. It would seem to be a violation of the First Amendment, which clearly says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It’s also un-Christian. Jesus said “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: The Bad Place
Christians believe in an afterlife, where they will be eternally rewarded or punished. Exactly how it works varies by denomination. Evangelical Protestants believe that a declaration of faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is all that is necessary to be saved. Catholics take a more nuanced view which depends upon the state of a person’s soul. ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Magic Blood
But it was much earlier even than that when most people forgot that the very oldest stories are, sooner or later, about blood. (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)
As a computer geek, we talk about magic smoke. If you plug it in and the magic smoke escapes, the computer won’t work. It’s our joke that since the internal workings of computers are mysterious ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Pope Palpatine Strikes Back
In 2013, Pope Palpatine, er, Benedict XVI abdicated the throne of Peter and went into private life in a small Vatican religious community. Last week, he was heard from again in the form of a rambling 6000 word almost-encyclical on the topic of the Catholic Church’s ongoing sex-abuse scandal. The full text of the letter was published by the Catholic ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Sing Out!
Four years ago, the music director at my church thought of a way to use her talents to make art, make community, and make money for social needs. Sing for Good! gathered together choristers from other churches to perform, and the hat was passed. Last year, choristers from Falmouth to Provincetown filled half the pews in the Brewster meetinghouse, ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Jedi Mind Tricks
Stormtrooper: How long have you had these droids?
Luke Skywalker: About three or four seasons.
Ben Kenobi: They're for sale if you want them.
Stormtrooper: Let me see your identification.
Ben Kenobi: (waving his hand slowly) You don't need to see his identification.
Stormtrooper: [pauses] We don't need to see his identification.
Ben Kenobi: These ( Read more... ) -
Sunday Sermonette: Better to Copulate Than Never
I’ve been talking lately about how bad Christian, especially Catholic, teachings on sex and sexuality are for children. They're also terrible for us older people, even those of us married to opposite-sex partners.
To recap, the only licit form of sexual expression has to have three elements: it must be marital, unitive, and procreative. In other ( Read more... )