Past Sermons

Sermon, December 4, 2016

They Will Not Hurt or Destroy on All My Holy Mountain
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
December 4, 2016
Second Sunday of Advent, Sunday of Peace
Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12; Luke 1:68-79

Advent tells us that something is coming.
“God is coming,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer says,
God, in the form of Jesus Christ.
“Christmas is coming—
whether it is with us or without us
depends on each and every one of us….”

Today on the Peace Sunday of Advent
the scriptures, hymns and candle lighting
all insist that with Christ comes peace.
Peace is coming, and whether it is with us
or without us depends on each and every one of us.
The crucial question is, do we believe it?
In Bonhoeffer’s words, “Are we going to let it come to us,
or are we going to resist it?
Are we going to join in this movement
that comes down from heaven to earth,
or are we going to close ourselves off?”

Advent challenges us. It does not let us escape
the truth of our condition or the need for our response.
Advent says “peace,” and we are forced to see
how little peace we have in our heart or in our world.
Advent says “peace,” and we feel the agitation
of a long list of things we have to do before Christmas,
or we feel the agony of missing those
who will not be with us this year,
or we feel the deeply disturbing worry we have
for a world that seems to be speeding
farther from peace every day.

Advent insists that we hope in peace
even when peace seems hopeless.
Advent insists that we turn to the light
even in a darkness that seems lightless.
Advent demands that we choose,
are we going to believe the promises or not?
Do you believe Isaiah when he prophesies
of a coming day when
“They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain?”
Can we let ourselves sink into the deep comfort
of believing in the possibility of that peace in our time? Continue reading Sermon, December 4, 2016 →

Church News

Christmas Memorial Poinsettias

It’s time to order your memorial poinsettia! These beautiful potted plants (3 per pot) are thanks to Shearer’s Greenhouse and 20% of the proceeds is donated back to the church’s flower fund! They will be displayed in church on Christmas Sunday (December 18), and can be delivered or taken home after the worship service unless you designate you would like it to remain through the Christmas Eve service.  Click this link for the order form: 2016 Memorial Poinsettia Form

 

Advent Resources, Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes for December 4, 2016, Second Sunday of Advent

We light the candle of peace on the Second Sunday of Advent, and we immerse in the vision of Christ as the Prince of Peace coming to earth.  Division, conflict, anxiety, terror, violence–all seem to be on the increase in our nation and in the world, so the Sunday of Peace has rarely been so welcome.  We will immerse in its hope and joy and love this Sunday.

The prophets Isaiah and John the Baptist take center stage (Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom vision, 11:1-10 and John’s foretelling of Christ in Matthew 3:1-12), with a supporting role by John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah with his beautiful Benedictus about the tender mercy of God and the dawn from on high that is coming “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  (Luke 1:68-79)

For a list and a sampling of the beautiful music, Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes for December 4, 2016, Second Sunday of Advent →

Advent Resources, Past Sermons

Sermon, November 27, 2016

A Door That Can Be Opened Only from the Outside
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
November 27, 2016   First Sunday of Advent, Sunday of Hope
Isaiah 60:1-20, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 25:36-44

Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the author of the extraordinary book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. The book shows how there can be a conflict between what modern medicine says to do and what really matters to a person whose life is nearing the end.

One of the reasons is that our perspective changes when we sense that our time is short. Modern medicine often asks the dying to endure isolation or debilitation for the sake of safety or prolonging life by weeks or months, whereas an end-of-life perspective tends to value most the continuation of connection, choosing to focus on love and home, family and friends with the precious time it has. Nearing death can open us to the spiritual realm more widely. It can spur us to share our remaining gifts for the good of a world we want to bless before we go. It can change the way we want to live the last stage of our life.

Of course, the prospect of death can also paralyze us with fear or negativity, but if we have the courage to open to its truth it can make us wise. It can make us more Christ-like and full of light. The world can look not more terrifying but more beautiful.

Paul guides us in that positive direction. He writes, “The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” He urges us to wake up and see that our time is short no matter what age we are, and to make our focus the spiritual life, not the life driven by our selfish desires.

Jesus says, “About that day and hour no one knows…. Therefore you…must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Advent reminds us that something is coming, something bigger than we are, something beyond our control, something that will change our perspective and reorder our priorities of what matters. Continue reading Sermon, November 27, 2016 →

Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes for November 27, 2016, First Sunday of Advent

This is one of the most beautiful services of the church year.  The children will bring in the greens to decorate the church during the Prelude, and they, along with members of the Search Committee, will light the Advent candle of Hope.  We will sing three  classic and beloved Advent carols, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Wake, Awake for Night Is Flying,” and “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night.”  We will sing a Benediction set to the oldest Advent tune, a plainchant that has been sung daily during Advent in monasteries for over a thousand years.  We will hear scriptures with a message of hope and teachings on how to live in hope.  

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The choir will sing an Advent hymn from Spain as the introit, “Toda la Tierra (All Earth Is Waiting).” They will sing “Ah! Think Not the Lord Delayeth” as the Anthem with a text by one of the great hymnodists of the early 20th Century, Percy Dearmer, set to a J.B.König tune.  Organist John Atwood will play three pieces from the Baroque era, one by Johann Sebastian Bach and the other two by his cousin, J. G. Walther.

Here are two of the organ pieces, starting with a Walther chorale prelude based on the hymn “Wake, Awake for Night Is Flying.”  The second is the Advent piece by J.S. Bach that John will play as the Postlude.

 

 

Church News

Sermon, November 20, 2016

Serving the Whole Family
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
November 20, 2016, Twenty-seventh after Pentecost,
Reign of Christ Sunday, Thanksgiving Sunday
Psalm 95, Matthew 25:31-40

Psalm 95 says, “For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.”
It is important we understand what that means.
Christ calls us to follow him and be like him,
including being good shepherds to God’s sheep.
But who exactly are the sheep of God’s hand?
Who are the people of God’s pasture?
Who are the members of God’s family?

Astronauts looking back at Earth from space have seen it.
Saints and mystics of all times have seen it.
Hunters watching the woods all day have seen it.
Soldiers falling in love in a foreign land have seen it.
Thomas Aquinas, the hard-headed scholar,
put it this way:
“The immense diversity and pluriformity
of this creation more perfectly represents God
than any one creature alone or by itself.”
Meister Eckhart, the great-hearted preacher and mystic,
put it this way:
“Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things.
Every single creature is full of God
and is a book about God.
Every creature is a word of God.
If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature—
even a caterpillar—
I would never have to prepare a sermon.
So full of God is every creature.”

Jesus wanted his disciples to see
that everything in all creation is part of God’s family,
and each member of that family is full of God. Continue reading Sermon, November 20, 2016 →

Church News, Music News & Recordings

Upcoming Service Notes for November 20, 2016, Thanksgiving & Reign of Christ

This is one of the biggest Sundays in the church year–Thanksgiving, Reign of Christ Sunday, the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost, and New Year’s Eve–the new church year begins next Sunday, the 27th, with the First Sunday of Advent.  In addition, this week we will be celebrating the Wild Game Supper (still tickets available, click here), and the highly successful Church World Service Kit drive of our Board of Mission and Social Action, and the completion of a program on God and Family by Cub Scout Caleb Peters.  To top it all off, we will have a warned Congregational Meeting immediately following worship to consider whether to go forward with a study of what it would mean to become an Open and Affirming congregation.

This is one of those Sundays that has an evocative sound track–all many of us need to do is hear “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” or “We Gather Together,” or “Now Thank We All Our God,” and we feel an old familiar Thanksgiving feeling come over us, and memories of people and meals come flooding back.  We will hear all three this Sunday, plus a Reign of Christ hymn, “Now Is the Time Approaching” (sung to the exuberant tune of “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus”), plus the beloved “Fairest Lord Jesus” sung by the choir.   Organist John Atwood will play pieces by J. S. Bach (hear it below), William Selby and H. Clough-Leighter. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes for November 20, 2016, Thanksgiving & Reign of Christ →

Past Sermons

Sermon, November 6, 2016

Prepare the Way     Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
November 6, 2016   Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost,
Advent Preparation Sunday
Matthew 25:1-13 and other Advent passages
Something is coming. A birth, something new, something good, a change, a transformation, an in-breaking of God’s realm of mercy, justice and peace on earth, a higher power of love and life and light that will fill us and fill our church and shine like a lighted window changing everyone and everything around us.

Something is coming, and yet it is already here, and it has been here since the beginning of time and will be here until the end of time. It is flowing into our hearts right now, every one of us, full of power and possibility. It is a mystery, beyond our understanding or control. It has its own way that is not our way, its own thoughts that are not our thoughts, its own wisdom and power far beyond ours, and yet it can all be ours if we give ourselves entirely over to it.

We can have that new birth, we can transform our home and church and community to be more like God’s realm, we can move through this world as an instrument of peace and lovingkindness, we can be full of the power of the Spirit, we can shine like a lighted window no matter how dark and foggy life around us becomes.

Advent opens the way to us, Advent unlocks the mysterious door and lets that glorious light burst into the humble, manure stained stable of our world.
Continue reading Sermon, November 6, 2016 →