Author: tobelieveistocare

September 14, 2025  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Romans 8:28-39: We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.^,* And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, 

“For your sake we are being killed all day long; 
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus 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.

Pain is a present part of our lives these days.  Maybe it’s the pain of a broken leg, or some other physical ill.  Maybe it’s the pain of a broken heart, or a broken dream.  One of the things that makes pain hard to bear is how, so often, there’s some sense of betrayal there.  We didn’t expect to be sick, we didn’t expect a marriage to break up, we didn’t expect this or that piece of destruction.  Betrayal is right at the core of pain, and this has been a week of betrayals.

It was the 24^th anniversary of 9-11 this past week.  I doubt there’s anyone here who couldn’t tell you where they were when they heard about those horrific attacks.  I was living in Grand Rapids MI, where I’d just permanently closed the church I’d been serving, when I got an email from a friend in Australia who told me to turn on my tv….  It was a day of horror.  

For many of us, 9-11 always brings back our memories of other shootings, especially Sandy Hook and the death of children.  There’s been a lot of that lately… and then on the eleventh, along with the recollections of 9=11, there were two more  betrayals – a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado – and the murder of Charlie Kirk, live on tv.

That’s a lot of pain.  That’s a lot of betrayal.

Add that pain to our usual lives – frustrations, illnesses, angers… struggles to stay even…

It’s been a hard week for many of us.

When it all gets too hard, we come here.  When it all gets too bad, we come to God.

Together we comfort one another, name this space as one clear open to God.  Together we rage at the injustices of the world, share our grief, our anger, our pain with God.  Together we live out our faith that life has meaning and purpose, that God intends love to triumph over evil, that  as the hymn says, “though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” 

Why, though, do we hold on to that hope?  If God has any power, why can’t we make the shootings stop?  If God is in charge, why are people so mean to each other these days?  We hold onto our hope that God is in charge, that pain is not pointless, that evil will not triumph because, in the first place, God promises that it is true, and in the second place, we see signs that good does make change happen.

God promises that good will triumph.  In the letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:

²⁸ We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.^,* 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, 

“For your sake we are being killed all day long; 

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ^[1]

And if that’s not enough, there’s more.  Paul lists a whole set of bad things – and then says that not one of those has enough power to totally destroy us.  Nothing has the power to break our connection with Christ, the power of Love made a living human being.  Nothing – not sickness.  Nothing – not distress.  Nothing – not false accusations, not poverty, not danger, not the evil aggressions of enemies.  Nothing.

As Paul says:  I am convinced that neither death, lor life, no angels, nor rulers, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My morning reading these days has been Rick Atkinson’s excellent new history of the American Revolution.  The fighting was hard, we lost battle after battle, especially in the early years.  More than once our Founding leaders thought the jig was up and that they would all, at best, end their lives on Tower Hill in London, executed for treason.

But looking back on the entirely of the struggle, it was almost certain from the very beginning, even before maybe the first person died, that it was just about impossible for England to keep us as colonies if we persisted in the fight.  Even the English leaders who thought the war unwinnable didn’t really believe they were right enough to speak out, even when it was clear that the war was destroying the English economy.

As hard as that was for them, it’s even harder to hold onto faith that even when you’re on your fourth trip to the emergency room in the last 2 months, when you know that each trip brings you a little closer to that final trip when your heart stops.  It’s hard to hold onto faith when you realize that one of your 3^rd grade students is almost certainly being abused and you know it’s not going to be easy to do something.  It’s hard to hold onto faith when it feels like the world is falling apart, when one more public shooting happens – at a speech, at a school… wherever.

And yet, we endure. God promises that love will win.  So prepare to share in that heavenly meal we will soon celebrate, knowing that it is a tangible expression of God’s love, food and drink to nourish body and soul.  And know when you leave here, you will be sustained by God’s love.

Amen.

^[1] New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021), Ro 8:28–39.

September 7, 2025 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Jeremiah 18:1-11  The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” ³ So I went down to the potter’s hous, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴ The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶ Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸ but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. ⁹ And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰ but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. ¹¹ Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18
¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; 
you discern my thoughts from far away. 
³ You search out my path and my lying down 
and are acquainted with all my ways. 
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, 
O Lord, you know it completely. 
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before, 
and lay your hand upon me. 
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 
it is so high that I cannot attain it. 
for darkness is as light to you. . . .
¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts; 
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 
Wonderful are your works; 
that I know very well. 
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, 
when I was being made in secret, 
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 
¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. 
In your book were written 
all the days that were formed for me, 
when none of them as yet existed. 
¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! 
How vast is the sum of them! 
¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand; 
I come to the end—I am still with 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.

God makes us.
God knows us.
God loves us.
God protects us.
God is with us to the end.

For the past month I’ve been talking each Sunday about where we are – about the challenges we face, about the opportunities we have, about how we can proceed.  Today, we’re going to change focus.  Instead of what we can do, or should do, or don’t have to do, I want to talk a little about why we do this, why the time and effort and — let’s be clear — the money we put into keeping this church on the path is worth it all.

There’s no doubt that we’ve been putting a lot into this work. And there’s little doubt that the busyness of all we do can sometimes make it hard to remember why we do it.  So, let’s take a pause and think together about our “why”.

We are here this morning because we have chosen to follow God.  Back in the days when this church was called together, everyone knew there was God, and that it was good to follow God. Today, that’s more of an individual decision, but we have that determination in common with our religious ancestors.  We follow God.

We follow God because we believe that God is the ultimate source of all things.  That doesn’t have to mean that we think God is some sort of master carpenter, who literally makes everything.  That would just reduce God to a functionary, like the person who gives me my driver’s license.  And if there’s one thing we’re sure of God — and heaven — are nothing like the Registry of Motor Vehicles!  No, what I’m talking about is that creativity is one way to see God.  The ability to make things is a gift from God.  That human beings can make more human beings is a way of understanding God’s creative power.  That human beings can tell stories, is part of God’s creative power.

Stand before an amazing painting and you will be standing in the presence of God’s creative power, as understood by the artist.

This creative God is who we follow.

God not only is creative, God knows us. 

Years ago, I had a friend who was struggling with our classes at college.  He’d often come to me and ask me what I thought the textbook said, because to him it just didn’t make sense.  We went through this for a couple of semesters, until I began to feel used, and finally pushed him on why he always did this.  Turned out he was dyslexic.  He’d hidden his problem because he thought that since I read so easily I wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who couldn’t read much at all.  But, you know, we didn’t really become friends until the day he felt free to admit his challenge and I had the opportunity to really understand what was going on.  

I don’t know how many places most of us find we can’t be who we really are…. Even when we don’t realize that’s what’s going on.  But parents learn to say they know what’s what when their first child learns to ask “why”…. At work we have to act as if we really know everything.  We have to seem honest, and kind, and considerate.. all kinds of things.  The constant need to present our best side is exhausting.  

But here, in God’s presence, we are who we are.  We don’t need to hide from God.  Here, with God, we can be honest with ourselves about where we are, and with that freedom comes the freedom to grow into a better person.  It’s a friendship that just gets better and better.  My college friend and I never saw each other after we graduated, but God’s friendship never ends.

God’s friendship never ends because it’s based on God’s love for us and for the world.  God knows us and because God loves us, that knowledge is good and can help us grow in love for all the world.

When I was a little kid, I thought all grownups were happy, free to follow their hopes and dreams.  If I’d thought about it, I’d have assumed that when you grew up, you got a job you loved, married someone who loved you, had good children, and in your old age, were surrounded by happy, loving children and grandchildren. 

This despite the fact that I was in constant ill health, in and out of the hospital; despite the fact that my mother was not allowed to work as a registered nurse because she was married, that my best friend’s parents were not only divorced but distanced – she didn’t know her father at all…. In other words, even as a kid, I should have known that my dream was an illusion.

And when we’re little and we hear that God cares for us, I suspect most of us think that means that if we follow God we’ll never have to deal with hurt or pain, that our children will be good, our parents healthy, our jobs successful.  

Now, we all know that’s not true.  In fact, the more attention we pay to our world, the more pain we see.  It shows up in our own lives, in the lives of those whom we love.  We do our best and still fail.  Life, it turns out, is hard, sometimes painful, often disappointing.  And in the midst of all that, one thing upon which we can depend is God’s protection.  Not protection against bad things happening, protection against those things robbing our world of all that is good.

It’s a protection that helps you see in the midst of that which might blind you to so much.  You’ll remember, for instance, that last fall my back went out and I was in terrible pain for a while.  In the midst of all that I had to go to Charlton Hospital in Fall River for a scan, and I got lost, trying to find the closest parking lot.  I tried to enter the hospital through the emergency room, and fell into the hands of the tallest security guard I’ve ever seen.  It was the beginning of a great visit.  And I’m convinced it was God’s presence that helped me look beyond my pain and see his effort to help me as help.  It was God who helped me recognize the love in the care the medical folks took to get me back to my car and, for a needed return visit, find a better place to park.  

God didn’t get me exercising so my back wouldn’t go out.  God didn’t make the pain go away, but God helped me see help as help, to respond with kindness to kindness when irritability would have been far more likely.  And that’s why I say God protects us.

Finally, God is always with us, till the end.  No matter how that goes, we will not be left alone, abandoned by God.  On our deathbed, God will be with us.  

So – God makes, us, knows us, loves us, protects us, stays with us to the end.  It is the knowledge of this, and the way it brings worth and value to our lives that we have to share with our neighbors.  This is what makes our work as a church so important.  This isn’t just a gift for us; it’s a gift for everyone.

We matter.
God matters.
This church matters.

Amen.

c 2025, Virginia H. Child

August 24, 2025  First Congregational Church, Brimfield MA

Lk 13:10-17 ¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” ¹³ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴ But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” ¹⁵ But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? ¹⁶ And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.

“In times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear, but the arms you link.”  (from a UK observance of VJ Day )

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.

One of the quirks of Rhode Island life, one you might not have heard of, is that we observe the end of World War II with a state holiday named Victory Day.  State offices close, as do many towns and cities… but we still get mail.  It’s a little mixed, but it’s a time for us to remember and give thanks for the end of that terrible, all-consuming war.

This year I happened to come across a VJ Day celebration in England, and I heard one of the speakers say, “in times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear, but the arms you link.”  

That really struck me.  What makes for victory is not so much how powerful our weapons are, but how well we can stand together.  If you’ve ever served in the military, you’ve experienced how this plays out – all kinds of unit activities are designed, not just to keep us in good shape, but to help build a sense of solidarity.

With the importance of working together on my mind, I read today’s Gospel lesson.  You just heard it – the story of the healing of the bent-over woman.  The healing is a great story, but what struck me this time as I read it, was how it almost fell apart because the leaders of the local religious establishment got upset because Jesus healed on the sabbath.

Now, we all know that this isn’t a story about how Jews complained about violating the sabbath, while the good Christians would never have done such a thing.  Whining about breaking the rules is the sort of thing that transcends the walls that divide.  Everyone does it, from time to time.  But, at our best, and when we’re following Jesus’ example, we let the need for a different way transcend our love of the “way it’s always been”, and we move ahead in God’s way.

And that’s what today is about.  Moving ahead, in God’s way, as best we understand that way.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking about how our world has changed, and how those changes are changing us, how we do things, and even what things we do.  One of those changes began to affect us today – we are doing music differently, and doing that for at least two reasons:

First, no one responded to our ads for an organist.

And second, with all that needs to be done, our leaders decided to suspend the search for a new musician temporarily.  

Where we are now is temporary; we’ve not turned away from having a musician, but we need time to figure out what that’s going to look like, and how to search for that person.

In the meantime, we are moving ahead.  But I don’t want to talk about the ways we’re moving ahead today.  Today I want us to think about how hard it is to deal with the changes that happen when our world changes.

Dealing with change is a real challenge… even when everyone agrees that a change is necessary, important, and good.  

Some years ago, my cousins down on the farm in Woodstock changed the location of the main driveway into the farm.  For centuries (the farm’s been there for close to 300 years), the drive had come up from the road, right past the farmhouse, and then onto the barns, milk house and so on.  Cars came up the drive to visit at the house, feed truck came up the drive, bringing food for the cows, and milk tank trucks came up the drive to pick up milk… there was dust everywhere.  The house was the first thing you saw, and people stopped in all the time, looking for my uncle, dropping stuff off, and so on.

So, my cousins moved the drive, maybe 100 feet over.  Now when you drive in, the first thing you see is the Woodstock Creamery building, where they sell milk and other dairy products.  You can still see the house, but you have to make an intentional turn to go to it… so there’s a lot less traffic by the house, lots less dust, lots more privacy.  It’ makes all the sense in the world.  I’m sure I’m not the only family member who wonders why on earth our ancestors didn’t put the drive there in the first place.

It’s the right thing in the right place, right?  And yet, every time I drive by, it feels wrong.  I went up that drive with my grandparents, and with my parents, and then my aunt, when she and her husband ran the farm.  I know in my heart what the crunch of the gravel sounds like, and how the lilac my great-grandmother planted when she married and came over from Pomfret, would brush the roofs of cars – and how it had to be cut back periodically to keep from blocking the drive.  The trip up the drive was the end of the long drive from New Jersey to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family… it’s just packed full of memories, and it no longer exists.  That’s hard.

It’s always hard when change comes.  And it’s perfectly reasonable to miss what used to be.  And it’s ok to mourn the things in the past that we loved.

That religious leader who snapped at Jesus because he was violating the Sabbath had lost sight of what his rule, his practice was supposed to be about.  

Everything we do here has to do with being in the presence of God, has to do with helping others find value in their lives, with helping people be good and do good.  Our practices are not our goals, they are the means to our goals.  No matter how much we loved what we did in the past, if it no longer works to help us meet our goals, then it’s time to look around and see what might be a better way for this current time.

And it’ll be time to let go of complaining because the past no longer exists.  There is very little that is more discouraging than working hard to create a sustainable future and having people pick away at the work because their favorite “whatever” is no longer happening, or is now different.  It’s time to take what we have and figure out how to make it better, rather than getting upset that yesterday’s practice no longer works.

As we grow and evolve into our future, we’re going to hold on tight to what matters – God, love, community, service.  We’re going to keep our hearts, our minds, our eyes open to how that works in today’s world.  

We will let go of what has us bent over, and seek the things that will allow us to stand up and serve God, all our days.

Amen.

© 2025, Virginia H. Child

August 3, 2025 Joint Worship Service in Southbridge MA

Luke 18:1–8 

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³ In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? ⁸ I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

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 the luckiest people in the world.

Look all around us… look at this beautiful day, this beautiful place… see that we’re here with friends new and long-standing, gathered to worship God and to have fun together.  

It could have been 95, right?

It could have been raining.

This is New England; it could just as easily be 62… and raining….

Being together, sharing food, playing games, caring for one another, listening to stories about God, this is as close to heaven as we can get.

And that’s important to remember, because so much of our world stinks.

Sometimes life is so hard it’s almost unendurable.

Maybe for you the hard part is going on out in the world.  Maybe it’s a challenge at home.  

Maybe part of it is that it seems as though you ought to be handling this better – after all you’re a church-going person!  Maybe it feels as though you’re making too much of what’s happening, other people pooh-pooh your concerns?

But here, in this place, in this company we are committed to naming the truth of our world.

If you’re seeing challenges, know they are real.  We don’t need to agree on what those problems are to know that they are real problems. 

We can be on different sides of arguments and still know that arguing hurts.  

The Gospel lesson today is the story of a woman who knows she has a problem — and a judge who wants to pretend the problem doesn’t exist, so he won’t have to do anything.  He’s got all the power; she has none.  And her complaining, her petitioning, doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

You can see how this might fit in with today.  We see bad things happening.  And though we go to God in prayer, we don’t see changes – just like the woman, it’s as if no one cares.

Maybe a hundred years ago, a little girl got the measles.  She was a bright little thing, the apple of her family’s eye, the last of five children.  But she got the measles, and – as sometimes happens even now – her measles turned into encephalitis.  And encephalitis meant irreversible damage to her brain.  She was no longer a bright, happy little child.  She wasn’t bright at all, and more and more frequently was taken by uncontrollable bursts of temper.  Her family was horrified, and then they were terrified.  In tears and defeat, their beloved daughter went to live at a state school and there she died when she was six.

Some twenty years later, her oldest sister had a baby who turned out to have cognitive limitations.  When the medical folks said she and her husband should put the baby away at the state school, she remembered her sister, and said . . No.  We can do this hard thing. And they did.  They kept their daughter home, educated her to her fullest capacity, taught her to be a loving and responsible member of society.

More than that, she worked to make life better for all the other children born with cognitive limitations.  She fought to educate people so they wouldn’t be afraid of kids with challenges, fought to create a system of dispersed residences, so children who needed that kind of care would not have to go so far away.  She fought to create respectable jobs, and then to create homes in smaller, more family-sized groups.  (She didn’t do this alone; there was a whole team.  But she was a sparkplug who made things happen.)

Someone once urged her to go to one of those faith healing crusades, saying that with prayer, God would heal her daughter, make her whole.  The parents both said, our daughter is whole; this is who she is, and healing her, changing her, just isn’t going to happen.  We aren’t going to make her think we don’t love her as she is.  Besides, she would never understand when nothing changed.  It would break her heart.

But every day, with God’s guidance, those parents did heal their daughter.

They healed her from society’s contempt.  

They healed her from the expectation that she couldn’t learn, couldn’t contribute to society.  

They even healed her from the expectation that her physical problems would see her dead before she was twenty.  

Instead she lived out a full life.  And at the same time, their efforts healed the world for others – other young people didn’t have to leave home when they were little kids, other affected people were able to get jobs.  I just looked it up the other day – reports say that there are almost 15,000 people under the care of her state; every one of them, and every family member, has a better life because of the efforts of that young woman beset with tragedy as a teen, and then again as a young mother.  Healing isn’t about fixing the broken thing; it’s about making good out of tragedy.

So, here’s the thing to remember today:  God is not an unjust judge, only responding because we’ve annoyed him for too long.  God loves us, creates us out of love, leads and guides and comforts us, out of love. We know God is going to be standing right beside us, no matter how terrible the day.

God stands with us.

God isn’t our creature, doesn’t make “everything all right” like some kind of cheap magic trick, as if we’ve bought healing from God.

God doesn’t remake the world to our specifications.  

God has put us in a world that has infinite possibility for good, and an equally infinite possibility of horror or evil.  We have been given the potential; it is our work to make good, to create love, to live in joy, out of the day-to-day realities of our world.  And we do all that work knowing that God is at our side, offering the gifts of patience, persistence, vision, courage, companionship and love.

If I’m not clear yet, we are the most fortunate of people because God has given each of us a life worth living, given each of us ways to make our world better, no so much for ourselves, but for our communities, our neighbors, our families, ourselves.  And when the worst happens, our God will not leave us alone.

Amen.

© 2025, Virginia H. Child

June 29, 2025  Open and Affirming Sunday  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Gal 3:23-29 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Acts 8:26-39 Common English Bible — An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) ²⁸ He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.” 

³⁰ Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” 

³¹ The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. ³² This was the passage of scripture he was reading:  Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he didn’t open his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation justice was taken away from him. Who can tell the story of his descendants because his life was taken from the earth

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went down the road, they came to some water. 

The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

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 Apostle Philip headed down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza and on the way he met a man who wanted to know about God.  But the man was a foreigner, an alien, even though he was important in his home, he was not quite acceptable in Philip’s land.  It wasn’t so much that he was Black but that he was a eunuch, a man who had been castrated.  

In that time, in that world, it was not uncommon for the parents of younger sons of a family to have this done to their sons because it made them more employable, gave them a better future, and hopefully would make them more able to help their siblings.  But it was a great sin in the Jewish world view; an “incomplete” man was not able to worship God.  So this man, who belonged to a group which followed the Jewish religion, had found that he was not welcome in the Temple when he came to Jerusalem.

Philip joined him, helped him understand the scroll of Isaiah that he was reading, and then told him about Jesus.  The man was convinced, but he wasn’t sure his worship would be welcome, and so he asked “what would keep me from being baptized?”  In this new world, Philip said there was nothing to keep that from happening, and so the man was baptized.  One of the very first baptisms recorded in the New Testament is the baptism of a Black man who was ritually unacceptable.

He was welcomed by God, welcomed into the church.  If this early in the story conversion is important… then what does it mean to us?  

It makes us ask…

Who’s welcome in our church?

Who’s welcome at the baptismal font?

Who’s welcome at God’s table?

Everyone, that’s who.

That’s what it means to be an open and affirming church.  That’s who we are.  And it’s the special gift we bring to our world.  We welcome everyone.

Do we really mean everyone?  Yes – with one important exception.  The only people who are not welcome here are those who come to hurt us, or who do hurt members.  Physical, mental, spiritual safety matter.  But other than that, everyone is welcome.

Tall?  Short?  Fat? Thin?

Struggling to stay sober?  Holding on to your sanity with a clenched hand?

Can’t see?  Can’t hear?  Can’t make it up the stairs?

We’ve got your back.

And especially, we say, we welcome those who are not welcome elsewhere.  We welcome lesbians here.  We welcome gay men.  We welcome trans- people.  We welcome little boys who wear tutus and old women who wear overalls and plaid shirts.  We welcome every variety, every shade of difference along the spectrum – LGBTQIA+  There’s a great article on Wikipedia about what all those initials stand for – read it and rejoice in the amazing diversity of human beings God has created.

Why do we do this?  Because we believe God has told us to do so.

In the letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul states the Christian view on inclusivity and diversity just about as clearly as it can be said:  “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  

Now the first thing to understand about what Paul wrote is that he uses a way of writing that, by naming the two ends of a spectrum, included every variation possible in between.  

It’s as if he’s written “I love cookies, from Oreos to snickerdoodles”… we wouldn’t hear that as saying the only two kinds of cookies Paul liked were Oreos and snickerdoodles, but rather that he really liked all kinds of cookies.  

In the same way, when he says God welcomes Jews and Greeks, he’s also including Africans and Scots, Asians and every other variety of human reality we can think of.  And when he says “male and female”, he’s also including everything in between.  

This is really important because a lot of people try to say that there’s only two ways to be human.  Not just that there are only men and only women, but that those men and those women each have one right way to be:  either you’re a man or you’re a woman.  And if you’re a man, then you must want to love women, and if a woman, you must want to love a man.  And everyone must want to get married and have children.  Men must love suits and ties, women must love dresses and high heels. 

I spent last week in a camp on a height of land above one of the northern reaches of Casco Bay in Maine.  Every day I watched the boats go out and come in… small boats, large boats, boats with open sterns, boats with closed sterns, boats hauling a full-sized dory, boats hauling a skiff, lobster boats, fishing boats, pleasure boats, motor boats, sail boats.  I learned that the set ups of the lobster boats differs according to where they come from…every harbor has a slightly different way of setting things up.  

We’re not all that different from boats in this one way – just as there are many different kinds of boats, so are there many different ways to be human.  That’s how God made us, God loves as we are made, and so we, here in this church, have accepted the responsibility to be a place of love, acceptance, safety and sanity for people who don’t fit that old-fashioned, only two ways to be, understanding of human existence.

We’re an Open and Affirming Congregation.  It’s a daring position; it means we’re willing to run the risk of being taunted as a “gay church”.  And it’s particularly brave in today’s world, where it is less and less safe to be “different”, to be gay and out, or clearly, openly trans. 

Today many of the institutions we thought accepted the reality of many different ways of being are backing off their commitments, sometimes to save their business or school, sometimes because they’ve changed their mind, or because it looks like it’s bad for business.  Today, people who understood themselves to be trans- people, folks whose reality, sense of self differs from their physical appearance, those folks are being discriminated against, kicked out of the military despite their excellent service, only because their way of living differs from the gender on their birth certificate.  Today our witness that God loves everyone and we welcome everybody can literally save lives.

We don’t proclaim God’s love for everyone because it’s good for business, or in order to win a popularity contest.  We stand here witnessing to God’s radical inclusivity because God teaches us to love everyone.  

God loves everyone and so do we.

Amen.

©2025, Virginia H. Child

June 29, 2025  Open and Affirming Sunday  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Gal 3:28-29  There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Acts 8:26-39 Common English Bible  ²⁶ An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) ²⁸ He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.” 

³⁰ Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” 

³¹ The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. ³² This was the passage of scripture he was reading: 

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he didn’t open his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation justice was taken away from him. Who can tell the story of his descendants because his life was taken from the earth?

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went down the road, they came to some water. 

The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

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 Apostle Philip headed down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza and on the way he met a man who wanted to know about God.  But the man was a foreigner, an alien, even though he was important in his home, he was not quite acceptable in Philip’s land.  It wasn’t so much that he was Black but that he was a eunuch, a man who had been castrated.  

In that time, in that world, it was not uncommon for the parents of younger sons of a family to have this done to their sons because it made them more employable, gave them a better future, and hopefully would make them more able to help their siblings.  But it was a great sin in the Jewish world view; an “incomplete” man was not able to worship God.  So this man, who belonged to a group which followed the Jewish religion, had found that he was not welcome in the Temple when he came to Jerusalem.

Philip joined him, helped him understand the scroll of Isaiah that he was reading, and then told him about Jesus.  The man was convinced, but he wasn’t sure his worship would be welcome, and so he asked “what would keep me from being baptized?”  In this new world, Philip said there was nothing to keep that from happening, and so the man was baptized.  One of the very first baptisms recorded in the New Testament is the baptism of a Black man who was ritually unacceptable.

He was welcomed by God, welcomed into the church.  If this early in the story conversion is important… then what does it mean to us? 

It makes us ask…

Who’s welcome in our church?

Who’s welcome at the baptismal font?

Who’s welcome at God’s table?

Everyone, that’s who.

That’s what it means to be an open and affirming church.  That’s who we are.  And it’s the special gift we bring to our world.  We welcome everyone.

Do we really mean everyone?  Yes – with one important exception.  The only people who are not welcome here are those who come to hurt us, or who do hurt members.  Physical, mental, spiritual safety matter.  But other than that, everyone is welcome.

Tall?  Short?  Fat? Thin?

Struggling to stay sober?  Holding on to your sanity with a clenched hand?

Can’t see?  Can’t hear?  Can’t make it up the stairs?

We’ve got your back.

And especially, we say, we welcome those who are not welcome elsewhere.  We welcome lesbians here.  We welcome gay men.  We welcome trans- people.  We welcome little boys who wear tutus and old women who wear overalls and plaid shirts.  We welcome every variety, every shade of difference along the spectrum – LGBTQIA+  There’s a great article on Wikipedia about what all those initials stand for – read it and rejoice in the amazing diversity of human beings God has created.

Why do we do this?  Because we believe God has told us to do so.

In the letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul states the Christian view on inclusivity and diversity just about as clearly as it can be said:  “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  

Now the first thing to understand about what Paul wrote is that he uses a way of writing that, by naming the two ends of a spectrum, included every variation possible in between.  

It’s as if he’s written “I love cookies, from Oreos to snickerdoodles”… we wouldn’t hear that as saying the only two kinds of cookies Paul liked were Oreos and snickerdoodles, but rather that he really liked all kinds of cookies.  

In the same way, when he says God welcomes Jews and Greeks, he’s also including Africans and Scots, Asians and every other variety of human reality we can think of.  And when he says “male and female”, he’s also including everything in between.  

This is really important because a lot of people try to say that there’s only two ways to be human.  Not just that there are only men and only women, but that those men and those women each have one right way to be:  either you’re a man or you’re a woman.  And if you’re a man, then you must want to love women, and if a woman, you must want to love a man.  And everyone must want to get married and have children.  Men must love suits and ties, women must love dresses and high heels.  

I spent last week in a camp on a height of land above one of the northern reaches of Casco Bay in Maine.  Every day I watched the boats go out and come in… small boats, large boats, boats with open sterns, boats with closed sterns, boats hauling a full-sized dory, boats hauling a skiff, lobster boats, fishing boats, pleasure boats, motor boats, sail boats.  I learned that the set ups of the lobster boats differs according to where they come from…every harbor has a slightly different way of setting things up. 

We’re not all that different from boats in this one way – just as there are many different kinds of boats, so are there many different ways to be human.  That’s how God made us, God loves as we are made, and so we, here in this church, have accepted the responsibility to be a place of love, acceptance, safety and sanity for people who don’t fit that old-fashioned, only two ways to be, understanding of human existence.

We’re an Open and Affirming Congregation.  It’s a daring position; it means we’re willing to run the risk of being taunted as a “gay church”.  And it’s particularly brave in today’s world, where it is less and less safe to be “different”, to be gay and out, or clearly, openly trans. 

Today many of the institutions we thought accepted the reality of many different ways of being are backing off their commitments, sometimes to save their business or school, sometimes because they’ve changed their mind, or because it looks like it’s bad for business.  Today, people who understood themselves to be trans- people, folks whose reality, sense of self differs from their physical appearance, those folks are being discriminated against, kicked out of the military despite their excellent service, only because their way of living differs from the gender on their birth certificate.  Today our witness that God loves everyone and we welcome everybody can literally save lives.

We don’t proclaim God’s love for everyone because it’s good for business, or in order to win a popularity contest.  We stand here witnessing to God’s radical inclusivity because God teaches us to love everyone.  

God loves everyone and so do we.

Amen.

©2025, Virginia H. Child

May 25, 2025  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Luke 18:9-14  

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I John 4:16b-21 –

¹⁶ So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

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, Dean Sarah Drummond, of Andover Newton Seminary wrote this:

In his very fine graduation sermon this past weekend, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School graduate Spencer Law. . . meditated on [the] words “Christ has broken down the wall”,  from a hymn by Mark A. Miller: 

Spencer argued that, even when we’re feeling like we can’t make a difference in our increasingly fractured world, there’s always another wall we can break down. We can detect where the words “they” and “them” prevail and focus our attention on breaking barriers that lead to “we” and “us.”

When I was about eight, we moved from living in town in South Jersey, to living on a farm in Pennsylvania, about halfway between Philly and Wilmington.

I quickly realized that I was living in a strange place…. For instance, my elementary school in Chadds Ford, wasn’t just on a bluff above the banks of the Brandywine Creek. (which was more like a small, slow-moving river)….  It was also a recovering battlefield from the Revolutionary War.  At recess time, kids would go down and play on the banks of the creek and come back up the bluff with bullets, old-fashioned round bullets, and sometimes other pieces of made metal.  Battlefields, for us, weren’t something we read about; they were where we lived and played.

My Quaker meeting, up the road a few miles, had been used as a hospital during the battle.  Instead of bullets, however, we had bodies.  Out behind the meeting house there was a mass grave, mixed American and British dead, buried together for eternity… and we had dark stains on our benches in the room where we worshipped.  The kids all thought those were blood stains.

The existence of war was a part of my childhood in a way that it isn’t up here in New England.  Sure, we have Patriot’s Day but unless you are part of that vanishingly small group of descendants of the men who fought at Lexington and Concord, it’s more of a play, a reproduction, a once-a-year event than living on the battlefield, with the daily reminders that produced.

I didn’t see the glamor of the uniforms, or hear the beat of the marching soldiers.  I saw the bullets and the blood and the deaths of both “us” and “them”.

When I was a Marine, I worked with a number of men who’d fought in the south Pacific, in places like Guadalcanal, or Iwo Jima or Okinawa and as a pastor I’ve met and known a number of men and women who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  They, of course, were the survivors, and this weekend our world remembers those who gave their all.  But the folks I knew were the witnesses to the truth that war, even when fought for the very best purposes – freeing the slaves, breaking away from England, driving a stake into the heart of fascism – is massively destructive.  

War is not just destructive to the land – if you go to France, you can still trace the lines of the World War I trenches – over a hundred years and the land is not yet healed – war does not just kill the fighters, not just break the survivors, but it hurts, damages every thing it touches.  

General William T. Sherman wrote:  “all war is hell”, and he was not exaggerating.  

Jesus told the story of the two men who went to worship one day – one of them coming with a broken heart, ready to admit to his problems, and the other, so sure of his perfection.  When I read that story, along with the lesson from 1 John.. that those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also… it seems to me that I’m reading about how wars begin, and – hopefully – how they end.

Wars begin when we focus more on what divides than what unites, when we’re more about how much better “I” am, than how much better it is when it’s “we” that we envision.  And wars end, and end well, when we are able to replace our self-importance with the practice of inclusive, welcoming love. 

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said:  We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.  

Without love, we are no more than an unrelated pile of individual branches, none of them connected to another.  But with love, we become a strong tree, able to withstand the buffets and blows of life.  Living out our love is a constant struggle, because the natural tendency of human beings is towards greed and selfishness, for me first, and you only if there’s enough left over.

For centuries one of the major dividing lines in western Christianity has been the church – Protestants against Catholics, Catholics against Protestants…. And different kinds of Protestants against one another.  We lost focus on that call to love, and let the war mindset take over. 

Today, the United Church of Christ, our denominational family, has re-set our priorities and declares that all the church is one, that no part of the church is better or closer to God, than another.  We stand against the kind of dismissal that divides.

In the same way, we stand against the dismissals that divide in our public lives. 

You know, not all wars involve actually shooting people.  We’re engaged in a war right now, a war between those who believe that some people naturally deserve more and those who believe that everyone deserves a place at the table.  Some folks would say it’s a war between Republicans and Democrats, but I don’t think that’s true now, if it ever were.  Neither Republicans nor Democrats believe that some folks are better than others.  But there are people, people who maybe hide behind acceptable labels, who do think that we’d be better off with fewer people getting Medicaid, or food assistance, better off with lower taxes for the wealthy, and so on.  

That kind of attitude has always been a part of life.  The person who, down my way, tries to block access to the beach for their town, thinks they’re better, that they have more rights, and is a cousin to the one who thinks that because they have lots and lots of money that they matter more than anyone else.

You can see them now, coming to their church, sitting in “the best seat”, and expecting that the church is blessed by their presence, seeing no need to be the least bit humble.  And  you can see the folks next to them, the ones who’ve heard the story of love, who follow that path, welcoming everyone, treating all with love, refusing to go along to get along.

That’s who God is calling us to be, people who believe that everyone matters, people who know that hatred leads to destruction, people who let their love shine out.

Amen.

 © 2025, Virginia H. Child

May 18, 2025  First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA

Isaiah 43:18-21 ¹⁸ Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. ¹⁹ I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. ²⁰ The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, ²¹ the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

Acts 15:1-12 Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. 

³ So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. ⁵ But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.” 

⁶ The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. ⁷ After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. ⁸ And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, ⁹ and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.

¹⁰ Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹ On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” 

¹² The whole assembly kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the gentiles.

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.

Some years ago, Barbara Brown Zikmund, one of the great voices of the United Church of Christ over the past fifty years, sketched out a list of things that make the UCC different.  These beliefs are not individually unique to us, but as a whole, describe a way of being church, being human that is “us”….  

Last week, I started sharing this list with you.  As I began to work on this week’s sermon, I realized that I had omitted any introduction or explanation, and consequently, you had little chance to hear the list as a whole or to understand how it can help us understand how God guide us in our living.

So, first, let me share the entire list with you.  You don’t need to take notes!  I still expect we’ll explore each of these characteristics on a Sunday.. I just want us to remember that each of them is part of a whole.  

Think about it this way:  many of us have a fixed menu we always have at Thanksgiving, right?  While most of us have turkey, and some of us have something like enchiladas, whatever is the “usual” can vary widely… though each of them makes up a Thanksgiving feast.  This list is our “Thanksgiving feast menu”.  Other ways of describing faith in Christ are good, too, but this one is ours.

What makes the UCC different?

A view that Jesus is the head of the church.
A vision that the church is called to be ONE.
An insistence that God is still speaking.
A belief that Statements of Faith are testimonies.
A sense of calling to seek a Just World for all.
A conviction that the basic unit is the local church.
A desire to cultivate autonomy and mutuality.
A commitment to honor covenantal relationships.
A belief that all members are called to ministry.
A trust that the Holy Spirit will guide the church.

Last week, we learned that we believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the church – that is, no human is in charge, all of us lead under the guidance of Jesus. We learned that because each of us is capable of hearing Jesus, all of us have a voice in the life of the church.  You’ll live that equality out in a few months when each one of you will have a vote in the calling of your new pastor.  While pretty much all Christian churches say that Jesus is the head of the church, only those with a congregational style of government, expect every member to have a vote in the work of the church.  In many other Christian systems of government, either a bishop, or a board of elders, or some other limited group, makes all decisions.  But we believe that because Jesus speaks to all, all have a voice, each is free to speak, and all must be heard.  That’s why the belief that Jesus is the head of the church is so important to us.

Picture the apostles in the story I read from Acts.  It’s early in the life of the church, and there are a lot of major issues that haven’t been settled yet.  Today’s story is one of them.  The immediate concern is circumcision, and behind that lies the question as to just how much of the Jewish law do Gentiles have to follow.  As time goes on, Christian leaders will begin to see that they are being led beyond being Jewish; our roots are in Judaism, but we are not Jews.  This is the beginning of that exploration, that discovery.  So, how does the process go?  People bring up the question.  They all discuss it, and then bring it to the major leaders in Jerusalem.  They looked closely at what this rule meant to the new believers who were joining them, and then they chose the more inclusive way.  From that point on, the church in Jerusalem would not require new believers to follow the law of Moses, to be Jews as well as Christ-followers. 

The words from Isaiah reassure us that this new thing, this new understanding that we receive will be good, that it will bring refreshment to those who suffer, water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  When God speaks, good happens.

Today, therefore, I want us to look at our insistence that God is still speaking.  This is one of our distinctive beliefs.  It marks us particularly, in a way we don’t share with all Christians.  We believe that just because we thought we understood what God was saying yesterday, that doesn’t mean that we won’t hear more, hear more clearly, understand better, recognize new in the changing conditions of our world.  We will not be captured by yesterday’s understandings.

We expect that new occasions will call forth new understandings.  Most churches do respond to changing ways… although I know of a church back in my home town that still sings without instruments because someone decided in the 1600s that when Jesus Christ came, he ended any need for instruments….  

But we do not wait to be forced into allowing new understandings of our world; we look at, live in the world as it is today, and we expect that we will need to expand our understanding of the world.  The reality of this means that we are often on the leading edge of expanding understanding.

When the English ancestors of the Congregational Churches came here, they came intent on re-inventing how church worked.  They’d seen the misuses of power in the English church, the pastors who were appointed despite their inadequacies, the ways that different voices were silenced.  When they came here, they re-created how church worked.  They even re-designed church buildings to help us more clearly see God.  

Over the centuries, we’ve continued to re-think what church is, what following Jesus requires.  That’s meant that we were often the first group of churches to do new things:  

• We were the first denomination to ordain a woman to Christian ministry in 1853.  
• Our local churches were some of the earliest Christian congregations to make a stand against slavery.  
• In 1972, the Golden Gate Association of the California Norther Conference, ordained a gay man to ministry.  
• In 1976, we elected the first African-American leader of the denomination.  
• We endorsed gay marriage at a General Synod (national meeting) in 2005.  
• We created the first foreign mission society, here in Massachusetts, back in 1810.  
• Congregationalist started the American School for the Deaf in Hartford in 1817.

It goes on and on. It’s all about a built-in propensity when we meet new occasions,

• to see the people who are affected by what’s going on
• to wonder why this is the way it is
• to ask questions about what can be done, about how we can best follow God,
• and to move into new ways, even when they challenge us.

Think about the changes we’ve seen in the way that children relate to the church over the last 25 years… it used to be that we expected our children to attend Sunday school every week, and expected that within that area, they’d learn the stories of Jesus and would come to love and serve God when they became adults.  Just about every church had some version of a graded school, complete with teachers and curriculum, led by wonderful people who often gave up the gift of Sunday worship in devotion to our children.  

Then, in the late 1980s, the children stopped coming.  Every year, there were fewer and fewer children.  

Sure, some churches didn’t wonder; they just kept expecting that “next year will be different.” But other churches started asking what was going on.  We looked around and realized how much children were separated from our actual worship life.  We realized it had become possible, even likely, that our young people might attend Sunday school every week, and yet not attend church itself, ever.  We wondered if that was a good way to introduce them to worship and the life of faith.  We recognized that, with the abuse of children in some churches, parents were increasingly nervous about allowing their youngest to be out of their oversight.  

Out of the changes in our world, and our own concern for our children, we began to make changes.  More and more churches are doing what we are – establishing a place for our youngest children to be themselves, Our children’s corner is one of the best responses I’ve seen.  It brings children into church, allows them to take part in the service to the extent that works for them.  It protects them from unhealthy situations.  And our older children are invited to be a part of the worship itself, that they might grow into a faith that sustains them throughout their lives. 

All this started with our clear-eyed recognition of a change happening, our curiosity about what was really going on, and our courage in trying something new.  God is still speaking.

We went through the same process when it came to welcoming women to ordained leadership in the church, and when we began to explicitly welcome LGBT+ people to participation in the church and to ordination.  In each case, we began with a change in our understanding of what it meant to be a part of God’s community.  

Could we be whole, could we live into God’s vision, if some of us were – by the structure of our church – kept outside, prevented from full participation?  And you know, that same question is now driving us to recognize the way our structure, habits and assumptions have built invisible barriers for Black people, for poor people, for immigrants, for all those who are met with scorn by our society.   God is still speaking.

This is God’s gift to us, that we might fulfill our call.  We are gifted with a God who arouses in us curiosity, who calls forth our compassion, and who leads us to be people of compassion and love.

God is still speaking. 

Amen.

 ©2025, Virginia H. Child