Rev. Liz Goodman, Lenox & Monterey UCC

Christmas has become a monster of a season, but what it comes down to is almost embarrasingly basic. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Back_to_Basics.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:35am EDT

Jesus is painfully, disappointingly local in his saving work. And the woirld's need is massive, endless. How will this possibly do?

 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox

Direct download: A_Feature_Not_a_Bug.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:34am EDT

John helps us anticipate Jesus. But he didn't get everything about the one for whom we wait quite right.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: A_Divine_Comedy.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:38am EDT

Advent present us with the challenge of hope--a full recogntion of what's dreadful about the world while also fully assured that God is coming, while also here, to restore, renew, and reign in love. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Free_Cow.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:38am EDT

We've reached the end of the church year, Christ the King Sunday, a tricky feast day.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Round_to_the_End.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:04am EDT

Jesus warns that the world won't go easy on us. Isaiah envisions a new reality that will have worked all that out. Ours is to persevere toward this point.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC) 

Direct download: Reality_Will_Save_Us.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:19am EDT

God is still speaking. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Comma.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:19am EDT

Prayer is a moemnt alone with your God, and sometimes that's as hard a things as there is.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Being_with_Being.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:33am EDT

Jacob made progress, leaving Esau behind. Are we okay with that?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Progress.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:29am EDT

God's presence shows up in places least expected and places where we perhaps we least want to be. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: No_Thanks_but_Thanks.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:31am EDT

Where there is, turns out, either nothing or everything.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Liminal_Spaces.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:02am EDT

Look for hopeless causes for the right of redemption might be yours.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Right_of_Redemption.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:11am EDT

The church has squandered our wealth. What now to do?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Mismanagement.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:24am EDT

Freedom is a terrible bruned. No wonder so many seek a cage.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Captive_Minds.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:12am EDT

The old ship of Zion moves slowly, but there's room for everyone.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Unassorted_Jib_Jabs.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:37am EDT

Keeping the sabbath is as much about liberation as it is about rest.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: And_Twice_on_Sundays.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:55am EDT

Jesus is tough to match moods with in August. Let's see if we can try,.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

 

Direct download: Lit_of_Fire.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:32am EDT

A moment arrives, and all your readying must be done. Now you just receive.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: You_Might_Miss_This.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:18pm EDT

Teach us to pray, the disciples said. Not how, or why, what to pray. Instead simply, Teach us to pray.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Unashamed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:03pm EDT

Be the Good Samaritan. Be the man who set out. There will come opporutnities for you be one or the other, and both make for good.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Most_People.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:25am EDT

...and the what is the why. Sharing Jesus' love isn't a means to an end, it's the manifestation of the end. You don't get a rpize for doing it, it is itself the prize. Love. Love in action.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: The_How_Is_the_What.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:15am EDT

The end is decided but how you get there is another question.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Where_You_Going.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:27pm EDT

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Juneteenth.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:41am EDT

The church is more weed than wheat, as if right.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Clean_Up_This_Mess.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:19am EDT

Not all who wander are lost. But some are. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Wandering_But_Not_Lost.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:25am EDT

Peter is pulling a thread that could unravel the whole garment...

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Thanks_for_Nothing_Peter.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:04am EDT

Tabitha--she who was raised.

Montery Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Hysterics.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:39am EDT

You aren't that. So listen in peace and reassurance.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: The_Worst_Thing_Youve_Ever_Done.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:52am EDT

If nothing else, respond: words to live by.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Call_and_Response.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:28am EDT

Remember your way back into hope.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Resurrection_2022.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:58am EDT

Palm Sunday is supposed to be a plesant celebration. I'm sorry to say, however...

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Sorry_to_Say.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:23am EDT

Embarrassing, intimate, smelling is indiscrimate--but also exclusive. With its insistence on the body, smelling demands, "You had to be there."

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: You_Smell.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:02am EDT

I wonder where you are in this familiar story.

Montery Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Fool_for_Love.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:18am EDT

Time to get serious. No more Airbnb for us. Time to plant roots and bear fruit.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Nows_the_Time.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:48am EDT

What do you want? 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Left_Wanting_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

Bread and circus, please! But we don't live by bread alone.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Here_We_Are_Now_Entertain_Us.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:31am EDT

Jesus and the twelve were hardly the gods they were enacting to be--and this is very much the point.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Extra_Ordinary.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:12am EDT

A close encounter with the holy can really leave us feeling ugly. Best to avoid it  then?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Ashamed_of_Ourselves.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:20am EDT

It would come to be called the "fullness of time." More coloquially, it's the 1st century AD. So, why now for God to act so radically in Christ? What made it the right time?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Why_Now.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:57am EDT

It might be a tough thing to manage these days, but moments of joy will find us, enlighten us. Look for these moments and treasure them in your hearts.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Joy.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:14am EDT

The magi were expecting probably something quite different...?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: This_Is_All.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:47pm EDT

The 2nd Sunday after Christmas is maybe the worst Sunday to find ourselves back online for worship. But here we are...

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Direct download: Excarnation.mp3
Category: -- posted at: 9:12am EDT

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