The United Church of Canandaigua

This Sunday we explore Psalm 23’s journey from the Shepherd’s provision to God’s eternal dwelling, showing how God meets us in both green pastures and dark valleys. Our Easter psalm series reveals God’s constant presence through every season of life.

Using the Acronym ACT: Appreciate Psalm 30’s place in history as a song of temple dedication. Consider how it reflects David’s life, Israel’s relationship with God, and our redemption in Christ (as temples ourselves / the church). Thank God for hearing our cries, turning mourning into dancing, and giving us eternal life in Christ.

Drawing from Psalm 118, this Easter sermon explores how God turns rejection into redemption through Christ's resurrection, focusing on the powerful image of the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone of our faith. The sermon weaves together ancient temple worship and New Testament fulfillment to celebrate how Christ's resurrection opens the gates of righteousness for all believers.

Through an examination of Jesus' anguished prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-49), this sermon explores the tension between cultural messages of self-fulfillment and Jesus' example of submitting to the Father's will, challenging us to pray against temptation and align ourselves with God's purposes rather than our own desires.

In John 12, Mary's lavish gift of perfume to anoint Jesus demonstrates what extravagant worship looks like when we withhold nothing from Christ. Through her example, we explore how true devotion often defies conventional wisdom and involves sacrificial giving. This message challenges us to examine our own worship and asks whether we, like Mary, are willing to give our most precious offerings to Jesus.

Through three parables in Luke 15, Jesus reveals God's passionate pursuit of lost people, showing us a Father who eagerly runs to embrace those who have strayed, challenging us to join in His mission of seeking and celebrating the found.

Through Jesus's teaching on tragic events and the parable of the fig tree, this sermon explores how we often misunderstand God's judgment and calls us away from religious finger-pointing toward authentic repentance and a life-giving relationship with God. The message challenges us to examine our own hearts rather than judging others, while emphasizing God's desire for genuine spiritual fruit rather than mere rule-following.

In this sermon on Luke 13:31-35, we explore Jesus' lament over Jerusalem through the metaphor of a mother hen yearning to gather her chicks, revealing both God's protective love for His people and the tragedy of their rejection, while ultimately pointing to Christ's determined mission toward the cross. The themes of divine protection, sacrificial love, and the invitation to come under God's wings are central to the message.

This sermon from Luke 4:1-13 explores Jesus's forty-day wilderness temptations and how he remained faithful through the power of the Spirit and Scripture. By examining the three specific temptations - using power for personal comfort, taking shortcuts to authority, and testing God's promises - we learn practical ways to face our own spiritual battles during this Lenten season. The message emphasizes that victory over temptation comes through being filled with the Spirit and staying grounded in God's Word.

After Peter declares Jesus is the Messiah, and after Jesus prophecies his death and resurrection, Jesus brings a few disciples onto a mountain and appears to them in glorious light, in a well-known scene often called The Transfiguration. In our sermon, we will consider the importance and the purpose of this revelation, and what it is that God invites us into through this story.