Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Bedford, January 28

Sunday at my home church (First Parish in Bedford, Massachusetts) I gave a sermon called "The Trap of the Anti-creed and the Vision of the World City." It was an updated version of a sermon I gave last January in Middlebury, Vermont: "Cosmopolis: a Positive Humanist Vision."

The new parts of the service were a children's story about how Thomas Paine avoided going to the guillotine during the French Revolution (which I'll get around to posting sometime), and the closing words, which I just love: "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may work on their dreams with open eyes, to make the possible." (Lawrence of Arabia)

Feel free to comment on the text here. Glad to hear from you.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Im from Melbourne Australia.
Please check out these related essays which deal with the themes that your blog discusses.

1. www.dabase.net/dht7.htm
2. www.dabase.net/noface.htm
3. www.dabase.net/restsacr.htm
4. www.dabase.net/coopcomm.htm
5. www.dabase.net/proofch6.htm
6. www.dabase.net/tfrbkgil.htm

Anonymous said...

I got an email from that John from Melbourne Australia. How did he get my name and email?

Doug -- I'd really like to see that other sermon you mentioned in Right and Left Together.

Doug Muder said...

Kim,

I can't imagine how John from Melbourne got your email. I don't even know your email.

Anonymous said...

Now, from here this sermon can go two ways, and I've actually written both of them. The sermon I'm not preaching today explores why I don't expect this young man to have a liberal awakening. You see, I don't resent the power of the religious right to awaken such people, I envy it. Because liberal religion has a class problem. Where is our transforming message for the unskilled and the uneducated? Why is it so hard for us to call people of all classes and backgrounds to a deeper, more meaningful life?

So, when do we get to see that one?

Doug Muder said...

The sermon about UUism and class is sitting in my notes with half a dozen other things that need one more editing pass to be presentable. The way these things get finalized is that I agree to give the talk somewhere, and that puts me on a schedule.

But it will show up here eventually. I'm under a time crunch to finish a book, but I'll find some time somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Thank you -- I'm looking forward to it.