First Congregational Church
Change Happens
God is always making things new – again.
(Posted April 3, 2024)
Probably one of the most important lessons that comes into focus for those of us who’ve been on the planet for some years is that life is all about change.
Impermanence is a sign that growth is taking place. However when we’re young, we’re convinced that things will last forever. Our parents will be by our side forever. The crush on that boy or girl in our school will last forever. Our youthful strength and beauty will be ours forever. After all, why wouldn’t they?
If You’re Fighting Change, Choose Your Battles Carefully
But it also seems that our obsession with permanence isn’t restricted to our youth. Just spend ten minutes watching TV these days. We spend huge amounts of our money for products and procedures to keep things the way we think they should be, forever. We erase eye bags that tell our age. We try to combat wrinkles as if they were some dangerous form of cancer. And Gray hair? God forbid that those white strands show up in public.
When recently two of the NASA astronauts ended up stuck on the International Space Station for nine months longer than their original hitch, Astronaut Suni Williams gained criticism from the world below her when her jet black hair slowly turned white. It was as if people on earth thought a beautician and hair dye were kept in space. Oddly enough, her flying partner Butch Wilmore didn’t face the same kind of criticism, since his hair was natural. Also, he was a guy. She is 62. He is 59.
Change: An Invitation to Be a New Person
The truth is, God is quite proud of the ability to make things new. Through the prophet Isaiah this week we hear God’s voice:
“Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As we seemingly speed through this Lenten season, we realize that these disciples we’ve read about have been given the invitation to become new people.
They’ve quite literally left the old, familiar, comforting objects of their past and leapt into the sea of the unknown. They followed a young Rabbi who dangerously disturbs the comfortable with his interpretation of the law, and who he befriends:
- The fishermen have left their nets.
- The Samaritan woman has left her water jug.
They have been transformed into proclaimers of “a new thing.”
Here, in this week’s Gospel, Jesus’ friend Mary ominously foresees the future, and washes his feet with the costly ointment meant for death and embalming. Judas, with his opposing motives of avarice and admiration of Jesus, objects.
Come join us as we continue on the road into Jerusalem, from horror to Halleluiah.
The Power of a Good Story
Stories bring us close to God’s truth.
(Posted March 5, 2025)
Have you ever noticed when Jesus wanted his disciples to remember what he was saying,
He almost always placed the lesson he taught inside a story? That’s because as human beings, we understand how people feel when there are important life lessons they are learning. We identify with them and the tale engraves itself on our hearts.
We find reassurance and even peace in a story. The kinds of stories we tell our kids at bedtime are calming enough to even scare away even the boogeymen in the closet. As children, when we listen to the rhythmic drone of the voice of someone who loves us, it can set everything right. After all, that rhythm is itself the heartbeat of love.
Stories Bind Our Experiences Together
Probably the time we need a good story the most is when we try to bind together all of our chapters of personal experiences, both the beautiful and the horrific, into our own life story. One of the best “writers’ manuals” for this process is the Bible, and especially for us Christians, the New Testament.
Luke the Gospel writer helps us understand the human experience of temptation by telling us the story of Jesus’ temptation after 40 days of hunger in the wilderness. We are all-too-well acquainted with those who would play the Tempter in our lives. Both Luke and Matthew provide us with 47 parables that are so well-known we know what they are just by their names: The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal son, the Mustard Seed, The Pearl of Great Price, the Lost Sheep…
Stories Close to God’s Truth
Stories like this that bring us close enough to one of God’s truths is truly what we mean when we talk about the Thin Places in our spirituality. This Sunday we’re going to listen to some stories from real life that underscore how our lives themselves are being written each day by The One Who Loves Us, more than anything else.
As Jesus tells the Tempter atop the temple, “man does not live by bread alone.” Come join us in a story fest. (Remember Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday, and be there at 10, not at 11!)
Jesus, the Mother Hen
A look at women who do God’s work.
(Posted March 13, 2025)
A few years ago, I looked out at the bird feeders I have hanging in the forest behind our house. There was something I wasn’t expecting to see at the base: a chicken.
To be specific, it was a hen.
Now, there is nothing in back of our home but forest for at least 300 feet. In the distance, across a couple of farmer’s stone walls and through the forest is a house, actually in the next town over. Since recently there had been clucking sounds coming from that general area, it became apparent that my distant neighbor, Buster, who had recently become interested in farm things, had added chickens to his property.
Lost and Found Chicken
Like a dutiful neighbor, I went out back and found the very tame hen, gently picked her up and put her in my car because, while I could see his place from mine, there was no way to get there. His house was actually a mile and a half away by car.
I drove there, rang Buster’s doorbell and handed him his chicken. He was vaguely grateful for the return – just as he seemed vague about the importance of protecting the animals in his charge from the predators in the woods out back. This wouldn’t be the only time I became a “chicken chauffeur” for him, because the hen liked our place better.
Animals Stories in the Bible
When we look at the whole Bible, there are many, many animals that are employed to tell the stories it presents. Horses and donkeys, yes, but also pigs, fish, and many birds, including ravens, and sparrows.
Identifying with the Chicken
But this Sunday’s Gospel is the only place that you’ll find a chicken. Specifically, a hen. What makes it especially interesting is that Jesus compares himself to this hen. You won’t find many men of his era identifying themselves as anything as female as this bird.
After all, for thousands of years in Judeo-Christian culture, women were tagged as inferior, due to “the sin of Eve.” But Jesus didn’t see it this way. He identified with the protective wings of the hen that, in spirit, with which he wished he could shield the people of Jerusalem. He sighed:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34)
Women Who Do God’s Work
Sunday’s service will be especially interesting in this Women’s History Month. We see time and again how Jesus made room for women not only in the symbols of his stories, but in the roles of disciples, proclaimers and prophets.
Come listen to this “thin place” story—I’m egging you on!
Information
First Congregational Church
164 Deer Hill Ave.
Danbury, CT 06810
Est. 1696
Phone: (203) 744-6177
Email: office@danburychurch.org
Office Hours:
Monday Closed
Tuesday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Wednesday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Friday Closed
Thrift Shop Hours:
Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Sunday Worship:
Sunday 10:00 a.m.–11 a.m.