May 12, 2024 Sermon

“We Are All Beggars” Rev. Steve Jungkeit Texts: Genesis 32: 22-31 May 12, 2024              Here’s something that happened to someone I know fairly well, a minister in a small New England town.  It was a Monday night in winter, and, as is his custom, he...

May 5, 2024 Sermon

The Un-Covering of Religion Rev. Steve JungkeitTexts: II Kings 22: 3-13; Luke 4: 18  In an interview several years ago about a collection of American standards that he had recorded, Bob Dylan suggested that what he was doing wasn’t “covering” the songs, but rather...

April 28, 2024 Sermon

The Sacramentality of Everyday Life Steve JungkeitTexts: Isaiah 55: 1-2; John 2: 1-11             One of the most astute and beautiful pieces of theology I have encountered over the last year or two is a profane and hectic television show about food and family, with a...

April 21, 2024 Sermon

On Walking in Their Footsteps along a Mighty Stream Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-NagerAmos 5:24  Good morning! We’ll be sharing our Civil Rights journey with you this morning part. There’s something powerful and challenging about having to put into words what you’ve seen...

April 14, 2024 Sermon

This Is My Story, This is My Song: Why Hymns Matter Steve Jungkeit Texts: Psalm 59: 16-17; Acts 16: 19-30; Colossians 3: 16-17             “This is my story, this is my song.”  That’s the refrain of a famous hymn, “Blessed Assurance,” written by Fanny Crosby in the...

April 7, 2024 Sermon

The Church of Timshel: Celebrating the Ministry of Rev. David W. Good Steve Jungkeit (and David Good)Texts: Ruth 1: 1-16; Daniel 3: 19-27             A week ago I stood in this pulpit with a reminder of the good news of Easter: What Dies Doesn’t Stay Dead was the...

March 31, 2024 Sermon

“What Died Didn’t Stay Dead” Steve JungkeitTexts: John 20: 1, 11-18; John 21: 15-19Easter Sunday             By way of preamble, I’ll open with words that were spoken sometime after midnight on Maundy Thursday, heard by the thirty or so who remained to the end of...

March 24, 2024 Sermon

“Palm Sunday Sermon: A Parade of Gospel Stories” Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick NagerMark 11:1-11 Yesterday, I drove to the New London Hospitality Center in pelting rain to pick up our guest speaker, Catherine. Church member, Dana Dixon, connected us. We’d spoken...

March 17, 2024 Sermon

“Like a Bandit Getting Over His Lawless Ways:” Or, Why Dante’s Purgatorio Matters Great literature is a hand extended from the past.  When we grasp that hand, it can be a guide and a source of solace, as we confront the challenges of the present. That is, in large...

March 10, 2024 Sermon

Turning Our Faces Toward Jerusalem Steve Jungkeit The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme Texts: Luke 9: 51-62; Matthew 26: 36-39 There are two sacred legacies toward which the architecture of this Meetinghouse gestures: that of Athens and that of Jerusalem. ...

March 3, 2024 Sermon

Smooth Stones, Gathered from the Road:  A Report on the Pilgrimage for Peace Steve Jungkeit and Susan Switzer The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme Texts: I Samuel 17 (Selections); Luke 24: 32             A book that I return to frequently, and that I have often...

February 25, 2024 Sermon

Have Mercy upon Me Peter S. Hawkins Read by Steve Jungkeit and Laura Fitzpatrick-NagerII Samuel 11 and 12,  Psalm 51  February 25, 2024  The story begins on Good Friday morning with a man who is utterly lost. The night before was a waking nightmare, or was he actually...

February 18, 2024 Sermon

Souls Growing Deeper Still: The Legacy of the Black Social Gospel in the 21st Century Steve Jungkeit Texts: Matthew 22: 34-40; Revelation 7: 9, 13-17             “I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not.  Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and...

February 11, 2024 Sermon

Up and Down the Mountain: On Praying with Our Feet Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager Texts: Isaiah 40: 28-31; Mark 9: 2-11 Mildred Norman changed her name to “Peace Pilgrim”. The year was 1953, and as an ordinary person looked at the world around her and felt driven...

February 4, 2024 Sermon

The Thick Darkness…Where God Was Steve Jungkeit The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme Texts: Exodus 20: 18-21; John 1: 1-9             A very strange thing happens in the transition between the Old Testament and the New.  We just witnessed it in our two...