If you are not careful, it is possible to live quite a while without anything really grabbing your attention spiritually. Then all of a sudden, something can happen that makes you think 'I'll never pass this way again.' You remember in an instant the mystery and meaning that makes your life worth while. Our Celtic ancestors used to call these 'thick places' because they were rich in purpose and joy.

This week we lift up the way that love creates beauty in those that we love. It is the spiritual gravitas of love. And we get to exemplify it at both services this week through baptism. Ben and Susie Merrick's granddaughter will be baptized at our first service and our grandson will be blessed at the second service. It is wonderful watching them start out, so redolent with promise and expectation. And we know that our calling is nothing less than to love them into being. And I hope for you that you tap into the considerable power of love that you have at your disposal and that you will create beauty with those that you touch. In the depth of your being, that is who you are and what you are supposed to be about.

The headlines today contrasted thousands of irate people protesting violently in the Ukraine, Crimea, and Venezuela with a photo of the President signing a new initiative for black youth. He spoke personally about his youth and how he hopes to create a better future for this generation than he experienced. I looked carefully at the faces of the boys behind him, wondering if one of them might be a young Bill Clinton who was so moved when he had the opportunity to meet President Kennedy as a teenager. And I remembered back to when I was thirteen and the front page of the paper featured a picture of Bobby Seal, the Black Panther, who was bound and gagged in a courtroom in Chicago, on trial with the "Chicago Eight" for his role in the violent protests at the Democratic Convention in 1968. Our country had riots and fires in many of our urban centers that summer as the frustration of a discontent public boiled over into destructive anarchy. 
I am quite sure that yesterday was one of the more important days for the President in his tenure and he will remember it that way a decade on. Congressman Franks and Governor Corzine reminded me that you don't get that many opportunities in politics to actually make a positive impact. Most of the time you are consumed with the compromise that goes into making the sausage that is our political process and it wears you out like being stuck in traffic at the George Washington Bridge. But every once in a while, you can speak from the heart, make a constructive impression on the next generation, and it makes the rest of the grind almost worthwhile. And let's pray for the healing of our neighbors in the East and to the South that they might evolve beyond consuming rage and one day soon develop the kind of healing compassion exemplified by the President yesterday. Looking back, it made me wonder how my generation might have been different if the Bobby Seals of my youth had been loved  and cared for rather than bound. 

The Rev.