Courage

Courage (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 12:1-3, Romans 12:1-2
June 10, 2018

But now they desire a better Country
that is an heavenly: wherefore God
is not ashamed to be called their God:
for he hath prepared for them a city

Do you recognize these words?  They are printed on the plaque that hangs in the South Street entrance of our church, honoring our six charter members: Abram Hosford, John Leavitt, Joseph and Cynthia White, and Levi and Mary Worcester. … Continue reading ...

Creation

Creation (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 1:1 – 2:4
Revelation 21:1-5
April 22, 2018

It would have been easier to do nothing.

It would have been easier if God made nothing: no heavens, no earth, no universe, no us.  If God made nothing, no thing, if there were no human beings, no human history, God would surely be spared so much anguish, so much heartbreak, so much bitter disappointment. … Continue reading ...

You have to go outside

You have to go outside (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 1:1 – 2:4
June 15, 2014

(Play excerpt from Dan Gibson, “Land of the Loons”)

Welcome to my world …

Lakes, cold and deep and blue, sometimes still, sometimes raging, dense forests of long-needled pine and aromatic cedar and glistening birch.

The haunting call of a loon, the deliberate and unruffled movements of a moose raising itself from the water onto the lakeshore, swimming beaver and soaring eagle and stealthy walleye.… Continue reading ...

Ishmael

Ishmael (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 16:1-16, 21:1-21
June 22, 2014

Most people come to church, I think, for one of two reasons: to find answers or to find help.

Some of us come to church to find answers.  We come from a life overfilled with ambiguity and uncertainty and conflict.  We want to be able to sort it all out, to make sense of it. … Continue reading ...

May the Lord spare you an untested faith

May the Lord spare you an untested faith (Click on the sermon title for a .pdf copy)
Genesis 22:1-14
June 29, 2014

Some time later God tested Abraham …

God tested Abraham?  Why?  Hasn’t he been tested enough already?

Asked to leave home, family, everything that was familiar, to go to a new land that God would show him …

Made a promise of many descendants, but waiting and waiting, waiting until he was a very old man before Isaac, the son of the promise, was born …

Already having to give up one son, already losing Ishmael …

Why test Abraham again?… Continue reading ...