Have you seen Bradford’s Town Report? It’s dedicated this year to our own Joe Button, Chair of the church’s Board of Trustees! It is a very well-deserved recognition for his tireless effort and work on the church tower housing the town clock.

Lent is a season of change.  This second Sunday the scriptures talk about the need for change and the power of God to transform us and transform the world. (Psalm 27, Philippians 3:17-4:1 and Luke 13:31-35)  Psalm 27 puts it beautifully: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living.”  Lent is a wilderness journey, and that journey can be a struggle.  It can also be full of hope.  The Promised Land and Easter dawn wait at the end.

Last Sunday Mary Sanborn reminded us that it was President Lincoln’s birthday last week.  She asked why we never hear about him in church.  She said we hear about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which she approves, but we should hear about Abe Lincoln, too.  This Sunday we will feature them both! Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, February 21, 2016 →

We have a choice of how we view Lent.  We can take the view that it is all about dreaded deprivation and punishing self-discipline, a long mud season that is all about the mud, or we can see it as a time of spiritual deepening and exploration and growth, a mud season that is all about the seeds and bulbs beneath the ground that are starting to send up their shoots toward the coming spring.

I use the word lugubrious half-jokingly about Lent–only half joking because February and mud-season can be a little dismal, and sometimes seriously dismal, and yet I love the moments when we first notice how strong the sun is feeling on our face, or how happy the streams are sounding, or we hear the first redwing blackbirds sing.

The somber Lenten music and scriptures that confront us with our shadowy false selves lead us to discover the light that shines in the darkness that the darkness does not overcome.  That is the joy of Lent.  A butterfly needs to struggle out of the cocoon in order to strengthen its wings to fly. We need to pass through the wilderness of spiritual struggle to prepare ourselves for the flight from the tomb at Easter dawn.

This First Sunday in Lent we will read the beautiful promise of Psalm 91 of the protection, salvation and blessings that will come to those who love and make God their refuge.  We will see a model of this in the story of the children of Israel reaching the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 26:1-9) and Jesus in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-14).  We will reflect on our own lives and our church and the potential for transformation our own wildernesses offer us. We will sing Be Still My Soul and the great Lenten hymn, Forty Days and Forty Nights. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, February 14, 2016, First Sunday in Lent →

Please click here to visit the new page on this website for information about the first three workshops in this series!