Ministry: A Balance of Sorts
For Amy Rixx’s Ordination SCRIPTURE: First Corinthians 13: 1-7, 13 – If I speak in the tongues of mortals or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have …
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For Such a Time as This
On Sunday, January 29, Andy Bachmann rounds out our theme, “I’ll Fly Away: Stories of Captivity and Release” with the sermon, “For Such a Time as This.” As I have tried to make sense of our world this past week, …
Continue readingOn Not Rolling Like an Anger Ball
Ephesians 4:26-29 It has been a challenging roller coaster week, emotionally and spiritually. Many weeks are like that. It is joyful to be gathered together here to sing, pray, reflect, laugh, and ask each other important questions. In churches around …
Continue readingListening to God/Speaking to Pharaoh
There are many ways to speak to the powers of captivity and chaos. There are many ways to respond with the voices of release. You know the old familiar story of Moses the liberator recounted in the spiritual we sang. …
Continue readingWaiting for the Water to Ripple
Waiting for the Water to Ripple Andy Bachmann John 5:2-9 “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool, called in Hebrew, “Beth-zatha,” which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame and paralyzed, waiting for the …
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Be Not Afraid
AB: When I first moved to Gainesville from Chicago 13 years ago, the hardest adjustment for me was getting used to the idea that it could be 80 degrees outside and still be Christmas. And I will admit that …
Continue readingThe Adolescent Angst of Emmanuel
Luke 2:41-52 Jesus at Twelve Years “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as …
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I Will Sing a New Song
Many of the old Christmas carols, underneath their sweetness and beauty, reflect a theme of weariness, the desperation of many of the world’s peoples, suffering through another year of violence and deprivation. Poverty, war, racism, disease, and environmental degradation all …
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The History of Lessons & Carols at UCG
Twenty five years ago, UCG members John Middlebrooks and Dennis Owen proposed that we offer the traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols modeled after the format of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols of Kings College, Cambridge. This …
Continue readingIf I Only Had the Nerve
Psalm 56:3 If I only had the nerve, sang the cowardly lion in the movie. If he only had the nerve, he could show his prowess, be a lion, not mouse, oh, he’d roar the way he never roared before, …
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Graveyard
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; …
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