tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:57:27 +0000<p align=left>I create this "blog" or essay-holder in my seventh year Sabbatical. The question for me will be is cyber space too abstract, too boundless a pulpit? Without those familiar faces before me and the lives attached to them, will this be a self-centered, self-involved and utterly barren waste of webspace? They say Jews do not live in place and space but in time.http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (TalkingStick)Blogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-8214483137774914744Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:21:00 +00002007-09-05T07:22:03.026-07:00Bread and Rosesdelivered at UUCA© September 2, 2007Rev. Marti KellerLike many girls, my first paid job outside of the home—that is beyond my fifty cents a week allowance —was babysitting. At 12 and 13 I had a fair-sized clientele of families in the suburban subdivisions within 15 minute bike rides of our house.Some of my employers were great, with babies who actually slept, and toddlers who didn’http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/09/bread-and-roses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (TalkingStick)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-4012044726984828157Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:17:00 +00002007-09-05T07:21:24.262-07:00A Perfect Mess©August 12, 2007Rev. Marti KellerFirst delivered at UUCAAudioWhen I was learning to preach, that is when I took my first formal class on homiletics, which is the fancy seminary word for the craft, science, or system of preaching, my model was a reform Protestant one. In most of the rural Southern churches where most of my classmates were going to be standing behind the pulpit, http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/09/perfect-mess.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (TalkingStick)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-117371769399088160Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:40:00 +00002007-03-12T10:41:34.010-07:00Rev. Marti Keller ©11 March 2007Is there anyone here that had a birthday this past week? Or maybe is having a birthday this week?Are you looking forward to your party?Have any of you ever had a really rotten miserable birthday? Especially a really really rotten miserable birthday party?I have a picture of my youngest child taken on his first birthday. It is definitely one of those large framed http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/03/tao-of-eeyore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-117318203214630932Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:52:00 +00002007-03-10T16:58:41.020-08:00© 4 March 2007Audio Reading Sermon Rev. Marti KellerArguably the marker cultural phenomenon we’ve got going now is American Idol. On any Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night, there are 50 or so million TV viewers who watch to see who Simon will trash, whose singing performance is too pitchy or pitch perfect. And then text message in their vote, a kind of balloting I’ve yet to http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/03/american-prophetess.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-117285186143557025Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:08:00 +00002007-03-02T08:11:01.446-08:00Unitarian Universalist Congregation of AtlantaFeb. 21, 2007 Every Friday of our married life, or just about every Friday of our married life, my husband and I have taken ourselves to a bargain matinee. A twilight showing of some film or another. At least 40 times a year over going on a quarter century, nearly 1,000 by my calculations, some meriting Oscars and other awards. Others so bad as to http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/03/amazing-grace-reflection-for-vespers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-116951379151491092Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:55:00 +00002007-01-22T16:56:31.523-08:00delivered at Ellijay, Georgia Jan. 21, 2007Yesterday afternoon I did a memorial service for a man, a barely middle aged man, who succumbed to a nine year battle with lymphoma. The cause of death was officially a freak brain inflammation, but it was the cancer and the drugs associated with keeping it in remission that led to his rapid disintegration following some years of relative recovery.Years,http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/01/american-soul.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-116951373461463208Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:54:00 +00002007-01-22T16:55:34.616-08:00Back in the Day, not in the Day meaning the golden era of protest and social change, but back in the Day when I was younger and a more organized home-keeper, I dated a man who told me–not without some judgment and chagrin– that he could eat off my floors, they were so clean, and all was organized and tidy.Not so now. In fact, there are places that have not seen pine cleaner in many( many)months, http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/01/homily-for-vespers-january-17-2007.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-116951363388016170Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:51:00 +00002007-01-22T16:53:53.903-08:00Ellijay, Georgia Nov. 19, 2006I begin with this morning’s holy scripture:Little pebble upon the sandNow you’re lying here in my hand,How many years have you been here?Little human upon the sandFrom where I am lying here in your hand,You are to me but a passing breeze.The sun will always shine where you standDepending in which landYou may find yourself.Now you have my blessing, go on your http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/01/happiness-runs-in-circular-motion.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-116878277646368499Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:52:00 +00002007-01-14T05:52:56.473-08:00The letter to the editor saidIt is useless to work for world peaceunder this administrationso I will just work on peace in my own home.When I spoke to the BuddhistShe told me that she had spent the first daycleaning up.After what, I asked.Just life, she answered in that quiet contained voiceI will never have.Here and there, restoring some order, so I can go on.I didn’t even take down my tree, thehttp://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2007/01/tuscan-oil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-115858766421171104Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:50:00 +00002006-09-18T06:54:24.240-07:00September 17, 2006This just past summer was a bad one for at least one anti-Semite and not a good one to be Jewish either. Actor Mel Gibson got pulled over for drunk driving and spoke his deeply held and thinly disguised truth about what he really feels about who causes all the trouble in the world-- and those of us who identify in any way as being a Jew once again found ourselves thrust into thehttp://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/09/growing-up-humanist-unitarian-jew.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-115678734778313864Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:47:00 +00002006-08-28T11:10:39.580-07:00© Rev. Marti Keller( delivered at the emerging UU Congregation of Cookeville, TN, August 27, 2006)There is a story that is often told among the women in our UU ministry about the prophetic sisterhood. They were what has been described by Cynthia Grant Tucker, the woman among us who researched their lives, as the entering wedge of ordained female ministers.Sweeping across the heartland of America,http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/08/prophetic-sisters-in-ministry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-115497750888115008Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:04:00 +00002006-08-07T12:05:35.256-07:00First Existential Congregation, Atlanta6 August 2006 © Rev. Marti KellerThis past week was a bad one for at least one anti-Semite and not a good one to be Jewish either. Actor Mel Gibson got pulled over for drunk driving and spoke his deeply held and thinly disguised truth about what he really feels about who causes all the trouble in the world– and those of us who identify in any way as being ahttp://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/08/who-will-say-kaddish.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-115318783585356904Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:56:00 +00002006-07-17T18:57:15.873-07:00©9 July 2006My friend Tony thinks that I am brave. He has said that a couple of times about me in group settings, dropped this into the conversation at places where it didn’t seem right to stop the flow and find out why on earth he thought that.So I e-mailed him a few weeks back and asked him. I said I was going to be speaking this morning about living in the home of the brave and talking about http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/07/home-of-brave.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-114916367018443547Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:06:00 +00002006-06-01T05:07:50.200-07:00I will buy you a basket of cellophane wrapped strawberriesshipped in from Salinas,two for four dollars on special.You ate the entire last carton in a day or so,the one your grandson brought after supper not even dark when you were already sleeping,dreaming about Palo Alto and the red trumpet vines wrapped around brown shingles.You children were born there, you told me this morning when we took http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/06/just-before-my-fathers-last-flight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-114567216636234045Sat, 22 Apr 2006 02:15:00 +00002006-04-21T19:16:06.383-07:00There was a time many years back in our 21 year marriage when we only had cats, three of them. It was later that we found a landlord who let us have a dog, a lab and doberman mix, who was pretty well unmanageable until the day she died.Nowadays we have three dogs, one large, one medium, and one small, and every day of the week--unless it is thundering and lightening or there is an ice storm-- we http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-sundays-we-walk-our-dogs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-114426084670349404Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:13:00 +00002006-04-05T11:14:06.706-07:00April 2005Tonight at sundown, Jews will be sitting down to a Passover Seder, a sacred meal, to recall, celebrate, and dig deeper– if they dare– into the story of the Exodus and its meaning not only for their own religious history, but for all those who belong to the people Israel. Which means, in the words of the later prophets, all people.Many of us are familiar with some portions of the http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/04/dayenu-passover-homily.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-114288167245297617Mon, 20 Mar 2006 19:05:00 +00002006-03-20T11:07:52.476-08:00Tara’s Eight DangersCopyright 19 March 2006Rev. Marti Keller I have never been one for venerating the Goddess, or God for that matter. Though I have had the privilege and responsibility of acting as chaplain to several gatherings of the earth and Goddess centered Womenspirit group at The Mountain over the years, my presence there has strictly been to be available for emergency crises of the hearthttp://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/03/taras-eight-dangers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113953362813272083Fri, 10 Feb 2006 01:05:00 +00002006-02-09T17:07:08.146-08:00Opening Prayer- Poor People’s Day Feb. 8, 2006Trinity United Methodist Church, Atlanta GeorgiaMy great grandfather was a Jewish rebbe, a man who had been identified as holy, as spiritually gifted. He taught the young boys Hebrew and sat right next to the rabbi on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. He did this in the Ukraine in Russia in the small very poor rural ghetto where he lived until the http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/02/prayer-poor-peoples-day-feb-8-2006.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (TalkingStick)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113752004225067430Tue, 17 Jan 2006 17:46:00 +00002006-01-17T09:47:22.273-08:00When I was about ten years old, my father, a biological research scientist, took our family on a trip up to the top of the mountain directly across from Mount.Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States in California’s Sierra Nevada range.Unlike the majestic, snow-covered landscape of the Sierras and the Rockies, the place he drove us around perilous curves was dry and desolate-- http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2006/01/congregation-of-mystics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (TalkingStick)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113578317174202975Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:16:00 +00002006-01-10T07:59:12.860-08:00© December 2005Rev. Marti Keller A few years back the first night of Hanukkah fell the day after Thanksgiving, which meant for our family that our youngest son Ben had spent one long dinner with his parents already that weekend. By that time my husband and I had returned from our non-shopping day riding around the middle Georgia countryside as far away from malls as possible.Ben had already gone http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2005/12/catching-hanukkah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113399500822310586Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:35:00 +00002005-12-07T14:38:11.503-08:00At around 11:30 a.m. this Sunday, half way through the church hour, we began to climb the granite face of Arabia Mountain, a now preserved wilderness area in Lithonia, a fast growing area of our county. Though we had hiked there a couple of times late last winter, in time to see the red blooms of a rare mossy plant that opens up from January to late spring, this time we missed our turn and http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2005/11/on-sundays-we-climb-on-arabia-mountain.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113399488590599065Sun, 30 Oct 2005 22:32:00 +00002005-12-07T14:34:45.906-08:00The past couple of Sundays in this year without a pulpit, I have been a pulpit guest. Last weekend, I drove four and a half hours North to Cookeville Tennessee, cutting through the Appalachians and into the valley-- arriving early enough with near empty roads and a gained back hour to eat a couple of eggs and half a biscuit at the town's Shoney's, stopping at K-Mart to buy mints and some safety http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2005/10/on-sundays-our-dogs-get-bullied-and-we.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113399474553560652Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:30:00 +00002005-12-07T14:32:25.536-08:00On this Saturday morning we drove seven hours to Wilmington North Carolina to visit our youngest son at college and to see where he lives this year, the bottom floor of a magenta-painted bay front house at Wright's Beach.We spent the eight hours that was an unexpected gift of time for a sophmore, got up early and shared a nearly empty dining area at the Ramada Inn with a half dozen portly men on http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2005/10/on-sundays-we-drive-on-road-back-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17356220.post-113399442478253596Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:25:00 +00002005-12-07T14:30:02.580-08:00Ministry, once the title is granted, is a role not a robe, I have frequently told my contextual education students, first year seminarians at the local ecumenical theology school. Imagine the heavy, thick folds, I have said, the weight, the gravitas. But you will be wearing jeans and team t-shirts, and you might be wiping a nose or stacking folding chairs after a meal in a shelter.Yesterday, I http://revmartikeller.blogspot.com/2005/09/unchurched-sunday-for-robe-less.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Marti)0