FCC Winchester

Sermon: “Reimagining Community” by Michelle Millben on 6/15/25

Sermon: "God Speaks. Will We Listen?" by Rev. Will Burhans on 6/08/25

Sermon: "Jesus' Chosen Family" by Rev. Maeve Hammond on 6/01/25

Sermon: "The Three Trees" by Rev. Will Burhans on 5/25/25

Many of us these days are managing the fear, the anger, even the hatred that stirs in us with the news of current events and with the way that media manipulates our emotions, so it’s important as Hildegard reminds us to look to God’s goodness and power, to breath in the sweet air that God gifts us with, and to remember God’s mercy and God’s son who redeems even us, even me, even you.

That story of redemption is a deep and beautiful one in the Bible that reaches from the very beginning to to very ending, and within it there are 3 trees that stand to mark that beginning, the great hinge-point in the middle, and at the end of the overarching story. 2 of the trees are of the imaginary, not that they aren’t real but they are of the imaginary, images that represent deeper and truer realities at play, and then the tree in the middle of the story is as material and hard as nails. 

Three trees. The first tree is the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil that stands in the Garden of Eden in the creation story of Genesis that Marisa read for us. The third tree is mentioned at the beginning but really comes into the story most gloriously at the end in the new Eden, the New Jerusalem, and that is the Tree of Life, of which Maggie spoke and the middle tree that is the hinge-point of the narrative is the cross-tree on which hangs the God-man Jesus, a divine victim of human violence.

Sermon: "Be The Church" by Rev. Will Burhans on 5/18/25

Sermon: "Tabitha" by Rev. Maeve Hammond on 5/11/25

Sermon: "Holy Ghost in the Machine" by Rev. Will Burhans on 5/04/25

Sermon: "Practicing Resurrection" by Rev. Will Burhans on 4/27/25

Sermon: “The Great Song of Easter“ by Rev. Will Burhans on 4/20/25

Sermon: "Repairer of the Breach" by Rev. Will Burhans on 4/13/25

Last week I went down to DC to join with other clergy and Rev. William Barber’s group which is called Repairers of the Breach to hold a vigil at the Supreme Court to lift up concerns about the proposed federal budget that threatens the social safety net in our country for millions of Americans who are in need and promises to benefit those who already have a lot more than they need. The organization, Repairers of the Breach, is at work to keep the budget front and center in the consciousness of the American people highlighting the hurt it can cause for the most vulnerable among us. The reference “repairers of the breach” comes from Isaiah 59 where the prophet calls on Israel to repair the breach between the way the world is and how God intends the world to be. 

It does not take much to imagine that our God of love would take issue with some people making multi-million and billions of dollars while so many scrape by without basic necessities. I mean, we need not make it more complicated than that. And our sacred scriptures are clear about it - this Creator God to whom we direct our worship had a particular heart for the enslaved and when God liberated them from captivity God made it clear that they themselves had to operate with particular care for justice and mercy, tending to the marginalized and poor. And as we look around at 10 million children in poverty and 39 million people without health insurance in our very very wealthy country, decreases to food assistance programs and increases to military spending and the making of enemies where there weren’t any before, we must see clearly that there is a chasm, a breach, between the way things are and the way God means them to be.