You’ll want to be at Babcock Park at 5:00 pm on Sunday May 4 for the big season opener between our own Fighting Apostles and St. Dominic’s Blue Team.

Fighting Apostles spokesman Scott Richardson says St. Dominic’s is a tough opponent.  “They actually practice!” he said.

Families of team members were delighted that this year’s opener is not on Mother’s Day.  “It keeps me out of the doghouse,” opined Greg Muth.

The team’s entry fee to the Church Softball League is covered by the proceeds of last Sunday’s French Toast Breakfast.  If you liked eating with them, you’ll love watching them play!

If you are going to be Christian, you have to talk about Jesus.  I have learned that lots of people in our congregation are somewhat self-conscious (or even embarrassed) to talk much about him.  So in this sermon from April 27, 2008, I explored what it might mean to talk about loving Jesus ..

If You Love Me

Acts 17:22-31  John 14:15-21 

Most of the time I object to scripture study and sermons that treat individual verses from the Bible as though they were “sound bytes.” With a few notable exceptions (like the book of Proverbs and some of the Psalms), every verse has a context – it is part of a story or a letter, for example. Understanding the verse requires that we study that context as well as the specific words. Well, today I am going to make an exception and look at just nine words from the Gospel of John.

Continue…

First UCC will hold it’s 3rd Annual Blessing of the Bikes on Sunday,  May 4 right after worship.  Bring your bike, trike, wagon, moped or motorcycle to be included in Sandy’s Blessing.   We’ll meet in the church parking lot.  Bring your friends and neighbors.  It’s a fun event and we always have a great blessing.

Even though we are many weeks past our celebration of Easter, our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox traditions will be celebrating this Sunday, April 27!

The Orthodox tradition is rich in piety and liturgy.  I had the pleasure of worshipping at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Anselmo, California (pictured here), during my sabbatical in January.  My friend and I were warmly welcomed and we were touched by the beauty of the service, especially the music.

I bought their choir CD, and will take time to listen to it this Sunday — and send along our prayers for their sacred celebration of Easter.

I had the pleasure of preaching at Kathy’s ordination on April 19, and of presenting her the gifts from our congregation — a beautiful red stole that Mary Wood brought home from Bethlehem, and a quilt filled with signatures and good wishes of members and friends.

She chose First Corinthians 13 as the text for the sermon — the famous words about love that are often read at weddings.  Here’s what I had to say about that …

Love and Work

This is not a wedding. I know it seems like it could be: we received beautiful invitations, many of us have traveled to get here, the church is decorated with flowers, the people are dressed in special clothing, promises will be made, there will be a reception afterwards, and – of course – we just heard a reading of First Corinthians 13.

Continue…

Our good friend and former Pastoral Care Coordinator, Kathy Baughman, is being ordained on April 19 as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Association.

I’ll be preaching the sermon for the ordination service, and Sue Mieska and I will be presenting this beautiful quilt that Tanya is holding in the picture.  There are 48 white squares, each one with a message of love and good wishes for Kathy.

I had the honor (and delight!) of stitching the blocks together and doing the decorative quilting (using one of the long-armed quilting machines at Quilt Yourself up in Savage).   Thanks to everyone who helped make this quilt-ful of good wishes!

Last week it was African drums, this week it is the Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble from St. Olaf College.

I’m delighted to welcome this talented group of musicians to our worship service on April 20.  Led by St. Olaf faculty member Paul Niemisto, this group is unique in the upper Midwest — offering a special opportunity for tuba and euphonium (baritone horn) players to make a sonorous ensemble sound not often heard in concert.

This Sunday’s service will be led by our seminary intern, Damen Heitmann.  I’ll be sitting in a pew, eager to hear his sermon, “The Walker.”

Our April 13th service was energized by the Confirmation Class African Drum Choir.  Bob Gregory-Bjorklund and Kathy Kanazawa taught the group some basic rhythms, and they played to accompany our opening and closing hymns.

We also enjoyed our Spirit Voices Choir.  Along with leading the opening and closing hymns (with the drums), they sang “The Canticle of the Turning,” based on a traditional Irish tune.  It was an international day for music at First UCC!

We had a great morning on April 13, celebrating our 2008 Confirmation group.

These bright and curious youth, mostly 9th graders, have been meeting with their adult leaders on Sunday evenings since October. 

But it hasn’t just been meetings — they have been on retreat (to Camp Omega, near Waterville), visited other churches and places of worship, done service projects, and gotten to know many of the adult members of the church.

Please make it a point to get to know some of these new members of our congregation.  They have a lot to offer us!

Reading the Bible can be like going into a time machine — we go back to another age when life was quite different than what we experience today.  In this sermon for April 13, 2008 — which was Confirmation Sunday in our congregation — I reflect a little about the particular kind of time machine that the Bible can be …

 Awesome

Psalm 23 (sung)  Acts 2:42-47

Even though it has probably been overused in recent years, the word “awe” is a wonderful word – wonderful because it conveys not just one single emotion, but a whole set of emotions that seem like they ought to be incompatible: dread, veneration, and wonder. It is the feeling we get when we are overwhelmed by an experience: not just surprised or impressed, but moved to a sense of the holy, and suddenly aware of our own small place in the universe.

Continue…

Whatever else we have learned from the kerfuffle about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his impassioned sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, it is clear that once a video is on the Internet, it is entirely out of the control of the person who is pictured.

We’ve been talking about podcasting (voice only) my sermons on our website, and I think that’s a good idea.  But I will confess to some worry about people who will misuse my words and misrepresent my theology based on "sound bites" taken out of context. 

Of course, I already have no control over my words once they are spoken.  When someone tells me they really appreciate what I said in the pulpit, I have learned to ask what it was that they heard me say.  Sometimes they report what I meant to say; sometimes they don’t.

But the Internet multiplies that effect hugely — and I will never get the opportunity to check on whether I have been understood or misunderstood. 

April Chronicle