DATE: April 15, 2012
SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 133; John 20:19-31
BY:
Chad Tanaka Pack

It was evening. I drove up the curved path and past the front of the church, rounded the corner, stepped on my brake dutifully at the stop sign, and then proceeded into the parking lot at the back of the meeting house. Because it was early spring, the sun was lingering a little longer above the horizon, a ripe blood orange filtering through bare black branches silhouetted against a grey-white sky. As I opened my car door, I heard the slam of other car doors and the murmur of voices greeting each other in the damp dusk air. One by one we entered the meeting house, through the side door, up the flight of stairs, and past the fire doors. Continue reading →

DATE: April 8, 2012, Easter
SCRIPTURE:
Mark 16: 1-8
BY: Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

Lord Jesus Christ,

Take our hands and work with them;
take our lips and speak through them;
take our minds and think with them;
take our hearts and set them on fire
with love for you and all your people;
for your name’s sake.

Amen.

Continue reading →

DATE: April 6, 2012 – Good Friday
SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 53: 4 – 12; John 19: 17 – 30
BY:
Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

When I was in eighth grade we had to read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. If you’re not familiar with the story, it begins on a warm June morning in small town, about 300 people. Folks are gathering in the town square. The children are there first, restless with play, since school had released them for the summer. Then the men of the town gather, talking of planting and tractors and other sundry details of their lives. The women come from hanging laundry or other housework, calling to their children and husbands and soon family groups begin to form. Continue reading →

DATE: April 1, 2012 (Palm Sunday)
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29; Mark 11: 1-11
BY: Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

We aren’t given many opportunities to make procession in today’s world nor do we create many opportunities for them, either. The closest thing would be a parade and even then we save those for holidays and special occasions. One way that our nation used to honor someone was to give them a ticker tape parade in New York City. Astronauts, presidents, and other public figures have ridden in a shower of shredded paper through the financial district. And when anyone dies they are honored with a procession to the grave. Listen to this account of a funeral procession. Continue reading →

DATE: March 25, 2012
SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 51: 1-12; John 12: 20-33
BY:
Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

It seems hard to believe but we’re approaching the end of Lent. Next week is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the beginning of our keeping vigil with Jesus as he moves toward Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Are you ready? Do you feel like you’re prepared for all this? Whether we realize it or not we are following a man to his execution. I don’t know of anything that would prepare me for that; except perhaps preparing for my own death. Eventually I am, we are, all going to die. Like the song says, we won’t get out of this world alive. Continue reading →

DATE: March 18, 2012
SCRIPTURE:
Numbers 21: 4-9; Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22
BY: Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

Lord Jesus Christ,

Take our hands and work with them;
take our lips and speak through them;
take our minds and think with them;
take our hearts and set them on fire
with love for you and all your people;
for your name’s sake.

Amen.

Continue reading →

DATE: March 4, 2012
SCRIPTURE:
Mark 8: 27-38
BY:
Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

Lord Jesus Christ,

Take our hands and work with them;
take our lips and speak through them;
take our minds and think with them;
take our hearts and set them on fire
with love for you and all your people;
for your name’s sake.

Amen.

Continue reading →

DATE: February 26, 2012
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 9: 8-17; Mark 1: 9-15
BY: Rev. Cynthia E. Robinson

The summer I turned 15, I was enrolled at a day camp as a counselor in training. One of the requirements of our training was that we would take a course in junior lifesaving in the freshwater pond where the camp was located. I had had rigorous swimming lessons since I was 8 years old but mostly in clear, chlorinated, heated pools. I didn’t know any of my fellow CITs outside of that camp. And our instructor was a handsome, burly 19 year old college student from UMass Amherst who looked like he was 25. To say the least, I was a bit intimidated by the thought of learning how to rescue someone from drowning. Continue reading →

Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
DATE: January 22, 2012
SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 12:1-5a, Mark 1:16-20  

Genesis 12:1-5a

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; *and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.

Mark 1:16-20

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

 

Continue reading →