Recent Sermon Videos
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...Now Available as a Podcast!In an attempt to make our weekly sermons more accessible and more useful to you, we're now posting them as an audio-only podcast we're calling "Yes, We're Open! Living Faith with Needham UCC." You can find the podcast and subscribe to it on all your favorite podcast services including iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and others. (If you can't find it on your favorite service, let us know and we'll put it there.) So now it's even easier to listen around the house or in the car and even share a favorite sermon with someone you think might like to hear it.
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More Recent Sermons
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Grieve
"Revolutionary Love" Series, 2/9 It's said that "into each life a little rain must fall." And it's so true. There is no life that doesn't involve loss, and there's no love that doesn't involve grief; in fact, as Valerie Kaur says in "See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love," grief is the price of love. And grieving together--compassion--is a choice that creates a larger, transformational "we." So we have to ask: Are we willing to sit in the rain with one another, for love? (Matthew 23:37-39) This is Part 2 of a 9-part series this fall putting Valarie Kaur's See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love in conversation with Gospel stories of Jesus. |
Wonder
"Revolutionary Love" Series, 1/9 September 12, 2021 In her book, "See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love," author and activist Valarie Kaur says "wonder is where love begins." Are we willing to wonder about other people, who they are, what their lives are like, why they do what they do? Remember Zacchaeus, that "wee little man" (and notorious sinner) who climbed a sycamore tree just to see Jesus? Wonder what would have happened had Jesus not stopped to wonder about him? Because wonder draws the circle wider. (Luke 19:1-10) This is Part 1 of a 9-part series this fall putting Valarie Kaur's See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love in conversation with Gospel stories of Jesus. |
Listening to the Silence: More Than Dis(Ability)
September 5, 2021 The Church tells so many stories of Jesus healing people that illness, disability, and healing all have become enduring metaphors for the life of faith. But for people living with disabilities, they’re not just metaphors, and they themselves aren’t objects for pity, aide, or inspiration. So let’s reconsider Jesus’ interaction with this “deaf man who had an impediment in his speech” from Mark 7:31-37, and the Church’s. The way we tell stories matters. The way we listen matters even more. We are indebted to author and disability activist Rebekah Anderson for her reflection on the body of God. This episode also includes a version of the classic hymn, "Just As I Am Without One Plea," with new words written by Rev. John Gage, "Just As I Am With This My Plea." |
What Are Your Gospel Accessories?
August 22, 2021 Ephesians 6 famously describes the gifts believers are given for the life of faith and the struggle against injustice: “the armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness.” But that way of thinking about spiritual gifts isn’t one-size-fits-all. What are your particular gifts, your “gospel accessories,” tailored just to you and to the needs of our historical moment? And are you working them as God intends? (Ephesians 6:10-20) |
"Grounded"
A sermon series from Spring 2021 (re)considering some core concepts in our faith that shape what and how we believe... and how we live.
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"Grounded" Series 8/8
The Holy Spirit's More April 11, 2021 Christians sometimes give the impression we are backward-leaning people, that God and everything good are in the past, and we're just trying to turn back the clock. But the truth is God leans forward, toward us and toward a world not restored but resurrected. Through inspiration, imagination, and innovation, the Holy Spirit show us the best is yet to come. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6, 12, 17-18) |
"Grounded" Series 7/8
Death & Hope: An Easter Story April 4, 2021 "They hung on the stranger's every word. As the day and their journey drew to a close, they couldn’t stand to let him go, so they asked him to stay for dinner. But still they didn’t recognize him. They felt the presence of the holy with them, reframing their questions, shifting their thinking, drawing them out of their old lives and opening the door to another, better way, but they didn’t have a name for it. 'Were not our hearts burning inside us?'" (Luke 24:13-35) |
"Grounded" Series 6/8
Hosanna!:Justice, Peace, Salvation & the Kingdom of God March 28, 2021 In his first sermon Jesus declared "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news," the same message he embodies as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But what is the point of this preaching, really? Personal salvation? Political reform? Some say it's got to be one or other. But what if it's both? What if the Kingdom of God is justice and peace and salvation, personal and political? As we head into Holy Week, it's a good time to ask again: What governs your life? (Isaiah 65::17-25) |
"Grounded" Series 5/8
Prayer: Making the Connection March 21, 2021 People often think of monastics as people who've retreated away from life into the church. But that wasn't the case for Julian of Norwich a 14th Century English anchorite, whose confinement opened her heart to the whole world--and not in some abstract way, but in an experience as small and hard and concrete as a hazelnut. So we'll talk about hazelnuts, the world, and the infinite love of God, and how sharing the nitty-gritty of our lives in prayer connects us to them all, and one another |
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"Grounded" Series 4/8
Incarnation: God is in the House March 14, 2021 At Christmas we ask "What Child is This?" and sing about God being "pleased as man [sic] with man to dwell"--in other words, we reflect on The Incarnation, the enflesh-ment of God in Jesus. But this isn't just another "Prince and the Pauper," king-in-disguise story. The mystery of the incarnation--that God is found in our humanity and our humanity in God--is an everyday mystery, but no less mind-blowing and life-changing for being so common; in fact, that's kinda the point. (John 1:1-14) |
"Grounded" Series 3/8
Sin: Not Just the Dots But the Whole Picture March 7, 2021 Sin is a strong word with a lot of baggage. Many of us have internalized the idea that a sin is a demerit, a ding on our permanent record that, if we earn enough of them, will keep us out of heaven when we die. But if we back up a bit, those individual dots may form a very different picture. If we recalibrate our thinking about sin--and forgiveness--focusing on our relationships rather than our spiritual report card, maybe we won't have to wait till we die to live abundantly. Which is the whole point. (1 John 1:2-5) |
"Grounded" Series 2/8
Creation: A Family History February 28, 2021 The Bible is full of dysfunctional family histories: Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, David and Bathsheba. But behind them all is the story of the conflict between humanity and the rest of creation. Because animal, mineral, vegetable, we are one family, children of the same God. What if we saw the rest of the creation as neighbors, friends, siblings, rather than competitors or property? If this pandemic season has taught us anything, it's that we're a part of creation and not apart from. (Acts 17:22-28) |
"Grounded" Series 1/8
What is Church for? February 21, 2021 Lent is a season in the life of the church for reflection, when we intentionally sift our lives, all that we do and leave undone, looking to build upon all that is life-giving, for ourselves and our neighbors, and leave behind all that is not. It's a time to sink our roots deeper into God's good soil and grow from there. This Lent, to help us get grounded again, we'll re-examine some core concepts in our faith and ask how they may lead us to that abundant life which is God's intention for all creation--or not. First up, this week we'll talk about the call of the Church, especially in relation to our call as individual Christians, and ask What is Church for, anyway? |