Sermons Archive

GOOD MORNING!    I BRING GREETINGS THIS MORNING FROM THE CT. CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST – FROM OUR INTERIM CONFERENCE MINISTER, CHUCK WILDMAN & FROM ALL OF THE OTHER STAFF, AS WELL AS YOUR REGIONAL MINISTER, MIKE PENN-STRAH, WHO HAPPENS TO BE ON SABBATICAL FOR A FEW MONTHS & RETURNS AT THE END OF OCTOBER…

I ALSO...

Have you been to the Farmers Market here in our parking lot on Tuesday afternoons? It is filled with wonderful things, corn and tomatoes and Swiss chard, honey, goat’s cheese and baked goods and soup. Apples and pears are arriving and the plums are sweet. There is lettuce, beets, kale. All this produce has come off the land close by. People are...

Early one evening while taking a walk and I happened to look down at the road. It was paved with blacktop, somewhat specked, as usual, so that the colors of grey stones and black tar blend together.  One of the stones seemed to be moving, which I thought was odd. Perhaps my eyes were not focusing correctly, or I was seeing a reflection from the...

Our passage today from Ephesians talks about God blessing us.  It is a
beautiful passage that evokes God's goodness and blessing to us.  And then,
our Hebrew Scripture talks about one of God's favorite people, King David.
The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with the blessings that God lavished on
David.  But then, we have this...

One of our passages today is familiar-we all know that the 23rd Psalm talks
about shepherds and God setting a table of grace before us.  The closing
image of the 23rd Psalm sets us dwelling in God's house forever, and the
image of God's home is what we will focus on today.  In our passage from 2nd
Samuel, David gets the big...

I feel honored to be standing here with you:
for, I am aware that,
this pulpit … saves lives.

This is my 10th anniversary of worshipping in this space with you;
This pulpit has saved me.
So, with fear & trembling & gratitude,
Let us break open the Word together,
shall we?

Please pray with me:...

I can clearly remember summer trips when I was a child with my family in our
old large Oldsmobile. Living in New Mexico, we would set out to see the
Grand Canyon or Yellowstone Park, both of which I loved, but the real action
was the territorial bickering of my siblings jammed inside the car for
vacation. You know the drill-...

In ancient Israel, the sea was most always a symbol for primordial chaos,
and here in our two passages, the sea stands against humankind, a symbol of
the chaos of the world.  In our passage in Job, God challenges Job by asking
who bounds the sea and sets its limits, really reminding Job to trust God.
Jesus does the same in...

In our passages today, we are invited to think about the mystery of being
chosen and then flourishing in God's Realm.  In both of our passages, the
unexpected happens.  Where we would expect huge magnificent cedars to
represent God's Realm, instead, small seeds are sown in a parable about
God's Kingdom.  When everyone would...

Today, like last week, is a Sunday in ordinary time according to the church calendar. What does ordinary time mean? It is a designation for the Sundays, which fall outside of other seasons, like Advent or lent, or holidays, which have their own extended celebrations, like Christmas and Easter. So it is really a term, which is mostly used for...