Prayer of the Week

Violence and intimidation by white supremacist hate groups dominated our thinking and deepened our sorrows this weekend. In the scripture readings yesterday we were reminded of Jesus walking across the water to the nearly swamped disciples. Peter asks for this ghostly figure to prove he is Jesus by telling him, “Lord if it is you,… Read more.

In this Third week of Lent we read in the scriptures of Jesus encounter with a woman in a Samaritan town. He asks for a drink, she wonders why a Jew would take anything from a Samaritan, and he tells her he would gladly give her “living water” and never be thirsty again. She ponders… Read more.

Rev. Rachel in her sermon today on the Beatitudes stressed the reifying nature of Jesus inaugural sermon in the Gospel of Matthew. By blessing those seemingly without blessing, he challenges the status quo both for those in unfortunate circumstances, and for those who didn’t think it had anything to do with them. In these “troublous”… Read more.

Today we begin a new year. Not a new calendar year, but a new church year launched by the season of Advent, the four weeks prior to Christmas day. The Christian year doesn’t begin with accomplishment or with an event. Instead is starts where we all start: with yearning and preparation. This Advent Union Church… Read more.

A Word from Rev. Kent on Election Day: At the center of the Christian path is the walk that leads us toward others. We follow Jesus toward the stranger, toward the one wounded on the side of the road, even toward our enemies in need. Today millions of Americans are headed to the polls. That,… Read more.

Ever feel like all you have in this world is a lot of nothing? Emotionally, physically, relationship-wise, materially we can feel entirely less than perfect. It doesn’t help, though, to try to puff ourselves up, or boast about anything that separates us from good relations with each other or with God. In Luke we read… Read more.

This week we joined thousands of other churches, synagogues, mosques and temples in celebrating International Children’s Sabbath: giving thanks for children and youth, and pledging ourselves to their wellbeing and fair treatment. In Church the children helped Rev. Kent tell the story of the widow who knocked and knocked and knocked on the unjust judge’s… Read more.

Recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco meeting with refugee and displaced migrant families,  Rev. Kent meditated in his sermon on the nature of “Home” when no permanent place can be claimed in that way. The experience of those fleeing persecution and war may be far from our insulated… Read more.