The Journey to Bethlehem Edward Church rocks…come rock with us! After a busy November, we find ourselves at the beginning of Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas. Christian Explorers will help during worship by bringing in and out the light and collecting the offering. Each Sunday, we’ll focus on a different part of the […]
More Than Thank You
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Creator of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfilment of the Holy One’s own purpose God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of […]
Spirit of Courage
A dialogue Pentecost sermon by Karen Nell Smith and Debbie Clark When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, […]
“What have we learned?” By Karen Nell Smith For Edwards Church, UCC, in Framingham Sunday, September 5, 2021 God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn […]
The Old Farmhouse
A Lenten Devotion by Karen Nell Smith As I watched in the night visions… Daniel 7:13 When the end is clear, the present takes on infinitely more meaning. For 20 years, my parents lived in an old farmhouse. We loved that place…surrounded by rolling green fields, a huge red barn, an icy cold Vermont stream […]
Thin Places
A Lenten Devotion by Karen Nell Smith …In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. Psalm 104:17 I always felt that the farthest corner of my grandparent’s backyard was a “thin place.” It was a quiet, peaceful place with a lovely stone bench beneath tall pine trees. […]
Dirt Under My Fingernails
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some […]
Strangers in Our Midst
A Lenten Devotion by Karen Nell Smith The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, […]
Following
Matthew 4:12-23 Picture this…eight days, four people, stuffed into a small rental car, traveling on narrow, winding roads through the foothills to the Alps. I start today with this story. In the fall of 1992, I took a trip with my parents to Switzerland. Our lives were in this unsettled, liminal kind of time. […]
Leftovers
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 Preaching in the season of stewardship. I must admit that it’s not my most favorite time to preach. You know…preaching about money, giving, making a stewardship pledge. Maybe it’s the old New England Yankee in me. One doesn’t talk about money. It’s not polite. Just not done. Then I found a poem […]