In the wake of this election's seismic shift, we’re spending time grounding ourselves once more in the core message of 1 Corinthians 13:13—“Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three”—in ways that speak to our current situation, beginning with faith. This week it's hope. 

We talk about having hope, which sounds lovely... until you lose it. Then what are we supposed to do? But as peoples who've lived through the end of their own worlds--and still are--remind us, hope is something we do, something we make. What's revealed in apocalyptic moments (apocalypse means "revealing") is that the hope we forge, the vision we cast, together, into the future is what gives the present meaning and purpose beyond our present troubles. In a very real way, hope has us, not the other way around. (Mark 2:1-12). 

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

*With apologies for the poorer than usual audio quality. A subtitled video is available at https://youtu.be/QOpgyCGCVf8

In Mark 10:17-31, an insider--the rich young ruler--and an outsider--Simon Peter--both ask Jesus essentially the same question: "What must we do to be saved?" Jesus' answer disappoints them both. He's not interested in what will set either man apart in God's eyes but what will bring them together here on earth. While the would wants to divide and subtract, the Gospel is all about addition and multiplication. God's will is to take all our pieces and stitches us up together in one "seamless garment of destiny" (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Originally preached October 13, 2024

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

“God’s love and kindness will shine upon us like the sun that rises in the sky” (Luke 1:78-9, CEV). A celebration more than a decade in the making! Come join us for a special worship service dedicating the new solar panel array on our sanctuary roof. This giant leap forward was made that much more possible through donations given in loving memory of Deb Baldwin, a founding member of our Environmental Ministries Team and a prophetic voice for climate action, following her death in the spring of 2023. Rev. Maddie Foster, preacher. (Matthew 5:13-16)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

The gospels are full of miraculous stories of  Jesus healing people, but they’re never told from the point of view of the people he heals. The (temporarily) able-bodied Church today is only beginning to understand how problematic that really is, whether we take these stories literally or metaphorically. Because nobody’s body is just a metaphor, and, as disability justice advocates like author Amy Kenny remind us, nobody’s body is just a prayer request. Our disabled God loves all our bodies just as they are.  (Mark 10:46-52)

Originally preached 10-27-2024

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

In the wake of this election week’s seismic shift, we’re going to spend the next three Sundays looking to ground ourselves once more in 1 Corinthians 13:13—“Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three”—in ways that speak to our current situation.

Faith isn’t a laundry list of six impossible things we have to believe before breakfast. Faith is trust (literally, in the New Testament Greek), and the basis of trust is truth. The Church has to be willing to embrace the truth of our and our neighbors’ pain, fear, anger, and grief in this moment, our why should anyone trust us or the God we preach? Saccharine may be sweet, but it’s artificial. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

Shalom Auslander’s book, Beware of God, is full of cautionary tales about faith, including the short story “Waiting for Joe,” in which two hamsters from very different theological viewpoints try to cope with the absence of their owner. It may seem farcical on the surface, it’s a powerful call to interrogate our own faith (or lack thereof) and our image of God and remember that the God somebody hands you is never the only option.

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

To combat the current epidemic of isolation, loneliness, disaffiliation, and division destroying our physical, mental, and political health, experts prescribe a dose of social connection. Joining, sharing, learning to trust... and to be trustworthy... helps repair our social fabric, and our souls. Because, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, human beings are made for community. So, given how we've failed in the past, how can we make joining church good news for people again? (Romans 12:4-5)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

“Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.” Every creature, all of creation, has a home in the heart of our Creator. Why is it often so hard for us to feel we do, too? (Psalm 84)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

In mathematics, a fractal is “a visual expression of a repeating pattern or formula that starts out simple and gets progressively more complex.” We see fractals in nature, in the patterns of pinecones and the spirals of sea shells, where, when we look closely, we see the signature of those basic building blocks repeating themselves throughout the whole. For us, God is that basic building block. If we look closely, in faith, at the “breadth and length and height and depth” of all creation, we can see the fingerprints of God on everything, from single-cell organisms to entire ecosystems to our neighbors to our enemies. Now if only we would. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.

Even since the time of King David, church buildings have been a mixed blessing–well, not exactly, but you get the idea. Religious communities, churches, need places to gather for worship, but all too often, we can end up worshiping the building, when really it’s just a tool, a gathering place and a base of operations for the broader ministries to our neighbors to which God calls us. So how do churches like ours who possess buildings keep them from possessing us? How do we use this tool well for the glory of God in the support of our community? (2 Samuel 7:1-11)

Join us Sundays for worship, LIVE! on-site and online via Zoom @ 10am ET. Connect at www.NeedhamUCC.org.

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The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a justice-seeking, peace-making, love-affirming, LGBTQ-welcoming, radically-inclusive congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA.

Church is the practice.
Love is the point.