FIRST UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST

My time as minister of First UCC has been filled with blessings, so that’s what I preached about on my last Sunday.

Blessings

Numbers 6:22-27;Matthew 5:1-10; Psalm 23 (choir; arranged by Bobby McFarrin)

There are two things that Ministers can do at the end of worship: they can send you forth with instructions about changing the world, or they can offer a blessing. Last week I gave you plenty of instructions (and copies of the handout are available for those of you who missed that sermon), so this week I will speak to you of blessings.

Continue reading Blessings

When I taught college classes, I learned that the best way to get students’ attention was to number the items I was lecturing about.  So I used that tactic to share my dreams for the future life of the congregation.

 The Church of Our Dreams

Psalm 42; Romans 12:9-18; Luke 5:36-39

At some meeting or another, you may have heard me talk about “the church of my dreams.” That’s the church where things run smoothly, priorities are set and kept, volunteers are delighted to offer their talents, and the stewardship drive is always successful.

Continue reading The Church of Our Dreams

A ll four Gospels tell the story of a woman anointing Jesus, but the version in Luke does not focus on the extravagance of the act.  Instead, Luke directs our attention to a poignant question:  “Do you see this woman?”       

Who Do You See?

Luke 7:36 – 8:3 

Over the last 12 ¾ years I have drawn on many sources for my sermons: personal experience, movies, books, songs, visual art on the wall, even jokes, texting, and Facebook. But I never expected to use Terry Mitchell’s doctoral dissertation

Continue reading Who Do You See?

The story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath got me to thinking about scarcity and abundance, and about what is “enough.”

Enough

1 Kings 17:8-24; Psalm 146 

Two sermons emerged for me this week from the passage about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. The first one is inspiring and the second one is troubling. Inspiration first.

There is enough.

Continue reading Enough

I count many Biblical characters among my friends, and here’s why …

Sophia

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8 (Anglican Chant) 

As I was reading my email the other day, I found a Facebook message asking me to be a friend to Sophia.

Continue reading Sophia

Can you hear a voice in the wind?  On this Pentecost Sunday, let’s reflect a little about wind and the messages it may bring to us ..  And about reclaiming Pentecost as one of our favorite church holidays!

 Voices

Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:14-17 

How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?

How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind; the answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Bob Dylan, 1962

It was the first song I learned to play on the guitar,

Continue reading Voices

                      Carol Rutz-Guest Speaker

Earthquakes as Praise

First UCC Northfield, 16 May 2010

Carol Rutz

Texts for the 7^th Sunday of Easter: Psalm 97 and Acts 16:16-34

I’m here this morning because of hubris. Apparently I said once too often something to the effect that “everyone has ONE sermon in him or her.” That bit of cockiness has caught up with me—and you. I assume you will endure this amateur effort with your customary generosity and good will. And as the deacons scout for additional lay preachers this summer, you may count on me to cheer you on. Meanwhile, here’s my one, single, only sermon. Continue reading Guest Speaker Delivers Powerful Sermon

May 2 was Confirmation Day, and I wanted to present the idea that religion is more an “organism” than an “organization …”

Organized?

Psalm 148; Revelation 21:1-6

On Wednesday I was up at United Seminary for their spring convocation, and at the opening worship service we sang a hymn called “This Is a Day of New Beginnings.” The last line of each verse is “Our God is making all things new.”

Continue reading Organized?

Did you ever wonder why the Bible includes some details and omits so many others?  Like those 153 fish, for example …

 153 Fish

John 21:1-19

The Bible is peppered with details that both puzzle us (why was this particular fact included in the text?), and endear us (how human they were!) When Jesus was on the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee, for example, we are told that he had his head on a pillow in the stern.

Continue reading 153 Fish

Easter comes and goes so quickly … but it leaves us with much to remember …

Remember How He Told You

Isaiah 65:17-25;  Luke 24:1-12 

Human memory is, at the same time, both sturdy and fragile. Taken as a whole, human memory is the sturdy tool that makes it possible for us to know both our collective history and our personal stories. Yes, we use books, songs, and artifacts of various kinds to assist our remembering, but those are just tools. It is our determination to keep the past alive, to honor it, learn from it, and sometimes repent from it that stretches our horizon out in time.

And yet human memory is also very fragile.

Continue reading Remember How He Told You

Even in the midst of the excitement of the procession into Jerusalem (that we call Palm Sunday), Jesus was a person who emptied himself in the service of others.  As we walk through Holy Week, what can we learn from that emptying?

 Emptied

Luke 19:28-40; Philippians 2:5-11 

On Ash Wednesday, I asked you to reflect on something that you wanted to leave behind as you entered the journey of Lent. We wrote those things down – the resentments we wanted to release, the anger we wanted to calm, the disappointments we wanted to get over, the sorrows we wanted to be done with. We wrote them down, and burned them with the palms from last year, and those were the ashes with which we were marked.

Continue reading Emptied

I usually include the pastoral prayer for the week when I post my sermon, but I haven’t preached for the last two weeks (while we heard from seminary intern Ruth MacKenzie and guest worship leader Neal Hagberg).  So here are the prayers from March 14 and 21.

Prayer for March 14, 2010

Holy One, we know that you hear the contents of our hearts even before we speak them to you; nonetheless today we offer prayers for our secrets.

Continue reading Sunday Prayers

So … does God send disasters to punish people?  Here’s what Jesus had to say about that …

Who Is to Blame?

Psalm 63:1-8; Luke 13:1-9 

Jesus is asked a great many questions in the book of Luke. Most of the time he answers with a story or a parable or another question. But in the passage we just heard this morning, he twice answers clearly and succinctly: “No.”

Continue reading Who Is to Blame?

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he didn’t seem to agonize over what to do.  I wonder what we can learn from his encounter with these temptations …

Tempted … Again …

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Luke 4: 1-13 

The devil asked Jesus the question we would like to ask him: Who are you, really? And because he was the devil, he phrased the question in a provocative way: If are the Son of God, then …” He made it sound as if everyone knew what the Son of God would think and do, and so the only question was whether Jesus would meet those expectations or not.

Continue reading Tempted … Again

The story of Jesus’ transfiguration has a lot to teach us, even if we are discomforted by the mysterious details. (The original title of this sermon was “Optical Illuminations,” but you’ll see why I changed it.)

Optical Illuminations

Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36 

I thought a lot about the title of this sermon. Early this week I settled on “Optical Illuminations,” because I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out on a limb with the title that was really in my head – “Optional Illuminations.” But that’s the question that wouldn’t leave me alone these last few days: Do I have to believe this story about mysterious lights, ghostly appearances, and words from heaven?

Continue reading Optional Illuminations