i don't write sermons

I don't write sermons. I never did, even during my decade pulpit of many hundreds of people for the High Holidays. The way I am leading this year is not that - we expect to pray exactly as we would be if no one else where here, except we've welcomed those who are drawn to be amidst it all. It's taken me three years outside of a congregational job to begin to erase the notion of High Holidays as main money-maker from my being. It was real - between a quarter to half of my salary for the year was paid by funds from that ten day period. I loved so much of the work, and the heartfelt goodness of the people, but I came to commodify and pressurize my time during the Days of Awe. The stress of this period in which we we say the Book of Life is written and sealed - URGENT, repent, get it all together and fixed up, right now - is dramatic and intense and perhaps good for those of us who pay no particular attention to holiness otherwise or who need to be shook to tend things well. But I don't place myself around people who pay no attention.