by Robert McCracken | Sermons
This morning we welcomed Rev. Dr. Allan Aubrey Boesak to the pulpit. Dr. Boesak served as Desmond Tutu Chair of Peace, Global Justice, and Reconciliation Studies at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis from 2012 to 2017. He has emerged as one of the world’s...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Matthew 26: 47-52 Notes on an American Epidemic How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of the messenger who announces peace. So says the prophet Isaiah. Those words were later applied to Jesus. How difficult it is to hear such an...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
This morning we welcomed the Rev. Dr. John Selders to the pulpit. John is the minister of Amistad United Church in Hartford, and the leader of Moral Mondays CT, along with his wife Pamela Selders. John and Pamela traveled together on our most recent Tree of Life...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Amos 5: 21-24; Romans 12: 3-8; Romans 14: 7-9 The Feeling of Absolute Dependence On what do you depend? On whom do you depend? What is it within your life that you cannot live without, that you gives you reason to be? What is it that you depend upon for a sense...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Psalm 121; Matthew 16: 13-20 A Song of Ascent What Plato is to philosophy, what the Sistine chapel is to painting, what Shakespeare is to drama, what Tolstoy is to the novel, what the Beatles and Dylan are to rock and roll, Mozart’s Don Giovanni is...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: “Let the Trees Be Consulted,” and “We Have Forgotten Who We Are” Stand by Me I’ll conclude our series of reflections with what, to me, seems an improbable but true occurrence. One of the traditions that’s emerged in our Green Grass visits these...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Green Grass Reflections from the Travelers Elsa Jungkeit’s Green Grass Reflections The biggest reason I enjoy going to South Dakota is that I get to see old and new friends. It was good to see my friends Angel, Jessie, and Aspen again. We had fun beading...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Romans 12: 1-2; I Peter 2: 1-10 Everything I Do Is Gonh Be Funky (From Now On), or, Keeping Church Weird To begin, a preview of sorts. There’s a commercial that Starbucks put out a few years ago for one of its canned espresso drinks. It’s...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Genesis 7: 11-20; Matthew 14: 22-33 High Water Everywhere Today I wish to talk about baptism, about remembering our baptism. We’ll get to that important ritual in a few minutes, but first, a story about songs and waters, blues and floods, baptism writ large. ...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: Psalm 23; Luke 15: 11-24 Thou Preparest a Table Before Me No audio available – sorry. The day is May 24, 1942. The morning finds a young German literature professor, named Daniel Decourdemanche in a German prison, composing a letter to his...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Texts: John 5: 1-9; I Corinthians 13: 1-13 “Take Up Your Mat and Walk” “Take up your mat and walk.” Those are the words that Jesus says to a paralyzed man that he encounters in the Gospel of John. Recall the scene. There’s a pool of water, with healing properties....
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Isaiah 11: 1-3, 6-9 Romans 12: 9-13 Matthew 19: 13-15 REFLECTIONS ON A STILL LIFE (ON FINDING THE L KEY, A LUNCH BUCKET, THE MYTH OF SYSYPHUS, A TEQUILA COMMUNION, PADDINGTON BEAR AND RUSTIC STEPS) Today’s sermon probably could fall under the “Self-Help”...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Proverbs 29:18 Ezekiel 47:7-12 Psalm 23 Revelation 21:1-5 and 22:1&2 “In Difficult Times You Should Always Carry Something Beautiful in Your Mind” (Pascal) On a recent sweltering summer day, as I hurried out of the Big Y parking, my eye spotted the...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
8Mark 4:2-20 “Listen Up!” “Listen! a sower went out to sow,” and right here Jesus begins to recite his very first parable. Jesus used these brilliant picture stories, these extended metaphors, simple images, to explain something unexplainable, the Kingdom of...
by Robert McCracken | Sermons
Luke 10:25-37 Go and Do Likewise It is a pleasure to be here with you all this morning. As some of you know, I began my ministry here and served as an associate pastor of the church for about five years. This community has also been a part of my ongoing journey with...
