Sermon recordings from the Old South Church in Boston, an open and affirming UCC congregation (www.oldsouth.org). http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons en-us ℗ & © 2008 Old South Church The Old South Church in Boston The Old South Church in Boston brings you its weekly dynamic and inspirational sermons, straight from the pulpit of the most historic United Church of Christ (UCC) church in the United States, gathered in 1669. For more details on our program, mission, and history, please see our webpage at www.oldsouth.org Old South Church communications@oldsouth.org Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0400 Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0400 "I am riding on a limited express, one of the cracked trains of the nation." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Kenneth Orth) Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0400 "How many people here know the name of an American service person who has died in Iraq? Raise your hand if, before you received today's worship bulletin and looked at the insert there, you knew the name of even one service person, ours or theirs, who has died in Iraq since the beginning of the war there five years ago." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:00:00 -0400 "If you choose to visit www.youvebeenleftbehind.com you will find there a new Website. For forty dollars a year, those who are relatively assured of their own salvation can now leave a final e-mail to loved ones who might be left behind during the Rapture. The Website allows users to compose a message that will be sent to up to sixty-two recipients, six days after the Rapture occurs." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:30:00 -0400 "I saw an advertisement . . . .announcing an essay contest on the theme 'The Case for God.' I thought that's interesting. Is it really necessary to make a case for God?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Carl F. Schultz) Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0400 "She was born cross-eyed, and they tried operation after operation. When she was six years old, she got her first pair of bifocals. They were so small, but they made her eyes look so big. . . There was this magic space, this holy space, this beautiful space, where he would try to linger." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Elizabeth Myer Boulton) Mon, 13 Jul 2008 08:30:00 -0400 "Peter, we have got a question for you. We are curious. We have a right to know. We have a little wager going here and wonder if you could settle it for us? We've been wondering something about Jesus. Does he or does he not pay the temple tax?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 06 Jul 2008 08:30:00 -0400 "The Binding of Isaac, as the story we just heard is known, is a story about human sacrifice, or at least an almost-human-sacrifice. I find that to be a horrible thing." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:00:00 -0400 "I love parades: big organized ones with complicated floats, and little local ones. I love somber Memorial Day parades, joyous Fourth of July parades, celebrative First Night parades and colorful (if sometimes, outrageous) Gay Pride parades. Lucky for me that Boston is a great parade-town and most of Boston's parades pass by right outside Old South's front doors." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:30:00 -0400 "We've all done it: laughed when we're not supposed to laugh. There's nervous laughter during a funeral or a tense argument. There are those uncontrollable giggles that come at the worst possible time like a lecture or presentation or other grim event . . ." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Abby Henderson) Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:30:00 -0400 "Before the cross and the resurrection, before the creeds and the crusades; before there were Catholics or Orthodox or Protestants; before sacraments and vestments; . . . there was a man -- a peasant, a teacher -- who made your head turn . . . who touched things so deep and holy that you could not help but be diverted from what you had been doing or thinking . . ." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 9 Jun 2008 10:30:00 -0400 "It did not fit. It chafed and irritated. . . . It did not really belong to her. It had been imposed on her. . . Her parents had been given the name by the people who first owned them. . . The name was as painful as if it had been imposed by a hot branding iron. It was a symbol indicating that she, too, was owned. . . And so it was that on June 1, 1843 (exactly 165 years ago today) Isabella Baumfree shed that incongruous, ill-fitting, lie of a name . . . and in that same body there appeared Sojourner Truth." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 2 Jun 2008 14:00:00 -0400 "As she got out of the shower . . . she forgot what time it was. She'd been forgetting a lot of things these last few days. . . . She put on her favorite dress. She sat down to wait. . . After a while, the car came and the man came and they drove to the little church, the one that she and her husband had been going to all these years." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 26 May 2008 16:00:00 -0400 Youth Sunday Sermon by Old South Church's High School Seniors http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Youth Sunday) Sun, 8 June 2008 15:00:00 -0400 "Today we step into a centuries-old conversation on race. It is a conversation that began on this soil in 1619 when a Dutch man-of-war arrived in Jamestown and traded its cargo of twenty Africans for food. . . . This is a painful conversation, whose roots and wounds are both old and deep." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 12 May 2008 15:30:00 -0400 "Pharaoh's strategy is brilliant . . . ruthless, but brilliant: if you want to weaken and diminish the Hebrew population, take out the male babies. But, for the sake of appearances, to keep his own hands clean, it is imperative to have it taken care of efficiently and discretely by the least likely suspects . . . the midwives." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 04 May 2008 17:30:00 -0400 "This past Tuesday, as you probably know, was Earth Day. And today, as I hope you know, Old South celebrates Care of Creation Sunday, the church version of Earth Day." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:00:00 -0400 "John Romero recalls his experience of running in the 1973 Boston Marathon. The weather was hot that day. By the start of the race the temperature had already climbed to 76 degrees. Two miles into the race, as he reached Ashland, Romero found himself in the midst of a large clutch of runners. Every single one of them was thirsty . . . and there was no water in sight." (Preached on the occasion of the Boston Marathon and the baptism of three infants.) http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:00:00 -0400 "There once was a time, and there once was a place when the 23rd Psalm was contraband." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:00:00 -0400 Reflections on the return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:30:00 -0400 "Binjamin Wilkomerski. Does that name ring a bell? . . . He tells brilliantly... of his near infancy and early childhood in Nazi death-camps . . . he witnesses unimaginable cruelties and brutalities. . . . You're making this up, they say . . . They were right! Binjamin Wilkomerski made it all up." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (James W. Crawford) Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:30:00 -0400 "Over the course of history -- human history and cosmic history -- God has come up with some quite wonderful ideas. . . . God is an author and artist of the first order: Author of the Universe, Creator of the Whirling Stars. God is an inventor and a sculptor of ideas, images, of music and drama, of justice and mercy, of the four-leggeds and the winged creatures and the creatures of the sea . . . and, of humankind." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:30:00 -0400 "If you want to get bitten by a strange dog, you should corner it and come in fast with your teeth bared. If you want to see a small woman lift up a big car, you should drop a car on her baby. If you want to see a zebra run fast, you should put a lion right next to it. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:30:00 -0400 "It was in the tenth century that Prince Vladimir of Kiev decided that his nation needed a religion. To that end, the Prince sent his ambassadors out to investigate the religious landscape of the time. He instructed them to come back with recommendations as to which religion was the best religion." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0400 "Travel with me back in time . . .back to a time before layers of ecclesiastical sediment piled up so thickly that it has become difficult to find Jesus beneath the deposits of the centuries. . . Come with me to the first century in Palestine . . .to the home of Mark the Evangelist. Mark is preparing to author the first story of Jesus, the first biography, the first Gospel." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Wed, 5 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0500 On Seminary Sunday, the President of Andover Newton Theological College, the Rev. Nick Carter preaches on Numbers 11:24-30 and Matthew 10:5-23. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nick Carter) Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:00:00 -0500 Just over the balcony in the rear of the Groton Community Church UCC, there is a stained glass window . . . that window was glorious . . . it's the kind of Jesus that one New Testament scholars called a "mommy Jesus." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:00:00 -0500 "A butcher, a bricklayer, a brewer, a bookseller, a shoemaker, two ship's captains, a tailor, two felt-makers, an apothecary, a mint-master, and schoolmaster." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:00:00 -0500 "It is election season. You can tell it is election season because the people are deliberating and debating. They are complaining, campaigning and caucusing." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:00:00 -0500 A colleague of mine puts it this way : If you announce that you're handing out free food, hungry people are going to show up. If you tell the people you're giving out healing, sick people are going to show up. If word gets out that you're giving away money, poor people are going to come to your door. And if forgiveness of sins is what you're handing out, who's going to come? That's right: sinners. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:00:00 -0500 "This title is taken from a sermon given by Dr. King . . . wanting to challenge his congregation to remain awake during a great revolution, he set the stage by telling the story of Rip Van Winkle (Micah 6:8, Revelation 21:1-5)." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Jim Antal) Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:00:00 -0500 "When we are first introduced to the Magi, they are looking up. . . . wondering how, whether and to what degree, what happens up there matters down here." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sat, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0500 Keep Christmas in Your Heart, sermon by Rev. June Cooper, Executive Director of City Mission Society. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (June Cooper) Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:10:00 -0500 "Of Windows and Doors" sermon preached by Rev. Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister of Old South Church. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:10:00 -0500 The founding Rabbi of Boston Jewish Spirit preaches in a Christian Church on the promise and perils of inter-religious work. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Howard A. Berman) Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:00:00 -0500 "Within your Sunday bulletin you will find an architectural puzzler. Beneath side-by-side photos of our first tower and our current tower, there is a photograph of a lone stone circle surrounded by gothic arches and columns. . . . Imagine you are Harry Potter and you swallowed a special diminishment potion - a potion that reduces you to the size of a cat. Now, cat-sized and deft of foot, you climb through that stone circle." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:00:00 -0500 "The Kingdom of God is like a wedding party. . . The kingdom of God is like that, Jesus says. It is that good. Don't miss it. Be ready. . . . Be ready because you don't know. You never know. You cannot know when it will happen." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 3 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0500 "It always happened the same way. . . . Margaret would walk into her tidy well-kept shiny kitchen . . . . and look around like a general surveying a battlefield." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:00:00 -0500 "A man from the city was out driving in the country and he got lost. . . . 'Can you tell how far it is to the mill pond?' he asked. 'Well,' said the farmer, 'The way, you are going, it is near about 25,000 miles, but if you turn around it is about 4 miles.' . . . This hallowed ground holds the memory of one of the most remarkable turnarounds in American history." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0500 "If you have the eyes of faith, if you have healthy eyes, you will look at scarcity and see God's abundance." (Matthew 6:19-24). http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Elizabeth Myer Boulton) Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:30:00 -0500 "I want to tell you a story about treasures, lost and found." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:00:00 -0400 "They found themselves flying in over Cleveland as two great processions outdoors began to move from Public Square symbolically joining together and arriving at the music hall, where the service was to be held. . . . . What a marvelous perspective." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (John H. Thomas) Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:30:00 -0400 "It was a strange little band. There were those among them there that, in their former lives, had been rich, and those who had been poor, farmer and herder, fisherman and laborer, people that, under any other circumstances, would never have found themselves sharing the same patch of dirt." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:00:00 -0400 "My Granny Isabel's garden was a large, sun-drenched patch of colors, textures and heights. Heavy, bright red tomatoes tied up on stakes. Tall stalks of corn: their yellow ears cocooned in pale green leaves with silken tassels." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:00:00 -0400 "How much money is enough? . . . Just a little bit more. . . . Most of us are absolutely convinced that our lives would be better, perhaps fixed altogether,if we had just a little bit more money." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:00:00 -0400 "Luke's gospel is packed with stories about wealth and poverty . . . about our relationship to our possessions. Neither Luke nor Jesus hesitates to step into those complicated, compromised and charged areas of human life." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:00:00 -0400 "We asked for you to share with us the stories of your service you have performed out there in the world and what that service meant to you. . . Your responses were, in a word, a marvel." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:00:00 -0400 "Because of their intimate acquaintance with the psalms, I doubt our Puritan forebears would have been surprised by the news we heard this week about Mother Teresa . . . exposing her interior spiritual agony." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:30:00 -0400 "The ancient Israelites were a nomadic people ... living in tents, they followed the herds, the rains and the seasons. Each time, the Israelites encamped, they pitched their tents anew. . . Moses and the Elders pitched a tent for God, the tent of meeting." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:30:00 -0400 "It's a song about the rapture for camp children, a reminder that at any second some or all of everyone they knew--friends, parents, siblings--could be whisked away into heaven. The children meanwhile could be left behind, abandoned by God." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Tadd Allman-Morton) Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:30:00 -0400 "Confession is good for the soul. In that light, I decided to make a rather mundane confession to you this morning: I like to mow my lawn." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Cal Genzel) Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:00:00 -0400 "I got to tell you right up front. I really have no idea what today's story is about... It's a weird story, right? Really weird." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:00:00 -0400 "Summer is wedding season at Old South. We are one of the few churches in the area who give welcome to couples who are not members...that is to say, couples who have no relationship to us, but who find themselves urgently in need of a pretty church, preferably with a central aisle." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:00:00 -0400 "Religion, if you get it wrong, can be very dangerous. Learn about it first hand." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:00:00 -0400 "This being human is a guest house. Each has been sent as a guide from beyond" says the poet Rumi. How are _all_ those I meet a gift from above? http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 15 Jul 2007 20:00:00 -0400 These days, in churches like Old South, that is to say liberal and/or progressive churches, "witness" is a word you don't hear very often. "Witness" as in faith witness, as in preachers thundering, "Can I get witness?!" from the pulpit. "Witness" as in one human soul risking telling the story of that soul and God to other human souls. "Witness" as in telling the world what God has done in your life. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Kenneth H. Orth) Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:00:00 -0400 "On Sunday morning July 1, 1943, in the tiny congregational church in Heath, Massachusetts, the minister stood up to pray. . . . We know it today as The Serenity Prayer. It is an ironic title for a prayer that acts like nothing so much as a perilous boomerang. It is a prayer you had better pray as quickly as you can and then duck -- because every word of it circles around and comes rushing back at the pray-er." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy Taylor) Sun, 1 Jul 2007 23:00:00 -0400 On the UCC's 50th Anniversary" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 24 Jun 2007 10:00:00 -0400 "In an ancient Buddhist text, Buddha tells this story: Once upon a time, a man gathered together in one place all the men of a single village who were born blind . . . and showed them an elephant. . . . You know the story and its parabolic intent: no one of us, from our limited vantage can grasp the whole." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy Taylor) Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:00:00 -0400 "In a world that is engulfed in conflict, injustice, and dispair, it is clearly daring to be compassionate, and clearly imperative that we be just that." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Ann B. Day) Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:00:00 -0400 "An explanation of the Trinity in easy language . . . and Reflections on Mt. Vernon Church" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy Taylor. S.C. Campbell Lovett) Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:01:00 -0400 "In the Beginning . . . In the Beginning . . . In the New Beginning..." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 27 May 2007 19:01:00 -0400 "Youth Sunday Sermons" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Youth) Tue, 22 May 2007 20:00:00 -0400 "One of the biggest celebrations can church can have is to celebrate the confirmation of our young people into the full membership of the church." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 14 May 2007 10:00:00 -0400 "Two weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to go on a weeklong pilgrimmage and study trip to the Gothic Cathedral in the French City of Chartres . . . It is a palpably holy place. To enter it is to become immediately aware that there are indeed places in this world that are somehow closer than others to God and all God hopes for the creation." (Revelation 21:1-22:5) http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 7 May 2007 10:00:00 -0400 "Charlie Brown runs into Linus and asks where he has been. At Church School, replies Linus. . . . We've been reading the New Testament. Although, he continues thoughtfully, I must admit it makes me feel a little guilty. I always feel like I'm reading someone else's mail!" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:00:00 -0400 "To live as Easter people, Resurrection people, in our kind of world is a very difficult challenge. The circumstances of life are often hard. The combination of things sometimes creates much too much on our plates. That has certainly been the case this week . . . " (Mark 5:21-34) http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Donald A. Wells) Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:00:00 -0400 "Go Outside" My mother used to say. "Go Outside" have you heard that... ... Out is In .." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:30:00 -0400 "Imagine this: Easter Sunrise Service on the rim of the Grand Canyon. How many of you have been to the Grand Canyon?...What words would you use to describe it? ... Even if you have not been there, perhaps you can imagine it...I invite you now, in your imagination, to place yourself there. It is Easter morning, before dawn, on the rim of the Grand Canyon. As the sun rises, the Canyon's pre-dawn gray explodes into a rainbow of colors: browns, pinks, purples, yellows, reds, oranges, blues and greens..." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 9 Apr 2007 13:30:00 -0400 "They threw the western gates of Jerusalem wide for the procession that entered that Sunday. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, turned out and lined the streets to watch as he and his supporters rode into the city. . . Some knew just want to think; their hatred and resentment were palpable." (Mark 11:1-11, 15-19) http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Mon, 2 Apr 2007 15:00:00 -0400 "Requiem, Latin for rest is the traditional sung service performed at funerals, All Saints Day, and anniversaries of the dead . . . a requiem is an invitation to repose, to rest." -- A reflection based on an accompanying performance of Gabriel Faure's Requiem, which may be heard at this link http://www.oldsouth.org/worship/worshiparchive.htm" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 25 Mar 2007 18:30:00 -0400 "The story we heard today is almost without doubt the most familiar and probably the most beloved of all of Jesus's many prodigals. . . You've probably heard quite a few sermons about it as well." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:00:00 -0400 "Set in the floor of the rotunda of the Library at Talladega College in Alabama there is a bas-relief plaque of the ship La Amistad. It is a tradition at the college that the plaque is never stepped upon. It is a sacred thing. (Based on biblical texts on mercy.)" " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:00:00 -0400 'The image of Noah's ark in my head is not a "still" but a cinematic one. I imagine a movie.' http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 4 Mar 2007 18:00:00 -0500 "...this story of the Temptations of Jesus reappears on the liturgical calendar every year, year after year. Almost all of the other Bible stories are on a three-year cycle. Not this one. This one has pride of place and returns, like clock work, every year on this First Sunday of Lent.. Almost all of the other Bible stories are on a three-year cycle. Not this one. This one has pride of place and returns, like clock work, every year on this First Sunday of Lent (Based on Luke 4: 1-13). " " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:00:00 -0500 "It was an explosion of colors: deep cobalt blues, rich royal reds, and bright golden yellows were all over it. On a sunny day, it would just come alive!" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Tadd Allman-Morton) Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:00:00 -0500 In anticipation of Old South's Congregational Spiritual Discernment and Vision Process during Lent, Rev. Copehaver addressed the 337th Annual Meeting of Old South Church by speaking on the power and promise of Spiritual Discernment as a Congregational practice. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0500 In anticipation of Old South's Congregational Spiritual Discernment and Vision Process during Lent, Rev. Copehaver addressed the 337th Annual Meeting of Old South Church by speaking on the power and promise of Spiritual Discernment as a Congregational practice. " http://www.oldsouth.org/discernment.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Martin B. Copenhaver) Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0500 "Does anyone remember the last time we focused on the story we read this morning, the story of the Great Catch and the Call of the Disciples? Yes! It has been the theme-story for our Christian Stewardship program for the past two years. . . . The story of the Unexpected Catch is one of the truly great stories in the New Testament." " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:00:00 -0500 The author of "The Faith of Fifty Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture" talks about curses, drama, melodrama, religion and race as it applies to the Boston Red Sox in this latest installment on January 31, 2007 in the Old South Church lecture series in honor of Senior Minister Emeritus, James W. Crawford." http://www.oldsouth.org/crawfordlecture07.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (William R. Herzog) Sat, 3 Feb 2007 06:00:00 -0500 'In January, the chief executive officers of our city, state, and nation prepare their programmatic agendas. . . . [Similarly] Luke offers a picture of our Lord's vision, person, and agenda at the very beginning of his public ministry. In effect, Luke presents our Lord's first and only "state of the mission message." ' http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (James W. Crawford) Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:00:00 -0500 "Gathered to pray for a new administration were Christian, Muslim and Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, an American Indian, Mormon, Christian Scientist, Unitarian and Orthodox. We were Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, Progressive, black, white, yellow, brown, red, gay and straight." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:00:00 -0500 "I have often wondered what our poor Puritan forebearers made of the fact that Jesus' first miracle involved a copious amount of alcohol." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:00:00 -0500 "It was a remarkable day. It seemed like everyone in the world had gathered there." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:00:00 -0500 "...at twelve-years-old Michelangelo apprenticed himself to an artist. . . At the age of twelve, Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed to his brother's printing shop. . . When she was twelve-years-old, Phillis Wheatley, a slave, began studying Latin and English. . . Frederick Douglass, who was also a slave, secretly learned to read and write during his twelfth year. . . When Jesus is twelve years old . . . he slips away from his parents and settles himself among teachers in the Temple." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:00:00 -0500 "In the 12th century, in Europe, there developed a custom at this time of year to invert Christmas trees and to hang them upside down from ceilings. Recently this 12th century decorative curiosity was reintroduced in the US. Today you can purchase trees that are designed to be displayed upside down. " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:00:00 -0500 "So one day, an angel came to young, a unwed girl there in her parents home . . . and she told her that if she wanted to, she could change everything." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:00:00 -0500 "The Christmas story shines. It sparkles and glistens. It is a story whose words are dipped in silver and gold . . . And then there's Joseph. Joe. He's the most like us." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:00:00 -0500 "Scandalous. Scandalous! Did you hear it? The story Luke presents is scandalous!" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:00:00 -0500 "One of the most significant examples of the ever-growing cultural and religious diversity . . . is the way in which Hannukah and Christmas have come to be joined together in the popular consciousness as a shared holiday season. . . There is indeed good reason for linking these two festivals." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Howard Berman) Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:00:00 -0500 - - "In the reading from the Old Testament this morning we overhear that, absent a king, the people of Israel did whatever they wanted. Indeed, the period to which the verse refers was among the cruelest, the bloodiest and the most barbaric in Israel's history. (On the 143rd Anniversary of the Gettsburg Address.)" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:00:00 -0500 - - - "It was the view, the perspective that captured me . . . I found myself reflecting on the role this congregation has played in shaping the ideals and vision of our nation." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Jim Antal) Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:30:00 -0500 - - - "Today is Reformation Sunday, the day on which protestant churches around the world remember and observe the courage and faithfulness of the great European church reformers. . . . It seems fitting to pause to look at the first formation of our Old South Church, the first time God gathered us together . . 337 years ago." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:30:00 -0500 - - - "The year was 1998 . . . a proponent of the religious right [running for Congress] had had a six year affair with a married associate. . . . When asked about how she could reconcile her accusations of another's morality in light of her own behavior, she had a ready answer: 'I've asked God for forgiveness, she said, . . . and I received it.' " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 22 Oct 2006 22:00:00 -0400 - - "What we say and how say and what we are heard to have said makes a difference . . . ." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 15 Oct 2006 17:31:00 -0400 - - ". . . suddenly, the air was split by a huge bang, and the plane was shaken by a ferocious jolt. There was a long, pregnant pause, and then a fellow passenger uttered the three words: We've been hit." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 08 Oct 2006 18:10:00 -0400 - - "In the 13th century in Japan, an upper class woman whose husband had died in war founded a Buddhist convent named Tokihigi . . . it became a sanctuary for women fleeing abusive husbands and for women who had been discarded by husbands who no longer wanted them." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 01 Oct 2006 16:00:00 -0400 - - - "Two hundred and twenty nine years ago, today, during the Revolutionary War, the Liberty Bell was hastily hauled from the statehouse in Philadelphia . . . and driven 50 miles outside of Philadelphia." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:00:00 -0400 - - - "You are the branches and I the Vine - said Christ unto his kin - Abide in me and let me in you - and Rich fruit you will win" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:45:00 -0400 - - - "The story unfolds as Jesus leads his disciples about 100 miles out of their way - and out of familiar Jewish territory. . . . There Jesus is confronted by a pagan woman, a Syrophoenician. As she is far too desperate about her daughter's illness to care, she dispenses with the social niceties of first century Palestine . . . like not talking to men in public, let alone Jewish men." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:30:00 -0400 - - "There is an African proverb that goes like this, 'Until the lions can tell their own story, tales of the hunt will always favor the hunter.' . . . until the voiceless are granted voice, their hopes and their expectations, their triumphs and their tragedies will never be articulated . . ." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Bob Chase) Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:30:00 -0400 - - "Old South Church is open 7 days a week, free to the public. What you may not know is how rare that is. . . . So who takes advantage of this open door hospitality at Old South?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:30:00 -0400 - - - "I want to thank you God for being close to me so far this day. With your help, I haven't been impatient or lost my temper . . . But I will be getting out of bed soon." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Cal Genzel) Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:00:00 -0400 - - - "6:30 am. The alarm went off for the first time. Thud! I whacked the snooze button. A snooze or more likely three or four later, I would flop out of bed and drag myself through the morning routine. . . . Then, it would hit me." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Tadd Allman-Morton) Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:00:00 -0400 - - "The mystery of Easter Island. What can we do and learn when we have enough?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:10:00 -0400 - - "Do walls make good neighbours? What does God want?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:10:00 -0400 - - "Facing the bible's texts of terror." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:00:00 -0400 - "Is God still speaking to you and I today?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 16 Jul 2006 18:00:00 -0400 - - "Gordon Atkinson tells the story of his friend . . . Roger is a 'good man, a hard worker and a serious and gentle Christian' . . . .But there is something about Roger that not many people know, a thing that not many who know Roger would, apparently, ever expect or suspect of him, and having learned it himself one day . . . " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 09 Jul 2006 20:30:00 -0400 - - - "In any small town, there is enough grief to freeze your blood." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 02 Jul 2006 18:00:00 -0400 - - "Religion is for the weak." This is a what a friend of mine said, maybe ten years ago, and it's a statement that has stuck with me every since. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 25 Jun 2006 16:00:00 -0400 - - "I have no doubt that were I to add up all of the times that I have heard the parable of the mustard seeds . . . . it would number well into the thousands." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:30:00 -0400 - - " . . . in the month of May as the trees and all the other flora wake up from their winter rest, they spread a cloud of pollen that lands like a fine green dust that lands on everything." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:00:00 -0400 - - - "We are all here once again as we do every Pride day to celebrate from our varied faith traditions the integrity, love and spirit of Boston's gay community. . . .How appropriate it is, therefore, that we, from such a proud heritage, delight this day in being Proud and not Prejudiced." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:00:00 -0400 - - "At midnight, this past Sunday . . . something happened to our church . . . our church entered "ordinary time." " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:00:00 -0400 - - "Okay, so, here's what I have to say about speaking in tongues: I don't get it!" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 4 Jun 2006 17:00:00 -0400 - - "Reflecting on boats, both biblical and not, Simon Jenkins, editor of ShipofFools.com, the website of Christian unrest, writes this poem, "What ship plays with icebergs and plays soft music as it sinks into the ocean . . . " http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 28 May 2006 17:30:00 -0400 - - - "Now, the scriptures you heard this morning . . . demonstrated the various ways in which we have felt God's presence . . . These transformations can be mythical and unexplainable but they can also be freeing." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Old South Church) Sun, 21 May 2006 15:30:00 -0400 - - - "I grew up as an only child, adopted by older parents . . . In fact, we called Momma 'Queen Dorothy' behind her back. I once her it said that it is the most natural inclination of people is to shape God in the image of their first memory of their parents." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Ron Buford) Sun, 14 May 2006 14:30:00 -0400 - - - "Every year, once a year, the residents of upper Manhattan witness something rare and wonderful: a blocks-long, unlikely procession of animals." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 07 May 2006 15:00:00 -0400 - - "I want to share with you a story that Frederick Buechner tells about a Christmas pageant gone awry." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Jeff VonWald) Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:00:00 -0400 - - "This Church, in its mission and ministries, embodies much of what the United Church of Christ intends to be: an extravagant welcome, a passion for justice, a desire for inclusion, and a public theology that will not let evil rest." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/sermons.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Steve Sterner) Sun, 23 Apr 2006 16:00:00 -0400 - - "Legend tells of a Greek, by the name of Pheidippides, who was a professional runner, a herald. Legend has it, Pheidippides . . . made the run of his life." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst16apr06.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 16 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0400 - - "She tells a story of watching small children playing at the beach . . . eventually they turn away from the hugeness and power of the sea to do what you and I and children everywhere have always done at the beach, they begin to dig a hole." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/qgc09apr06.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 09 Apr 2006 17:00:00 -0500 - - "One of the great curiosities about Old South Church in Boston is the stark difference between our former home, the Old South Meeting House ,and this building, sometimes known as the New Old South Church." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst02apr06.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Nancy S. Taylor) Tue, 05 Apr 2006 12:00:00 -0500 - - - "Old South Church, who are you? You have been dissenters but not dividers . . . . one of your legacies is that you've been both orthodox and progressive." - http://www.oldsouth.org/LentenSeries2006/lentenseries06c.html - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Margaret Bendroth) Tue, 05 Apr 2006 11:59:00 -0500 - - "So, let me just ask you right up front. Can you believe what you just heard?" http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/qgc26mar06.htm postmaster@oldsouth.org (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:01:00 -0500 - - - "An excellent consensus statement of general UCC understanding is the motto of Eden Theological Seminary: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." - http://www.oldsouth.org/LentenSeries2006/lentenseries06c.html - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Elizabeth Nordbeck) Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:00:00 -0500 - - - "I expect that most of you have heard the story of Judge Roy Moore." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst18mar06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:01:00 -0500 - - - "In its simplest terms, Congregationalism is the conviction that God speaks most clearly when people are gathered together under covenant." - http://www.oldsouth.org/LentenSeries2006/lentenseries06b.html - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Margaret Bendroth) Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:00:00 -0500 - - - " . . . I want to tell you about another group . . . there are people operating in this world who have made it their business to go through the world hiding . . . small boxes." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/qgc11mar06.htm - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:30:00 -0500 - - - "Imagine your way back to about the year 1500 . . . to a late medieval church or building." - http://www.oldsouth.org/LentenSeries2006/lentenseries06b.html oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Mark Burrows) Sun, 12 Mar 2006 15:00 -0500 - - - "I am going to make three bold, audacious, and maybe a little frightening proposals to you about the vision of Old South Church." - http://www.oldsouth.org/LentenSeries2006/lentenseries06.html - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Matthew Myer Boulton) Sun, 11 Mar 2006 01:00:00 -0500 - - - "If you didn't know already, today is the first Sunday of Lent, the 40 days of preparation and discipline leading up to Easter. . . It is also the first Sunday of Old South's Lenten Series . . . and we learned of the early days of the Christian movement." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/qgc05mar06.htm - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 05 Mar 2006 18:00:00 -0500 - - - Some years ago . . . the Board of Deacons decided to research the question of whether to pray the Lord's Prayer using "debts," "trespasses," or "sins." http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst19feb06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:01:00 -0500 - - - If you have ever traveled to Machu Picchu in Peru or to the town of Taos, New Mexico . . . Or, if you have visited the ancient ruins of Stonehenge in England or ever walked on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, you have been to a thin place. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst05feb06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:30:00 -0500 - - - PowerPoint Presentation to go with accompanying audio recording (Download and use F5 key to start slide show mode, spacebar to advance). Listen together with MP3 file. - http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/336thMeetingReport.ppt oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:30:00 -0500 - - - Now that the children have gone, I am going to read one more brief passage from the bible. It's not the sort of reading we wanted our children to hear -- at least not without explanation. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst29jan06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy S. Taylor) Sun, 29 Jan 2006 14:30:00 -0500 - - - This past Friday at 8:30 am Greenwich Mean Time, a man sat riding a London train--on the way to work, or to the gym, or to whatever he was to be about that day.. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/qgc22jan06.htm - oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Quinn G. Caldwell) Sun, 22 Jan 2006 14:30:00 -0500 - - It is common in many cultures to dedicate some young children to the service of God, or the gods. http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/nst15jan06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (Nancy Taylor) Sun, 15 Jan 2006 14:00:00 -0500 - - - 'You probably know the title of this sermon. It's "Do You Want to See?" But maybe after last night, it should be "Can You See?!"' http://www.oldsouth.org/sermons/jc01jan06.htm oldsouth-approval@world.std.com (June Cooper) Mon, 2 Jan 2006 13:00:00 -0500