Sermons

Phew! Well, talk about “heavy hitter” scriptures! First, we hear from Isaiah about his vision that called him to be a prophet. Next, we hear a passage from the gospel according to John that contains probably one of the most quoted/well-known verses in all of the...

Aside from the Christmas story and the Passion narrative of Easter, the scripture Mandy and I read from the Acts of the Apostles is probably one of the most well-known pieces of scripture that we have.  This story tells of the Holy Spirit descending upon a gathering...

The scripture we have this morning focuses on a prayer Jesus is offering on behalf of the disciples.  This prayer is different than the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. This is not a prayer that he is teaching to the disciples or even a prayer...

I had the good fortune to attend the New England Association for United Church Educators conference on Tuesday night, Weds and Thursday morning of this past week. The theme of the conference this year was “Be who God meant you to be…” As we have been figuring out here...

What does it mean to be a Good Shepherd? Clearly, in the text from the gospel of John, Jesus is saying he is the Good Shepherd, but then in the psalm we read together, God is the shepherd and often Pastors are referred to as shepherds of their flock. As brothers and...

I always love coming to the sunrise service because we get to see and physically experience the beauty of the rising sun, the freshness and new day dawning. Words often pale in comparison to what we take in with all of our senses. (Time of Silence) And yet… there is...

How many of you out there would say that you enjoy a good joke? How about a practical joke? How about a prank? You may be aware that in addition to being Easter, today is April Fools’ Day. April Fools’ Day is not a day I typically observe or even like to acknowledge,...

Would you please join me in a moment of prayer? Holy One, It is relatively easy for us to rustle up someone to go and gather palm leaves to spread in the church.  And we can easily find music and a few good words to help us remember Palm Sunday. But what if you...

We are in the midst of Lent. We model our observance of Lent after the 40 day time period that Jesus spent in the wilderness before starting his ministry. No one knows for certain what Jesus did during this time, but we are told that Jesus was tested and tempted...