Sunday was Pentecost—the birthday of the church. We had a special Pentecost worship service

to conclude the celebration of our 300th anniversary. We welcomed the Executive Conference

Minister of the Southern New England Conference of the UCC, the Rev. Darrell Goodwin, as our guest

preacher.  The Rev. Goodwin is the first Executive Conference Minister of the SNEUCC, a new

Conference formed by the merger of the historic Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island

Conferences in 2020. As the Chief Vision-Keeper, he is responsible for guiding the Conference and its

affiliates to have a positive and lasting impact in our world.

The Rev. Goodwin is a member of the United Church of Christ Board, the UCC Council for Health and

Human Service Ministries, and the Global Ministries Board. He brings to his varying leadership roles

extensive experience in pastoral ministry and higher education.

What a joyful celebration we had in worship on Sunday, May 5! And the celebrations continued for those who joined us at the Aqua Turf on Monday. There was much planning behind the scenes for the 300th Anniversary celebrations and the hard work of the committee paid off. We are looking forward to the culmination of the festive activities on Sunday, May 19 with our town-wide block party!

This Sunday, May 12 we will gather for worship at 8:00 AM in the Chapel and 10:15 AM in the meetinghouse. The Scripture reading is selected verses from 1 Corinthians 15. This section of Paul's letter to the Corinthians includes a strong rhetorical argument for the bodily resurrection.

As I study this passage, I see several connections to my recent trip to Chicago. I was in Chicago with NGLI (Next Generation Leadership Initiative), a program of the Pension Boards. The purpose of our trip was to reflect on Church Vitality. I will share more about the people I met in Chicago and the lessons I took away from my time there in my sermon on Sunday.

It’s finally here—our 300th Anniversary.  We will celebrate with several special events during May, including our worship service this Sunday.  There will be special music, and greetings, and guests.  It will be a wonderful day!  I hope you will be here in the meetinghouse for this great celebration.

As we celebrate, we will remember what counts.  According to Paul, the great apostle who started the church in Thessalonica to which he wrote the letter I quoted above, what count are your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yale University history professor Jaroslav Pelikan once said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead.  Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”  On Sunday we will celebrate the living our 300-year history, but we will not worship it—it is not an “ism.”  Rather we will celebrate how our tradition points us fully in to a future where God is still speaking and dream about how we, the First Congregational Church in Southington, will continue to evolve into an inclusive community of faith that will be a beacon of light in Southington and beyond for the next 300 years!

A simple question from one of the most recognizable passages in the Bible, the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Christ tries to guide us with a seemingly simple answer, but are we following in our daily lives? The FCC Board of Deacons have reflected on this over the last several months and are hoping you will join us this Sunday at 8:00 a.m. or 10:15 a.m., as we offer a Deacon-led service, including personal reflections on this question.   

As part of our 300th anniversary celebration, we are welcoming three guest preachers to our pulpit who have held significant leadership positions in the United Church of Christ. Our guest preacher this week is the Rev. Kent Siladi. Kent is a visionary leader dedicated to fostering spiritual growth, community empowerment, and a sense of interdependence in the denominational setting.

Rev. Siladi served local Connecticut UCC congregations in Brookfield and North Guilford before accepting a call to Conference Ministry. He served as a Regional Minister on the historic Connecticut Conference staff (1997-2007), as Conference Minister of the Florida Conference (2007-2013), and returned to the historic Connecticut Conference in 2013 to serve as Conference Minister until 2020. He was one of the architects of a plan to merge the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island Conferences to become the Southern New England Conference. From 2020 until his “semi-retirement” at the end of last year, Rev. Siladi was the Director of Philanthropy in the national UCC’s Office of Philanthropy, Technology, Identity and Communication. Currently, he serves as the part-time Pastor in Residence at the Congregational Church of New Canaan, CT.

Kent has visited FCC several times as part of the historic Connecticut Conference staff and is one of our dear friends. His unwavering dedication to serving others and fostering unity has earned him widespread admiration and respect across the United Church of Christ.

they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid. ~Mark 16:8

Of all the Gospels, Mark’s recounting of the events on Resurrection Sunday is the most frustrating.

Mark tells us that three women go to the tomb on Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus—there

was no time to do that on Good Friday. They’re worried about who will roll away that large stone

blocking their way to Jesus. When they got there, the large stone had already been rolled away. Inside

someone described only as “a young man dressed in a white robe” tells them that Jesus isn’t there, like

they should have expected anything else. “He has risen, he is not here…   But go, tell his disciples and

Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him…”

And what do they do? You read it in the verse above. They ran away, saying nothing to anyone because

they were afraid. The end.

You and I know that it isn’t the end, but how did the news of Jesus’ resurrection get out and what does

that mean for us today? We will explore those questions on Easter morning as we consider what

happens next.

During Lent a group of people in our congregation have been learning about part of the complicated history of our church.  History records that our first three pastor enslaved African and indigenous people.  During Lent we learned the stories of some of those enslaved people.

On Sunday we will hear the story of Prince Duplex, a man of African descent who, as a child, was presented as a gift to Abigal Riggs.  Abigal was the wife of the Rev. Bejamin Chapman, the second pastor of First Congregational Church.  Prince was enslaved in the Chapman household until he won his freedom by fighting in the Revolutionary War.  As we hear his story, we will consider the complicated history of our church.

That complexity mirrors the complicated history of Holy Week which begins this Sunday.  We will begin with the triumphal Palm Sunday parade, but quickly things take a dramatic turn.  We will read the story of Jesus encounter with a woman who anoints his feet with expensive perfume, which complicates the story even more.  Complexity will be the theme as we worship on Sunday, and how we make sense of the complicated events that have led us to this day.

As we approach the celebration of our 300th anniversary we will welcome some guest preachers to the pulpit of First Congregational Church who have held significant leadership roles in the United Church of Christ.  This past Sunday, the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree joined us.  Dr. Crabtree has served in a variety of settings across the United Church of Christ.   From 1996 until her retirement in 2010 she was the Conference Minister for the historic Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, the first woman to hold that position.  From 1991-1996, she served as the Conference Minister of the Southern California Conference, UCC.  Dr. Crabtree’s other accomplishments include being the founder and first executive director of the Prudence Crandall Center for Women in New Britain, Campus Minister and Director of Greater Hartford Campus Ministry, and Senior Minister of the Colchester (CT) Federated Church.  Her most recent position was as Interim Vice President for Advancement at Andover Newton Theological School.  Other leadership positions include serving as Interim and Acting Conference Minister in the Florida and Missouri Mid-South Conferences.  She has also played an important role on numerous Boards in the denomination and in the greater Connecticut region.  She has been a pioneer in innovative pastoral leadership, especially blazing trails for women in ministry and the use of inclusive language in worship.  

As we continue in the Gospel of Mark, this Sunday our reading is a confusing one. I've been trying to wrestle with the Parable of the Tenants for several days and each time I read the story I uncover a different perspective. One word stood out to me in Mark 12:1, "watchtower." This word brought to mind an image from my time in Arizona in the borderlands between the USA and Mexico.

The parables that Jesus tells do not invite us to easy answers or quick understanding. They are intended to be thought provoking. Jesus the Rabbi would have engaged in conversation and dialogue with his disciples. His teaching was not based on rote memorization.

I hope you will join us on Sunday where I will share more about the image of a "watchtower" and together we can continue to share our Questions for Jesus.

do for us whatever we ask of you.”  36  And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”  37  And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ~Mark 10:35-37

Martin Copenhaver, former president of Andover Newton Theological School, wrote a book a few years

ago called, Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered. I might quibble

a bit with his numbers, but Martin’s proposition is sound: Jesus loved questions. That is our theme

during this Lenten season: Questions for Jesus.

I love leading Bible studies and one of the things I tell a group right up front that there are no stupid

questions. Studying the Bible is all about asking questions. There are no stupid questions—I have a few

stupid answers maybe, but there are no stupid questions.

Well, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are out to prove me wrong.  They ask a really stupid

question.  Having just been told by Jesus that being a messiah means suffering and death before you get

to resurrection, they ask, “May we sit next to you?”

Wow. Talk about not getting it. 

What is clear to the reader of this story—but is not clear to the disciples—is that the disciples think they

know who Jesus is and why he has come.  But they really don't get it yet.  Not fully…that is until they

meet a blind man named Bartimaeus. We will explore the irony of this question for Jesus on Sunday

morning.