Month: November 2025

November 23, 2025  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

“Thanksgiving is a spiritual exercise, necessary to the building of a healthy soul. It takes us out of the stuffiness of ourselves into the fresh breeze and sunlight of the will of God.” 
― Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

“I have just four words to leave with you. Four words that have spoken volumes of truth into my life.’  He wanted the words to stay in the room, to remain long after he had gone. Though no one wished to hear Paul’s radical injunction, it had to be told.  ‘In everything, give thanks.’
This was the lifeboat in any crisis. Over and over again, he had learned this, and over and over again, he had to be reminded.” 
― Jan Karon

First Reading:                  Deuteronomy 8: 7-18 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills,  a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.  You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. 

“Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes that I am commanding you today.  When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them and when your herds and flocks have multiplied and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock. He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Second Reading:              Colossians  1:11-20 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

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 are coming on Thanksgiving, and right after that, Advent and Christmas and there is just so much on our hearts that, at some level, it’s hard to even begin to see the heart of this season.  

It’s not enough that we’ve just been through a heart-stopping season of wondering about SNAP, or that it seems like we’ve just jumped from lovely cool weather to nasty cold and wet weather.  But coming up on Thanksgiving, we’re faced with the conflict between the elementary-school explanation of Thanksgiving and the realities of early European settler behaviors.  And a number of us have recently faced serious health challenges, there have been way too many times when it all seems just too much.

Here we are, facing Thanksgiving, and in the backs of our minds, there’s a worry that this is no time to stop and give thanks.  There’s just too much that’s still unsettled, too many fears about our future.  It feels, too often, as though we’re trapped in a living version of that old arcade game, Whack-A-Mole.  No sooner do we put on threat behind us, that another one pops up.

Some challenge our feeling of safety; others challenge our hopes for our country’s future.  Some make us re-think the assumptions we’ve carried with us since second grade.  

And for some of us, this fall has been especially difficult, what with family crises or work troubles, or our own individual health issues.

And yet, we have this Thanksgiving, with the expectation that we should all give thanks… before I go into what we might give thanks for this year, I want to take a moment to talk about the act of thanking.  The ability to thank is one of the most important gifts God has given us.  If you look “thanking” up in the Bible, you’ll find that it happens a lot.  From the beginning to the end of the Bible, thanking is a frequent activity.  And it’s not that things are always going swimmingly.  It’s that thanking is one of the major spiritual practices of our kind of faith.

There’s the story of Judith, which is contained in the Apocrypha, that collection of stories from the times between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Judith is a beautiful woman, strong and powerful, who urgers her fellow Jews to stand against an invader.  They want to give up and turn themselves over to the enemy; she says, we can still win… and then goes out and makes it happen.  For today’s purposes, the most important thing she does is offer this speech:

Judith 8:20-26. . . we know no other god but him, and so we hope that he will not disdain us or any of our people. ¹ For if we are captured, all Judea will fall, and our sanctuary will be plundered, and he will make us pay for its desecration with our blood. The slaughter of our kindred and the captivity of the land and the desolation of our inheritance—all this he will bring on our heads among the nations, wherever we serve as slaves, and we shall be an offense and a disgrace in the eyes of those who acquire us.  For our slavery will not bring us into favor, but the Lord our God will turn it to dishonor. 

“Therefore, my brothers, let us set an example for our kindred, for their lives depend upon us, and the sanctuary—both the temple and the altar—rests upon us. In spite of everything, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who is putting us to the test as he did our ancestors.

Facing disaster, she urges them to give thanks.  Giving thanks turns our focus from what we don’t have to what we do have.  In the same way, there are any number of places in the New Testament where we are urged – in the face of difficulties – to turn to giving thanks to God.  Check out the first letter to the Thessalonians, for a number of places where believers are urged to give thanks.

This is not some empty pie in the sky thing – it’s a vital and central belief.  Giving thanks is good for us.  Giving thanks makes us name that which is good, even in the midst of so much that feels like disaster.

So what do we have to be thankful for this year?  

We’re still here.
We have each other.
Our lives have meaning and purpose.
God loves us.
We’re still here.   

Churches all around us have closed.  I remember meeting every year at the First Church in Springfield…when I first started in ministry – there was a huge, maybe 500 person, pastor’s retreat there every February.  And then one day that big, well-financed church was gone.  Big churches, small churches, well-loved churches, arguing churches – gone with the wind.  But we are still here.   That’s our first thanksgiving.

We have each other.

We are still a strong fellowship of people who love and care for one another and for the world where we’ve been placed.  We see each other in any number of different ways – here in this room for worship, on Zoom meetings, and in casual meetings out and about – and wherever we are, we know we are in the presence of companions on the way.  We are not alone.  That is our second thanksgiving.

Our lives have meaning and purpose.

One of the great gifts of our faith is our call to be people of peace, to be builders of community in our world.  We are not without purpose in our lives.  There is always something we can do – not always the great deeds that are celebrated in history books, but always the small kindnesses which are available to us every day, like holding doors open, smiling at our server.  Speaking up when someone mocks people of color or makes vile accusations about Jews.  Refusing to go along to get along.  

There also opportunities to be active, informed participants in our community, serving as town officers, leading meetings, helping people understand what’s happening, and the like.  In our work, being ethical, honest, trust-worthy people; in our private lives being faithful, loving, reliable.  Our lives have meaning and purpose.  That’s our third thanksgiving.

Finally, we know that God loves us.

This isn’t the arrogant “God love me”, but the compassionate “God loves us”.  God loves each of us == as we are, where we are.  When we do our best, God loves us.  When we do our worst, God still loves us, and hopes for us to grow into a better way of living.  

If you grew up in a home filled with hostility, know that God loves you.  

If you have lived in a world of addiction, know that God loves you.  

If folks have scorned you, hated you, just because…. you didn’t look like, sound like,  live like they thought you should, know that God loves you.  

God loves you, today, tomorrow, and forever.   And that’s the fourth and greatest thanksgiving this year.

We’re still here.
We have each other.
Our lives have meaning and purpose.
God loves us.

Amen.

©2025, Virginia H. Child

November 2, 2025  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Matthew 25:31-46 (see below)

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.

I got up yesterday morning, intending to fill out the outline of today’s sermon, which I’d completed on Friday.  It’s a nice outline of the changes the Reformation made in our world.  Not, maybe, the most exciting sermon you’ll ever hear from me, but in a time when we wonder whether what we believe matters, or even wonder exactly what we do believe, it seemed important.

And then, yesterday morning, I opened my Boston Globe.  Yes, I still get a paper paper, delivered to the house.  The main headline read “Hope, Confusion, on SNAP”.  Below the fold, one article said, “Food banks won’t keep up with strong demand”; another was the story of a mother “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

While it’s true that two separate courts have said that refusing to use emergency funds to keep SNAP going is illegal, that doesn’t solve the problem.  If the federal government goes along with the judgment and starts things right up again, it’ll take as much as 2 weeks to get the money flowing again.  But they may appeal; they may drag their feet… after all, if they wanted to feed the hungry, and thought accessing the money put aside for that purpose was illegal, they could have gone to court themselves to get permission.  It makes me wonder whether or not their intent was to leave people without food.  So the lack of SNAP benefits this weekend is still an emergency.

But what does all this have to do with our faith?  Isn’t SNAP a political issue?  And shouldn’t the church stay away from politics?

Now, it turns out, that heads us back to my original plan to speak about the Protestant Reformation.  On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of questions, what we know as the 95 Theses, on the door of the Wittenburg, Germany, cathedral.  507 years ago, more or less, a ground-shaking change began in the way people understood their Christian faith, changes which then influenced what people believed was important for their communities, their world.

Among many other things, people began to believe that everyone had the obligation to read the Bible for themselves.  In order to do that, they had to learn to read – and so, schools for all kids, not just the wealthy and powerful, began.  In order to read, you had to have books, and a Bible of your own.  Suddenly the Gutenberg press became a way to make a living, and so printers sprouted everywhere.  The passion we share here in Massachusetts for schools for all, rises out of that Reformation conviction that it is essential for believers to read the Bible for themselves.

The Reformation caused us to re-think, re-understand, the nature of community and equality.  Before, European society was constructed like a lasagna – layers of power and authority, with more and more power, authority and wealth, as you went higher and higher. 

Serfs were at the bottom of the pile, slaves in all but name, unable to move, unable to marry without permission, required to spend part of the work week toiling for the person who owned the land. That landowner, a knight or baron, then owed service to the next layer up – an earl or a duke, maybe – who, in his turn, owed service to the king.  The church was constructed the same way – ordinary believers listened to their priest, who was under the thumb of a bishop, who was under the authority of an archbishop, who was under the authority of the Pope.

The Reformation changed all that.  It created communities, not just little gatherings of people like clubs, but whole countries, where – over the centuries – everyone began to have a say, a vote, in what happened… not right away, not everywhere all at once, but over time.  Instead of a world where you are born a serf or slave, and stay there all your life, the Reformation started a world where, at least in theory, everyone is born with the opportunity to move ahead.

Everyone has the obligation to read the Bible for themselves, so everyone has to learn to read.  Everyone is equal in the sight of God. Everyone has the right and  obligation to participate in our world.  Those of us who have more – more money, more power, more free time, are obligated to help those who don’t.  We pay attention to the things, like hunger, or instability, which make it hard for kids to learn.  It’s a religious obligation to work on the issues which put up barriers to adequate food and decent housing.  

What does all this have to do with SNAP?  Am I stepping into a political issue by saying that cutting off SNAP benefits is unconscionable, that it is essentially and deeply un-Christian to put 42 million people – one million of whom live here in Massachusetts — in danger of going without food?

In today’s lesson from Luke, Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus, who was unwelcome anywhere else, because he was an agent of the oppressive government.  Maybe, if he told this story in today’s context, he’d have said Zacchaeus was an ICE agent, hiding up that tree from local residents?  Or maybe Zaccheus would be a poor woman, looking for food for her children.   In Jesus’ light, the unacceptable are acceptable; it is our work, the work of Jesus, to call people to accept everyone.  Poor people are part of the community; they matter.

Children are going to go hungry.  Disabled people, unable to work, are going to go hungry.  The elderly, too old to be hired, are going to go hungry.  Not just one or two people here and there, not even just a dozen or so, but more people than you or I can easily imagine.  Here in Massachusetts, it’s more than a million people.  

More than half are in families with children, almost as many are in families with the elderly or disabled.  More than a third are in working families, because it’s not possible to earn enough money to support your family in many jobs in Massachusetts.  It’s not a ton of money, just under $200 per household member, per month. . . $50 per person per week.  

Feeding the hungry is not a political issue; it’s a faith issue.  It’s what we do.  Without SNAP, thousands will go hungry.  What does our faith say about that?

Listen to these words from Matthew 25, the Message translation.  Jesus is talking about what will happen at the end of time.  Listen for what he thinks about letting folks go hungry:

         “When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

“Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’

“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’

“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.’

 “Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.”^[1]

How will we respond to Jesus’ call?

Amen.

©2025, Virginia H. Child

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^[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Mt 25:31–46.