Rev. Don Erickson

I have a friend, a dear friend in fact, someone I respect and admire. I’ll call him as I often do, G. When rarely the subject of religion comes up, G half-jokingly and half-proudly will declare himself a non-believer and anti-organized religion. He’d agree with Gandhi who’s been purported as saying, “I like Christ but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” At the same time, G profoundly loves music, Gospel music included. This love reaches the level of the sacred to him. Music provides him meaning, comfort, and joy, as essential to him as God is to others. G and I disagree when it comes to religion and God. But when it comes to music we are in sync. There is common ground there. Music is sacred to me, essential, a source of meaning, comfort, and joy. And G and I agree on the spiritual and musical genius of John Coltrane who composed and performed the musical masterpiece called A Love Supreme. The 4th and final movement of A Love Supreme ends with...

This morning I’d like to talk about the word pride. It is a word that is everywhere in the month of June. Of course, our LGBT+ siblings celebrate and embrace their reality replete with parades in the month of June. The month with its celebrations has come to be called Pride month. Maybe you sometimes hear from folks that doubt the need  for Pride month this kind of question – isn’t pride a sin?  Well, from what I gather in studying scripture, there’s good pride and bad pride. Bad pride amounts to being selfish, narcissistic, always putting yourself first.  Good pride amounts to seeing ourselves as God sees us – as imperfect, sure, but as beings who God created in the divine image.  Father God created us in the divine image, and loves us unconditionally.  Good pride amounts to the feeling you get when you hear from your Father the words, “well-done, my good and faithful servant.” My father and I grew to have a solid, loving relationship. He would have been 87 las...