I recently had a visit from an old friend whose story is pretty common, at least around here. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. My friend grew up in a very religious home and a very conservative church. In fact, her father was a pastor. And out of love and respect for him, for God, for her church, and her family, she tried to do everything right and be who everyone wanted her to be. She grew up and married young. Her husband was a good man of the same faith and from the outside her life looked perfect. 

But not long into her marriage, she realized she couldn’t live a lie any longer...

I know it’s not a competition, but it’s hard to imagine a scripture passage that has done more damage to God’s image and the image of God in others than these verses we find at the end of Matthew’s gospel.

Known as “The Great Commission,” this passage initially inspired a small band of the penniless and powerless to range out into the world in loving service to all. The first followers of Jesus set out with the sole mission of…

Last week, in the midst of sermon prep, George’s graduation, and all the other things pastoring, partnering, and parenting require, I was fielding texts from a group of friends who were going to hike up Mt. Norwottuck on Saturday morning. It’s a challenging hike, between 700 and 1000 feet up to the top, but I was all in. I walk everyday and hiking is my happy place.



However, since I returned from Spain, I’ve had some pain in my hip, pain that was getting more acute as the week wore on. And yet,..

What are the 3 most important holy days in the Christian calendar?

This is not a trick question, though it does get tricky after # 2.

Any one want to take a stab at this? I can give out hints.

#1 (happens in December) Christmas. Yes!

#2 (happens in the Spring) Easter. (Brilliant!)

And #3 (starts with P) …. Pentecost?

I mean that’s the logical guess to make given that today is Pentecost Sunday, right? But hey - All Saints, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday?!? - you could be forgiven for thinking those are just as important.

In fact, if Pentecost didn’t...

On June 1, 2025, First Churches, St. Johns, Edwards, and Haydenville, UCC held our annual Ecumenical Pride Service. We were graced with the preaching of the Rev. Laura Everett. Her sermon is copied below, or you can read it at her website and see pictures of the wedding she references as part of her sermon.

https://reveverett.com/2025/06/03/because-you-loved-a-sermon-on-john-1724-for-northampton-ecumenical-pride-2025/

We commend the full service to you, full of testimonies and music that will move you.

Here is her sermon:

In 1971, in a London television studio, author James Baldwin, then 47, and poet Nikki Giovanni, then 28, sat down for a conversation about the state of Black life, love and gender relations.  

In that conversation, James Baldwin said this: 
“I am no expert with theology, which at the moment I realized, I carried in myself. You know, it was not the world that was my oppressor only. Because what the world does to you, is the world does it long enough and effectively enough.

You begin to do it to yourself. You become a collaborator, an accomplice of your own murder, because you believe the same things they do. No, you think it’s, they think it’s important to be white, and you think it’s important to be white. 
They think it’s shameful to be Black and, and you think it’s shameful to be Black. And you have no corroboration around you of any other sense of life. You know, all those corroborations which are around you are, in terms of the white majority standards, so deplorable, they frighten you to death.” End quote. 

You begin to do it to yourself. 
You become a collaborator,
an accomplice in your own murder,
Because you believe the same things they do.

Let us pray. 

Help us, O Lord.

Amen. 

The gospel reading for today from John 17, should be a meatball over home plate for someone who works for the unity of all Christians.  It’s the classic text “so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Except....

Friends, I’ve been pastoring here for 11 years, and even on my best days I’m still not entirely sure how I got here. It was certainly never part of my plan. If you’d told me thirty two years ago that I would one day be the pastor of the gigantic downtown church I could just see from my dorm room window up on Bedford Terrace, I would have told you that you were crazy because

A. women can’t be ministers.
&
B. that’s not even a real church.

And if you’d said, “what do you mean it’s not a real church?!?” I would have said, “They ordain women there, don’t they? Then they are not Biblical. Ergo, not a real church!”

Yeah, I know. I was wrong - like, so wrong - on all counts. And yet....

In Bible study this past Monday, we were reading through this passage from Romans and I began by asking everyone to share which parts of loving they are good at and which parts they struggle with?



“For example, are you good at showing zeal, “I asked, “but not so good at loving your enemies? Do you find it easy to be patient in suffering but hard not to be haughty? What are you good at when it comes to love and what do you struggle with?”



And our friend Paul over there said, “All of it.”



It was an honest answer, but also, the more I thought about it, an undeniably brilliant one. Because...

Today's worship was graced with beautiful music by Jeff Olmstead and a sacred conversation between Rev. Sarah Buteux and Rev. Diane Johnson. The computer needed to reboot so we missed the beginning of worship.

If you’ve listened to any of my recent sermons, you may have noticed that there are no shortage of things troubling me these days: rising authoritarianism, threats to free speech, America’s tarnished reputation on the world stage, and - although I haven’t dared to say this out loud till now - the fact that I can’t fit all of my spices into the spice drawer anymore.

It’s all been driving me a little crazy. I don’t know how it could come to this. I mean, I think we all start out with the best of intentions. By which I mean that we resolve to buy all of our spices from just one company like Penzeys, (any Penzeys fans in the house?) with the hope that they will all coexist nicely in a drawer or look pretty on a shelf.

But then, in moment of desperation,....

Eight days ago, at roughly 7:30 in the morning, I pulled my little Honda Fit into a parking space over at Sheldon Field, and took a deep breath. I was as prepared as I could be to lead a busload of people to the “Hands Off!” rally in Boston but, the truth is, I didn’t feel prepared at all.



I didn’t know exactly what we were walking into, where we were going, or how we would get ourselves out. I was afraid that someone in our group might get hurt or lost. There were already whispers of record size crowds and brewing opposition, icy rain and impossible traffic, none of which are my cup of tea. And it may sound silly, but I was even worried about when and where we would find bathrooms. I was happy to give a day of my life to all this, but I’m no Cory Booker. When I gotta go, I gotta go.

But most of all, I was afraid because ....

Greetings friends! It is so good to be back with you again. As you have heard, my name is Bekah Maren Anderson, and this morning I bring you greetings from the First Church of Winsted, which was the last place I preached. And I would ask once more for your permission to bring your greetings to the next place I preach?
Thank you.
Do you ever read a passage in the Bible, and go, "Oh, that's happened; I've lived this." That's the feeling I get from this passage. It reminds me viscerally of conversations I've had in some activist spaces. Someone talks about something they bought, or an activity they enjoy, and someone else says, "Don't you know how that thing contributes to insert problem or injustice here? Why are you spending your time or money on that?"
And there are a couple different versions of this conversation, right? There's the constructive version: the honest sharing of information, and brainstorming of alternatives. But then ... there's the less productive version: "Don't you know how bad that company is, _I would never support them." It's the implicit (or explicit) judgment. The implied superiority. The insinuation that, if you don't agree with me, you're probably a bad person.
And personally, even when that's the tone taken, I often find it really hard to push back. Because, well, what if they're right? What if I _....

Welcome to the Ministry of Reconciliation!
It sounds like something out of Harry Potter, doesn’t it? Or at least something very British.
Apparently everything over in the U.K. is run by ministries which sounds so much more interesting than running things out of “departments.” They have all sorts of ministries over there like the Ministry of Transmogrification or maybe it’s Transportation - (you know, where you go to renew your license). They have a Ministry of Defense and a Ministry of the Dark Arts, or maybe its a Ministry in defense of the Dark Arts? Either way, it all sounds very magical and mysterious. So I like the idea of inviting you all into the “Ministry of Reconciliation.”
And it beats the working title for this sermon which was, for the better part of a week… “God Loves Everyone You Hate.”
Yeah, that had a bit of an edge to it....