Where the Story Finds Us

Sharing the Hum of Love | Rev. Dr. Dave Long-Higgins | September 27, 2026

What if the church is not called to have all the answers—but to listen for the hum of love already moving through the world?

At the Installation of Rev. Anthony Spearhart as Pastor and Teacher of Lakeview United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Dave Long-Higgins, Conference Minister of the Heartland Conference of the United Church of Christ, offers a stirring reflection on Love with a capital L—the kind of love that disrupts fear, refuses scarcity, enlarges the heart, and invites us into a story already in motion.

With images of second fiddles, quickened water, and a “laboratory of love,” Dave challenges Lakeview to risk, dream, experiment, and listen deeply for the harmonies God may be creating among them.

The episode closes with Anthony’s brother, Marty Brookhart, playing “Thanksgiving” by Vince Ambrosetti—a deeply personal piece connected to their grandparents and a moving reminder that every new chapter is carried by the love and stories that came before it.

Scripture: Romans 12:9–21
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Dave Long-Higgins
Piano: Marty Brookhart

Into the Story Ahead | Rev. Anthony Spearhart | September 27, 2026

God’s call rarely comes with a complete map.

In Genesis 12, Abram is invited to leave what is familiar and step toward a future he cannot yet fully see. Jesus echoes that same movement in Matthew 28, sending the disciples out into the world with a promise: “Remember, I am with you always.”

On a special Sunday in the life of Lakeview United Church of Christ, Rev. Anthony Spearhart reflects on covenant, trust, and what it means to move together into the story God is still writing. The future may not be completely clear—but we do not enter it alone.

Scripture: Genesis 12:1–9; Matthew 28:19–20

Joseph does what is faithful—and still ends up in prison.

His story challenges one of faith’s most persistent misunderstandings: that doing the right thing will protect us from hardship, rejection, or injustice. Sometimes faithfulness costs something. Sometimes people dislike us because we work for justice, advocate for those who are oppressed, or refuse to abandon the love to which God has called us.

Drawing together Joseph’s imprisonment and Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes, this episode considers what it means to remain faithful when circumstances seem to suggest that faithfulness has failed. The prison is real, but it is not the whole story. Rejection may wound us, injustice may confine us, and the future may be hidden—but none of those things can erase God’s presence or bring God’s unfolding story to an end.

Even there, we are blessed anyway.

Stories do more than entertain us. They help us make sense of the world, restore order when life feels chaotic, and sometimes reveal truths we were not ready to hear any other way.

From the stories of scripture to the stories carried through our families and communities, faith has always been shaped through telling, listening, remembering, and imagining. Jesus taught through parables—not by handing people simple answers, but by inviting them to enter a story and discover where it found them.

As Lakeview prepares to journey through the sweeping story of scripture in the Narrative Lectionary, this episode explores narrative theology, the sacred power of imagination, and the unfinished story God continues to write through ordinary lives. Perhaps we do not simply find ourselves in God’s story. Perhaps, again and again, the story finds us.

We are shaped by more than the moments we can see. We carry voices, stories, wisdom, wounds, faith, and hope from those who came before us—and if we pay attention, we may discover that our ancestors are still present with us in powerful ways. Their words linger. Their courage resurfaces. Their lessons find us again at exactly the moments we need them.

Drawing on the image of the “great cloud of witnesses” and the ancestral voices woven through Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson’s poem “faith journey,” this episode explores ancestry not as something that pulls us backward, but as a living source of courage, identity, and calling. Those who came before us can still call us to remember who we are, awaken something within us, and give us strength for what lies ahead. Their stories do not ask us to recreate the past—they give us what we need to move faithfully into the future.

P.S. Both original songs mentioned during the sermon are played in full at the end of the episode.

What does it mean to be truly present with one another when grief arrives and there are no perfect words to say? Beginning in a tender place of loss, this episode reflects on the quiet ways we carry one another—through presence, compassion, shared sorrow, and simply refusing to let someone stand alone. From there, the message widens into Paul’s vision of spiritual gifts and the many ways the Spirit moves through a community. Some gifts are visible, others are quiet; some lead, some create, some comfort, some teach, some serve—but none are meant to exist in isolation. Each one becomes a thread in something larger than ourselves. In grief, in joy, and in the work of ministry, we discover that we were never meant to carry everything alone. We are called to show up, offer what we have, receive what others bring, and trust what God can create when all of those different threads are woven together.

Church buildings matter. They hold baptisms and funerals, Christmas Eves and ordinary Sundays, generations of laughter, tears, prayers, and stories. But what happens when the light inside them refuses to stay contained? Through Micah’s ancient call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God—and Jesus’ images of salt and light—this episode challenges the church to move from simply saying “come to us” toward becoming neighbors who show up, listen, build relationships, and even sit at someone else’s table. Because perhaps the church was always meant to shine farther than its walls.

A grandmother’s macaroni and cheese. Vegetables pulled from the garden. Exhausted disciples discovering breakfast waiting beside the sea. Few places carry memory, nourishment, joy, grief, and belonging quite like a table. Drawing upon the heart of a chef and gardener, this episode explores the many reasons we come to God’s table: for welcome, respite, remembrance, community—and sometimes even protest. Whatever has brought you there, perhaps the sacred invitation is simple: come as you are, and receive what you need.

Walt Disney called it “plussing”—the belief that something alive should never be treated as though it has nothing more to become. With a kaleidoscope sitting in the pastor’s office as guide, this episode turns that idea toward something surprisingly powerful: the language we use for aging, God, gender, justice, and one another. From the mysterious Hebrew name of God to the many languages of Pentecost, each turn of the lens reveals something that was there all along. Perhaps faithful language is not about finding the final perfect words—but remaining humble enough to keep plussing.

The United Church of Christ was born when different streams dared to flow together—but some of those streams were ignored, marginalized, or asked to disappear along the way. From the forgotten Afro-Christian roots of the UCC to the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the church, this episode wrestles with the difference between unity and uniformity. Jesus prayed “that they may all be one,” but perhaps being one was never supposed to mean becoming the same. Nearly seventy years later, the river is still moving—and the church’s calling is not simply to have united once, but to keep uniting.