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Sermon May 3, 2020 Shepherding through the Unknown Reverend Valerie Bailey Fischer John 10:1–10 Good morning, I am delighted to join you in reflecting on today’s text about the Good Shepherd. I have been thinking a lot about shepherds this year, especially since this was the theme for this past Lessons and Carols. Since then, Continue reading …
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Sermon April 26, 2020 Reflections on Faith and Fear Reverend Doctor Richard Floyd Psalm 27 Happy Easter! The good news on this Third Sunday of Easter is that Christ is still risen. Hallelujah! But it’s a different Easter season this year, isn’t it? When I first came to Pittsfield to be the pastor of the Continue reading …
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Sermon April 19, 2020 Henry Got High on Mount Greylock Lauren R. Stevens Psalm 24 (Berkshire Natural History Conference, Clark Art Institute, November16, 2019) At the end of August 1839, recent Harvard graduate Henry David Thoreau and his older brother, John, set out in a rowboat they had constructed on a trip down the Concord Continue reading …
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April 12, 2020 Easter Sunday Arise to New Life: Easter for Earth and for all Reverend Doctor Margaret Bullitt-Jonas Matthew 28: 1-10 What a blessing to be with you! I’ve been looking forward to seeing your faces and joining in worship with you on this Easter morning. I was invited to preach because I’m your Continue reading …
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My own shaping as an observer of what Jesus has done, my experience as one who believes in him, has had imprints from the United Church of Christ from early in my life. I was baptized in one Congregational church, and attended worship at another during elementary school (a church my mother served as Choir Continue reading …
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Reverend Tony Coleman Matthew 21: 1-11 Palm Sunday Sunday, April 5th Good morning, friends. I first want to thank each of you for being here this morning, for embarking on this new journey together as we continue to live into these new ways of worshiping God in the age of the coronavirus. And, I also Continue reading …
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Breathe on me breath of life… What a beautiful, demanding, terrifying, blessed, confusing, troubling, frustrating, generous, open-hearted, close-minded, complicated, compassionate and sacred week this has been for me: you, too? It has been ALL of these things – and more – all at once. There were times last week when I was in awe at Continue reading …
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Sermon March 15, 2020 Reverend James Lumsden Exodus 17: 1-7 and John 4: 5-15,19-26, 39-42 Introduction Good morning and God’s peace to you all. I am the Rev. James Lumsden. I had been scheduled to lead worship and preach at First Congregational Church in Williamstown today, but in listening to the wise and compassionate counsel Continue reading …
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Sermon March 8, 2020 You Know This Woman Reverend Mac Bellner Mark 5:25-34 Jesus had been working in Gentile territory, the land of the Gerasenes. Then he came back to Jewish territory and there, by the sea, a huge crowd of people had gathered around him and his apostles. They were pressing close and Continue reading …
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Sermon February 23, 2020 Time Is of the Essence Reverend Mac Bellner Matthew 17: 1-9 Today is what, in the formal church calendar, is called Transfiguration Sunday. It celebrates the time Jesus took three of his apostles with him and went up on a mountain. There, out of sight of everyone else, he was transfigured, Continue reading …