by Anne Robertson | Feb 25, 2021 | Conversations
The particular fruit of the Spirit we’re looking at on Sunday is peace, which is a topic that could fill volumes. So I’ll be mixing it with another topic that is one of the linchpins for both inner peace and peace between warring factions of all kinds: forgiveness. Forgiveness is also a topic that could fill volumes, and this won’t be the last sermon on the topic.
But we’ll get started on Sunday by trying to understand what we are and are not doing when we forgive and by noticing that Jesus connects God’s forgiveness of us to our forgiveness of others in the Lord’s Prayer. I hope you’ll join us!
Pastor Anne
by Anne Robertson | Feb 17, 2021 | Conversations
Lent is a time when I used to respond to the call to give something up for 40 days. But as life got harder and loss piled upon loss, I began to resent being told that I had to give up something else for Lent.
So then I entered the phase of doing something positive for 40 days instead. While better than giving something up, I began to resent that certain days on an already busy calendar demanded yet more from me. I struggled to find an approach to Lent that truly prepared me for Easter.
And then came THE Ash Wednesday. I stood in front of a congregation, imposing the ashes as I always did. But this time was different. A woman came forward to receive the ashes, but she struggled. She had dementia and couldn’t find the front. The congregation guided her and she stood before me. My mother. I looked into her eyes–the woman who still knew me but soon would begin to forget–and put ashes on her head saying, “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” She had to be guided back to her seat and the bowl of ashes in my hand became mixed with my tears. A gut-wrenching decade later I received the box of dust that had been my mother via the postal service.
That Ash Wednesday made me quit debating whether I should give something up or do something positive. Now Lent is my reminder that, as the Shirelles so wisely sang, “Mama said there’d be days like this.” Well, Mama learned that from God. God said there’d be days like this–harsh days, desert days–and that one hard day often stretches into 40 days and 40 days can stretch into periods of years. When the number 40 crops up in the Bible, it is not meant literally. It is symbolic of a really hard time. Noah had it, Moses had it, the Israelites had it, Jesus had it. And in the harsh fires of those deserts, a new thing was born.
These days I don’t give anything up and I don’t add anything to my habits. Instead, I reflect on the truth that there are stretches of life that no amount of positive thinking will change. There are deep pits where we feel abandoned, alone, and hopeless. All of us. If you haven’t been there yet, you will. And when you’ve lived with that reminder for 40 days, the power of the Easter message at the other end will literally throw you out of bed and into a place of joy like no other.
I’ve found the Lenten practice that actually prepares me for Easter.
Pastor Anne
by Anne Robertson | Feb 12, 2021 | Conversations
As we continue on with our Fruit of the Spirit series, we’ll be looking at three of them together: kindness, goodness, and gentleness. One of those virtues was considered a vice by the Greek Stoics, and that same stoicism is built right into one of the historic funds in our own Crawford bank account. Can you guess which “fruit” they saw as a failure? Answer in Sunday’s sermon.
Pastor Anne
by Anne Robertson | Feb 5, 2021 | Conversations
In the book of Galatians, Paul mentions nine traits that mark the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit in a person’s life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are not automatic downloads at our baptism; they are seeds that we have to nurture and grow over a lifetime. As we make our way through these, we’re going to start at the back end with self-control or “temperance” as it is sometimes translated.
Self-control is something that appears to be in short supply these days, especially when it comes to controlling our speech. The third chapter of James tells us that if we can keep our tongues in check, we can keep our whole bodies in check, and that seems like a claim worth investigating a little more closely. Is he right? Do other places in the Bible back that up? Do loose lips really sink ships? That’s what we’ll be looking at on Sunday.
by Anne Robertson | Jan 29, 2021 | Conversations
The word “liminal” is used to describe a threshold between one thing and another. On my very first Sunday with you we found Jacob in the liminal space of the Jabbok River—unable to go back and afraid to go forward. We are in a liminal time in our church, nation, and world right now. There is no way to go back and we aren’t yet sure what going forward looks like.
As I recover from my second cataract surgery, Rev. Heather Janules of the Winchester Unitarian Society will be filling in for me (virtually) on Sunday to share some thoughts on liminal time and space that she shared with her congregation this past summer.
by Anne Robertson | Jan 22, 2021 | Conversations
Between now and Easter we’re going to be focused on a combination of the fruits of the Spirit as Paul details them in Galatians 5 and the spiritual disciplines, a traditional focus during Lent which will start in just a few weeks. To kick that off, I want to talk about the best Sunday of my ministry to date, which happened in Dover, NH on November 2, 2003—the Sunday we were picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church. Join us this Sunday morning to hear what happened!
