Exodus 24:12-18; Matthew 17:1-9
Rev. Coqui Conkey, February 3, 2008
Your mountaintop experiences, your high times, and your clearly holy encounters serve to orient you and give you direction. Retell your stories and let your memories of those experiences once again clarify your essence. Return again to the mountaintop. Wait on God.
Chester O'Gorman, December 16, 2007
God's call to Mary is a blessing that, even if it entails difficulty and tragedy, ultimately lifts up the lowly....Herein lies the true miracle! In the Immaculate Conception, God gives us the opportunity to see the truth about ourselves, a cruel aspect of our culture, and purge it. Condemnation of Mary comes because we're trained to see women and their sexuality in terms of economic and sexual value. God's in-breaking into our lives through the miracle challenges us to question our values and assumptions, and see women differently, as God sees Mary! The eyes of God, the eyes of love, call us to see that womanhood and motherhood possess inherent worth.
Jeremiah 23.1-6, Psalm 46, Luke 23.33-43, Colossians 1.11-20
Chester O’Gorman, November 25, 2007
By accepting His death and maintaining His innocence, God in Christ deprives us of the power to form community at the expense of scapegoats. The cross that rests at the center of our faith is a warning. The reality of the broken body and blood that’s thrust upon us every Sunday forces us to confront the real consequences of our real violence, and severely judges that violence. It calls us to task for justifying oppression with lies, and excusing sins by blaming others.
Isaiah 12, Luke 21: 1-19
Rev. Dr. Beth A. Donaldson, November 18, 2007
So, what are we – a little church on the corner of a highway and a street, next to a lake – to do about all of this? We are not significant enough to make a real difference, we might say. But I question this. I really do.
Huge institutions already exist, and we are still in the mess we are in! Size doesn’t change the world. And honestly, might doesn’t really change the world either. What we have, and what we do with it – all of us – every single on eof us – changes the world.
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10
Rev. Coqui Conkey, November 4, 2007
I have wondered how far we would go to see Jesus, individually and as a congregation. Could we be like children excited, so filled with joy that nothing could keep us back? And how could we respond when Jesus recognized us up in the tree and said, “Hey, get down here. I’m coming to your place for dinner?” How could we point out the actions that mark our faith?
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
Pastor Coqui Conkey, September 23, 2007
Prayer ... isn’t just an exercise in coming into the presence of the Holy. Margaret Silf wrote, “Prayer that works is prayer that makes a difference, contemplation that turns into action, on behalf of peace and justice in a troubled and unjust world system. Prayer is energy, the energy of love and transformative power. It is given to us to use for the good of all creation. In prayer God gives us the fuel of life, and asks us to live it,” Prayer is not passive and it is not a last resort.
Genesis 1:26-31; Luke 12:32-48
Rev. Coqui Conkey, August 12, 2007
Jesus said that the one found working would be rewarded. All of us, together and separately, must be about the work of caring for the treasure God entrusted to humankind. We can’t just pay for the privilege of continuing to use up resources in the way we have. In An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore repeats an African proverb, “When you pray, move your feet.” “When you pray, move your feet.” We must be at work making a difference, preserving our treasured gift.
Hosea 11:1-11, Luke 12:13-21
Rev. Dr. Beth A. Donaldson, August 5, 2007
When bridges fall, we are invited, not to regret that we are not God, but to rise to the humanity that is ours as a gift of God. ..... When bridges fall, after we have gasped in disbelief and mortality, we are called to great humanity. Come, my friends, God has equipped us well for this – let us become the glory of God – human beings fully alive, even in our sadness and grief and fear.
Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
Rev. Coqui Conkey, July 15, 2007
The lawyer asked what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. That lawyer knew the law and the commandments to love God and neighbor. But there is more. God’s Realm is about much more than following laws. We must instead embrace and embody the values of that Realm – compassion that compels us to see, stop, and act – and justice that keeps us at the scene working to right the wrongs until peace, until healing, until shalom is restored.
There were three who walked by the injured traveler. Which one are you?
Kings 19:1-18; Psalm 119:105-112; Matthew 5:14-16
Rev. Coqui Conkey, June 24, 2007
For fifty years the United Church of Christ has worked faithfully and diligently to shed light into dark corners....we have tried to keep ablaze the light of God within...the comma in the UCC’s slogan could serve as a reminder to take into account what has gone before. It presents an opportunity to consult the tradition with question in mind “How has God spoken in the past?” as prelude to an encounter with the new."
Psalm 8, Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Rev. Dr. Beth A. Donaldson, June 3, 2007
I never heard whether Cindy [Sheehan] got an audience with President Bush in those two years that she tried to share her wisdom. It’s not that I necessarily think she would have convinced him to end the war. But I do believe, without hesitation, that conversations about our truth – listened to deeply, DO CHANGE THE WORLD. It’s just that we don’t listen....
Genesis 15:1-6, John 17:20-26
Rev. Dr. Beth A. Donaldson, May 20, 2007
I have no idea how many members we have. I don’t really care. But I love that my church counts – that my church says, “You can count on me… Count me in… Count the ways of God’s love… Count it out carefully… You count!… and then, Counts these among its many blessings.” These I can say with confidence and pride – for these are the Glory of Christ, and the Glory of a church that counts. Amen.
