View today's sermon on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTWaKTdPCUQ.

Colossians 3:12-16 (NRSVUE)

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 

BLESSED ARE YOU WHO BEAR THE LIGHT

Blessed are you

who bear the light

in unbearable times,

who testify

to its endurance

amid the unendurable,

who bear witness

to its persistence

when everything seems

in shadow

and grief.

Blessed are you

in whom

the light lives,

in whom

the brightness blazes—

your heart

a chapel,

an altar where

in the deepest night

can be seen

the fire that

shines forth in you

in unaccountable faith,

in stubborn hope,

in love that illumines

every broken thing

it finds.

Jan Richardson

Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Did you hear the same word that repeated in the scripture and then the Jan Richardson blessing. “Bear.”

Bear with one another. Blessed are you who bear the light. Blessed are you who bear witness. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary informs me of multiple meanings of the word bear. In addition to the furry, heavy, four-legged beings, these are some meanings: 1. something difficult to do or deal with, 2. to support the weight of. Additionally,  “bear” can also mean to put up with another or to carry another.  

We sometimes need to be reminded how and why we live in community. Sometimes we bear each other’s burdens. Sometimes we bear the light for another. Sometimes we bear with one another. And of course, sometimes they do the same for us. As members of this congregation, as members of the Sunrise Association, as members of the Maine Conference, and as members of the larger National Church, we sometimes make sacrifices for the greater good. Love bears all things. 

Our scripture chosen for today begins with some basic instruction for how to live.  We are told to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 

Then our scripture says,  “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

What does that look like? Where among us and around us do we see love in action?

This morning, we are lifting up the myriad ways that we in the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ are “Linked by Love.” This was the theme of our Pilgrim Lodge camps this summer and it is the theme of our upcoming Maine Conference Annual Meeting.

My Bangor Theological Seminary classmate, and current Chair of the Maine Conference Board of Directors, Rev. Sara Bartlett, lifts up four examples. She writes, “None of us can be everywhere or do everything, but we can do incredible things together: 

• When the 45-year-old Sunday School teacher began to hear a call to ministry but didn’t know where to go, you were there through the Maine School of Ministry. 

• When the gay teen who felt like an outsider in their school found a welcoming community at Pilgrim Lodge’s Camp Pride, you were there. 

• When a family of Somali refugees arrived in Maine and didn’t know where to turn, you were there through a coalition of Maine churches that prepared  a place for them. 

• When your neighboring United Church of Christ needed help fixing their roof, or installing a ramp, or renovating their kitchen to serve their community, you were there through a grant from our Maine Conference Resourcing the Local Church program. 

  
  

Our Hancock congregation mirrors the aforementioned Links of Love through our own outreach efforts. We are Linked by Love to Pilgrim Lodge as we attend and support a variety of summer camps for all ages. We are Linked by Love to our Maine School of Ministry as student, as teacher, and as scholarship benefactors for those in need. We are Linked by Love to our Hancock County Neighborhood Support Team that is re-settling displaced families from Ukraine. We are Linked by Love to our Maine Conference Social Action Committee, which is raising awareness of inequities experienced by our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and our LGBTQi neighbors, and helping to create fair and just outcomes to bring us into harmony. 

[Ask for additional examples of what our church / individuals are doing through the power of love?]

This coming weekend, October 18th and 19th, the members of our Maine Conference, United Church of Christ are gathering at Pilgrim Lodge, in person or on Zoom, for our Annual Meeting, to celebrate who we are, what we are doing, and to discern our path forward. 

When you entered the sanctuary this morning you were invited to pick up an item gathered from Hancock woods or shore and take it to your pew with you. I invite you now to bring that forward and place it in the bowl on the altar. As you place your stone, or acorn or shell, or other item, offer a prayer word, out loud or silently, for the people of the Maine Conference, in gratitude for a blessing you have received from our wider church community, or naming a way that you have participated in our covenantal relationship, or a hope that you have for our relationships. 

These items will be carried to the Annual Meeting by our representatives and placed on that altar to symbolically bring our congregational presence and our prayers to the Annual Meeting. 

[After all have come forward and placed their items, offer this prayer of blessing.]

God, we are grateful for the intentional ways in which we all bear the light, bear witness, and bear with our siblings as we commit to living out our love and support for all in the Maine Conference. Clothed in love, may we continue to acknowledge our commitments to each other and to you. As we leave this sacred time together, may we continue to minister as part of something larger than ourselves. Amen

Rev. TJ Mack – October 13, 2024