Authority is the power to name what's real.

 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Prepared for surprise: the church is full of contradictions. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The ten-day wait between Jesus ascending and the Holy Spirit: we endure it once again. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

 

The church isn't abut heroics, it's about creating communities where heroics are less in demand.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Jesus is going, but he is also staying.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The gospel has embodied imperitives. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Hope comes calling, so get ready to move.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Real time.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Is it possible Jesus got attached to this life?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Jesus has come to complete the creation as it is not yet finished. It's going well, of course. But it could be better.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

God can be not a lot to go on it, but enough.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

God's people are always called out of the familair. And God's people are also always out there.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Lent is a good time to put it all back together, these shards of knowledge and suspicion, into a whole renewed wisdom.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

It's Transfiguration Sunday, and maybe we're ready.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The church: we're supposed to be doing something, right?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Don't hold back. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

You get what you get, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get upset.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

When you don't know what you think you should know, it's hard to learn what you need to know. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

You can't always get what you want. But with Jesus as beloved, we get what we need.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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) 

God is still speaking. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

 

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

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)

...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)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Not all who wander are lost. But some are. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Tabitha--she who was raised.

Montery Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

If nothing else, respond: words to live by.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Remember your way back into hope.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

I wonder where you are in this familiar story.

Montery Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

What do you want? 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Christmas isn't a holiday for nostalgia, it's a holiday to press us more deeply into today and the future that how live now will bring.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

John was great at being a herald. He fell short of being the messiah.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Remember to hope.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The coming of the son of man coincides with a lot of trouble. So, is it good news that we've got a lot of trouble these days?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The last Sunday of the church year is a good time to wonder whether we're up for another trip around the calendar.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Numbers are down in congregations across the county, maybe across the country. Endurance is the name of the game for the faithful. So, who's with me?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The widow might have been happy to give her last penny to the Temple. Jesus wasn't happy for her.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Jesus urges us to be as children. So what's stopping us from doing that?

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Monterey Church, UCC

Revolution? Resignation? Some mysterious third way?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Hell is other people--or maybe that's the kingdom of heaven. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Pay attention to the things that make your stumble on your way to God, and the things that help you get close.

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Monterey Church, UCC

The church isn't designed for efficiency. That said, there's no better time for manifesting the reign of God than now.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Power is meant to serve the good.

Beware when power is put to serving power.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Repentance, which is a change of mind, comes with repetition. 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The moment when Jesus learned he was Christ for the world is an ugly one. Brace yourself for a moment when Jesus was't "the good guy."

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Monterey Church, UCC

Empires rise and fall, but the word of the Lord speaks as ever.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Jesus invites us to bring our worst--and our worst is pretty bad.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Remember that old summer camp song, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love (by our Love)"? Turns out that was pretty good stuff.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

In this age of kitsch, where can we can find what's true, authentic, bearing an aura as almost halo?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Which will it be, couch or cross? 

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

In Jesus we meet someone worthy of our essential followership.

Monterey Church (UCC)

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

It is in any vent a final word on the subject.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Langston Hughes got it right. Nearly a century ago, he knew America is aim and aspiration. He was right: it was then, and is still.  America dies when our aspiration to be America dies.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

To have and to hold: the church asks a lot.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Course correction: we've gotten God wrong.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

What if God really is at work in all things for good?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

As we set off into ordinary time, we've got quite a challenge to live out.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Pentecost, the event, comes after a protracted period of waiting for apostles. Sound familiar?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

This is a weird Sunday for celebrating. On the other hand, it might really speak to our moment.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

With thanks to Nappy Roots' for their song, Good Day.

Pull up a chair, it's story time.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

When you lay down your life for your friends, you're dangerous to the status quo, but you're close to the kingdom of God.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Thanks to Nahkane's "New Brighton" for inspiring the mantra that is the title of this sermon. 

When astonishing truth claims is all you've got--that and a Resurrecting God.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Are we hoping God will turn back time, or are we good with God redeeming time?

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Shout out to The Call for use of their song, "I Still Believe."

Resurrection Day! Or might we prefer Insurrection? There's a lot these days to rise up against...

Alleluia!

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Palm Sunday reminds us of the two choices we grace, and encourages us to take the way of Jesus.

Thanks to Thievery Corporation for their terrific song Forgotten People.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

Considering last week's Godly Play story in the light of this week's terrible events.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

What the ancient way of sanctifying time might mean for us in the age of Zoom worship.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

The rainbow signals a shift, if not in God then at least our perception of God. Jesus' coming confirms it.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

This features Guster's great song Two At a Time.

Here we take a big breath before diving into the depths of Lent.

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)

This episode features Regina Spektor's great song "Laughing With."

Monterey Church, UCC

Church on the Hill, Lenox (UCC)