Claremont United Church of Christ

Our world, our lives, and sometimes our hearts feel messy. Thankfully, Jesus entered our mess and agreed to walk through it with us, never turning away from our pain and promising transformation along the journey. Lent is a season that celebrates transformation--in all its messy forms. Join us as we spend 40 days facing hard truths, taking responsibility, and creating something beautiful together through it all.

May God bless this mess!

One of the biggest gaps in Scripture is what happened in Jesus' life from the time he was born until he was 30 and baptized by John. In the final installment of our "Mind the Gap" sermon series, Pastor Jacob explores how people living very ordinary lives can be the source of a prophetic word for our times.

This Sunday we welcome guest preacher Lydia Sohn to the pulpit! The Rev. Lydia Sohn is a Korean American United Methodist elder and writer whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Christian Century, among others. Her forthcoming book, Here: A Spirituality of Staying in a Culture of Leaving releases on February 25, 2025 and is available for preorder now! Most importantly, she is mom to Hugh, Ivy, and Iris, wife to a handsome brainiac named James, and a long time resident and lover of Claremont. Follow along her journeys in Claremont filled with parenting, writing, eating pastries at Some Crust, and pastoring at www.revlydia.com. The official launch party for her book is this upcoming Saturday, March 1st at 2 p.m. at Claremont United Methodist Church. This event is free and open to the public! Learn more at launchforhere.eventbrite.com

Did you know that there were more letters written by apostles like Paul and John than are contained in our New Testaments? Many of these letters have been lost to history! Pastor Jacob explores the gaps in the correspondence between the apostles and the churches to whom they wrote and explains how Christians today carry on the conversations that the apostles were having in their letters.

Sermon from Claremont United Church of Christ

We launch a new series this week looking at stories where there are holes in the plot or content of the passage. So many times when we read a Biblical story, we are not privy to the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters. In today's Scripture reading, Jesus is rejected by his hometown, and he must have been disappointed and distraught. Pastor Jacob reflects on Jesus' potential feelings and compares them to the ones so many of us are feeling in a time of turmoil.

This Sunday Pastor Jen will be preaching on

Second Chances: "Zacchaeus"

We often think of second chances coming when we have made a mistake and need an opportunity to get it right. But what about second chances when everything goes wrong, and we did nothing to cause it? This week we read from the Book of Lamentations and ask how our world might get a second chance when everything seems lost and hopeless.

This Sunday Pastors Jen and Jacob will be doing an "Ask Us Anything" session in lieu of a sermon!

Sermon from Claremont United Church of Christ