Sunday, February 12 was the second week of our new worship theme, “Poetic License.” How are our spirits renewed by the mysteries of creation? Several artists of our congregation shared their experiences in visual arts, music, spoken word, and teaching …
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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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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 readingEphesians 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 readingThere 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 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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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 readingLuke 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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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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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 readingPsalm 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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