Things to Ponder

Sermon Text: John 10:1-10   Mrs. Diane Flickinger was our special guest speaker to reflect on the ways that Christ is the Good Shepherd. Thank you, Diane, for your wonderful message!   Follow St. Mary's: https://www.facebook.com/stmarysunite.. . https://www.instagram.com/stmarysucc/   Want to support the work of St. Mary's? https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-.. .

Sermon Text: Genesis 32   Today we did a Blessing of our Garden. In our gospel reading, Jesus withdrew to a secluded place to pray, a place a lot like this one. It was out of that that he could do the miracles he did. The life we live in relationship to agriculture and the earth is spiritually weighty, and we often find ourselves wrestling with God. That wrestling is holy, and brings us to a place...

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9   Rev. Sheresa Simpson-Rice, Associate Conference Minister for the Central Atlantic Conference, UCC, was with us this Sunday to bring greetings and a message! Alloys are created when multiple metals are joined together, bringing the best characteristics of each to bear on a new thing. The apostle Peter tells us that in light of Christ's resurrection, we will go through h...

Sermon Text: Matthew 28:1-10   How do we get from a crucified Messiah to Easter? How do we get stories of the apostles being murdered and early Christians gathering in holes and caves to tell this story? How do we get martyrs and mystics? How do we get abolitionists and peace activists? How do we get teachers and leaders and pastors and volunteers who talk to you with that look in their eye, that...

Sermon Text: Mark 11:1-11   On Palm Sunday, Jesus proclaims himself as King as he rides to Jerusalem on a donkey, and the peasant crowds cry out, "Hosanna!" come save us! But from the other side, Pilate rides in on a warhorse, accompanied by soliders. The stage is set: two ways of looking at the world, two ideas of salvation. And we are left with a choice. Some of us have never made a choice for C...

Sermon Text: John 11:1-45   As we've walked this Lenten journey, we've told stories and discovered lessons. But...we don't need Jesus for any of them. But Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life." Jesus is making a bigger, more remarkable claim. Jesus is more than good stories and moral platitudes. He joins us to the very point of death. And he asks if we believe this. If we are to be peop...

Sermon Text: John 4:1-41   Through your life, God is shedding light on who God is and what God is doing in the world, no turning back. And that story is a gift which makes claims about Christ and his Kingdom. In today's gospel, Jesus changes a man's story forever, but that story falls under scrutiny. Yet though it all, the man grows in his understanding of Christ and his boldness in sharing his st...

Text:  John 4:5-42   To become a part of the body of Christ is a wonderful thing. But when we create an "us," we also create a "them." So how do we handle this basic human instinct? Jesus shows us how as he meets a Samaritan woman. He acknowledges the differences, but never tries to "win." Rather, he meets the woman in her deepest needs, and in doing so, changes her life and the life of her commun...

Sermon Text: John 3:1-17   Ultimately, Jesus is not asking us to adhere to certain beliefs or a certain behaviors. He offers us a new self. And we’re either going to decide to stay exactly where we are – we’ve worked hard to get here, of course – or we’ll take the leap. A logic-defying, risk-it-all, never-look-back leap of faith. A leap that believes the spirit will blow wherever it wants to, far...

Text: Exodus 16; Luke 24:27 -35   Altar calls offer a powerful emotional response to the creative Word of God. The response to God’s Word has to be personal; God’s love must be met with a response, with our bodies and our intentions and our will. Why don't liturgical traditions have such a tradition? It turns out that we do. In the sacraments, we respond to the death and resurrection of Christ wit...

Text: Revelation 10:9-10; Luke 24:17 -27   Ours is a faith based in words, and those words carry meaning. We should therefore let our words be shaped by the community, which is what we find in the Bible. When we encounter those words with deep hearing and faith, they create the realities they proclaim - new things are created, forgiveness is given, relationships are built. As a people, then, we ar...

Text: Philippians 4:4-9; John 15:9-17   We participate in worship because we seek joy, but joy comes from relationship and common purpose. Worshipping with and for others is where we develop the capacity for joyful worship, discerning the Communty past, present, and future.   Follow St. Mary's: https://www.facebook.com/stmarysunite.. . https://www.instagram.com/stmarysucc/   Want to support the wo...

Text: Romans Exodus 32:1-11; Romans 10:9-17; Luke 4:16 -21   We kicked off a new sermon series about liturgy! God desires that we should learn to love God more. Liturgy is a tool to do that. But if liturgy is based in our wants and desires, we'll only be formed into what we already are, rather than growing into all God has for us. Liturgy based in love honors God, and forms us in faith. It is the...

Text: Matthew 2:1-12   Under pressure, the powers and principalities of the world showed us what they are – brutal, jealous, scheming. Under that same pressure, Christ and his story invites all people to hope. It is a global gospel for every single person.   Follow St. Mary's: https://www.facebook.com/stmarysunite... https://www.instagram.com/stmarysucc/   Want to support the work of St. Mary's? h...

Sermon Text: Matthew 24:36-44     Advent is the season that is honest about the fact that our lives are too full for God’s goodness and abundance. When this child comes, he’s bringing some stuff. He’s bringing a new way of being in the world. He’s bringing forgiveness of sins. He’s bringing a sense of life and purpose to you. He’s bringing hope, peace, joy, and love to you in heaping helpings. And...

Sermon Text: Matthew 25:14-30     The parable of the talents goes far, far beyond money to two ways of seeing God. One way: a kind, generous, risk-rewarding God. The other: hard, lazy, judgmental. The question we are left with: which God do we choose? The God Jesus points to is a risk-taking, initiative-seeking, joyful God. Therefore, reject any pull towards the hard God who makes you think you sh...

Sermon Text: Luke 6:20-31   All Saints asks a very blunt question: do you buy this story of Jesus? We've heard this question before, but today it is asked by our loved ones. If that answer is yes, then it is our loved ones who say, Come. Draw near to Christ, and he will draw near to you." Where shall we do this? Well, today we have a table. This table is powerful, for here we are brought into the...

Sermon Text: Matthew 18:18-20   Intercessory prayer remains at the heart of a local church. When someone asks us to pray for them, they are opening for us an entry to the sacred. Prayer requests are a sacred trust, a sacred encounter that needs to be nourished, cared for, and respected. Intercessory prayer takes us into a bigger, more complex, more mystical world, where God is living and active, a...

Sermon Text: Luke 18:9-14   For Jesus the most critical categories aren't sinner v. saint, but the proud and the humble. Whatever we believe about ourselves and our adversaries, we’re all sinners. The question is, are we proud sinners or humble sinners? If we’re proud sinners we create ways to justify ourselves in our own eyes by favorably comparing ourselves to those whom we deem worse than us. B...

Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 3   We serve a Christ who was prophesied about, came to us born of a virgin, did miraculous healings, said that he and God are one, walked on water, calmed the storm, raised the dead, was crucified and raised himself, ascended into heaven, and our only takeaway is, “Be a good person"?   Follow St. Mary's: https://www.facebook.com/stmarysunite... https://www.instagram.com...

Sermon Text: Exodus 19   Rural churches sit on the margins of society and have an opportunity to live deep faith in the wilderness. Wilderness is volatile, and challenges us. But we have the opportunity to become acquainted with our deepest selves, to think God's thoughts in a contemplative community. Let us seek living into the quiet that strengthens souls and communities.   Follow St. Mary's: ht...

Sermon Text: Matthew 15   Churches can find themselves leaning into personal devotion or social justice, when both are necessary to a full and vibrant mission, and fear will then drive our work. But God is already at work in the world, and there are wonderful and beautiful things for us to find. We should be prepare to be surprised as we seek the renewal of our communities and the world.   Follow...

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:1-10   Faith is a work of imagination, seeing what cannot yet be seen. As we draw near to the cross, we discover a community forming around it. We are called to embrace that community, and to imagine what it means to have the crucified Christ at the very center of it. Imagination allows the church to grow strong and beautiful.   Follow St. Mary's: https://www.facebook.com/st...

Sermon Text: Luke 9:51-62   Amongst a distracted and undisciplined age, Jesus asks his church to set our face, to be serious about cultivating the life of Christ. The only thing we have to offer the world is Christ, to make him known. And that alone feeds the world, heals the world. Jesus says, “Here’s who I’ve made you to be. Allow me to cultivate that: tear out what isn’t truly you, form you int...

Sermon Text: John 16:12-24   Faith cannot be "renewed," it is either given as a gift or not.  Spiritual growth most usually feels like something is revealed inside of us, not something entirely new.  As we celebrate 260 years as a congregation, the faith that was in our ancestors is in us, it simply continues to be revealed more and more by the Spirit inside us.  If we seek a faithful future, then...