The weekly sermons of First Congregational Tucson United Church of Christ http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/sermonsx.html Zacchaeus had to see Jesus. He had to see him. He had to see this man, he had to know this man. Zacchaeus had heard about him and he had to know for himself about this Jesus. But, as Jesus approached he could not see him. He couldn’t push through the crowd. He couldn’t see over the people. He was going to miss him. He wasn’t going to be able to see him. And then he saw the tree…He didn’t care who would laugh, he didn’t care who would joke, he climbed the tree so that he could see Jesus. He had to see him with his own eyes. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_29_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_29_2008x.html The minute we see someone we start sizing them up. The moment we lay eyes on someone, we begin to decide who and what they are. We also in those early moments decide if they are “our kind of people” and decide if we are going to interact with them or not. We make these split second decisions based on what we know from our past experience, the stuff our parents taught us, and where we are on life’s journey today. We make these decisions based on how people look: Are they similar to me? Are they dirty or clean? Are they from my economic class or are they above or below it? How do their teeth look? How do they smell? We sum somebody up all in the first few seconds of seeing them. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_22_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_22_2008x.html Can you stand this story? It’s absolutely delicious isn’t it? Here you have a couple…an old couple…childless. The talk of the whole community…”What a shame! What a pity! Such a nice couple too.” Their childlessness was noteworthy for such a faithful couple. And then, out of nowhere, Sarah is pregnant. Pregnant. She’s too old! They are too old. Abraham and Sarah pressed into service, chosen by God…They live in a tent. They are nomadic. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_15_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_15_2008x.html We have a problem. We have a problem here at First. In fact, this problem is so pervasive we can see it embedded in the very culture of this time. Our problem? We have a problem with respect. We are so respectful that we are having a hard time really loving people. We get so worried that we might offend someone, or we might be wrong about something that we keep ourselves an arms length away. We’ve had so much boundary training that we just can’t stand to think someone might be offended we’ve overstepped. However, in the spirit of this community of faith today I’m challenging us to go beyond respect to transformation. Instead of a sterile and respectful love today I’m talking with you about involved and transformational love. Transformation means that we are willing to go beyond respecting one another. I’m not saying respect isn’t important. Respect is a tenant of love. To truly love another you must respect them. However to respect someone doesn’t mean you love them. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_8_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/june_8_2008x.html This past summer the United Church of Christ turned 50. We celebrated our 50th year as a congregation. Prior to 1957 we were 2 different denominations: the Evengelical Reformed Church and the Congregational Church. In 1957 we United to become the United Church of Christ. To celebrate this incredible experience of being 50 and all the work that led up to being able to join together and be a Uniting church, many people were asked to come and share their thoughts about where we’ve been, who we are and how their faith meets their daily work. Bill Moyers, the beloved journalist and careful spokesman was invited to speak to us. Bill and his wife have been going to the UCC Community Church in Long Island for the past 40 years. They had been Baptists, but they found a new and welcoming home in the UCC congregation on Stewart Avenue in Garden City. Their children grew up in that church. The friendships they made there nurtured our lives. They sang together, prayed together, mourned together, downed steaming cups of coffee at Sunday morning forums together, went through weddings and funerals and confirmations and ordinations, and came to a deeper experience of grace, and a greater understanding of what it means to be brothers and sisters in the faith. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/may_18_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/may_18_2008x.html Happy Pentecost! It’s finally here! I LOVE Pentecost! It’s just the best. It’s just the best according to Briget, because it’s the story of how we know God. How each one of us encounters the being of God. How that Presence, that Spirit burns within us, pushes us, pulls us, excites us, annoys us…Hallelujah, we have made it to Pentecost! And, this Pentecost, we’re going to celebrate our core value to love. We are Always Open Open All Ways to Love here at First Congregational United Church of Christ. And, I want you to stay tuned in today because most of us, most of us are really screwed up about love. http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/amay_12_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/may_12_2008x.html Today marks our 3rd week out of 4 in our Buyin’ In Series. The First week we explored what it means to be Open Always All Ways Open to the Divine. Last week we explored what it means to be Open Always All Ways Open to the Marginalized and Oppressed. And today we are gathered together to explore what it means to be Open always All Ways Open to our call. He grew up in the church. His parents sang in the choir, he grew up lighting the candles. Church was central in their lives and holidays revolved around them. As he grew up and left his parent’s house, he still looked for other churches. He liked the rhythm of the year from the religious calendar, he liked the people at church, he felt like he had something to contribute.    [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/may_4_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/may_4_2008x.html Today we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of our series on Buyin’ In. We’re investigating the core values of this community of faith. We’re taking a moment to revisit what it is that we hold sacred. What is it that binds us together in covenant with one another. What is it that we are willing to protect, nurture, and grow. We’re doing this to deepen our commitment to meeting the stranger wherever they are on the journey and discerning who it is that might be looking for our community of faith. We also must be able to recognize those who resemble the people who make our hearts burst. Last week we discussed what it means to be Always Open Open All Ways to the Divine. Today we consider what it means to be Always Open Open All Ways to the marginalized and oppressed.    [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_27_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_27_2008x.html Today, we’re kicking off a new series. We finished the hospitality series last week wondering what is it we hold sacred? What is it that makes our hearts burst around here? What are the things that we will protect and instill in all we meet? Hopefully, we’ll capture those things in the next four weeks. Today we begin talking about what it is we are buyin’ into by being a member of this community of faith.  Who knows our vision statement? Who can say it out loud? That’s right, Always Open Open All Ways. Each week we will begin with our vision statement. Our vision statement helps us to envision ourselves, individually, as opening ourselves, as being open to all we meet no matter where they are on life’s journey. Our vision statement helps us to create a discipline around the continuing practice of opening, of checking ourselves for our own boundaries and limits of discerning our spiritual practices and how we might engage them along the way. It is something you can visualize, yourself being open, it is something we can all visualize, our community being open, it makes sense it would be how our core belief’s begin.    [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_20_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_20_2008x.html This Biblical Hospitality stuff that we’ve been talking about for the past 11 weeks is serious business. This ancient practice of greeting strangers and transforming them into friends and family all culminates today. If we fail, we part as enemies. If we succeed we part as family friends welcome to come by any time and pick up where we left off. Our hospitality is known by the relationship that springs forth from our work.   [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_13_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_13_2008x.html Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me.  She had been everywhere, trying, pleading, begging for help for her daughter. She was exhausted from trying and he was her last hope. She was shouting after them, she was shouting at Jesus, she was shouting and shouting and shouting.   [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_6_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/april_6_2008x.html Did you know you could be a miracle? Did you know you could be a miracle? How about you? Yes. It’s true. You could be a miracle. You could have already performed a miracle this very day. It happens. And, when you combine people who are seekers of the faith, trying to be a witness of Jesus, trying to live a life full of compassion, we get moved. We get moved by compassion and the witness of Jesus and we perform miracles. It’s true.  [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_30_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_30_2008x.html Who is this Jesus? According to Matthew, the writer of today’s story nearly 70 years after the death of Jesus, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the one that the religious had been waiting for. As Matthew wrote about him, he knew the stories of faith. He knew the stories of the Torah, our Old Testament. He knew the stories that prophesied a Messiah would come and the ways in which he would come. Matthew had Jesus coming into Jerusalem on both donkey and unbroken colt to match what the teaching said. Matthew knew this and this is the way he wrote it down. Matthew’s community understood very clearly that the ways in which Jesus lived in the world were different than the way the world worked. In each vignette, Matthew sets the stage for conflict between the empire, the faith community, and the Jesus movement. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_16_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_16_2008x.html Jesus calls his followers disciples. They are students. Students live in relation to the teacher. Jesus is a teacher of God. He is a theologian. He pushes, pulls, cajoles, invites, yells, screams, and tells parabolic stories, anything to get people’s attention about their own impressions of God. He also, as a teacher, lives his life as an example of this relationship with God. He is constantly inviting, denying, engaging and repelling people all based on what he believes about God and how those beliefs call him to be in this world. [...] http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_8_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_8_2008x.html What did you come to see? What did you come to church to see today? What did come to First Congregational United Church of Christ to see?  People come to church, people come to this church, you all come here with questions in mind. And, depending on how we answer these questions, determine how we as a community are perceived. Are we really open always open all ways? Are we really hospitable? Are we really ready to meet their needs? [...]  http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_2_2008x.html http://www.firstucctucson.org/Sermons/mar_2_2008x.html