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It was theologian Paul Tillich who said, “The first duty of love is to listen.” The words are beautiful from a counseling viewpoint, but they can be very disturbing to those whose religion is based on belief.

Listening can be terrifying to those who have learned religion as a parrot song to be recited word for word. Awareness is indeed heretical if one has been taught religion as a trance. When we believe that orthodoxy is the only way to avoid hell we tend not to ask many questions.

We must never forget that religion is a means to deeper living and not an end in itself. Religion that has become an end in itself can only betray us in our pursuit of deeper living and wider loving.

When the unity of our religious group has been established by mindlessly saying the same words at the same time, it can feel divisive to stop talking and actually listen to each other. What kind of “unity” comes from a room full of people reciting holy words with unshared hearts?

We cannot love those we have not listened to. To hear another person, we must listen to their heart song. I do not think it is possible to hear another’s heart song if religion has muffled our own eyes and ears. To seek love we must free our own hearts from the shackles of dogma and moralism.

Tillich seems right in saying the first duty of love is not to recite a creed without deviation nor to practice an ancient ritual without deviation. If love is our goal then our first duty to each other is to listen.

The deadliest attacks on a religion come not when it is criticized rationally by outsiders

But when it is defended irrationally from within.

If you want to destroy a religion, or a republic for that matter, get people to recite creeds and patriotic pledges mindlessly.

Teach children answers, but do not allow their questions. Get children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance but do not allow them to question why there isn’t liberty and justice for all.

Put the 10 Commandments on the walls of schools but refuse to allow questions about slavery, America’s covert wars or the adulterous lives of the very politicians who insist on displaying religious symbols in secular spaces.

If you want to destroy a religion, or republic, get people to say their values but not really mean them. In the end, that religion and that republic will both suffocate in the airless abyss between who they claim to be

and who they really are.

As we move through these unpredictable times it can be helpful to consider the beliefs, values and principles upon which we are basing our lives.

One of my favorite themes for preaching is “finding the sacred in ordinary.” We don’t really need magical beings to guide us, nor miraculous signs to lead meaningful lives. “Heaven” is pulsing deep within in every place and time.

We do not need a treasure outside ourselves to have value. Our human sentience is itself a treasure beyond reckoning. The more we base our values on increasing what we have the less we can enjoy each ordinary day.

And when we live too securely in our beliefs we can drift further and further away from the reality we are actually living. Unfortunately, many Christians are taught their beliefs are true because the church has said so in the past. But, yesterday’s truth can be a lie in our own day. Many of the troubles besetting our nation have been born of an effort to get back to an America that never really was in the first place.

If we are not adapting what we believe to what we and other people are actually living through we become religious and patriotic zombies feeding on the flesh of those who threaten to shatter our illusions. In my experience the fewer hypotheticals I base my life on the more accessible wisdom is in confusing times.

The more we base our activism on political victories the more likely we are to compromise our principles away. We don’t need political victory in our own lifetime to give our most important gift to the future. To faithfully carry our little lantern through dark times may be all the light someone coming down the road will need to lift up love’s torch and carry it into the future.

In some ways we are already in heaven if we have learned to see the sacred in the ordinary. It is a great day when we realize our greatest treasure is our character not our fate. It is a life of dignified joy to carry our little lanterns faithfully through dark times so that future members of our human family will find love’s torch still glowing and carry it into the future.

A woman came by the church last week and said she had not been raised religiously. Current events had her feeling the need for a spiritual path but she had no idea how to start.

It seems to me the truth of religion is not the property of any one sect but exists as a certain depth within us all. The great scriptures of the world do not really give us concrete rules or beliefs concerning the external world. Rather, great scriptures are attempts to give us a map of the human heart.

There are baby birds who cannot sing their instinctual song until they hear it expressed by an adult. I believe the “saviors” of the world were ordinary people who knew the depths of the human heart. We “follow” them not by imitation, but by learning our own deep song and by unfolding the wings of our own souls.

Finding our spiritual path is similar whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or atheist. We must discover how what we love to do most might become a gift to the world. We must measure our ideas by an objective standard of truth. We must tune our hearts to the beauty of nature. And we must measure our actions by a scale that balances the needs of our entire human family.

The “proof” that we are on our spiritual path eventually becomes obvious. When we are walking our authentic path our roots into life become deeper, our horizons become wider, and we gain an increasing ability to see our sacred source in the face of the stranger. When these things are happening in your life, you can know you are walking your authentic path.

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Some of my most cherished childhood memories are of fields and forests illuminated by fireflies.

Fireflies are beautiful but their lives are very brief. It seems to me we see beauty most clearly in ephemeral things like fireflies and flowers. On a night when the sky is filled with faraway suns and galaxies, it is the shooting star that stands out. Beauty and brevity seem to be inexorably connected.

If we observe the fireflies, we realize the importance of living and loving in time. By that, I mean loving each other even more passionately by realizing that we all shine for a very brief time.

We sometimes say that time flies, but it is we who are fleeting. Can we realize that what we call our living and dying are parts of the same dance? Can we realize that, like the firefly, our lives are a kind of combustion? Can we understand that if we try to hold onto our lives we lose them? We can only shine fully by giving ourselves to the burning.

Can we love our meteoric lives with abandon without pretending to permanence? Can we trust that the system that gives us birth can be trusted in death? Can we realize that we are more deeply like the perpetual ocean than the ephemeral wave?

And can we realize that darkness is necessary for us to fully express our own light? Can we recognize our current dark times, not as an excuse for despair, but as an invitation to shine?

Incarnation does not just mean Jesus was the word made flesh. Christmas should be a reminder that we, too, are sacred expressions of the heart of the universe.

I suspect if we could go back in time to Bethlehem on Christmas morn we would see a world that looks much like ours. The stories of Christmas are not narratives about holier people in a holier time. Christmas is a yearly reminder of how our lives might look and feel if we were fully present to our own incarnation in the here and now.

“Incarnation” also means “enfleshment.” “Enfleshment” means fully manifesting our own cosmic creativity in our real lives. We, too, are tormented by our Herods. We, too, are children of the stars.

Incarnation means to stop waiting for better circumstances to begin manifesting who we truly are. Truth and love are not disembodied abstractions. We must give birth to these treasures in our own lives. To wait to discover spiritual treasures in the external world is like a bird hoping to find an already built nest full of eggs.

Whatever the word “sacred” means to you, it can only be given birth through loving real people in real situations. Incarnation doesn’t mean having orthodox beliefs about Jesus. Incarnation means manifesting love in our real life circumstances. Incarnation requires fearless honesty to explore, to make mistakes and to discover through trial and error who we authentically are.

Acceptance is a very good starting place to begin our spiritual journey. Until we have come to terms with the way life really is our spiritual progress is conceptual and provisional. Life becomes a problem we are trying to get around in hot pursuit of some imagined goal. Until we come to terms with who we really are, our emotions are problems we are trying fix. We piously peel away layer after layer of ourselves thinking we will find a sacred kernel that doesn’t exist by itself. We throw away minute after minute of our authentic lives seeking something to call holy. Such inattention is a walking death.

If we are ever to manifest the profound creativity latent within us, we have to stop waiting for better situations to come along before we begin to live. Christmas is a reminder that stars often shine brightest in a bleak backgrounds. Music is sometimes sweetest after a period of wretching silence. Intimacy sometimes feels warmest in frigid external conditions.

Incarnation means to start living where we are and to manifest love as fearlessly and completely as we can. Every moment we love authentically from the ground of our being is our true Christmas.

Incarnation does not just mean Jesus was the word made flesh. Christmas should be a reminder that we, too, are sacred expressions of the heart of the universe.

I suspect if we could go back in time to Bethlehem on Christmas morn we would see a world that looks much like ours. The stories of Christmas are not narratives about holier people in a holier time. Christmas is a yearly reminder of how our lives might look and feel if we were fully present to our own incarnation in the here and now.

“Incarnation” also means “enfleshment.” “Enfleshment” means fully manifesting our own cosmic creativity in our real lives. We, too, are tormented by our Herods. We, too, are children of the stars.

Incarnation means to stop waiting for better circumstances to begin manifesting who we truly are. Truth and love are not disembodied abstractions. We must give birth to these treasures in our own lives. To wait to discover spiritual treasures in the external world is like a bird hoping to find an already built nest full of eggs.

Whatever the word “sacred” means to you, it can only be given birth through loving real people in real situations. Incarnation doesn’t mean having orthodox beliefs about Jesus. Incarnation means manifesting love in our real life circumstances. Incarnation requires fearless honesty to explore, to make mistakes and to discover through trial and error who we authentically are.

Acceptance is a very good starting place to begin our spiritual journey. Until we have come to terms with the way life really is our spiritual progress is conceptual and provisional. Life becomes a problem we are trying to get around in hot pursuit of some imagined goal. Until we come to terms with who we really are, our emotions are problems we are trying fix. We piously peel away layer after layer of ourselves thinking we will find a sacred kernel that doesn’t exist by itself. We throw away minute after minute of our authentic lives seeking something to call holy. Such inattention is a walking death.

If we are ever to manifest the profound creativity latent within us, we have to stop waiting for better situations to come along before we begin to live. Christmas is a reminder that stars often shine brightest in a bleak backgrounds. Music is sometimes sweetest after a period of wretching silence. Intimacy sometimes feels warmest in frigid external conditions.

Incarnation means to start living where we are and to manifest love as fearlessly and completely as we can. Every moment we love authentically from the ground of our being is our true Christmas.

As you probably know, three women have died in Texas since the Republican State Legislature imposed a ban on abortion at six weeks before many women even realize they are pregnant.

Texas Republicans then imposed the threat of 99 years in prison for any doctor whose treatment of miscarriages could be construed as an abortion. Unsurprisingly, some doctors are already choosing less effective procedures that are more dangerous to the pregnant person, but legally safer for the doctor.

Obviously, men being “Pro-Life” costs the man nothing and can cost the woman everything. I was horrified, but not surprised, to learn that the committee studying maternal mortality in Texas will not review cases from the first two years after the abortion ban. Apparently, patriarchal “Pro-Life” passion dims considerably when we consider the fate of pregnant women.

When asked about pregnancies that were a result of rape, Gov. Abbott fantastically claimed he would eliminate rape in Texas. If the governor has even lifted a finger to prevent rape he has failed spectacularly. Texas still leads the nation in the number of women forcibly raped. And it is hard to believe to believe any member of the Republican Party is serious about eliminating rape if they confirm the incoming Trump cabinet nominees which is replete with men accused of rape and sexual assault.

I hope someday there will a monument to our unknown sisters who have perished under the merciless heel of patriarchy in the United States. We can look to the feminist revolution like the one in Iran for inspiration.

Golshan, a Women’s Rights Activist in Iran said:

“We don’t have one leader. The beauty and strength of our movement is that every single one of us here is a leader.”

Shahed Ezaydi, Editor for The New Arab wrote:

“The fight for women’s freedom in Iran isn’t just about the hijab but ultimately, a woman’s ability to choose.“

We no longer have to travel to other countries to experience theocracy. The Christian Taliban have arrived and are strutting through their brief reign before American women rise to take up what is theirs.

It is imperative that we honor the brave feminist and womanist souls who have struggled against gender apartheid since the founding of this nation.

I hope someday there will be a monument to “The Unknown Sister” in Washington D.C. honoring the brave mothers, sisters and daughters who died resisting patriarchy in all its evil forms. It is a battle longer and bloodier than any in history and it is past time to celebrate those who gave their lives in the struggle against gender apartheid.

Source of all life and being,

We pray for the members of our human family who, in your name, place the good of their own nation over the good of your entire human family.

Please forgive those who, in your name, blaspheme immigrants, non-Christians and others born in your sacred image.

Forgive those who have turned bearing false witness into an art form. Deliver them from pseudoscience, slander, propaganda and every other form of lying.

We pray for those who, in Christ’s name, preach against turning the other cheek, forgiving our enemies, clothing the naked or dividing up the whole world fairly.

Deliver your church from the belief that might makes right, that goods needed by all should be hoarded by the few, or that anyone holds the copyright on your sacred love.

Deliver us all from the idolatry of flags and crosses.

If we call you our parent, may we see every human being as your beloved child. If we say we love America, may we therefore seek life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for EVERY person.

We pray this prayer in all the sacred names of love,

Amen.

True love is revolutionary because it comes from the roots of our common humanity and is therefore in the best sense of the word “radical.”

True love is revolutionary because it blossoms into the great virtues of courage, wisdom, moderation and justice.

True love is revolutionary because it recognizes humankind as one family and values the fundamental needs of the poor over the superficial wants of the rich.

True love is revolutionary because it seeks a world where all might be happy. It, therefore, rises above allegiance to any one sect, group or nation.

True love is revolutionary because it embraces what is over what might be, and therefore is beyond any one religion or philosophy.

True love is revolutionary because it recognizes the barren nature of cruelty and hate and chooses instead to heal the world with creativity and compassion.