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Sermons
Click on the links below to view sermons given from the pulpit of First Parish Church. Sunday Sermons are usually posted on this page by the following Tuesday, with texts and audio recordings as they are available. We are glad that you can ponder with us as we explore what God is saying to us and in us all!
June 11, 2017 - Celebrating the UCC 60th – The Rev. Deborah Blood
Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20
Our Maine Conference Minister, The Rev. Deborah Blood, joins us to reflect on Jesus’s “Great Commission,” and how that commission is being carried—60 years after the creation of the United Church of Christ—to the margins, to places where the wind of the spirit blows, and to people with new stories of faith to share with us.
May 28, 2017 - Up: Making Room – Rev. Parker
Scripture: Acts 1:6-14
In a cosmos where “up” isn’t a direction, how do we think of the story of Jesus’s ascension? Could it be less about heaven, and more about the upper room where the disciples find Jesus again in their memory, practices, and prayers? We give thanks for those whose memory walks with us this Memorial Day, those who died in war for peace, and those whom we bless on new journeys this commencement season.
May 7, 2017 - The Thread – Dr. Diana Butler Bass
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47
Diana Butler Bass—writer, speaker, and independent scholar—visits First Parish to help us celebrate our 300th anniversary year. Like the early church of Acts, she invites us to engage in the making of meaning through the spiritual practices of holding on… and letting go.
April 16, 2017 - Seeds of Easter – Rev. Baard
Scripture: John 20:1-18
Jesus welcomes us (back) to life in a garden, and invites us to let that life go: sharing its good news from person to person, generation to generation.
April 9, 2017 - The Architecture of Jesus – Rev. Parker
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, as Jesus moves from the country to the city, and begins to build a neighborhood.
April 2, 2017 - Worry Not – Rev. Baard
Scripture: Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus confronts a world of anxiety, one which can be all too familiar to us.
March 26, 2017 - Life from the Dirt – Rev. Parker
Scripture: John 9:1-17
Jesus encounters a man born blind and we explore what it means to truly see someone.
March 19, 2017 - Living Water – Rev. Baard
Scripture: John 4:3-26
Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well, and—like Jesus—we strive to know each other more fully in all of the fluidity of gender.
March 12, 2017 - Letting Go of What We Know – Rev. Baard
Scripture: John 3:1-10
Jesus talks with an elder about matters of water and Spirit, and what matters, so we wonder at how the generations talk and learn together…
Download PDF here – 03/12/2017
February 26, 2017 - Returning to Earth – Rev. Parker
Scripture: Matthew 17:1-9
On Transfiguration Sunday, we wonder about the power of calls that draw us from mystical “mountaintop” moments into the work and ministry below… with some help from a saint who knew that path well: Dorothy Day.
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