Posts Tagged ‘Rev. David A. Miller’

How will you harness the transformative power of love?

No Comments | Share On Facebook| How will you harness the transformative power of love? Share/Save/Bookmark Dec 12, 2012

“For each child that’s born a morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are.”
- Y. M. Barnwell, “WE ARE”

A star rises in hope and sings to the universe that with each child we have a chance to do better, to be better. For each candle we light there is starlight, the light of hope, the hope that we can illuminate our path, that we can brighten the future. This is no accidental imagery. These are images and metaphors that tie together generation after generation, that link us with each other. Generations have prayed that it will be better for their children, that their children will make a difference in the world. In the words of Ysaye Barnwell, “We are our grandmothers’ prayers. We are our grandfathers’ dreamings.” This is the time of the year when many faiths tell these timeless messages in story and song.

Countless traditions have these stories of optimism; the anticipation of a brighter day, the story of new life, of someone who rises to lead us forward to a place of peace and goodwill. For me, the point of these stories is not about “rightness” but instead about the underlying longing in the message. How can we love each other with all of our differences, how can we build a peaceful and sustainable world? Hope arises from our stories of birth–be it the birth of a child or the birth of the light. With the end of the season, with the unraveling of the ribbons from the presents and the trees, we revert to the familiar patterns of life that can leave our hope dormant. The breaking of these patterns takes courage–we must go beyond the borders of our comfort driven by faith in the power of love to transform injustice, ignorance, and fear.

How will you harness the transformative power of love in the New Year? Click here to find out how you, your congregation, and/or your community can get involved in the Thirty Days of Love, starting on January 19.

This year, our congregation will once again taking part in National Standing on the Side of Love Month. We will kick-off our celebration with a photo exhibit on immigration and speakers from nationally recognized immigrant justice organizations. We will provide readings and meditations for the congregation on love, compassion, and kindness. On four consecutive Sundays, we will present “Courageous Love Awards” to individuals in our congregation and the broader community who have demonstrated courage of faith and love in their actions, attitudes, and achievements. These are people who have seen new possibilities and have found ways to birth them into being. As we honor these award recipients for the work they have done, we will remind each other that we all carry this combination of hope, love, and possibility.

Please join us in participating in the Thirty Days of Love. Consider giving your own “Courageous Love Awards” in your community or congregation. Click here to learn more.

As you plan your own Thirty Days of Love, remember that “We are our grandmothers’ prayers. We are our grandfathers’ dreaming.” During the holidays and into the New Year, let us go beyond the borders of our comfort, let us have faith in what is possible, and let us never lose hope in the transforming power of love.

Rev. David A. Miller
Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito in Solana Beach, California
Member, Standing on the Side of Love Creative Advisory Team

PS: Not a member of a congregation or relevant community group? Stay tuned for more opportunities to participate that are geared for individuals and families!

The message above went out on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Erring on the Side of Love (Theologically Speaking…)

3 Comments | Share On Facebook| Erring on the Side of Love (Theologically Speaking…) Share/Save/Bookmark Oct 24, 2012
Rev. David Miller

This post was written by Rev. David A. Miller, minister of the UU Fellowship of San Dieguito and SSL Creative Advisory Team member.

As I listen and view the debates on marriage equality and all the issues during this election season, I cannot help but remember a conversation I had with a professor while attending seminary. She said, “do not get into a debate about whose interpretation of scripture is wrong or right, it is a discussion that you will never win.” I think she said this because there are so many chapters in the Bible, so many verses that can be read one way or the other, that is possible to “proof-text,” or pull out what one needs to prove one’s point.

Some say that the bible is inerrant, that each verse is the word of God–but is that not easier for the issues that one wishes to highlight and a little more difficult for those verses that time, customs, and culture have changed? I love that line they use in The West Wing from Leviticus 11:6-8 about how one should not be touching the skin of a dead pig because it makes one unclean, but I sure know a lot of deeply religious people of all denominations that love football. Another favorite is Exodus 35:2 – “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.”

My point is it is not just about the words, but about the spirit of the whole idea–what is the overall message of the Bible? Since we all choose passages, here are my two texts I would like to “proof:”

Matthew 22:37-40:
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

And,

1 Corinthians 13
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

As a raised-Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, agnostic, mystic, post-Christian Jesus appreciator, I am really far from a biblical scholar, which detractors would be happy to point out, but this seems pretty clear to me: “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” I can have all the faith in the world, but it means nothing if I do not have love. Love is the be-all and the end-all message of almost all of the wisdom traditions. Relationships of mutual love, of mutual respect, of mutual understanding, and of mutual commitment are heralded in the wisdom literature.

So whether or not I read or understand the Bible as detailed poetry, incredibly wise metaphoric lessons, or literal interpretations, I choose to err on the side of love. I choose to spend my time on earth praying that love conquers all, not praying with others that love be kept on the sidelines of that football stadium, (with perhaps the pigskin). I choose to spend my time on this earth taking from these wise and timeless lessons, that love is the request, love is the rule, and love is the reason. That is why I intend to be kind to those who hold views in opposition to mine, support love everywhere possible, support the right for two people who love each other, whoever they are, to marry and, in this and all elections, intend to cast my vote on the side of love.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Occu-Pie Thanksgiving Week

5 Comments | Share On Facebook| Occu-Pie Thanksgiving Week Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 08, 2011
Rev. David Miller

Rev. David Miller

This brilliant idea comes to us from Rev. David A. Miller, Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Solana Beach, California.

He writes:

AN IDEA!!!

OCCU-PIE DAY!

Some day Thanksgiving week, a day chosen locally, a short service of gratitude, thanks and sharing sponsored by the Interfaith Community. An event where the community of Occupy supporters and friends bring pies of all sorts, (chicken, turkey, tofu, pumpkin, peach, apple) to share together in thanks and gratitude for those holding the space at your local Occupation and as a day of thanks for all those lifting up the issues of fairness, compassion and equality being shared by this movement. Mostly, it is a day of gratitude for what we already have, including each other.

Tags: , , , ,

Strengthening Connections on 9-11-11

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Strengthening Connections on 9-11-11 Share/Save/Bookmark Sep 09, 2011

Dan Furmansky

Rev. David Miller is a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito in Solana Beach, California.

The message below went out to Standing on the Side of Love supporters on Friday, September 9, 2011. You can sign-up for these emails here.

I was raised Jewish and if I had to label it, I consider myself a spiritual and religious, humanist, mystic, Unitarian Universalist minister who went to a Christian seminary on purpose. I can attest to the fact that sometimes, interfaith work is really hard. There can be so many things for us as humans to argue about, including theology, politics, social issues and other subjects, too numerous to list here.

But, we also have such a deep capacity to find goodness, healing and love from those whose religious ideologies and theologies differ from ours. In seminary I studied with Muslims, Jews, Evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Pentecostals, among others. I found that we were all struggling with the same questions of meaning, of life, and of our place in the world. We all cared for the fate of our planet; we all cared for the human family.

Through my experience, one thing became clear to me. In a world filled with billions of people with theologies and ideologies that clearly differ from ours, there will never be a way for us to “convince” everyone to think and act as we would like them to. We must build a deeper understanding of difference. We must find commonalities to build on. We must learn how to engage in each other’s lives that challenge us all to grow as we build a sustainable and loving world together.

As we approach September 11, please join me in a commitment to “think interfaith” at this crucial moment in time. The Standing on the Side of Love campaign is offering us resources to help promote words and thoughts that support love.

Click here to take part in our Think Interfaith campaign.

At a time when people across the world, with differing perspectives, mark the events of September 11th, 2001, the task of working together to cross boundaries and build bridges has never been greater. This important work is work we are called to do as Unitarian Universalists, a tradition steeped in a theology of universal love.

In their book A House of Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty First Century, Rev. Dr. John A. Buehrens, and Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker say that there is a defining focus for our progressive faith, “a devotion to the flourishing of life. People of progressive faith, care for the sacredness of this world. We cherish our bodies, this earth, this time and place that is within our grasp. We reverence the intimate, intricate and unshakable reality that all life is connected. We honor and respect the bonds that tie each to all, that weave us into an inescapable net of mutuality.”

Please take these days to focus on the beauty of crossing social, religious, and ethnic borders in faith, love and compassion. Join me in using the new technologies at our fingertips to create interconnectedness the world over.

Click here and help promote interfaith dialogue and thinking on Facebook and Twitter.

Through engaging those with views different than our own, and embracing them with love, I hope that we will never have to repeat the violence of that day 10 years ago. I hope that others in the world will also be free from this kind of pain now and forever for after all, we are woven into an inescapable net of mutuality.

May this be so and may peace be upon us all,

Rev. David Miller
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito

Tags: , , , ,

Approaching 9-11, San Diego County Muslims, Christians, Jews, UUs Issue Joint Statement of Love

2 Comments | Share On Facebook| Approaching 9-11, San Diego County Muslims, Christians, Jews, UUs Issue Joint Statement of Love Share/Save/Bookmark Sep 07, 2011

Rev. David Miller

Rev. David Miller

As Unitarian Universalists in San Diego County, we felt it was important to work with clergy from other faiths to demonstrate the bond of religious leaders who believe in the healing power of love. This letter was conceived and sent to the media through a partnership that includes representatives from the Muslim, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Jewish, and UU Communities. We share it with you with hope in that healing power and the call for us all to speak out on love’s behalf.  

-Rev. David Miller, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito, Solana Beach, Ca.

* * *




On this 10th anniversary of the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, there are many things that will be said and much that will be the subject of remembrance. As Interfaith clergy in San Diego County, we are compelled to address what broke our hearts on that day and continues to cause us sorrow; the breakdown in our human family. There will be those who will continue to recall the events of 9/11 with anger, mistrust and fear. There will be others that will mark this day with deep sorrow over the loss of a spouse, son, daughter, partner, or friend. These are all valid and understandable personal reactions to a horrible human event. We understand this anger and share in the sorrow; all feelings that we too have shared. We add our voices to these remembrances by saying that this day of despair was a rip in our interconnection, a moment in time that continues a decade later to call us into a renewed urgency to work together to heal this world.

What we have learned from history, and has certainly been highlighted in the last 10 years, is that extremism in any form breeds intolerance, distrust and fear of difference. We do not negate the realities of the world. We do however ask us all to reflect on our part in contributing to the tearing down of those who differ from us politically, socially, religiously, racially, or ethnically, while also reflecting on how we can promote the healing that comes with building bridges and crossing borders in faith, love and compassion.

We will probably not be able to solve all the factors that led to the terrible loss of life on 9/11 in our lifetimes, but we can strengthen our personal resolve not to contribute to them. We call on us all to play a part in mending the many divides that face us today. We call on us all to reach out to others in need; to listen to the stories of others; to pause before acting in anger. To compost our fear into actions of love; to understand that what happens to one of us, truly does happen to all.

On a planet inhabited by billions of individuals who all have different paths, we must never forget that we share a common journey and live in a common home.

We wish us all a future of peace for our children and our children’s children.

Imam Taha Hassane – Islamic Center of San Diego
Rabbi Laurie Coskey, Ed.D. Executive Director, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
Rev. Dr. M. Scott Landis – Mission Hills United Church of Christ, San Diego
Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube – First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson – Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Vista
Rev. David A. Miller – Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito, Solana Beach
Rev. Frank Placone-Willey – Summit UU Fellowship, Santee
Rev. Jim Grant – Affiliate Minster, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
Rev. Kathleen Owens – First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
Rev. Thomas Anastasi – Chalice UU Congregation, Escondido
Rev. Tom Owen-Towle – Minister Emeritus, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,