The following is a sampling of sermons I have given and writing I have done. I strive to preach with authenticity. As such, when planning for a sermon, I spend time reading, collecting stories and quotes, and then create a detailed outline of what I want to share. There are certainly time when I write word for word the sermons I plan to preach. However, I find that my voice is more honest when I approach preaching as a conversation with those in the sanctuary. I work to find a balance of offering reflections on specific topics that engage the brain, heart, and spirit simultaneously. My preaching is an important part of how I build trust with a congregation. I approach sermon writing and delivery with sincerity even while being strategic about what the congregation might need to hear in a specific moment.
Sermon Title: Do You Trust Me?
This sermon is focused on the ways we build trust in a community. I offer reflections on how identity, experience, and reputation shape how we establish trust with one another.
Sermon Title: Queer(ing) Theology
This sermon seeks to bring people into the celebration of queer life and the potential of queer power to transform or expand theology.
Sermon Title: Creating Reproductive Justice in Times of War
This sermon offers reflections on Mother’s Day about the ways we, as Unitarian Universalists, can align with reproductive justice struggles and tell truth about our history while envisioning possibilities for the future.
Sermon Title: Finding Faith with Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This sermon was delivered the Sunday after Donald Trump’s inauguration. I offer reflections on anger, guilt, and responsibility while centering the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and what we can learn from his resistance to the Nazis.
Sermon Title: Dear Lovely Death
Reflecting on death and dying is rarely an easy thing to do. I delivered this sermon with the hope of opening conversation in my congregation more. I lift up humanist and theist perspectives on death and use poetry in an effort to create space for many understandings and beliefs about death.
The sermon is available to read HERE
Additional Writing
While serving as the National Director of Black and Pink, until August 2017, I wrote monthly letters to our prisoner membership. You can see a full collection of the Black and Pink magazines/newsletters HERE. You can read an example of my letters HERE and another HERE.
I have had the opportunity to write columns for community publications and online news sources. You can see a story I wrote for The Body HERE.
I have been honored to have my writing included in a number of anthologies and journals. You can read a couple examples at the links below:
A Theology for the Penal Abolition Movement
“Once There Was No Prison Rape: Ending Sexual Violence as Strategy for Prison Abolition” (excerpt)