Shows
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCOne Flesh (A Year W Sermon)For the beginning of Lent, we're taking it all the way back to The Beginning, when God made the entire variety of human beings from one flesh. Yet ever since, it seems, we have been dividing and categorizing and ranking people because they are different. And from the beginning, women have borne the brunt of that division. But God loves our differences and God doesn't divide. So can we get a do-over? Can we begin again, better? (Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25) Rev. John MacIver Gage, preaching.This sermon is part of our Year W project, spending a year l...2023-02-2823 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCTrickle Up (A Year W Sermon)In this country we’ve long been told by so-called experts that the best way to help Main Street and the folks struggling to live there is to support Wall Street and the fat cat corporations that do very well there, that they economic blessings bestowed on them will trickle down to those below. But those below are still waiting. Good thing God doesn’t wait and helps them first. (Luke 4:16-27; 1 Kings 17:8-16) Rev. John MacIver Gage, preaching.This sermon is part of our Year W project, spending a year listening for the voices of women, girl...2023-02-2823 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCThe Multiplication of Blessing (A Year W Sermon)Sadly, we don’t talk much about blessings these days, aside from the holidays, perhaps, when we are reminded to “count our blessings.” Which is fine as far as it goes, but if we stop there, we miss the point that we are called to multiply and share our blessings, even--espeically--with those we deem 'least likely." Because that's what God does. That's who God is. (Genesis 17:15-22; Luke 1:39-45) Preacher: The Rev. John MacIver GageThis sermon is part of our yearlong Year W journey, a year listening for the voices of women, girls, and the divine feminin...2022-12-1319 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCChoosing People (A Year W Sermon)If you’ve been around the church at all, especially around Christmas time, you’re likely familiar with the story of the Annunciation, when God announces to Mary that has been chosen to bear a special blessing. But the Biblical witness is that God chooses lots of people, many even less well-off and far less well remembered than Mary, including Hagar. (Luke 1:26-38; Genesis 16:7-13) Preacher: The Rev. John MacIver GageThis sermon is part of our yearlong Year W journey, a year listening for the voices of women, girls, and the divine feminine in scripture with the g...2022-12-1328 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCOur Peculiar IdolatryIdolatry is such an old-fashioned word. But what else can we call it when we value some thing, some possession, profit, or principle more than the lives of actual people? In our United States, guns are one of our peculiar idols, and the sacrifices just keep piling up. (Luke 3:1-6) Rev. John MacIver Gage, preaching.---The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a radically inclusive, justice-seeking, peace- making, love-affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA. Join us for hybrid worship on-site and online LIVE! via Zoom, Sundays @ 10am ET...2022-05-3033 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCDear EarthIn our faith tradition, God calls us to be stewards of creation, to “take care of it and look after it” (Genesis 2:15). But as Buddhist teacher, activist, and poet Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us in his book Love Letters to the Earth, that “it” is us. We are the earth and the earth is us. And we care for the earth not out of external obligation but from an intimate place of love. Now, when creation is suffering so, it’s a good time to remember that… and to say it, out loud, maybe even write it down to remember. Re...2022-04-2524 min
Yes! We're Open: Living Faith with Needham UCCWhile It Was Still Dark1am. 2am 3am. Technically, these are early morning hours, but as anyone who’s woken up then knows, it is still quite dark. Sometimes only the clock tells you it’s the morning and not midnight. The Gospel According to John is clear that, just as a new day is born in the dark, whatever resurrection is, it’s something that begins while it is still dark. And doubt is one of the Easter dark's greatest gifts. (John 20:1-18) The Rev. John MacIver Gage, preaching---The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a radica...2022-04-1726 min