Author: admin

We need to be overshadowed by God’s Spirit and we need to give birth to the thing that will reshape our world. Today's text: Matthew 1: 18-25 Let’s start with what I think is the hardest line in this story – “she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit – and then let’s ponder for a moment the way Joseph reacts to an unbelievable situation. We can pretty quickly get tangled up on the biology of Mary’s conception. But thanks to a reflection I heard this week from Jacqui Lewis, the senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, and Jim Kast-Keat, their associate minister fo...
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So it goes with so many parts of our lives. We think the birth of Jesus upended the old order, yet we still struggle with issues of pride and greed and occupation and exploitation. Today's texts - Isaiah 35: 1-10 and Luke 1: 46-55 Let’s combine four very different scenes from history this morning and then carry them all into our own day. The first reading we heard today was from the great Jewish prophet Isaiah. The Jewish people had lived under occupation – a common condition. They lived in exile in Babylon. Yet in this reading, there is hope and joy. Out of the desert of th...
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One of the characteristics of the wise and knowledgeable leader? “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear.” Today's texts - Isaiah 11: 1-10 and Romans 15: 4-13 It was a March day in 2015 when a 56-year old man walked to the midcourt of a basketball floor in the Greensboro, N. C. arena to try to make a half-court basket for a million dollars during the halftime of an Atlantic Coast Conference semi-final tournament game. Scott Park was a life-long basketball fan. He had won the chance to do this in a contest that provided an all-expense paid trip to ...
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A national UCC leader takes us into the midst of the Syrian refugee crisis. Today's texts:  Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 46 and Luke 1:68-79 Greetings to you in the name of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ! I am delighted also to greet you on behalf of the national setting of the United Church of Christ, and Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)! It is good to be with you this morning, and I want to begin by expressing gratitude to you for your commitments to God’s mission through the church, and your generosity to the Wider Mission of the chur...
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No matter which side you were on, we all now have the task of trying to create a place that looks more like Isaiah’s vision than Jesus’ premonition. Today's texts - Isaiah 65: 17-25 and Luke 21: 5-19  Talk about a couple of contrasting visions. For Isaiah, it’s a new heaven and a new earth. Babies will survive infancy, adults will live to an old age. People will no longer build for others as slaves but live in their own homes. They will not bear children into a world of horrors and wolves and lambs will graze together. Maybe even Republicans and Democrats will share a common meal....
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Our ancestors in the faith here at Memorial UCC over the past century sang a new song and now we are adding verses with what we do. Today's texts - Psalm 98 and Luke 6: 20-31 The hymn that we sang at the beginning of the service, the reading from Psalm 98, is a hymn filled with joy – “Sing a new song unto the Lord!” It’s what our ancestors in the faith here at Memorial UCC did over the past century. They sang a new song and now we are adding verses with what we do. So today, I’d like to look at the past, look at the present and look to our future. One hundred years ago this ...
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This gets complicated, doesn’t it? We think we are doing our best, forming a vital Christian community, caring for one another, seeking unity with other Christians – and then we remember that we will never say “we’ve always done it that way.” Today's texts - 2 Thessalonians 1: 1-4, 11-12 and Luke 19: 1-10 That letter to the people of Thessalonica we heard a few minutes ago – don’t you wish Paul and his friends would write a letter like that to us? “Brothers and sisters, we must always thank God for you. This is only right because your faithfulness is growing by leaps and bounds, a...
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Where, we might ask, is the line between bragging and self-confidence? The issue is how we balance self confidence with humility. Today's texts: Joel 2: 23-32 and Luke 18: 9-14 When you hear the story of the two men in the temple that Jesus told in today’s Gospel reading, it might bring to mind images from a presidential campaign. A braggart holds forth on how good he is. But for me, the presidential campaign this calls to mind is not the one we are in the midst of right now. It’s a campaign from the 1970s. Actually, two campaigns from the 1970s. And I think the stories from those...
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