Love So Amazing, So Divine, Part I 
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
April 9, 2017
Sixth Sunday in Lent, Palm/Passion Sunday
Philippians 2:5-9; Matthew 21:1-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66

The final verse of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” contains the entire meaning of life:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

The whole realm of nature from the big bang to the baby born this morning does belong to someone. God gives us the world as a present, and God so loves the world that he gives us Jesus as a model of divine love in human form.

And Jesus calls us to love as he loves. This love, so amazing, so divine, is meant to move us to give our soul, our life, our all to the world in the same way God gave the whole realm of nature and life to us. This is the history and meaning of all life. The force of love and life and light exists and creates us in order to increase the continuous giving-and-receiving flow of love and life and light in the universe.

So where is this love, so amazing, so divine in today’s Passion story? Continue reading Sermon, June 9, 2017 →

The Maundy Thursday service is one of the most beautiful and moving of the entire year, right up there with Christmas Eve.

It is a joint service again this year in our sanctuary with our Grace United Methodist neighbors participating.

During the service we reflect on the last hours of Christ’s life with all its drama, emotion and meaning, and we partake in the Last Supper. We sing two beloved spirituals, “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley” and “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” The highpoint of the service is the Tenebrae, with nine readers at a table with thirteen candles representing Jesus and the twelve disciples. We hear the story read in stages as the candles are snuffed out until Jesus is alone in the darkness. The service ends with the one Christ candle relit as we pray and then depart in silence. It is a powerful way to enter the darkness and grief of Good Friday and prepare for the joy and brilliant light of Easter.

Jesus Wept, and Then He Did What He Could to Help
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ,
Bradford, Vermont
April 2, 2017   Fifth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 130; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

We heard two stories today about the power of God that flowed through Ezekiel and Jesus and brought people back to life. We heard Paul say, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

Here in the depths of Lent, death is close at hand. We think of Jesus starving in the wilderness, or drawing nearer to the cross.

Here in the depths of Lent shoots may be rising from bulbs toward the light, but earth is buried beneath new snow. Turkeys are desperately digging through icy crust for acorns in deep woods. Cars go off the roads, people slip and break their hips, depression descends on gray, muddy days in this cruelest month.

Here in the depths of Lent we reach the time in the church year that is most like the moment of transition in childbirth when a woman feels as if she will not survive. Transition is the body going through the agony of opening wide to let the birth happen. During Lent we pass through a season of death in order to bring new life into being.

Women want to give up during transition, but birth doulas coach women to focus on their breath and let go. Lent doulas coach us to focus on the Spirit and let go and open wide to the higher power that is trying to bring new life to birth in us.

Here in the depths of Lent, death and new life hang in the balance, and our choice of how to respond makes all the difference.
Continue reading Sermon, June 2, 2017 →