May 26, 2019 We Welcome to the Pulpit Today the Rev. Cindy Shepherd. The Rev. Shepherd is the Director of Outreach for the Central Illinois Office of Faith in Place. Faith in Place partners, such as the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana, consistently inspire her with their diverse and creative Earth Care initiatives. Cindy grew up in…
Sunday, May 19th, 2019 How do you prepare for the unexpected, the unpredictable, the unanticipated, the serendipitous? How can anyone prepare for such? Maybe a better question is how do we remain alert day by day so that when the unexpected assaults us we can receive it as the gift that it is? Rare is…
Delivered on Sunday, May 12th, 2019 Out in the world, in every day, work-a-day life, you don’t hear them at all anymore. Works songs have passed from practice and into collections of folk songs by someone like Pete Seeger, or one of the collections of the Smithsonian Folk Ways. You no doubt know more than…
On Sunday, May 5th, 2019 One scholar of preaching has written that on any given Sunday, some of those gathered for worship almost didn’t go, not because they had another option, nor because family or friends were in town, and it can just be so hard to get everyone corralled for church. The scholar has…
Sunday, April 28th, 2019 Easter is a season. Far from being a single day event, far from being content to proclaim “Christ is risen!” merely last Sunday when so many were here to enjoy it, we continue our proclamation today. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! And because it remains such good news, and…
Sunday, April 21st, 2019 Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed) And this always comes as such good news to God’s some years frozen Northern disciples. We need good news. We need hope. We need these gorgeous banners, the wonderful music, and all of these flowers. Yet when we read the Easter story in…
Sunday April 14, 2019 Sunday will begin beautifully as we gather in the Narthex with our palms in hand. We will say together, as did those first disciples, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We will process into the sanctuary together, led by our handbells, re-enacting in our small way,…
Sunday, April 7th, 2019 When it comes to love, how much is too much? Where should we draw the lines? That’s one of those hard, hard questions, kind of like the one Peter put to Jesus one day. “If a member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?…” And to try…
Sunday, March 31st, 2019 Well, it sure didn’t take Jesus long to gather a following. None of the official religious people in the Temple were telling it like Jesus did. Yet, as his gathering grew and grew, so did the grumbling. The shepherds, who likely had no experience with bathing, always were offending the well-to-do.…