McFarland United Church of Christ | a church with heart
  • Home
  • About
    • Worship @ MUCC
    • Time & Talent: Get involved @ MUCC
    • Faith Development @ MUCC
    • Church Documents & Forms
  • Sundays
  • News
    • The Weekly Pulse
    • The Weekly Pulse Archive Test
    • Wider UCC Newsletters
  • Calendar
  • Contact
    • Online Directory
    • SignUpGenius Volunteer Signups
    • Church Office
  • Outreach
    • Creation Care Ministry
    • Racial Justice Ministry
    • Now In Our Name (NION) Campaign
  • Donations

Revised and Expansive: A Sermon on the Reign of Christ

11/20/2016

 
Text: Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28 then 31:31-34
Preached by Rev. Kerri Parker​, Sunday November 20, 2016

Justice-loving, Still-Speaking God: grant us the grace to hear and make sense of the challenging words presented to us by holy scripture and the work of the Spirit.  May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen

What’s a preacher to do when the scripture for the day – several weeks in a row - cuts a little too close to what’s going on in the world?  The same thing one does any other Sunday:  preach the text.  Preach the Gospel. We are people of faith.  And if we shy away from our sacred stories because they bear an uncomfortable word, then we are no better than the king who fed a scroll bearing forty years’ worth of prophetic words into the flames.
 
This is the Word the Spirit has brought to the church this day:  a perilous time, when the nation is under threat.  The Prophet Jeremiah under house arrest, confined, prevented from gathering with God’s people. God’s word snatched from Baruch’s hand - and in a section we skipped over for length today - God’s prophets had to go into hiding.  The scroll with these holy, subversive words taken to the palace and read in private quarters amid the king’s closest advisers, and then deliberately, section by section, consigned to the fire.  Burned because the king did not like what he was hearing.  Because he wanted to suppress the message being spread by the prophet.
 
What we have in today’s scripture is tantamount to a book burning.  We’re not talking about a single speech here. We are talking about a scroll containing forty years of Jeremiah’s life’s work - his heart and soul, everything God had given him for the good of the nation of Israel, the shining days and the terrible days and everything in between.  A masterwork, destroyed.
 
It would be easy, after such a disaster, to give up. It would be natural — particularly for Jeremiah, who was already prone to depression, and lived in difficult times — to give in to the inner voice of doom.  To stand there in judgment, shaking one’s head, saying, “I told you so.”  Worse: to entertain fantasies of revenge, as if salvation is to be found there. 
 
But the prophet doesn’t give up, although it would have been so easy to do so.   Instead, he stayed rooted in his call, offering us a model of faithful resistance to a world that just wants to get back to normal when it’s everything but business as usual:  
 
First, the prophet speaks the word given by God.  Over and over again, the prophet spoke the words.  Sometimes it offended people.  But he kept going.   Then, the prophet passes the word on to others, so they are equipped to share it.  When Jeremiah couldn’t go himself, Jeremiah taught Baruch.  Baruch wrote it down so it could be shared.  And Baruch spoke it in the temple. 
 
And then - I love this part - when the powers of this world try to shut down the transmission of God’s word (because when does that ever work, people?) - the prophet steps up again.  This is when God germinates the seeds of the Word that are planted in the weary heart of the prophet, and it cracks wide open again.  You may think you have seen it all and done it all and by all that is holy you are tired, but the word of the Lord comes to you and here it comes again:
 
“Write down all the words that were in the first scroll that was burned.”

Write down all of the words...and more.   The scroll was burned.  The powerful ones shut it down.  Has the message been lost? No. Just delayed. Write the revised and expanded edition, God says.[1] They're not going to like hearing this one any better, but it’s still worth saying.  Justice is justice. Write it. Speak it.  Send My Word forth, instructs God — so the prophet continues to raise the uncomfortable questions before the nation as a whole, not neglecting to confront the powerful, not neglecting to speak in the public square:
 
Do you treat each other justly? Do you follow the Lord’s ways?
Stop taking advantage of the immigrant, orphan, or widow.
Stop shedding the blood of the innocent,…
going after other gods to your own ruin…[2]
 
And are you caring for God’s creation?
 
“I will weep and wail for the mountains,
and lament for the grazing lands in the wilderness.
They are dried up and deserted;
no sound of the flocks is heard;
no sign of birds or animals is seen;
all have vanished.”[3]
 
Are the rich and powerful growing fat and sleek,
prospering, indifferent to the plight of the orphan, the rights of the poor?[4]
 
From the least to the greatest, all are eager to profit.
From prophet to priest, all trade in falsehood.
they treat the wound of my people as if were nothing:
“All is well, all is well,” they insist, when in fact nothing is well.”[5]
 
Do you treat the worker with justice?
And do you allow room, in your economic life
for rest, as God commanded?[6]
 
And to whom do you give supremacy?
 
“The Lord is the true God!
He’s the living God and the everlasting King!”[7]
 
“God made the earth by his might;
he shaped the world by his wisdom,
crafted the skies by his knowledge.”[8]
 
“Stop at the crossroads and look around; ask for the ancient paths. 
Where is the good way? Then walk in it.”[9]

 
It is words such as these the prophet carried to the nation, which had him banned from the temple, confined, his words burned, and eventually killed in exile.  It is words such as these which Jesus used to confront the powers of his time, words that got him killed.
 
Today is Reign of Christ Sunday, when we remember who rules supreme.  When we remember the kingdom - or kindom - to which we belong.   
 
We are in the middle of a challenging time in the life of our nation, and a challenging run of texts from the Hebrew Prophets, to be followed by a challenging run of texts about the imminent arrival of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.  We may come to church looking for comfort.  But the comfort in the Gospel is inseparable from its challenge, inseparable from Christ’s claim upon our lives. 
 
Our Christian life leads from font, to table, to cross:  We baptized a baby last week, and set her on the road to discipleship.  Remember all the things we said about the water:  water is washing, and soothing, and slaking thirst, and drowning.  It is death and it is life.  Remember all the things we say at the communion table:  it is a meal, where we nourish our bodies, where we celebrate the great banquet where none are excluded, where there is always enough, and it is also a funeral meal, where we remember that it is a gift offered to those Christ already knows will abandon him before he dies.  Even the first resurrection story is filled with challenge, more than comfort.
 
King Jehoiakim wants to enjoy his comfortable winter chambers by the firepit.  The nation would like it very much if things could get back to normal.  It’s a lovely dream; but that’s all “normal” ever was, a dream.  Because “comfort” was only comfortable for some, and “peace” only “peace” for some.  To abandon them for our own comfort is to abandon the Gospel.
 
Prophets, attend!  We have been given a Word for our time.  Though there may be those in our nation who say, "Hush! Your Word disturbs our peace," and urge us to quiet ourselves, we are called to proclaim it again, more boldly.  
 
For here is the way our God works: never settling for a retread of the past, but going beyond, calling us to speak and work for the revised, expansive vision of human community, a community ruled according to kindness, justice, and righteousness.
 
“I am the Lord who acts with kindness,
justice, and righteousness 
in the world,
and I delight in these things,
declares the Lord.”[10]
 
God is writing the revised and expansive edition.

​It’s gonna take a while. There’s still time to get involved.  Prophets, are you in?
 
Amen.



[1] Jeremiah 36:32
[2] Jeremiah 7:5-6
[3] Jeremiah 9:10
[4] Jeremiah 5:28
[5] Jeremiah 8:10-11
[6] Jeremiah 17:19-24
[7] Jeremiah 10:10
[8] Jeremiah 10:12
[9]  Jeremiah 6:16
[10]
 Jeremiah 9:24

An Uncomfortable Call - A Holy Moment: A Sermon for Prophets

11/14/2016

 
Preached November 13, 2016, the Sunday after the US Presidential Election
Text:  Isaiah 6:1-8 (Isaiah's Call and Sending)
The holiest places we are privileged to walk are where another person entrusts to us their deep gladness or deep grief.  Heaven and earth meet when we are called to attend to one another.  If you listen carefully, you might hear the fluttering of wings, as the angels hasten to cover their eyes to grant a tender moment its due.  Given an especially challenging situation, you may perceive the searing of a hot coal on your lips as you consider what words to speak into the sacred space.   You have been granted entrance to the Holy of Holies: a tender place in the human soul.
 “Woe is me,” says the prophet.  “For I am a person of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips.” You consider carefully. What will be suspended in the air between you and this fellow child of God?  What word could be true enough, and faithful; adequate to the gift of revelation that has been unfolded before you?  For such access is not granted lightly.  It comes only when there is something so great that the weight of it cannot be carried by one human soul.  When it takes a second - a soul-friend - to shoulder the load - it is an honor and a privilege to be invited across the threshold.  
 Now and then, a tight-knit community is invited to step across.  But sometimes, an entire nation or a world is unwillingly pushed across a threshold.  These are not comfortable moments.  Then again, prophets’ call stories seldom are.   

Read More

Taking Faith Home: Sacred Places

5/24/2016

 

Taking Faith Home wherever you may be...

“…The Lord is in this place, and I didn’t even know it”  Gen 28:10-22

Sacred spaces can find us in the most unexpected places. At the ocean side. On a mountaintop. By a river.    In the desert. At Sundaes on Thursday. In a song that gets stuck in our head. 
Summer is often a time of travel.  Of busyness in new places.  In the midst of going do you find time to pause and see God?  This summer, we invite you to find God in the unexpected as we Take Faith Home.  We are a church of hearts and hands.  Where do YOU find sacred places?  Is it a tree, a bluff, a beach? Or do you find sacred in art? Music? Food? Movement? Take your hands, make a heart, and share YOUR sacred space! Snap a picture. Build a sculpture.  Be creative!  Then bring YOUR heart and hands to church – in person, via email, the church’s FaceBook page, via Instagram – as we build community through the summer in unexpected places.  Just...
  • Pause. Recognize the Sacred.
  • Form a heart. With your hands. With a friend. With a child. With flowers. Rocks. Leaves. Dough.    Chocolate. A sunset. However you can form a heart…and include your hands.
  • Find a way to share the sacred with the church. Take a picture. Write a message. Compose a song.  Create a 3-D figure.
  • Over the summer we will be collecting everyone’s hearts and hands at church. God is in this place!
Picture
#takingfaithhome                                         #churchwithheart

Capital Campaign

3/21/2016

 
Picture
Sunday, April 3 at 11:15 am, you are invited to a special lunch where we will provide an update about MUCC's capital campaign - Building for God's Future.

For almost two years, the church’s leaders have been studying building needs and ministry possibilities.  In concept meetings, we developed a list of values and priorities.
 
At the 2016 Annual Meeting, the church approved a fundraising campaign.  Based on campaign results, we will work with an architect to develop a proposal that makes best use of pledged funds.
Picture
Welcoming  is at the core of being ‘A Church With Heart’ – we want to convey a sense of hospitality and compassion.  The building exterior, entries and spaces within should be inviting and approachable, warm, and light.

Visionary  
  We want to go beyond ‘new and improved’ to look to the future.   How can we convey the new, bold spirit in this place?  What big ideas will equip us for the next stage in our ministry?  What technology shifts do we need to consider?

Faith-Filled   We want our facilities and our ministry to be faith-filled.  We hope for an enriching environment that helps the congregation and the community grow in faith.

Community-Building   Our ministry is for the congregation and for the community. We hope to build community within the church and with our neighbors.  The project should help us reach out and reach in, in ways that are fully inclusive.  We want to create a place for conversations.
 
Functional   Whatever we create should be versatile and flexible. We are an informal congregation.  This implies special attention to creating inviting spaces to be at ease, materials that are child-friendly and mess-friendly, and adequate, well-organized
storage. 
 
With multiple generations at the core of our ministry, we need an environment that is both accessible and safe.  We want spaces that are well-lit, acoustically and visually pleasing, but also designed to be used. 


Picture
The guiding values for the project are also who we are as a church.
​Invest in our shared ministry!    
 
You can choose the best way for you to give! 
​Funds can be pledged over up to a 5 year timeframe.   

Building Relationships with Community Gardeners

3/1/2016

 
Picture
This Sunday, March 6th after worship, the McFarland Community Gardeners will have their Spring Potluck!  The potluck begins at noon, followed by information about the upcoming growing season, volunteer opportunities and more. 

​When we break bread together, we build community.

Bring a dish to pass and join the gathering!  This is a family friendly event. Questions? Talk to Katie Gletty-Syoen, [email protected] or (608) 225-0103.

Strange Churchy Words

2/2/2016

 
Picture
Mark your calendar now for Faith Talks, our dinner & conversation series in Lent.  It will be held on Wednesday evenings, February 10 through March 16. 

Last year, Faith Talk in Lent was one of our most popular faith development offerings, six weeks of meeting around the dinner table for caring conversation and a chance to explore ‘God-talk’ together. 

This year’s series is themed around ‘Strange Churchy Words.’ Each week we’ll discuss something that’s a part of Christian faith and practice – but probably strikes you as weird if you take a minute to think about it. Some requested words so far have been: Lent, Synod, atonement, and Maundy, just to name a few.  Any question about these topics is fair game! 

This is a cross+generational event, and we welcome people of all ages. The conversations are most likely to be engaging for people 3rd grade through adult, but younger children are welcome to attend with their families. 

A simple dinner will be served each week. We invite you to arrive anytime 5:45 – 6 pm to get your meal and join us around the tables. At 6 pm, our pastor will introduce the topic for the evening.  From about 6:15 – 7:00 pm, there will be time to engage the topic in large group and small group conversation. 

Your reservation on SignupGenius will help us plan for dinner CLICK HERE to register.

Building Project Information Sessions

11/24/2015

 
Picture
At the annual meeting in February 2015, the congregation authorized SaLT to spend funds to determine the feasibility of a renovation project for the church, and the best scope of such a project. A lot of research & conversation has been going on behind the scenes to bring us to our next step!

A 4-person working group (Rachel Saladis, Gregg Krattiger, Carolyn Bell, and Matt Hanna) has worked diligently with the overall priorities that SaLT proposed for the project. They are now ready to present conceptual plans for what such a renovation might look like. 

SaLT will present a motion at our January 31 2016 annual meeting, to authorize a capital campaign. If the congregation votes in favor, it would authorize fundraising toward a specific dollar goal. A later vote would be taken, after fundraising is complete, to authorize the beginning of construction. We have experienced lay leaders in our congregation prepared to guide both processes.


We invite you to attend upcoming information sessions to learn more:  

Sunday, November 29 @ 11:15

Sunday, December 20 @ 11:15

Sunday, January 10 @ 11:15

Christmas Specials!

11/20/2015

 
Every Wednesday in December 5:45-7:00 PM we will be gathering for a simple dinner, a Christmas Special on the BIG screen and faith talks.  This will be a wonderful time filled with great conversations and church family time.  

Signup is not required but encouraged so we can prepare enough food.  Click Here to RSVP online!

Our first Wednesday, December 2nd will feature the classic...
Picture

Speechless:  A Parable

3/8/2015

 
We have been learning from the parables of Jesus, these past few weeks.  As he teaches, Jesus says to his listeners, “To what shall I compare the Realm of God?  To what shall I compare the Kingdom?”

And each week, instead of hearing a straightforward comparison, a basic lesson in similes and metaphors, we have been unpacking a deeper story.  Parables are not Aesop’s fables with a simple moral and life application that will make you a better person; parables mess with your head.

Instead of a direct comparison, they twist our thinking.  They help us explore more complicated questions such as, “What are the boundaries of forgiveness?” and “What if our central organizing principle was hospitality?”  Today, we receive another kingdom sketch that seems to tear both of these prior lessons to shreds.

Today’s parable comes from the 22nd chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.  In our Bible study this week, we discovered that a similar story is told in Luke and in the Gospel of Thomas.  Matthew’s version gives George RR Martin a run for his money.  If you’re familiar with his novels, or the HBO series Game of Thrones, the storyline might seem familiar.

Read More

Full Availability: A Parable

3/1/2015

 
There were not many jobs to be had.  Not many regular jobs, at least.  It was a bit easier to find a limited gig that would pay you for three days, or two days, or one day at a time.  The economy was based on full availability.  If there was a chance to work, and you turned it down…well, you might not get called again. 
 
That’s what happened the time my grandfather took a day job shoveling out a railroad car during the Depression.   At that time, you didn’t know when the next job might present itself, so you took a job when offered, and you were grateful for the chance to earn something, when the next guy might get nothing.  So he took the job shoveling out the railroad car.  He spent a hard day shoveling salt.   And by the end of the day, when they dished out the day’s wage?  Well, instead of feeding the family, it had to go to buying him a new pair of boots to replace the ones the salt had ruined.

That sort of deal didn’t end with the New Deal.   It’s just as prevalent here at the beginning of the twenty-first century.  Some call it ‘Working in Retail’.  Some call it ‘The Sharing Economy.’ Others call it On-Demand Staffing or 'Flexible Staffing Practices'.  Full Availability is a system where it seems the employer has all the rights to organize the employee’s time.  It is not uncommon in retail – and increasingly, in other sectors – to receive your schedule shortly before the week begins, and to be notified that you are “on call” in case of an unexpected surge in customers, expected to report on as little as two hours’ notice.  All of this for the extravagant wage of $7.25 to $10 an hour.

Of course, with your employer’s needs as your central organizing principle, you have precious little energy to devote to organizing anything else: child care, or a search for a better job, or your fellow employees.  It goes beyond paycheck-to-paycheck and ends up being more like hand-to-mouth.  

Read More
<<Previous
Forward>>

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    September 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Admin
    Blessing
    Current Events
    Faith Development
    God On Broadway
    Media
    Mission
    Music
    Newsletter
    Sermon
    Social Justice
    Sundaes On Thursday
    Video
    Worship
    Youth

Find us on social media

Picture
Look for us as mcfarlanducc
Worshiping at 10 am on Sundays In person & Zoom
5710 Anthony Street, McFarland WI 53558

Can't make it to worship with us? Visit our Facebook page for prayer opportunities & links.
We are proud to be an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome here!
Picture
​Contact Us

Office Hours: Wednesdays & Thursdays 9am - 1pm (Or by appointment) 

Office Phone:  (608) 838-9322  
​​Office Email: [email protected]
​
Office Administrator:​ Ginger Hummer

Pastor Bryan Sirchio
Pastor Email: [email protected]
Pastor's Cell:  (608) 577-8716

How to Find Us (in person)