Luke 8:26-39 Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark October 18, 2020 They didn’t want him to get well. For years, the Gerasene people had supposedly cared for this man, keeping him under guard, in chains and shackles, pretending they were doing so for his own protection. They devoted time and energy and resources and angst to […]
The Church as a Lens of Hope
Dear friends, On September 20, we celebrated Rev. Dr. Karen Nell Smith’s installation as our associate pastor for faith formation and outreach. It was a joyous, memorable occasion on many levels: the Stewart-Morales-Aguirre family’s altar-scape, dramatic scripture readings by Ava Walker and Robert Mitchell, children running all over campus searching for treasure hunt clues. The […]
Shaking the Prison
Acts 16:16-34 Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark October 11, 2020 It’s an ancient story, and it’s a story for today. It’s a story of economic exploitation, as a young girl—enslaved– is compelled to use her gifts to make her owners rich. It’s a story of corruption, as wealthy people use the power of government to protect […]
Through the Roof
Luke 5:17-26 Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark September 27, 2020 There is so much pain. There is pain wrought by this pandemic—over 200,000 lives lost in our nation, each one with family and friends who are grieving. There is the pain of small business owners who poured their hearts and souls into their shops and […]
Statement from the Council
On September 15, 2020, the Edwards Church Council voted unanimously to endorse the following statement of conviction. It was written by members of the Board of Wider Mission and was originally published as a letter to the editor in the Metrowest Daily News on June 28. The deaths of David McAtee, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, […]
Not By Accident
Luke 19:1-10 Rev. Dr. Debbie Clark Sept. 7, 2020 We had never met. Fran and I have lived in our house for 24 years. George and Sharon have lived in their house, about two blocks away, for almost as long. It’s on my regular dog-walking route, so I have passed their home at least a […]
A Horrible, Horrifying Week: A Pastoral Reflection
Dear friends, What a horrible, horrifying week this has been. Fires are raging in California; an “unsurvivable” hurricane has battered Louisiana—horrible. Jacob Blake is paralyzed after being shot in the back seven times by a police officer; demonstrators Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were killed by a 17-year-old with an assault rifle—horrifying. A reminder of […]
Wading In
Mark 1:9-11 Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark August 23, 2020 “Here we are—Energy, Mass, Life, Shaping Life, Mind, Shaping Mind, God, Shaping God. Consider—we are born not with purpose but with potential.” These are the opening words of The Parable of the Talents, a science fiction dystopian novel written by Octavia Butler, a ground-breaking, award-winning African-American science […]
Walking in the Wind
Reading from Walking in the Wind by John Lewis Mark 4:35-41 Rev. Dr. Deborah L. Clark July 26, 2020 The story is devastating and uplifting, both at the same time. It is devastating in the picture it paints of our human vulnerability. We are like children—little children—in a rickety house in a storm, in danger of […]
Mine?
Genesis 28:10-19a We were there—Cindy Booth, Sarah MacLennan, Fran, Fran’s Dad Reese, and I—on our pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2012. We were there, at the place traditionally identified as the site of Jacob’s life-changing dream. I decided to see if I could enter into the story more fully. I lay down on the […]