It is my honor to be here with you on this great occasion, and for Rev. Sean Neil-Barron (who will offer the blessing) and I to bring you greetings from the northern end of the Front Range. Your new minister and I were baby ministers together in our earliest days of formation – he was an intern serving in Ogden, Utah, and I was the intern in Boulder; after meeting at the District Assembly in 2009, we ended up as study buddies preparing for the MFC. Our mutual relief and celebration on that day in Boston when we were officially in fellowship will forever be one of my most cherished memories.&nb ..read more

Yes, we are aware that we are solidly into 2024, but Sara and I are finally ready with our list of our favorite shows from 2023! It’s ok, they are still all great shows 2 months later! As we said in our Top 21 of 2021, and our Top 22 of 2022, we make no claims other than this being a subjective list of shows that we personally loved, and also believe other people will likely love too. And of course, we could be wrong! Not everything is for everyone. Here are the guidelines we used for this year. The shows must have had at least one season that was at least partially new in 2023 in the US ..read more

Hallelujah to the grace And the body  and every cell of us all The Hallelujah of the body begins at birth. I have been present at two births in my life, (other than my own) neither of them my children’s. At the time my babies’ lungs first met the air, and the blood and mucus were wiped from their skin, in those moments, they were still in my mind, disembodied dreams, whose imagined lives would not become material realities for me until days later.  Even now, I feel in my body, the grief of not being there those first 2 days for my daughter, 3 for my son. I take some solace th ..read more

Can you believe it?! I never doubted we would get here, really, but we have been talking about needing a bigger sanctuary since I started at Foothills 11 years ago, and that conversation had been going on long before I arrived To finally be here, with all of you, is glorious, and unbelievable, and it leaves me with just one question:  What are we going to talk about now? Now that we won’t be talking about needing a new sanctuary, what are we going to talk about?  I’m joking, and I’m not.   Plans for this morning’s gathering started over 15 years ago, but were then she ..read more

The Work That Is Theirs to Do by Joanna Fontaine Crawford And said, “That’s enough of that.” And the day came when finally they put down their burdens The moment was full of sorrow but also relief Arms exhausted from carrying the burden Of trying to entice, persuade, people to be more Compassionate, wise They continued their own work of building a world more just But were freer, lighter The responsibility for others’ thoughts was gone They taught through their actions For anyone willing to read their lives You can see them now at work in the daytime Singing and laughing in the evenings Ask for ..read more

Readings: Luke 2:2-20 Selections from A. Powell Davies, “Christmas Always Begins at Midnight, 1944” Julian Jamaica Ines Soto’s Christmas Poem Homily Homily – Choosing to Love, Anyway  In Bethlehem tonight, the usual extravagant Christmas celebrations have been canceled. In place of Glorias echoing across the land, there is war and grief, all across Palestine and Israel, and in Gaza. As the Mayor of Bethelhem declared today, Christmas this year, must be found in the rubble. And in our own country, despite candles and carols still enduring, we also know grief. Democracy tee ..read more

Reading – a combination of Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s 2022 and 2023 Hanukah reflections, which end with this reflection Hanukah isn’t just about what happened in the past, on the calendar. It’s about who we are capable of being. It’s about the bravery, will and determination to reject tyranny. It’s about the survival of the Jewish tradition, the protection of what is most holy to us. If so, perhaps we can remember what lives in our Holy of Holies now, 2000 years since we’ve had the physical space: We are all, our Torah teaches, created in the divine image. All of us. Every last one of us. Not a ..read more

Twenty four years ago this week, I was on a flight to Portland to meet up with my parents. I had words I needed to say to them for the very first time. Words that were too big for an email or a phone call, or even a handwritten letter.   My words were also too big to say while on the drive from Portland to their house two hours away, but they couldn’t wait. So from the backseat of my dad’s car, I told them I was in love. With a woman. I was bisexual.  For a few moments, my silence instead became theirs. Seconds passed, which felt like decades, as mile-marker ..read more

Reading: Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, by Wendell Berry Last Sunday, I told you about sitting down with the Rabbi from Har Shalom, and how the first people to call her after the Hamas attack were Christian Evangelicals. What I didn’t tell you, is that she shared this with me because she was surprised, and sad, that she didn’t also get a call from us. Not because she thought we’d have a particular position, but because she thought we would be there for them in their grief and fear. Your community always has a moral compass, she said, sadly. I did eventually email her – it’s how we ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with Rabbi Finestone, who serves Congregation Har Shalom, just down the road. We were speaking about the attack on October 7th, and what her community has been feeling since.  She shared many things that have stuck with me, including that in the first few days, the most consistent calls of support her community received were from evangelical Christians. My heart sunk when I heard this. Not because she received calls of support. But because I know – and she knows – that this support is not exactly what it might seem.  Today, some of the biggest s ..read more