So I read something quite compelling this week. A pastor, Bill Carter, suggests that the only church worth having, the only church worth belonging to, is a charismatic church. And he tells of a time when he was in a Christian bookstore. A customer learned from a sales clerk that he was a pastor. She turned to him and said, “I’m new…
United Church of Christ
10 AM Sunday Worship
218 Main Street, Groton, MA
218 Main Street, Groton, MA
Sermons by Rev. Gail Miller (Page 14)
A while back I ran into someone that I hadn’t seen in years. But I remembered that she’d had a birthday recently and so I said, “Happy Birthday!” Well, she was confused by this and I realized that I had crossed that invisible line that divides friends from mere acquaintances. Only good and close friends know when your birthday is. So how…
The 2013 Official Rules of Major League Baseball is a book of 240 pages in length. Maybe you would expect it to be that long, or maybe even longer. No doubt it takes a good many rules to organize a nationwide sports league – the NFL, NBA, NHL… But I wonder, the average baseball fan…
They say that at least once a year on a Sunday morning, pastors ought to preach a funeral sermon. The thinking is that throughout any given year, you all will know someone who’s died who may not have had a funeral or memorial service, or maybe you weren’t able to make it to a service…
Now that we’re in the third article (section) of the creed, I think it’s helpful if we think of last week as the “topic sentence” – I believe in the Holy Spirit – and then the phrases that come after as under that. The Holy Spirit has everything to do with the church, the communion…
The story goes about the brand new pastor who had been in his first church for just over one month. One day, he heard a knock at the door of the parsonage. “Is that the Methodist church?” a grinning stranger asked. He said yes. “Is this the parsonage?” “Yes ma’am, it is.” “Well, I need…
I have been enjoy our time with the Apostles’ Creed this year as a sort of journey. On the calendar it has a beginning, middle and an end. Feb. 17, March 31, and May 19th to be exact. It has sections where the road is smooth, sharp corners that take us to new places (descended…
Normally, the Bible reading for today begins a number of Sundays when we hear the stories of Jesus appearing to the disciples in his resurrection body. And as we move through them we are reminded that in the Church, Easter is a season, not just a day. So we’ll leave the resurrection balloon up until…
Expectations – Expectations have everything to do with how we experience the world around us and the events we encounter. Sometimes our expectations will miss the mark and we’ll be surprised – either for the better or for the worse. Other times our expectations can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy and we’ll get just what…
The story is a little out of order tonight. This day – Maundy Thursday – is intended to commemorate the last night before Jesus died, focusing on the Last Supper. Tomorrow – Good Friday – we remember Jesus’ death; and Saturday – the “silent” day when nothing seems to be happening in the story –…