Jesus said that his purpose in life was to increase our joy, and make our joy complete.  This will be a Sunday of pure, all out, wall to wall joy!  We have been advertising three of those joys: hosting the West Newbury Congregational Church, UCC in a joint service starting at 11:00 AM; bringing back the wildly popular old time church music of Bruce and Caleb Freeberg; and sharing a potluck lunch after the service.

There will be other joys as well: the warm, loving presence of the Rev. Cindy Batten as she co-leads worship; the voices of some of West Newbury’s lay leaders as well as ours; a dramatic reading/skit for the Children’s Time with actors from West Newbury and Bradford; reading the covenants of both congregations together; and taking communion, which is never more joyful than when we share it with people from outside our congregation.

The Freebergs will lead us singing Go Down, Moses, and Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and Welcome Table, and I’ll Fly Away, as well as joining in on the chorus of Just a Closer Walk with Thee.  In addition, they will play Celtic airs and reels before the service starts, Oh Glory, How Happy I Am as the Offertory and Farewell to Erin as the Postlude.  We will be hearing some beautiful scripture passages: I Kings 17:8-24; Psalm 30; Galatians 1:11-24 and Luke 7:11-17.  The sermon will borrow its title from the Psalm, “Taking Off Sackcloth and Clothing with Joy.”

Please feel free to invite guests. The more, the more joyous!  Thank you!

We are bringing back the tradition of Children’s Sunday this week. The children will be a part of the entire service, helping lead it and being celebrated in it.

We have an extraordinary Board of Christian Education at the moment–not only has it done amazing work this year and created a loving, light-filled space and program for the children, but also every one of the four either grew up in the church or had ancestors who did or both, and now they are bringing their own children here.  It is quite moving! While in generations past this might have been the norm, today it is rare to find a church with a Christian Ed team with roots this deep.  It is also rare to find a church that has as many children as we do–16 are listed in the bulletin! I know of much larger churches with far fewer children today.  We have an abundance to celebrate!

We will hear two gospel passages about children, Matthew 18:1-5 and Mark 10:13-16, and we will sing In the Bulb There Is a Flower (Hymn of Promise) and All Things Bright and Beautiful, and the children will sing Jesus Loves Me.  We will present Bibles to children in 3rd Grade and older, and bedtime Bible story books to the younger school age children.

Please plan to stay for special refreshments, and go out of your way to tell the children and their parents how much you appreciate them!  Thank you!

Anything is possible!  That is what Pentecost tells us.  We have the greatest force in the universe within and among us, a power that can transform our lives in unimaginable ways if we open to it and work with it.  That force gave birth to the first church, changing the weak disciples who had denied and deserted Jesus into miracle-working, empire-defying leaders.  The same Holy Spirit wants to work through our lives and our church today, transforming us so that we can help transform the world around us.

The Pentecost service is full of music and words that remind us that anything is possible.  They convey some of the joy and enthusiastic energy that has filled the church whenever it has opened wide to the Spirit’s power.  We will hear the story of the first Pentecost from Acts 2, and hear Jesus promise the Holy Spirit to all his followers in John 14:8-17.  We will read responsively from the beautiful Psalm of creation, #104.  Our hymns will include two classic favorites, I Sing the Mighty Power of God and Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, as well as the melodic and moving more recent favorite hymn, Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, May 15, 2016, Pentecost! →

We will be celebrating Ascension Sunday on May 8th, the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  The Ascension is one of the wilder miracle stories about Jesus, like his birth and resurrection, and like them it is full of symbolic meaning and joy and the greatest of hopes.  The ten days between the Ascension (May 5th this year) and Pentecost are a Little Advent. Jesus said to wait and watch and pray with the expectation that the Holy Spirit that filled him would come and fill us and lead us out to do the same works that he did and more. These ten days are all about that waiting.

This Sunday will be full of excited anticipation, knowing that next Sunday is Pentecost when the disciples’ waiting was fulfilled, and knowing also that Christ and the Holy Spirit will come again for us in our lives over and over just when we need them, with just what we need.  We will celebrate how we wait with hope, faith and love, and with joy.   Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, May 8, 2016 →