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By the Reverend Peter W. Allen
Luke 13:10-17
There she was, out in the congregation, listening to Jesus’ sermon, straining to keep her eyes on him from her bent-over position. She’d been like this for years, maybe half of her life. She didn’t know why. Some of her neighbors whispered that she must have committed some terrible sin as a child to deserve such a severe punishment. But she knew she wasn’t a bad person – no worse than anyone else, anyway -- and she couldn’t believe that God would do anything so cruel to her. She loved God and she believed that God loved her.
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By the Reverend Peter W. Allen
Amos 5:1-24
I don’t know how you react to the fifth chapter of Amos, but I don’t really like it. I mean, there is that very poetic part about justice rolling down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. That part’s nice. Very Martin Luther King, Jr.
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By: Rev. Jennifer M. Gingras
August 15, 2010
Isaiah 5:1-7
So a Priest, a Rabbi and a Minister are out for a walk one day in the beautiful summer sun. On this particular afternoon, one of them made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard, but a REAL challenge would be to preach to a grizzly bear. Well, one thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it. Seven days later, they would get together to discuss the experience.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Have you ever played “I Doubt It”? It’s one of my favorite games; I use it all the time at Silver Lake or on different retreats as a “Get to Know You” game. This is how you play. First, we all get in a circle with one person in the center. OK, you know what? This will be a little challenging in this venue, so we won’t actually play today, just stay where you are seated.
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By: The Reverend Jennifer M. Gingras
Colossians 2:8-19
Keeping secrets is a part of human nature. Maybe there is a part of us that wants to be safe, and holding a piece of ourselves back helps us feel independent, in charge of our own script. Many of us, in our professional and personal roles, are expected to keep secrets, and that is a precious thing. A secret that is shared between two friends can help to build trust between them so long as it’s not destructive or hurtful.
But there is also a shadow side to keeping secrets. When secrets are destructive, they could hold incredible power in our lives, playing themselves out in our everyday decisions in ways we don’t even recognize or understand. Secrets can affect our children and their children, as we pass down our definitions of love and security and self-worth. What makes a secret so powerful is that they often replicate undetected and unnamed by those they affect.
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TRANSFORMERS
By: Dr. Ken Fredeen
The Good Samaritan – one of the best-known, most beloved of Jesus’ parables. Inspiration for charitable organizations, hospital names, and even a scene in this year’s Junior Choir pageant. The story of a man who selflessly stops to help someone he doesn’t even know. A story of transformation. Transformation? Wait a second – who gets transformed in this story? When? How? Perhaps the man who is, robbed, stripped beaten, and then rescued by the Samaritan was transformed by the experience, but that’s not where I’m going with this.
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Communion Meditation
by the Reverend Peter W. Allen
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Some of you know that Jack Kerouac is my favorite author and On the Road is my favorite book. I’m not alone. Many, maybe some of you, have been turned on by Kerouac’s willingness to resist authority and escape the conventional life. For me, it’s different. I love his high energy, his startling honesty, his deep tenderness, and his adventurous spirit. I especially like the way he brought the scenes of his life to the page in such a spontaneous and vivid way. However, the truth is that his tendency to go, to be on the road, was in the end destructive to his soul. Although his travels helped him to chronicle the perspectives and experiences of his generation, his way of life led him to despair. Ultimately, the road didn’t bring him the deep joy and meaning he was seeking.
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| By Pastor Pete
Luke 8:26-39
A very wise man once said to me that the church should be an inside out institution. When I asked him for clarification, he said, In churches, we are called to care for each other, but one of the best ways to do that is to care for others… together.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Have you ever looked up in the night sky and had your breath taken away by the brilliance of a million twinkling stars? On August 12th the Perseid meteor shower will peak. In the middle of the night, if you are fortunate enough to find a place away from street lights and the skies are clear, if you look up you will see shooting stars by the hundreds.
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By: Rev. Peter Allen
Luke 7:11-17
One of the most satisfying experiences I had on my Sabbatical was returning to the jungle in southern Mexico and seeing some of the same people that I had seen on my first visit there in December. Of course, it takes more than two visits to build anything like real trust, but I did recognize a dozen or so of the adults and children and they recognized me. If you had asked me a few years ago if I would at some point in my life have friends who lived in bamboo huts, I would have thought you were crazy. But now that is becoming a reality. Amazing!
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By: Rev. Peter Allen
Mark 1:16-20
A few months ago, I was hiking through a lovely, hilly region of English countryside known as the Cotswolds and it was dinnertime. Now, pub food is not the most glamorous fare, but it is relatively cheap, and there is often good conversation to be had with local people (not to mention good beer). So, I stopped into the Bell, which was built just a little bit after Columbus sailed the ocean blue (buildings do tend to be older over there).
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By: Mark Malia
God, I Love water
(Note: this italic part at the beginning was ad lib for obvious reasons.)
Hi. My wife tells me that those who are good at this often start off with a joke or a poem. Well I spent hours and hours online looking for something and --no luck. Then last night I heard this on the car radio:
"Inflatable pool, full of Dad's hot air,
I was 3 years old, splashing everywhere,
and so began my love affair, with water."
That works--it's a Brad Paisley song called Water that's currently popular on country radio and since I'll be discussing the symbolism of water. . .
In these stories water, as it so often does, represents an agent of change, renewal, rebirth.
In Revelations--
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By: Jennifer Gingras
Acts 9:36-43; Revelation 7:9-17
“Cry-baby” they call her. Huddled in a corner of the playground, unable to make friends with other first graders, a young girl sobs. Her nose turns red as her cries grow louder. Tears roll down her freckled face. She feels unaccepted, ugly, alone… that is, until another child, seeing her anguish, invites her to come and jump rope. She wipes away her tears onto her sleeve, and together they race across the playground to join in the fun.
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By: Kate Parker-Burgard
Luke 24:13-35
“They saw him on the road,” Luke tells us, “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” At this point in the Easter season, there is something familiar about this story: the risen Jesus is seen by some followers who do not recognize him. And while it may seem like a story we already know, there is something very particular about this tale that I find compelling—what allows the disciples to see Jesus? So will you come with me as we journey through this story and use some other stories of the risen Christ to discover the key to recognizing Jesus.
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By; Rev. Jennifer Gingras
John 20:1-18
When you are working on a jigsaw puzzle there are several stages. Most of us have a plan for how we will begin. We look for the corners and the edges. If it’s a nature scene maybe we look for the blue of the skies or the deep green of ocean waves. Once we have several chunks of the pieces together and all of the outside done, time moves slowly as we try one piece after another to bridge the gaps. When it comes to the middle, there’s no substitute for patience and hard work. Eventually there comes an aha! moment when suddenly everything makes sense, a tipping point where we can see the whole picture. Everything (literally) falls into place.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
John 20:1-18
Easter morning, and we are here to rejoice and sing and maybe even raise our voices a bit above the accepted level people standing on the Monroe green. We are ready to celebrate resurrection!
But it was a far different scene for the disciples, the friends and family of Jesus, on that first silent, bleak Easter morning. Nothing had turned out the way they expected. Up to the very end, they had hoped and prayed that somehow Jesus would be spared the horrible death on the cross. Somehow, someone would come to rescue him. There would be some reprieve, some last moment pardon, some band of angels come to his aid.
But there was no rescue, no pardon. Jesus is gone. The whole world is silent, so silent that one could hear a pin drop.
Mary goes before daybreak to the garden. She is sobbing, grieving, unable to sleep, and seeking the solace of the quiet garden. She remembers his words, those he spoke as he was entering into Jerusalem… "If you silence my disciples, the stones will cry out" (Lk 19:40).
She remembers what he said as she approaches the tomb to find the stone rolled away. It is just as he said… the stone that is rolled away becomes the first to proclaim his resurrection. It is the stone that shouts, in its rolling away, that Christ is risen. It is the stone that cries out the good news of the Gospel: that resurrection cannot be stopped. As the whole world waited in the silence, hoping against all hope to be rescued, God brought resurrection.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Jerusalem’s streets were filled with out of town visitors. “There he is, ahead, on your left!” Peter shouted over to John. The two jostled their way through the next intersection, in pursuit of the man they were sent to find. Everyone was hurrying, it was already mid-afternoon. In a few short hours the sun would set in the dusty sky, ushering in the most sacred night of Passover.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Luke 19:29-38
When you are a preacher, there are Sundays in which there is so much to say and not enough time in which to say it! Today is one of those days. There are so many good Palm Sunday themes. Should you preach on the Palm Sunday story, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem? If you decide to go that route, do you preach Palm Sunday as happy or sad? Is it a triumph, because Jesus is finally recognized as “the one who comes in the name of God” by the crowd in Jerusalem? Or is Palm Sunday a tragedy, because we know that some who praised him on Palm Sunday will soon shout for his crucifixion on Good Friday?
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By:Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Luke 13:1-9
It has been almost two months since the major earthquake in Haiti that killed over 200,000 people. That is a staggering loss of life, the likes of which I can hardly imagine. We learned of families split apart, people sleeping on the streets in tent cities out of the fear of aftershocks, the struggle of getting adequate food, water and medical assistance to the suffering.
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By: Rev. Jennifer Gingras
Isaiah 58: 1-12
Each one of us, if we think hard enough, has at least a few people that we are not getting along with right now. No matter our age, education, income or personality… it’s a safe bet that if we have relationships at all with other people, we risk letting that person down. Maybe it’s part of our human nature that we are unable to keep our connections with one another healthy and whole 100% of the time.
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