Past Sermons

Sermon, January 8, 2016

New Things I Now Declare
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
January 8, 2017
First Sunday after Epiphany, Baptism of Christ
Psalm 29; Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17

We are in new territory as a civilization, living in a world that would have been considered wildly imaginative science fiction just a few decades ago—with revolutionary new technologies and global interconnections through the internet and global threats to the environment and a global refugee crisis, to name only some of the changes.

At the same time an increasing percentage of our society has given up on the church as an institution that could help us find our way through the new landscape of our lives. The church has not been so dismissed as irrelevant or reviled for over a thousand years.

Yet we have as much reason to hope as any generation ever had. I am not fretting about the condition of the world or the church today, because what Isaiah said is still true, Continue reading Sermon, January 8, 2016 →

Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes: January 8, 2017, Baptism of Christ Sunday

The Second of the 12 Steps of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous is this: “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”  This Sunday is all about the epiphany of seeing that Higher Power made manifest  in nature and in our lives, and  especially in the transformational moment when Jesus came out of the River Jordan baptized by John, blessed by God and driven by the Holy Spirit to begin his ministry (Matthew 3:13-17).  The Higher Power is all about transforming our lives and our world to be more Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, to be more aligned with God’s realm of love and life and light, mercy and justice and peace.

The scriptures and music want to shake us and wake us to this truly amazing grace: we have access to this Higher Power! Isaiah says, “New things I now declare!”  (42:1-9) Psalm 29 describes the world-changing Power of God in a thunderstorm coming off of the Mediterranean Sea. We can be changed and be instruments of change in our world with the help of this Power. In fact, we are not fulfilling our calling and accepting the full gift that Christ offers us if we are not living as continually transformed and transforming people.   Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes: January 8, 2017, Baptism of Christ Sunday →

Church News, Past Sermons

Sermon, January 1, 2017

See and Be Radiant
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
January 1, 2017
First Sunday after Christmas, Epiphany Sunday
Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12

The star over Bethlehem is a major symbol of Christmas—we sing about it, put it on the top of Christmas trees, even wear it on neckties—yet if you read the story closely, only a few wise men saw and understood the star. The shepherds did not notice a star, nor did anyone else.

Would we have been among the wise? Are we seeing the stars of Christ around us now? Do we understand the signs of light that God is giving us that can fill us with hope and inspire us?

The wise men saw and were moved for a reason: they were looking, they were searching the skies for meaning, they had practiced and made themselves students of the light. They were part of a tradition that passed wisdom along to them. They added their own knowledge and experience and were open to something new happening in their day.

We need to practice looking and finding meaning, too, if we want to be among those who see signs of Christ’s presence in our world, who see the light and understand what it says and follow where it leads. We need to be open to learning the wisdom of our tradition and being changed by the new things that God is doing. Continue reading Sermon, January 1, 2017 →

Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes: January 1, 2017, Epiphany Sunday

This Sunday falls in the middle of the twelve days of Christmas, but we will celebrate it as Epiphany (January  6th).  Epiphany was one of the most important and ancient church holy days, predating Christmas itself.  It has had other scriptures associated with it over the millenia, but we read the story of the Magi following the star to Jesus.  (Matthew 2:1-12)  The  point of all the scriptures and all the Sundays of the Epiphany Season is the recognition of the manifestation of God in Jesus and in the world (including in us).  We will hear Isaiah telling us to “see, and be radiant,” because when we truly see the light of God in the world and let it fill us, we ourselves shine.  (Isaiah 60:1-6)  What better way could there be to enter a new year?

We are blessed to have many manifestations of the Holy Spirit in this church that we can look to with joy.  We will name some of them and reflect on how we can see more.  Beauty opens our senses to the wondrous, transcendent presence of the creative force of love and life and light that we name God.  We will hear and sing some beautiful music including three hymns and a little bonus (We Three Kings, What Child Is This, and What Star Is This, plus one verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem).  The choir will sing the Bach harmonized chorale, “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” and a contemporary spiritual carol, “Jesus, The Light of the World.”  John will play pieces by Murschhauser, Dandrieu and Pachelbel.

Below are two very different treats for the ear and soul.  The first is a recording of the short and beautiful Pachelbel piece that John will play.  The second is the amazing choir of the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the oldest African American congregations in the country, singing “Jesus, the Light of the World.”

 

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Church News

Upcoming Service Notes: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 2016

We hold our Christmas Eve service at 6:00 PM so that families with children of all ages may enjoy its magic.  The services lasts approximately one hour.   We blend the traditional service of lessons and carols with an extended time in the pure candlelight.  This year we will hear a story about a birth by the light of the Christ candle, and listen to the gorgeous blend of voices of Betsy Alexander, Bridget Peters and Marcia Tomlinson singing a Christmas poem written by the great Victorian poet, Christina Rossetti.  The choir will sing the stirring Bach chorale Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light and the congregation will sing a line-up of favorites like O Come, All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and finally Silent Night when we each are holding our candles in the pews.  Randy Odell and Bridget Peters will sing again the bluegrass gospel song that moved many of us to tears on Pageant Sunday, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. Organist John Atwood will play Christmas pieces by Buxtehude and J.S. Bach.

Christmas morning we will worship at a special time, 10:30, so that the end of the service will fall closer to the start of the Community Christmas Dinner taking place downstairs at noon.  We call this our Carol Sing and Favorite Christmas Things Sunday.  It is a relaxed and informal service with a carol-sing by request, like the family gathered around the piano. You are also invited to bring a brief favorite Christmas story to tell, either personal story or a classic tale, or poems or quotes or songs—a kind of inspirational pot-luck. It is a wonderful way to spend the second half of Christmas morning, connecting to the hope, peace, joy and love that the day is all about.  And then downstairs for the feast!

 

Candles of hope, peace, love and joy

Past Sermons

Sermon, December 18, 2016

Universal, Uncondtional, Unstoppable Love
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
December 18, 2016
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Sunday of Love
Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-55

Mahatma Gandhi insisted that nonviolence
is the highest truth of the human soul,
and our most natural inclination.
He said that nonviolent, Christ-like love
is the most powerful force in the world.
People would scoff at him and point to wars
and all the horrible things people do,
and he would admit that violence is real,
but he would say look at any city in the world.
If lovingkindness and nonviolence were not stronger
and truer to our nature, no city could exist.
We would tear ourselves to pieces
and every community would fall apart.

Gandhi was a Hindu who studied and admired
the teachings of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount
was one of the foundations of his life work.
Today we are here to celebrate the triumph
of this force that Gandhi recognized and used.
We are not celebrating how it overcomes empires,
although it has done so many times.
We are not celebrating how it has lifted up and freed
the impoverished and oppressed, although it always does.
We are here to celebrate this all-powerful force being born
in a humble child in an impoverished and oppressed setting.
We are here to remember how this force was at work
guiding and empowering his mother and father.
We are here to see how it still is at work in his church
and in every one of us, this force of universal, unconditional,
unstoppable love and life and light. Continue reading Sermon, December 18, 2016 →

Advent Resources, Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes: December 18, 2016, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Sunday, Sunday of Love

Advent has another week to go, the week of deepest darkness that comes before the glorious Christmas dawn.  The more we immerse in the spirit of Advent–making time for our spiritual life  doing things like reading, praying, getting out in nature, serving people in need–the more joyous our Christmas  can be.  Yet joyous outbursts are part of Advent, too–we felt it last week on Pageant Sunday and we will feel it Christmas Eve in the first half of the 6:00 PM service.

We will begin this Sunday in joy, too, celebrating Christ’s birth by hearing some of the nativity story and singing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” and “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”  The choir will sing “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and a trio of Betsy Alexander, Bridget Peters and Marcia Tomlinson will sing “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.”  John Atwood will be playing special music involving chimes and a major Bach Prelude and Fugue that is traditionally associated with Christmas.  The sermon will reflect on the “Universal, Unconditional, Unstoppable Love” that we witness in the Christmas story, and that we continue to see at work in our lives and in the world today.

Yet like Christmas Eve, we will end the service quieting into the silent night of Advent still left ahead, singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and the ancient plainsong benediction one last time.  John’s postlude will be the Ukrainian Bell Carol.

Here is a Simon Preston recording of the Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major that John will be playing:

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Past Sermons

Sermon, December 11, 2016

So That My Joy May Be in You
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
December 11, 2016
Third Sunday of Advent, Pageant, Sunday of Joy
Psalm 126; Luke 1:39-45; John 15:9-11

Faith changes the way we live, or else it is not faith.
Church changes us, or else it is not being the church.
Christ came to change us, to transform our lives
and make us agents of transformation in the world.
The first word out of his mouth when he began to teach
was the word translated as “repent.”
He did not mean feel guilty, he meant,
be changed, change your mind, your heart, your spirit,
change the direction in which you are looking
for happiness, for meaning, for joy.
The Bible word for repentance is metanoia,
meaning a change in our inner life
that changes the way we experience everything.

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy.”

That is what it is like to be changed
in the way that Christ intends.
We enter a moment of anxiety or anger,
a moment of loneliness or feeling lost,
a moment of suffering or struggle,
and faith, church, Christ—this higher power—
transforms the moment. It does not end suffering,
but we can experience beauty
and joy even in the midst of suffering,
the fullness of sorrow and fullness of joy
in the same moment. “Those who sow in tears,
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.”

Faith, church, Christ—this higher power—
changes us, and not for ourselves alone.
As Abe Lincoln said and I often repeat,
“I care not for a man’s religion
whose dog or cat are not the better for it.”
Continue reading Sermon, December 11, 2016 →

Advent Resources, Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes, December 11, 2016, Pageant, Joy, 3rd Sunday of Advent

This Sunday will be a glorious mix of high and low church art, all of it beautiful and moving.  The children’s pageant will once again act out the story as our Diverse Musical Traditions Team sings the Gaither song, “Come and See What’s Happenin’ in the Barn!”  We are hoping to have fourteen children participate, which is very exciting!  The same team will also sing the classic bluegrass Christmas song, “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” which has been recorded by everyone from Ralph Stanley to Emmylou Harris and over four hundred others.

Organist John Atwood will play the haunting Appalachian carol, “I Wonder As I Wander,” to complete the low church art.  He will also play two pieces from the baroque high church art department, both by Johann Pachelbel,   One of them will be a chorale prelude on the tune that the choir will sing as an Intoit,  “From Heaven unto Earth I Come.”

Our congregational hymns will include “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Joy to the World” (the children will sing it with the choir at the end of the Pageant and the congregation will join in at the end) and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” as well as the Benediction hymn set to the ancient plainchant Advent tune.

We will light the candle of Joy and read responsively from Psalm 126 and hear Luke 1:39-45 and John 15:9-11.  The sermon title will be taken from the John passage, “So That My Joy May Be in You.”  We will reflect on what it means to have Christ’s joy in us in very practical terms–it is the peak experience, the highest meaning and pleasure in life, and Christ is very clear that he wants us to experience it to the fullest.  Why let anything stand in our way?

To hear two of the pieces of music that will be in the service, Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, December 11, 2016, Pageant, Joy, 3rd Sunday of Advent →