To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do

September 6, 2026  Proper 18 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Ezekiel 33:7-11. . . if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, . . . As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, 

Romans 13:8-14  Owe no one anything, except to love one another. . . Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. 

“By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes”  Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, caught on fire.  The clothing factory was on the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th floors of a building near Washington Square Park.

There were no sprinklers in the building.

To keep workers from sneaking out for breaks, the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked.

146 garment workers died; 62 from jumping out the windows.

The owners of the factory were tried for manslaughter and got off, but were found liable for wrongful death in a civil trial.  They were ordered to pay compensation to the plaintiffs of $75 per person.  Their insurance company paid the company $445 a person.  The owners profited from the deaths of their employees.

It was clear to those who watched the fire, who paid attention to the trials, that nothing would change without political reform.  The International Ladies Garment Workers Union worked with political leaders of New York (the state and the city) to make changes.  

Wikipedia reports “The State Commission’s reports helped modernize the state’s labor laws, making New York State “one of the most progressive states in terms of labor reform.” New laws mandated better building access and egress, fireproofing requirements, the availability of fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems and automatic sprinklers, and better eating and toilet facilities for workers, and limited the number of hours that women and children could work.”  

One of the people who was there the day of the fire, who watched as people jumped to their deaths was Frances Perkins, who was raised over in Worcester.  Frances Perkins was an active, convinced Christian.  Her values were the values of love and acceptable that Jesus taught.  

She became an advocate for workers’ rights, for safety for us as we work, and served on the task force to make changes after the fire.  Through that service, she made friends with Franklin D. Roosevelt and in 1933, he made her Secretary of Labor – the first woman to serve in that role.  I’m not going to give her full bio, but I’d bet that almost every person in this room today lives a better life because of Frances Perkins – she was the person who came up with Social Security.

Now, why have I begun with the really depressing story of the Triangle Fire?  For two reasons – first I want us to remember that evil exists in the world.  And second, remember that we can make changes; we can make things better.

The owners of the factory weren’t unusual.  It was common to lock the doors to the factor to keep people from sneaking out, from stealing what they made.  It was common to put kids to work at a young age (the youngest who died in the fire was only 14).  It was common to put in long hours – the first act to limit how many hours you could work came out of this fire, and the cap was 54 hours a week – which tells me they’d been working a lot more than that.

And then people who saw the tangible effects of those oppressive conditions said change had to happen, and so it did.  

Evil exists, but it doesn’t get to win.

Ezekiel passes along God’s warning to the Hebrew people:  “… if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity. . .”  And then God says, “…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live.”

And in Romans, Paul adds:  “love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”  In Matthew, Jesus says: “if your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault…”

Pointing out the fault, calling for change, that’s what people in New York did after the fire.  They named the evils that resulted in those deaths, and made changes to make working life safer –  they didn’t just name the individual owners, as responsible as they were, but also took on the wider working life.  We all live safer, better lives today because of their work back then.

It’s not evil that wins, it’s love.

Sometimes, evil is pretty innocuous… just doesn’t seem like that much:

Last week, during a really ugly Red Sox game, the radio announcer Will Flemming, called for the Red Sox pitcher to deliberately hit a Yankees player. The news reports said he was over the top, angry, agitating for a physical response.  

Now, I don’t think we want to make too much out of this, but it seems to me that having an announcer call for the pitcher to hit the player deliberately is not right.  I’m not alone in that.  Flemming had to make a public apology and there was an article in Saturday’s Globe criticizing his tendency to be aggressive in what he says.

But evil is evil, spouting hatred is spouting hatred, even if it is just a baseball game.

And sometimes, it goes further.

This summer, the highly respected Biblical scholar, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, who teaches at Hartford these days, was elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association.  AJ Levine is not just a teacher; she is one of the primary translators of the Bible into English and author of some of the best commentaries around.  Her primary interest is seeing Jesus as a Jew, and understanding how that clarifies what he’s trying to say and do.  She “has written dozens of books on the New Testament, taught a New Testament course at the prestigious Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, served on the editorial board of Catholic Biblical Quarterly and spoken privately with Pope Francis three times.” ((Forward: 9/1/26)

A perfect person to serve in this mostly honorary post, right?  Except that, you see, AJ Levine is a Jew, an Orthodox Jew from New Bedford MA, and since the election, she’s been attacked, over and over, as a Jew, called a Christ-killer and all sorts of other vicious lies.  I’ve seen some of the comments and they are so vile I cannot share them with you.

In fact, while Levine is the first Jewish president of the Catholic Biblical Association, she is not the first non-Catholic. Several Protestants have served in the role, according to chair of the executive board Gregory Sterling. Levine was nominated by a committee and then ran unopposed for the presidency, Sterling said. It is an unpaid, one-year position.  “She was not elected because she is Jewish, but because she is an exceptional scholar and has played a very important role in Catholic-Jewish dialogue,” Sterling and the association’s executive director, Archie Wright, wrote in a joint statement. “The vitriol of some of the comments only reinforces the need to address the problem of Anti-Semitism.”

Greg Sterling is, himself, a former president of the Association. I know him; he’s the Dean of the Yale Divinity School, and a member of the Church of Christ.  It’s hard to get further away from Roman Catholicism.  So the problem clearly isn’t that she’s not Catholic; it is that she’s a Jew.

Sometimes evil is deep-rooted and dangerous.  Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable; sometimes it puts lives in danger. Sometimes it kills.

We are Christians.  Our faith calls us to stand up against evil.  Our faith calls us to support leaders like Frances Perkins to make life safer and better for everyone, but especially for those who have no power.

Some of us will do it alone, like the White southern father who tells his children that they have to treat Black adults with respect and models that behavior for them.  It’s not a PTA program; it’s just one man standing up for what he believes.

We have even more effect when we stand together, when we stand out in public.  

It’s not easy, of course.  Evil is slithery, sly, creeps into our lives because it gives such sweet immediate rewards.  It’d be easy to keep to diets, don’t you know, if the only food that tasted good was what’s good for us … and stepping away from evil is the same.  Doing the right thing doesn’t give immediate positive feedback; it can cost us money (safe, locally grown food can be more expensive than the mass produced lettuces in the chain stores); it can cost us social acceptability, it can cost a job, or even a life.  Never the less, each time we stand up for what is right, for the way of love, the way of Jesus, we make a change, we make a difference, even if we don’t see the results, then, or even ever.

In the past week or two, we’ve had a number of deaths in our country – each of them a person who stood up against evil, each in their own way.  

Dolly Parton, so much more than a singer, a woman of Christian faith, a quietly subversive agent for change, for the growth of love of all.  

Gloria Steinem, not the least bit quietly subversive, standing up for the idea of women as full human beings, part of the movement that destroyed the laws that kept women from having bank accounts or credit cards in their own names, that prevented women from starting businesses or having homes of their own, that had kept women “in their place” for so long.

And Wendell Berry, devout Christian, teacher and farmer and poet, visionary, able to see what is, and what can be, and to describe what he saw to the rest of us.

I’m going to close today with a quote from his poem, The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”.  Listen as he points out to us the places where temptation, evil, lives in our world, and suggests to us how we might stand against it:

The Mad Farmer Liberation Front  by Wendell Berry

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Amen

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

August 30, 2026  Proper 17  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield, MA

Matthew 16:21-23  –  From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Romans 12:9-21 – Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persever in prayer. Contribute to the needs of hte saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen,.

Deut 21:15-17 When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.  

Once upon a time there was a family that was facing a hard decision.  The father had two sons, each of them the son of a different wife.  Now as it happened, he loved one of his wives, but he hated the other one.  No, I don’t know why he married her, but even though the story’s old, I think we all know how easy it is to end up hating someone you married in good faith and love – so skip all the whys here, and just know there was not peace in the family.  As you can imagine, he wanted to make the wife he loved happy, and so he thought to make her son his heir, to give him the best of all he had.

But the son of the hated woman was his first-born son.  That son was the one whom custom said was the heir.

This is the sort of conflict that lies behind any number of murder mysteries or beach reads… even though today we don’t have two wives at the same time, we still have those kinds of conflicts that are played out upon our children – and the children of the preferred wife maybe get better clothes, better schooling, more appreciation, even more love.

And who’s there to say that’s wrong?  In the old story, right from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, it’s Moses who steps in, as he’s writing the laws for the Hebrew people, and says, it just doesn’t matter that you don’t love your firstborn’s mother, what matters is that he’s your oldest son, and the right thing is to make him your heir.  Yes, it’s hard to do this, and the other wife will be upset, but you can do this hard thing, because it’s the right thing to do.

You can do this hard thing.

Jesus knew that doing the right thing was often hard, sometimes even dangerous.. when he told the disciples that he was going to go to Jerusalem, knowing that the religious and Roman authorities would see him as a blaspheming rebel, he wasn’t surprised that Peter said “don’t do that… they’ll arrest you, maybe kill you”.  And it’s so quoted that we forget how stark it was when Jesus replied, “Get out, stop tempting me like you’re the Devil… you’re focusing on the wrong end of things.”

Do you see that Jesus knew he had to do that hard thing, and just like the loved wife, Peter was asking him to avoid the conflict, take up the easy answer and retreat back to the boonies, where he’d be safe, just quietly healing the sick, instead of sticking out, trying to save the world.

Safety or the hard thing?

Comfort or the hard thing?

All of this is to say that following the Jesus Way is not always easy, not always fun.  This past week, I went to lunch on two days with clergy colleagues; we had wonderful conversations and it was just the most fun. 

The week wasn’t all fun; I also talked with a colleague who’s having to help his own family make decisions about his hospitalized father – he says his father’s clearly dying, but his mom, who is an alcoholic, won’t talk about anything, and the rest of the family is angry at the hospital for not saying things are going to improve.  Sometimes life is just filled with hard things.

It’s in those hard times that we most need the clear voice of people like Moses and Paul.  When we don’t have the strength or the wisdom to do this hard thing, there are the words to help us find the path.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly;  do not claim to be wiser than you are.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God,  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You all know this; I’ve seen you living it out.  I’m just reminding you today that this is the hard path, not the path of weaklings.  It takes strength to turn our hurt, our anger, our fear to the positive side.  It takes courage to turn away from throwing hate after hate.

And it doesn’t mean pretending that the bad isn’t happening, we’re not talking about gaslighting ourselves.  Hard is hard.  But it’s also, or it can be, very powerful.  Look again at Paul’s last line – “if your enemies are hungry, feed them… heap coals of fire on their heads”.  There is enormous power in following this hard way – not just because we refuse to take the easy path, but because in our hard way, we’re standing up for, fighting for, this better way.

People say to us, oh you’re so good to be doing that, and they have no idea how hard our choices have been; if we’re doing it, they must think we have some magic power to overcome.  But Moses and Paul make it clear, doing this hard thing is never easy, sometimes backbreaking, heartbreaking.  What they offer us is no magic word to make it easy; they offer us the truth that this is a trial worth taking. 

With God’s help, you can do this hard thing.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

August 23, 2026  Proper 16 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield, MA

Music Sunday

Romans 12:1-8

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. 

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.  

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 

For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Today’s reading, from the Letter to the Romans, is one of the most familiar, packed full of the kinds of lines that end up as quotes on samplers, or on the sides of mugs.  I don’t know if any of us here today used to listen to Garrison Keillor’s old show, Prairie Home Companion, but he often recited verses 1 and 2 … present your bodies as a living sacrifice… do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind… reminding us that he’d memorized those verses as a child in Sunday school.  

But, since Keillor’s show ended some ten years ago, today’s reading probably isn’t at the top of any of our minds, and that’s a shame, because it tells us something really important, something that can add enormous satisfaction to our lives.

Actually, it’s not some thing – just one thing – but a number of things… the letter to the Romans, as we’ve been discovering all summer, is packed full of hopeful insights and good advice, helping us dive with more confidence into our faith in Jesus Christ.

So, what does this lesson say to us?  How does it help us live good lives?  

First of all, it affirms that we are acceptable to God, now, as we are.  God is not standing off, waiting until we are good enough, or until we’re wealthy enough, or successful enough.  Paul tells us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Next, Paul tells us that when we do that, when we present ourselves to God, we will grow, become better, be transformed into God’s full vision of human life.  In other words, God loves us as we are, and love us so much that God offers us an even better way.

Being acceptable to God doesn’t make us better than others; after all, one of the basic truths of our faith is that God accepts everyone, where we are, as we are. At the same time, we’re supposed to know ourselves well enough that we know what we’re good at and what needs more work.   

And then there’s the final piece of Good News – we are not going to be good at everything.  And that’s ok, too.  

What you are, is good enough.

You have your gifts, others here have other gifts, together we become more than the sum of our parts.

Knowing what enough means is important these days, when our world is filled with the idea that no one is good enough, or perfection is the only acceptable goal, or even that you can never have enough; you always need to be more, to have more, to do more.

That’s just not true.

Just the other day, I was leading a meeting (I’m now the Moderator of my Association) and we were talking about putting on a 2027 version of the training event we did this past spring – some of you came to it.  

One of our Board members, thinking over what it’d mean for him to be a part of the planning committee, said he just wasn’t going to be able to join the committee.  He’s recently married; he and his new wife have a combined eight children to visit (they’re both retired); and they want to do traveling together.  “I just don’t want to do that.”  To his astonishment, we turned to him and said, “that’s fine.  Everyone can’t do everything, and you need to spend time with your family.”  We do not all need to do everything.  Together, we can be enough.  

We can be enough.

This is especially important when we live in a world where we no longer have unlimited resources, hordes of people lining up to volunteer, gobs of money to buy what ever we want.

Because ENOUGH  is not just about God loving us; it is also about our daily lives.  ENOUGH is a way of life.

Enough is about big things – no one needs a 5000 square foot house for themselves alone.  Enough is about small things – no one needs 2 bags of Oreos to watch a movie.  

Sometimes, what’s enough is clear and easy to see.  But sometimes, it’s hard to know when you have enough.  Enough for me, might not be enough for you.  You might have a washing machine right there in the home and I have to take all my laundry down the street.  Enough clothes?  Different for each of us, I bet.

So we’re all called to have enough, to be enough, and to pay attention so we know when we have that enough.  Because, you know, Christian faith is never just about us; it’s also always about our community.  

Feeding folks at Dismas House isn’t an optional extra for us – it’s one of the ways we live out our call to help make sure folks have enough.  The school supplies we are collecting right now will not only provide enough physical stuff, but in the giving, we are offering support enough to our teachers.  Enough isn’t always food or pencils, or even knit hats in the winter – all of which we provide.  Sometimes enough is a smile to harried parents in the grocery store.  Sometimes enough is a phone call to a housebound friend.  Sometimes enough is a lot of something, and sometimes it’s the smallest thing around.  

Building on our firm knowledge that God loves us as we are, that in God’s eyes we are enough, we are called to work so that everyone in our world has enough – enough food, enough clothing, enough support, enough acceptance.

Everything we do as a church is about helping people have enough.  That’s our purpose.  That’s our life.  That’s our world.

We are enough, in God’s eyes, we are enough.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

August 9, 2026  Proper 14  First Congregational Church of Brimfield UCC

Matthew 14:22-33:  Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” 

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Now, once again, Jesus tries for some alone time, after the crowds are dismissed…he’d sent the disciples on ahead, crossing the Sea of Galilee by boat.  Just for comparison, at just under 65 square miles, the Sea of Galilee is just a little larger than Sebago Lake in Maine which is about 50 square miles.  

That’s a whole different kind of lake than the ones around here.  Webster Lake for instance, is only about 2 ½ square miles, and you’re pretty much never out of sight of the shore on both sides of the lake. I used to live on the shore of Sebago, and I can tell you that it’s common to not be able to see the far side of the lake, even in good weather. 

All of this is to say that the Sea of Galilee was indeed an inland sea, as is Sebago, as are the Great Lakes.  So, don’t imagine something small and reasonably tame like Webster Lake.  (by the way, in Luke, this body of water is called the Lake of Gennesaret – that’s its Greek name.  But it’s still the same lake, still the same size, still a pretty good sized body of water.)

Of course, the purpose of the story is not to get us all up to speed on the names of “greatest lakes of Palestine”.  That’s background info and it’s here just to help us picture what’s going on.  

Jesus was undoubtedly tired, and needed some time to himself, so he’d sent the disciples ahead on what turned out to be a turbulent boat ride, like going to the Vineyard when the sea is up, and the waves crash over the bow of the ferryboat.  Matthew tells us that after a whole night of turmoil, the disciples looked out and saw what they thought was a ghost, an apparition – because it couldn’t be anything else – they saw Jesus walking over the water to their boat.  As the story goes, once he called out to them, and they realized he was really real, they calmed down.

This is one of the sure signs that the disciples lived in a different world than we do… because I suspect that most folks these days would be less disturbed by a vision of their brother walking on the water, that the actual reality.  There is something really unreal about the whole idea of walking on the water for us… but in their time, it made sense.  It even made sense to them when Peter, trusting in Jesus’ call, stepped out of the boat and was able to walk on the water himself…. Until he began to doubt the reality of his experience, and then he began to sink beneath the waves.

Again, we’re not intended to get lost in the bizarreness of the story, because the walking is not the point; it’s the illustration.  Christians aren’t known for their ability to walk on water and this story isn’t a lesson in how to literally do that.  It’s a lesson, though, about trust.  That’s where it’s importance lays.

Trust is what this is about.  The disciples trust that their teacher was really walking towards them.  Peter’s trust in Jesus’ call.  And most especially, Jesus’ response when Peter began to sink.  Because then, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.  

Trust is thin on the ground these days.  People don’t trust their physicians, or better, the staff at the doctor’s office, to be on their side.  We assume that people with whom we disagree are out to get us.  I’ve spoken before about the profound distrust I see in online comments about the government of my home city, East Providence… when it appears that the only thing our mayor has done wrong is to be a member of the wrong party.  It’s not just East Providence, Rhode Island.  

We’ve lost our trust in others, worse than that, we’ve lost our ability to believe in trust.  Ross Douthat (DEW-thut) of the New York Times, wrote this weekend:  

“I find that I’ve lost my sense of which contemporary worldview is most in need of criticism or opposition, where the good guys and bad guys are. Each major faction seems potentially dangerous, tempted toward the dark side in some unique way, contested or cross-pressured to a degree that makes me uncertain where the side of the angels really lies.”

Here’s the comforting news:  in a world where even the experts struggle to know who and how to trust, we have one abiding truth in which we can trust:

When we are floundering, when we are about to be overwhelmed by the stormy seas of life, Jesus will immediately reach out to us.  The storm may continue, the winds may howl, but we will not be alone; we can trust in Jesus to be our companion.

And it doesn’t stop there.  We can not only count on Jesus to stand by our side when we know we are in need, we can count on Jesus to help us discern who and what to trust in our world.  We can count on Jesus to not leave us alone in the mess of misunderstandings, misreadings, deceptions and outright lies that constitute our larger world.  

Now, don’t think I’m just talking about one side or another of any of the fights before us.  Everyone exaggerates, people on every side misrepresent themselves.  Saturday’s NY Times ran an article fact-checking senatorial campaigns in Maine, Michigan and Ohio – and proved that candidates on every side can misrepresent truth.

But listening to Jesus, we are pointed back to the eternal truths that build strong community, build a healthy world:  be just, practice kindness, live mercy.

Tim Cotton, a retired Bangor, Maine, policeman puts it this way:  Keep your hands to yourself, leave other people’s things alone, and be kind to one another.

In other words, be the kind of trustworthy person we know Jesus to be; reflect to the world, the goodness we have experienced in his life.  

We live in a world where trust is hard to find; our call is to be those trustworthy people who bring trust back to our communities.  Just as Jesus has been trust for you, be trust for your world.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

July 19, 2026  Proper 11  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Romans 8:12-25   So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 

For in hope we were saved. 

Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Last week, I tried to explain how Paul understands our relationship with God, and then afterwards, in conversations with folks who heard me, I realized that I needed to be clearer about what’s going on here and why it’s good news for us all.

This can be complicated, so if you’re confused afterwards, let’s talk.  

First off, remember that Paul pretty much always things in terms of off or on, right or wrong, this or that.  He’s really into those kinds of choices, and really really uninterested in gray areas.  So he says that human beings like us are either good or not good, and he uses the words flesh and spirit to illustrate his dichotomy.

This is a problem, because over the centuries, it’s come to mean that flesh, the body, is bad, and spirituality, spirit, is good.  That’s led to thinking that pleasure is a bad thing; back in the olden days, it led to rules about dancing, or reading books for fun on Sunday, or going to the movies, and indeed it still does lead to those kinds of body-denying choices.  

But that’s wrong.  When Paul says “flesh”, what he means is “all that’s under our control.”  He’s not saying, don’t dance.  He’s not even saying don’t dance on Sundays.  What he’s saying is that we are, even at our best, not capable of always turning down an extra cookie, that we will (not “might”, but “will”) from time to time choose to satisfy ourselves rather than taking care of the other.  And again, he’s not talking about those times when we had to step back to care for ourselves or our family.  Care for self and others is a good, but we are not able, not capable of balancing our needs, our family’s needs and the world’s needs, not all the time, not in every circumstance.

Now I’ve always thought of Paul as one of those people who wake up at 2am thinking again about that time he cheated his friend in third grade, or the time he accidentally hurt the feelings of the kindest person in the synagogue.  You know those kinds of things; they happen to all of us.

Paul reminds us that God deserves our best, and yet we are not capable of giving our best, not consistently.  Not that we’re mean, or cheesy, or that we don’t care, but that it’s just not in our nature to always do the right thing.

The other night I was watching the Indiana Fever play the Golden State Valkyries in WNBA basketball.  Caitlin Clark, that amazing guard out of Iowa — that woman who’s always making 3-pointers?  She couldn’t make a shot that night, not if they’d put the basket down so low I could have dunked.  She’s one of the best basketball players in the world, and she couldn’t make a shot.  

That’s the kind of not perfect that Paul is talking about.  That’s the “flesh”, not able this time to make a basket, not able some other time to reach out in kindness, for whatever reason.

Paul calls this inability sin.  We don’t use the3 word sin in quite that way anymore.  We don’t say we’re sinful because we’re made this way, for instance.  These days, we reserve “sin” for those acts we deliberately choose, for those times we deliberately or negligently act in an evil way, or even times when we irresponsibly forget to do the right.

However you define sin, what Paul is talking about is the very human propensity to do less, eat more, slack off, choose the easier way, and so on.

Now whether you think that God is waiting for you to make a mistake, or choose the lazy path, or whether you yourself get upset when you’ve done something wrong, the good news here is that God is not actually looking for, expecting, or really even wanting perfection from us.

We make up those tough rules about what’s right and what’s wrong to help us remember that what God is really after is that we treat one another with decency and respect, not rigid perfectionism.

Have I told you about the choirs (that’s right, more than one) in my first parish.  We had three choirs, because the parish had three churches.  It was as if we shared a pastor with Southbridge and Charlton, and each church had a choir.  And each choir had a personality.  And yes, in the summers, I led three worship services each Sunday — 8:30, 9:45 and 11:15.   I never nattered on for hours, and couldn’t do coffee hour, but at least each church was only about 15 minutes from the next….

My first church had a superb choir, stocked with people who also sang in the Portland City Opera — really good voices who were expert sight readers.  And we had a modern digital electronic organ, played by a guy who knew how to get good music out of it.  Their music program was super.

My second church also had a great choir, led by a music teacher from a neighboring school — and he played trumpet, so we always had a trumpeter for our Easter sunrise service.  The organist was really good and understood our Hammond B3 (tho they’re not really designed for churches).  She played in a bar on Saturday nights, and sometimes those jazzy rhythms showed up on Sunday morning, especially when she hadn’t yet been home!

And then there was the third church — it was a summer only church — primitive by most standards — we didn’t even have running water, just electricity.  The church chancel (the space down front) was covered with inexpensive bathroom carpeting, the flowers were Woolworth’s grade plastic, and for an instrument we had an old upright piano.  Every spring they had to clear the deceased mice out of the piano before the season began.  The choir director was a violin teacher who was going deaf.  And the choir was composed of half a dozen folks whose best vocal days were way behind them, and one man who, in the winter, was the head of the music program for the schools over in Newton MA.  

If what God wanted out of us was technical perfection, I guess it might have been the first church that came closest… because they had the most natural talent.  But you know, they took their gifts for granted.  Because they were all good sight readers, they didn’t bother to rehearse.  They didn’t even plan much in advance, but the first person who showed up on Sunday would browse through their file of anthems and pick one out.  They’d sing through it once or twice, and that was it.  A lick and a promise got the job done.

It was that third church that came to impress me.  They didn’t have the talent, or the quality instrument.  They worked with a lot of shortcomings — and every Sunday did their darndest to present to God and the congregation their very best.  It wasn’t, to be honest, very good.  But it was the best they had.  Every thing they did in that church was about love of neighbor and extravagant welcome.  

Paul is reminding us that all too often, we judge our worth by the things we have, by outward signs of success  — the newest this, or the best that — but what God is really pleased by, what God hopes we look to, is not things, not stuff, but trying hard, doing our best. showing love, speaking up for justice.  He believes that the day is coming when the whole world will be governed by that kind of welcome, where everyone will have a place at the table, where people will not be judged differently by the color of their skin, or by their physical abilities.

He says the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.

It’s that hope that sustains us when the lack of not just perfection but even basic decency smacks us in the face.  It’s that hope which allows us to get up in the morning to do it all again.  God loves us now.  God is not waiting for us to “get it” or get better at whatever.  God loves us today, tomorrow, and always, and that gives us that oomph to keep on going.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

July 12, 2026  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Romans 8:1-11 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^,* 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^,* 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

⁹ But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

We’ve been working our way through Paul’s letter to the Romans for the past few weeks, and now we’ve come to the payoff.  Chapter after chapter, verse after verse, Paul has been basically saying two things:  first, that there’s no point in thinking of ourselves as unacceptable because we can’t be perfect, and second, that God loves us as we are, without, before we do anything.

You’ll remember that the scholars think this letter is the closest Paul ever came to writing out what be believed in any sort of systematic fashion.  Usually the letters we read from him are just that, letters.  Letters to various and sundry communities all around what’s now Turkey, to churches he’d started, helping them, giving them advice.  They’re the first century equivalent of a meeting with our Associate Conference Minister, Carol Steinbrecher.  And that’s great, but the Letter to the Romans is different.

For one things, this isn’t a letter to a church Paul established.  He’s never been to Rome and isn’t sure they want him there.  So this letter was written to help them understand who he is and why he says the things he does.  That said, while Paul has never been to Rome, he does know a fair amount about the Christian community there, especially that it’s mostly composed of struggling Jewish believers, and more established Roman converts – and they don’t exactly get along.  In fact, it seems they were constantly struggling to control each other, which is why, throughout this letter, Paul keeps saying both groups are important, each has their own issues, and so on.

So, today, this letter which has been trying to nurture peace between the two groups, moves to the center of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel which is for everyone, whether we think we belong or not.  This is the Gospel for people whose ancestors were passengers on the Mayflower.  And it’s the Gospel for those of us whose ancestors came here in the hold of a triangle-trade ship, sold into slavery.  And it’s the Gospel for those of us who hide from ICE because our skin is brown, or we have an accent.  It proclaims love and peace for all the world.

… there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

The reading from Matthew says basically the same thing:  ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is what Paul was trying to say to those folks in Rome.  He’d heard it from Jesus and from the other disciples, and wanted them, wants us to hear the same thing.  You are loved.  You are loved as you are.

Mark this chapter 8 in your Bible.  When you are discouraged, underline the first verse again to remind yourself that God loves you.  Remember that when we follow God, follow Jesus, listen to the Spirit, we’ll be on the way to focusing on love and peace, more than anger and frustration.  And remember also those words from Matthew, because they’re right.  It’s not that hard stuff becomes easy, because hard things are always going to be hard… but with God, the hard stuff becomes possible.  With God, we’re able to see beyond the bad, beyond our angers… able to see love, able to recognize beauty, able to practice kindness.  

Bad things will still happen, we will still face trials, but we will not be alone.  We will have this fellowship, and we will have the unending love of the God who has made us, made us to be messengers of love throughout the world.

We are not alone.  We are loved.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

We’re gathered here today to read the Declaration of Independence, adopted 200 years and one day ago, in Philadelphia, signed by delegates from the thirteen original colonies and sent out, by horseback, to all the land.

It arrived here in Massachusetts sometime after July 13, and before the 17th, when it was printed in Worcester by the presses of the Massachusetts Spy, owned by Isaiah Thomas — whose printing office now resides in Old Sturbridge Village just down the road.  

The website <revolution250.org> tells us that….  Tradition states that Isaiah Thomas, the “Patriot-Printer” read the broadside form the front steps of the First Parish Church on Worcester Common.  

The Provincial Congress considered how best to publicize the arrival of the Declaration and on the 17th of July, 1776 they reported to the House:

“In Council, Ordered, That the Declaration of Independence be printed; and a Copy sent to the Ministers of each Parish, of every Denomination, within this State; and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective Congregations, as soon as divine Service is ended, in the Afternoon, on the first Lord’s-Day after they shall have received it  . . . 

We’re reading this Document today, because this is the time and the place where it was read in 1776 – on the steps of the church building that stood here in those days (and under the trees because it’s too darned hot to actually stand out on the steps today)

It’s important to remember, that what you are hearing is not a description of how things were in 1776, not a description of how things are in 2026.  What the Declaration is, is the declaration of an American Dream.  This is what our ancestors wanted; it’s what we want our world to be too, this is the goal towards which we always work.

It was never perfect — The Boston Globe noted this week that there were changes in the text of the Declaration right up to the last minute.

There are 27 detailed grievances against the king outlined in the Declaration — but there was meant to be a 28th. Thomas Jefferson’s scathing indictment of the slave trade was struck from the document on the eve of the signing, after protests by southern and northern delegates alike.

Slavery then, racism now, help us see the distance between the dream and the reality.  So we read to remind ourselves of the task we join in as citizens of this country — to acknowledge the gaps and to work for the dream.

You’ll be invited, at the end of the reading, to join us in pledging your lives, your fortunes, your sacred honor to this dream, this American dream, just as our ancestors did on that first Independence Day.

Let the reading begin!

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

July 5, 2026  Independence Day   First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA  

Romans 7:15-25 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.  But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.  For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched person that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?   Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Back in the day, Maine storyteller Jo Radner tells us, every meal includes pie — well, that’s what her dad believed, and her mom made a new pie every day so that he could have pie at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

One day, her mom died, and the family gathered.  As the day progressed, with horror they realized that none of them were pie makers, and their dad expected, needed, a pie to be there for dinner.  Jo’s aunt might have tried, but she was a terrible cook, and so Jo’s parents jumped in — her dad would fix a steak dinner and her mom —- who hated baking — would make a pie.

You need to understand,  her mom had never made a pie before.  She persevered, gave it her best, whacked the daylights out some recalcitrant pie crust, and ended up with a pie that could have been bounced on the floor without breaking… not to mention that it hadn’t occurred to her to mix the ingredients up when she assembled the filling — producing a pie that had layers of apples, then sugar, then flour, then lemon, and then the various spices.

Eating the pie was an experience – she says that to this day, you can break the family up by saying, “have you tasted the lemon yet”…. but each of them ate their slice and their stalwart Maine Yankee farmer father, praised it.  Everyone knew it was terrible, but they all thanked Jo’s mom, who then said, she’d make another pie the next day.

And over the days, her mom’s pies got, not just better, but really good.  

Today’s lesson doesn’t look as though it’s about pie making, any more than it looks like it’s about being a citizen on this Independence Day weekend, but it is both, and more.

St. Paul wants us to stop and take some time to think about what it means that we so often fail in our endeavors…. What does it mean that we are not perfect?  And on this day, so close to the official two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what he writes applies to our responsibilities as citizens of a country, of this country in particular, though we believe the responsibilities apply to all nations.

What does it mean to be a Christian and a citizen of a country that is not perfect?  Are we, as Christians, supposed to unquestionably support everything our country does?  Or is it our responsibility to ask questions?

And what does it mean that the church itself is no more perfect than we are?  So, does the fact that we are broken mean we have no standing?  Or can/must we speak, even in spite of the ways we’ve fallen short of God’s vision for us?

The most important thing to remember today is that it is our job to stand up for what our faith tells us is right —- that love is the operating principle of the world, that honesty matters, that justice leavened with mercy creates good community.  It tells us that means children need to be loved, housed and fed.  It tells us that everyone is supposed to be welcome.  We build hospitals, create and support public schools, enact laws to help establish safety.

And it doesn’t all work out the way we hoped, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

Paul’s lesson encourages us to not stop just because we’ve not yet managed to do it right, not to get discouraged at the failures of others, or even the failures of our country.  We are engaged in a life-long journey of making the world better, one step at a time.  Sometimes, it has to start with us, in our personal lives.  Sometimes, we’re able to go further, to work on issues that cross town or even state boundaries, like establishing the Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor.  And sometimes, we stand up for national issues —- like in the years when we called for truth about what was really happening in our war in Vietnam.

Being a Christian and a citizen is something like being a Christian and a parent.  You’re never going to get everything perfect, but you’re going to continue to work at it, hoping that every day is a little better than the day before.  And just as parents are expected to speak up when their children need guidance, so also are citizens expected to speak up when their country needs their feedback.

That’s what we did in the years before the War for Independence.  Conscious of our own imperfections, humble about our vision for tomorrow, we spoke up, and so we do today as well.

God has called us, in spite of our failures, to be followers on the Christian path.  Strengthened by our faith, let us continue on this way.

Amen.

© 2026, Virginia H. Child

June 28, 2026  Proper 8  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

⁴⁰ “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴² and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”  (The Message Bible)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

The single most important part of our Christian commitment is our focus on “welcome”.  Jesus said, “whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  It is in the practice of welcoming that we recognize Jesus in the hearts of those around us.  

When I was in fourth grade, our family moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.  It was not a pleasant experience.  There was a sense at my new school that I was an annoyance because they didn’t have many tranfers – they weren’t used to what that meant.

Five years later, we move to south Florida, to a school where almost every classmate had moved there from somewhere else.  There was only one kid in my ninth grade who had been born in Florida.  They were a lot better at welcoming newbies, and when we moved again two years later, we even moved to a school that had yet to graduate anyone (I became a member of the first graduating class).. the building wasn’t finished when we moved in.  The good folks of McArthur High School had lots of practice in welcoming and they were really good at it.  And it brought all the students together.

Welcoming is not always easy.  I’ve lived in places, and I bet you have as well, where you weren’t really welcome if you came from away, or if you hadn’t gone to the local high school.  And we all have heard the stories about the foolish people who dare to sit in the wrong pew, and are never going to be welcome.

That kind of welcome – the welcome of a new person to our fellowship is important, so important that it could be that coffee hour is just as important as Communion, and maybe even more important in our spiritual life…. But that kind of welcome, being welcome here in this room, with these people, is just one place, not the only place, where welcome matters.

Because, you see, as important as it is to welcome people here, this is really just practice for our ability to welcome out in the world.

Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to [someone in need] will receive the reward of knowing God.  

As I said, it’s not just about giving water to the thirsty, but about giving people what they need when they need it.  It’s about giving everyone in our community the education they need, for instance… not just providing an education to the children of the wealthy.  

That fourth grade classroom into which I moved, for instance, assigned seats for us on the basis of the importance of our fathers.  The more money your family had, the closer to the teacher you sat.  (I was not displeased… from the teacher’s point of view, the worst seats, the ones further from her, were also the ones closest to the windows…)  But there’s no doubt that the wealthy children got the largest portion of the teacher’s attention.  And to the extent that having her attention was good, useful, valuable… those of us who were poorer were really not welcome in the class.

Welcome is not just first choice of the coffee hour goodies.  It’s about giving everyone equal opportunity.

There’s no doubt, tho, that it’s not just my fourth grade school that sometimes struggles with welcome.  It can be hard to open things up to really welcome people who are new, different, maybe even odd…. It takes intentional effort to notice when our practices exclude others.  It takes even more effort when welcoming means spending money, raising taxes, installing a chair lift or hiring special ed teachers. 

Our world has a lot of incentive to close our eyes to the needs of the world… and if we don’t see it, it doesn’t really exist.  The church I served when we first began to talk about making the building handicapped accessible swore no one in town used a wheelchair.  After all, as Paul says, we tend to say, oh well, if we missed it, God will still forgive us.  And there’s a way that’s an accurate statement.  But the thing is, in the process of not paying attention to the needs of our world, not working intentionally to be welcoming, to see people as they are, to notice problems, we irreparably harm our own souls.  Every time we close our eyes, close our ears to pain, we build up calluses that make it more and more difficult to be caring.  Yes, God still loves us, but it’s harder and harder for us to know that love.  Being unwelcoming hardens our hearts.

God, however, has given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to ask questions.  And God has given us the gift of welcome, so that we would use our gifts to pay attention, to make sure that everyone is included.  So let us take up the challenge and grow into God’s call to be a welcoming people.

Amen.

©2026, Virginia H. Child

June 21, 2026  Proper 7  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield, MA

Romans 6:1-11 (The Message)  So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Friday was the new federal holiday, Juneteenth.  Like the fourth of July, it commemorates freedom.  Our ancestors liked to say we were slaves to England, but they were exaggerating for effect.  Juneteenth, on the other hand, is a holiday that celebrates the end of legal slavery in our country – real slavery, the kind where your children are born slaves and can be sold away from you, even when they’re toddlers.  

Juneteenth is also a nod to the greedy, grasping way that slaveholders held onto their slaves just as long as they could – in this case, by “forgetting” to tell them that slavery had been ended and they were free.  So, Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19, because that’s the day that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston TX and told the slaves there that they were free, that they had been free now for more than two years, according to the Emancipation Proclamation.  Now that the Civil War was over, their theoretical freedom had become real.  And so Black Americans celebrated.

We celebrate too but in a different way.  For us, Juneteenth is not about our gaining our freedom.  We celebrate by remembering the sin of those long-ago days, and paying attention to how the dregs of the sin of slavery still streak the realities of our lives today.

Back then, white people, maybe not our ancestors, but people our ancestors lived with, worked with, were related to, bought and sold human beings, separated parents from children, destroyed families.  When slavery was ended, white people, against maybe not our personal ancestors, set up a world that kept former slaves in economic bondage.  

Many of us remember the struggles for black people to vote; we remember watching Ruby Bridges walk to her school, past the lines of good, white, Christians, who shouted at her, threatened her, hated her, because this little first-grader was now attending their whites-only school.  I can remember the stories of the Pennsylvania elementary school I attended, where the black kids sat in the back of the room, and my astonishment when I realized that up until the year I transferred in, those black kids, all 8 grades of them, were taught in a basement classroom.  

Paul asked,  should we Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? Of course not…. do we ignore the ways discrimination cripples our world because it feels so good when you realize how wrong it is?  And then he says, If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

So, what he’s saying is this:  once you know something is wrong, something is sinful, and once you’ve made a public declaration that you want to be on God’s side, on the side of the good, you can’t turn back and pretend “you didn’t know”.  Once we know, once we realize == something as hidden in plain sight as all our black classmates sitting in one corner of the classroom == we can never pretend we don’t know, haven’t seen it anymore.

This is true of all kinds of sinful behavior.  Recognizing sin is life-changing.  Once you realize that your best friend’s spouse is abusing her (or him), you can’t pretend that everything’s all right.  Once you learn how copyright law works, you can never again freely post a movie or song without making sure you pay the creator.  Abuse is wrong; stealing someone’s creative work is wrong.  And knowing right from wrong changes us permanently.

This weekend, so near to Juneteenth, the message is this:  as the heirs of the costs of slavery, as those who have to live with the way it warped our world, we are called to turn away from all sin that grows out of the idea that white people are better, cleaner, smarter, safer.  We are called to dedicate ourselves to God’s community, where all are welcome, all are known, all are loved.  That’s why Juneteenth is important to us.  That’s how we Christians celebrate it.  

We turn away from sin because we’ve left that country where discrimination is just part of the scenery.  Now we live in the world of grace and welcome, colorful and loving, at home with God.

Amen.  

© 2026, Virginia H. Child