Easter is a wonderful day for preachers–with all the great stuff we love about our jobs–fabulous flowers, great music, excited children, nice crowds of friends we haven’t seen for a long time–well, since last Easter, or maybe Christmas Eve. Good …
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Part 1 The Palm Sunday story begins happily enough. Cheering crowds line the way and run into the streets, waving and throwing down the tree branches to make a way for their hero. Who doesn’t love a parade with children …
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Luke 18:1-8 – The Widow and the Unjust Judge Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God …
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Talia Raymond March 11, 2018 Gratitude Meditation There are people who cast long shadows in our lives, those who have had a lasting influence on us. I would like for you, if you are willing, to call to mind one …
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When we have New Member Sunday it reminds me of what we as UCG are doing here and the whys, whens, and hows, the depths and heights of how we best celebrate and survive and serve–how we must get through …
Continue readingI have always loved stories, the way they can capture human experience, characters and settings imagined by us, but often tell us so much truth about our own reality. Harry Potter, a fictional wizard, teaches us about the reality of …
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Faith, Power, & Justice Mardi Gras February 11, 2018 Shelly Wilson Football was a spiritual experience for me once, but not here, I’m sorry to say, at least not yet. It was in New Orleans, after
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Two Miles to Freedom February 4, 2018 Andy Bachmann “And if someone forces you to go with them one mile, go with them two.” If you’ve ever sat next to
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It is a powerful thing to be a stranger and to be welcomed into a new place – a place that is not your own. It happened from the moment we drove up to First Congregational Church of Atlanta in …
Continue readingShiprah and Puah, the splendidly bright midwives of the Scripture story were prophets, in their way. Prophets work from within the context of exclusion and injustice, name realities, and then show the justice ways. And as Prophets call out in …
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It seems odd to be talking about the magi at this late date, doesn’t it? The Christmas decorations have been put away. The tree gasped its last dying breath weeks ago; and when we removed it from the house on …
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AB: We’ve made no secret of how we often jokingly refer to the 4:30 Family Service as, “The Running of the Children.” It begins innocently enough; with the sanctuary decked out in its Christmas finest. And the families file in …
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