Bluegrass United Church of Christ

Pam Lee-Miller, as the character Grace Ellen, shares a story from her days growing up in Alabama with her tight-knit family, and in particular her grandma known affectionately as Fat Mama, and her twin sister Mary Sue. Fat Mama was always working while Mary Sue was always waiting, watching and listening. MESSAGE: "There's Something About Mary" by Pam Lee-Miller SCRIPTURE: Luke 10: 38-42 Learn more...

The bible offers a wonderful description of what love is, specifically what God's love is. It also tells us that God has made it quite impossible to escape that love. BUCC exists to live into and to share that love and to try and convince the skeptics that we, like God, make it nearly impossible to escape it. MESSAGE: "We Are Loved" by Kenny Bishop SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 13  SONGS: Learn mo...

It's Independence Day weekend in the United States. It's a good time to reflect on who we are - or who we think we are. Some think of the U.S. as a Christian nation. What does that mean? Are we a "Christian" nation? Do we want to be? MESSAGE: "A Christian USA" by Kenny Bishop SCRIPTURE: John 11: 35 Learn more about us at www.bluegrasschurch.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluegrasucc Twitter: www.t...

Is pride a sin? It could be if it is arrogant pride. We are warned several times in the bible to avoid pride and to not be proud. But is pride really something we should be afraid of? Should we be proud of our heritage, our accomplishments, our faith? Today we examine what pride really is, and we come to understand that arrogance is the real sin. MESSAGE: "I Am Proud" by Kenny Bishop SCRIPTURE: Ro...

If any church desires to be relevant, it must speak to the issues at hand. If any church wishes to make a difference in the world, it must stand with those who have been abused and marginalized. It is a calling that, when heard, cannot be ignored by a church that seeks to be thoughtful and caring. Moving in that compassion is moving with radical vision. It's a lesson we need to learn on this Junet...

Try as they might, the religious leaders of Jesus' day were never able to use Jesus' words against him. That's mainly because he used their words to prove his point. When the religious leaders attempted to use a woman accused of prostitution to force Jesus into angry judgment, the tables were turned when he told them that only the sinless and pure should start the punishment. In the end, religion...

Until the experience we read about in the second chapter of Acts, Pentecost was only a traditional feast day celebrated by the Jewish people. Then, fifty days after Passover, the same time Jesus was crucified, the Spirit descended on the people gathered in the Upper Room, and the definition of Pentecost was changed forever, especially by those whose faith is Christian. And from that day, Pentecost...

"How do you define 'neighbor?'" "Who is my neighbor?" These were questions that were asked of Jesus when he was instructing his followers to minister to those around them. Were they looking for loopholes? Were they looking for people to exclude from their generosity? Are there in fact people who do not deserve God's goodness and God's love? MESSAGE: Pam Lee-Miller "Who?" SCRIPTURE: Luke 10: 24-37...

This is a very special day for our church as we install our new co-pastors, Pam Lee-Miller and Kenny Bishop. MESSAGE: Rev. Karen Fraser Moore "The God Who Hears and Sees; The God Who Knows; The God Who Calls!" SCRIPTURE: Genesis 16: 6b-13a and John 4: 21-30 Learn more about us at www.bluegrasschurch.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluegrasucc Twitter: www.twitter.com/bluegrasucc Instagram: www.inst...

Jesus Saves! Many of us who've grown up in church, especially the more fundamentalist evangelical ones, have heard that phrase. To us, it simply meant that Jesus died so we could go to heaven - for many of us, the goal was more about avoiding hell. But have we missed the true meaning of those words? Is there more to them? According to Jesus himself, there is. MESSAGE: "Jesus Saves!" by Kenny Bisho...

Woke is a term we seem to hear a lot lately. What does it mean? What does it mean especially in the context of our faith as followers of Christ? For us, it means we can be aware of our own relationship with God and how that holy relationship can impact others close to us. Our wokeness means we can be caring people who love and carry joy to the world. MESSAGE: "Woke" by Pam Lee-Miller SCRIPTURE: Lu...

Sometimes we question if all of Jesus' decisions were good ones. Why would he choose to surround himself with people so prone to making bad decisions? But he knew just what he was doing. And he knew what he was doing when he asked one of his closest friends to affirm his love by giving him a chance to know God's forgiveness and his own self-forgiveness before he was even aware he needed it. MESSAG...

We are a singing church. Music and melody have been a part of who we are since our founding by singer/songwriter and preacher Marsha Jean Moors-Charles began this work over a decade ago. It's no wonder we enjoy music so much because apparently, God does too! As a matter of fact, when God sings, it's because of you. You make God sing! MESSAGE: "God is Singing" by Kenny Bishop SCRIPTURE: Zephania 3:...

It's Easter Sunday. During the season of Lent, and this last week in Holy Week, we focused on growing gardens, tending the life that is right in front of us, rather than constantly climbing ladders of what this world defines as success. We have been embracing “good enough” lives and “good enough” selves that are worthy of love, no matter what. We have been acknowledging the suffering that is a nat...

This is the sixth Sunday of Lent. It is Palm Sunday. We stand at the precipice of Lent and Holy Week. This day moves from shouting and praising to a time of crying and lament. The drama of the story of Jesus’ last week reads like the book of our lives. Feeling hopeful one moment, we plummet the next as we deal with disappointment, danger, and grief. God’s incarnation on earth was not immune from t...

This is the fifth Sunday of Lent. The story of Jesus includes many moments around tables, as this was part of his ritual of relationship even to the last. In this fifth week of the Lent season, we will hear a story of love and devotion from the disciple Mary, directed at Jesus at the table. As we will see, Jesus tries to prepare his beloved companions for his death. Talk of death is like a gut-pun...

This is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Each week of this Lent season, we are focusing on ways that we can practice a counter-cultural theology that emphasizes the beauty and grace of the reality of life-right-now rather than waiting with increasing judgment to reach some vision of a perfected existence. Our ladder-climbing efforts sometimes end up taking us down a rung or two as things don’t work out...

This is the third Sunday of Lent. As we continue our look at what it means to release oppressive expectations about perfection in our lives and in our faith, this week we turn to a harmful idea that the prescription for our fear of failure is to simply work harder. As the book Good Enough reminds us, “We might feel we are climbing an ‘endless staircase’ of achievement, for high grades or success.....

This is the second Sunday of Lent. We continue our movement through the Lent season this week with another kind of “letting go.” This week we lament that so much in life is out of our control. This is frustrating to us and so sometimes we have been tempted to believe the sayings that tell us if we just “think positively,” we can turn it all around. Yet our experience tells us that this doesn’t alw...

Lent has begun, and this is the first Sunday. We find ourselves hungry for many things that we believe will bring us satisfaction. In today’s Gospel, the devil lays a bet that Jesus will jump at the chance for glory, fame, and the quick fix. Who wouldn’t? But Jesus keeps up the pithy one-liners long enough that the Tempster just has to slink away. What are the temptations that catch your ear, sing...

It's the Sunday before Lent. The days leading to Ash Wednesday are filled with indulgence and joy. At BUCC, we gathered around tables and had a big country breakfast. We enjoyed the fellowship, the food, and the opportunity to worship alongside the meal. It was morning worship in a different way, but it was worship. And the talk around the table made for some inspiring breakfast talk conversation....

Sometimes the branches of different trees touch each other, often they do not. In our view, they look like separate beings doing separate work, surviving on their own. What we don't see are the many roots below the earth that are reaching out, different roots of different trees, intertwined, supporting each other, nourishing each other. They may not look like it, but they are planted together. MES...

Church attendance in the U.S. and around the world is in a rapid decline. The exodus has been underway for several years, but the pace is faster now than most experts have ever seen. What should we do when the church becomes irrelevant? Whose fault is it? Why are people tuning out and turning off religion? It's probably because they don't trust us, and we have given them good cause. Let's talk abo...

What are your thoughts about social media? For most folks, it usually depends on what they saw last, who posted it, and what they were trying to say. One of the dangers of social media is that it causes us to compare our lives and worlds with everyone else's. It's an unfair comparison because most of us share the best parts of our lives. So the question we should ask ourselves is, what are we comp...

First Testament scripture declares in the book of Jeremiah, "“Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart;” From the beginning, you were known. God formed you and knew you and made you in the image of the Holy. Today, Pam reminds us of our unique beauty and specialness. MESSAGE: "Known" by Pam Lee-Miller SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 1: 4-9 Learn more about us at www.bl...