Thank you to Randy Odell, Bridget Peters and Marcia Tomlinson for a wonderful, uplifting and very diverse Sunday morning music line-up!
Upcoming Service Notes, July 10, 2016
This Sunday we will hear what may be the most important parable Jesus ever told, one that only Luke chose to include in his gospel, perhaps because it was so shocking (Luke 10:25-37). A lawyer tested Jesus by asking first what to do to inherit eternal life. The answer Jesus affirmed was to love God and love our neighbor as our self. Then the lawyer tried to test him again, asking who is our neighbor. Jesus replied with the scandalous story of the Good Samaritan, defining neighbor solely on the basis of the love and mercy and kindness a person needs or a person gives, and showing that no one is excluded from being the neighbor we are called to love.
The other scriptures we will read are about being humble enough and faithful enough to listen to the word of God and let it teach us and change us. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, July 10, 2016
Sermon, July 3, 2016
The Spirit of Freedom
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
July 3, 2016 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost,
Independence Day Sunday
Psalm 1; Galatians 5-6; Luke 10:1-11
Politics have no place in church.
Polls show that many people no longer consider themselves Christian because they are repulsed by the politics of the religious right, while some here have been uncomfortable with left leaning politics preached in the past. I have heard appreciation that I refrain from talking politics.
Politics have no place in church.
I agree with that when we think of the politics in today’s political landscape. There is no place in church for uncivil, polarized, partisan, suspicious, dehumanizing, closed-minded, hard-hearted political wars between enemy camps. There is no place for the politics of hate in a church that follows Christ who commanded us to love God and love our neighbor and love our enemy and love the least of these. There is no place for the politics of fear in a church where Christ said over and over, “Do not be afraid.” There is no place for judging others because of their political views in a church where Christ tells us, “Do not judge.”
Politics have no place in church when they go against the Spirit of freedom that Paul talks about in Galatians, or the love that Christ commands us to have for those who seem most different from us.
And yet, much as we might wish it otherwise, politics are inescapable in a church. Continue reading Sermon, July 3, 2016
Celebrating America’s 240th year
Our own Willow Smith (in the red t-shirt) organized a bell ringing on the afternoon of July 4th, 240 times to mark the number of years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Family and friends gathered and took turns pulling the rope and carefully counting each ring of the bell.
Upcoming Service Notes, July 3, 2016, Freedom & Spirit, Part Two
The world-wide lectionary comes into alignment with the national calendar on this Independence Day weekend. Paul is talking about freedom and the Spirit, and both Jesus and Paul give rules and laws by which disciples and communities of Christ should govern themselves. (Galatians Chapters 5 and 6; Luke 10:1-11) We will read Psalm 1 that talks about those who follow the law of God becoming like trees planted by streams of living water and bringing forth fruit. The scriptures and the day beg the question: how do politics and religion relate? Does Christ have anything to say about how we govern our lives, our church, our communities and our nation in the United States of American in 2016?
We will celebrate the spirit of freedom with wonderful music, starting with the exuberant American spiritual “I Woke Up This Morning” led by members of our Diverse Traditions music team. We will also sing “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies,” and the stirring hymn, “God Send Us Men Whose Aim ’Twill Be” as well as the beloved communion spiritual, “Let Us Break Bread Together.”
Organist John Atwood will play a Prelude, Offertory and Postlude all by American composers who were born before the Revolutionary War, including: “A Fuge or Voluntary” by William Selby; “Simple Gifts” by John Carter; and “The Battle of Trenton” by James Hewitt. He will also play the ethereal “Hear My Prayer, O God” [Ave Maria] by Jacob Arcadelt, arranged for piano by Franz Liszt.
Here are two very different YouTube treats. The first is a classic recording of “The Battle of Trenton” that will greatly enhance your appreciation when you hear it Sunday morning. Do not be fooled by the YouTube frame that talks about grief. Think John Phillips Sousa…
And the second selection will help you unwind after the battle.
Fellowship is Friend Fun!
Here are some photos of Mary Sanborn (left) and Eris Eastman (right) at Coffee Hour in June. Mary and Eris are both long-time members of the church who have served on many committees and boards.
Sermon, June 26, 2016
Freedom of the Spirit
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
June 26, 2016 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Psalm 16; I Kings 19:15-21; Galatians 5:1-14, 6:15; Luke 9:51-62
Yesterday I met with the New Members Class. One of the things I talk about with New Members is Stewardship, which is the act of taking care of something, and keeping it moving forward (remember Jesus’ Parable of the Talents: maintaining without progressing is not good stewardship).
We practice stewardship here when we make pledges to our annual budget or repair the steeple or serve on a committee or board. If you see a bulletin lying on the floor and put it in the recycling bin, or help a little child carry a cup of juice to the Sunday School table downstairs, that is stewardship.
We serve as stewards of the church in these little and large ways, and yet there is a whole other dimension to stewardship beyond them, and when I talk about it with New Members I sometimes see a look of surprise.
The church is more than the building, and more than the loving community here, as essential as they are. Every congregation is part of something much bigger. We are part of a revolutionary social movement that is out to change the world. Jesus Christ founded it by teaching that the realm of God is at hand, and showing how we can live as citizens of God’s realm here and now and work to make our society more like God’s realm. Jesus wanted to liberate people like us who are enslaved or imprisoned in ways that keep us from freely living in God’s realm.
That means that our stewardship will not be done until we all are free to love and serve with all the gifts and skills God has given us. We will not be done until all the hungry have food, all the sick have medical care, all the lonely have company, all outcasts and refugees and wrongdoers have the opportunity for restorative justice, and all wars and forms of violence cease to the ends of the earth. Continue reading Sermon, June 26, 2016
Upcoming Service Notes, June 26, 2016, Freedom & Spirit, Part One
This Sunday and next we will be looking at how central freedom is to life in the Holy Spirit and the Way of Christ. There are all kinds of ways in which we are not free, and the scriptures consistently call us to liberate ourselves and everyone else. God wants and needs us to be free to follow the Spirit where it leads, which is often in a direction that we could not foresee and which goes against our limited rational and self-oriented perspective. God wants and needs our love to be unshackled so we can love as unconditionally and universally as the heart of Christ, loving God with everything we are and loving our neighbor as our very own self. God wants and needs us to be free from things like fear and the tyranny of shoulds and unnecessary rules as well as from oppressive governments and social norms and unjust law–free to love and free to use our gifts to serve in ways that give our lives ultimate meaning and purpose. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, June 26, 2016, Freedom & Spirit, Part One
Sermon, June 19, 2016
Healing a Legion of Demons
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
June 19, 2016 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Psalm 46; I Kings 19:1-15; Galatians 3:26-28; Luke 8:26-39
The shooting in Orlando is still ricocheting with confusing questions and contradictions. Was it an act of terrorism or was it the act of one very troubled young man? Was it a hate crime against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, or was it an act of outwardly projected self-hate by a man who was ashamed or afraid of being gay in this society? Was it an attack on America by an Afghani radical Muslim, or was it an explosion of pain from a victim of racism, bigotry and bullying who felt America never embraced him as he longed for it to do?
All that we know for certain is that he was a hate-filled, violent man, with demons that drove him to boast falsely of terrorist connections and to beat his wives and to threaten to copy other mass shootings and finally, tragically, to fulfill that threat.
The world has changed in many ways since Biblical times, but we still have people like the man with many demons in the gospel story, people who are driven to hatred and violence that they cannot contain. We still have a social system that divides Jew and Greek, male and female, rich and poor, oppressor and oppressed, just as Paul had in his day. We still can say with the Psalm, “The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter.”
The good news is that while we still have the same troubles we also still have the same source of help.
Continue reading Sermon, June 19, 2016
Upcoming Service Notes, June 19, 2016
We will be worshipping this Sunday after the worst mass shooting in American history. By the grace of God the scriptures in the world wide lectionary for this week remind us that Christ gives us the way out of violence and hatred and fear. Christ heals us of the demonic madness that divides us (Luke 8:26-39) and he brings us together as one (Galatians 3:26-28). He leads us to the God of Psalm 46: “God makes wars cease to the end of the earth; God breaks the bow, and shatters the spear and burns the shields with fire. ‘Be still and know that I am God!'” Christ leads us to the sheer silence, the still, small voice, the calm beyond the hurricane, earthquake and fire of our world. (I Kings 19:1-15) Christ opens us to the Holy Spirit, the greatest force in the universe, the force of Christlike love that has overcome empires and time and again has revealed hope where there seemed to be no hope. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, June 19, 2016