First Congregational Church UCC Harwich

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January Newsletter

January 8, 2016 by FCCH Staff

God breaking into time. It’s a startling concept when you really stop to think about it. We’re so conditioned to see the world in a this-worldly fashion that it sounds downright fanciful to think of a deity breaking into our settled arrangements and studied habits. How can we say God breaks into time?

Back in the 17th century, many in the West embraced the Enlightenment idea of Deism. This view held that the world was indeed created by God but that God demurs in its day-to-day-affairs. God is, instead, the “cosmic watchmaker” who sets up all of life, its laws and truths, and then lets it unwind, like a wristwatch. God resides in some far off place unable or unwilling to intervene in human affairs.

Traditional Christianity, of course, begs to differ. After Adam and Eve willfully reject God’s sovereignty, humanity becomes tragically alienated from its source. Things go from bad to worse. Until, that is, Abraham is called to initiate a new, divine plan to reconcile life to its forsaken Creator. Thus begins God’s plan to redirect human history, to reestablish and restore all of life to its Edenic purity.

Beginning with Abraham, then Israel, and, ultimately, the Church of Jesus Christ, God’s intervention in and through time moves forth seeking to banish the darkness wrought by human hubris and pretense.

It is not that our world is evil, as many ancient and contemporary philosophies presume, but that the world’s inherent goodness has been desecrated. “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31a)

It is in the metaphorical Fall, when humanity exchanges goodness for self-sufficiency (that of playing God), that darkness spreads over the face of the earth. Then, just prior Christ’s birth, a powerful belief grows that God (and God alone) will restore the light that had grown inexorably dim and weak.

During this sacred season of Christmas, we rightly celebrate the Light that has dawned upon our world. It is the Light which furnishes a lamp for our feet and a way forward amid the surrounded gloom, bidding a confident hope and expectant joy.

Filed Under: Letter

Sunday Worship

We are an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ.

During the health pandemic, we invite worshippers to join us on Sundays at 10:30 am. We meet in safety for a 45-minute service on our (encrypted) video-conference platform.

How to Find Us

Past Sermons

Sermon: Plan? What Plan?

December 27, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Worry, Be Happy

December 18, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Thoughts for 3 a.m.

December 11, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: The Moods of Christian Life

December 5, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Who Are We to Judge?

November 27, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Keeping One’s Marbles amid the Whistling Tree Frogs

November 20, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Interpreting the Bible

November 7, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Luther, Schmuther!

October 30, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: A Mechanistic God

October 16, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Knowing Who We Are

October 12, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: The Freedom of Constraint

October 2, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Daytime TV and Bonbons

September 25, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Mind Your Own Knitting

September 18, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Stasis, Novelty or Reform

September 11, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Decisions, Decisions

September 5, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Everyone’s Got One

August 28, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Self-Righteousness, Othering, and Violence

August 21, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Oh, This!

August 14, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: From Heel to Healer

August 8, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Unexpectedly

July 31, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Surviving Hope

July 25, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Prevenient Grace

July 17, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: The Strange Persistence of Guilt

July 11, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Freedom

July 3, 2017 By FCCH Staff

Sermon: Looking for the Lord

June 26, 2017 By FCCH Staff

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