Category Archives: Sermons

Audio Sermons, Sermon Transcripts, Sermons

SERMON: The Crowd is Wild (Guest Speaker Zach Dubord)

Zach Dubord shared a sermon that aligned with some of the major issues and concerns of our time.

Here’s the start of the sermon, and you can listen to the full sermon just below, or download the full sermon (PDF) to read.

“Our Gospel today comes from Luke 19:1-10 which is on page 63 of your pew Bible. It is yet another story involving Jesus and a tax man.

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

The Conversion of Zacchaeus, Bernardo Strozzi (1581 – 1644). {{US-PD}} Wikimedia.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

The Word of the Lord.

Let me tell you a true story. There was an influential man who rose to power during a time of great political division. He was the second of twelve children and grew up in a two-bedroom house with one bathroom He began working in the family business at 8 years old, and was the first person in his family to go to college.”

Find the PDF download below to read, or listen to the full sermon here.

Visit Zach’s Soundcloud for this sermon, or his recent “No Fun Allowed?” FCC sermon.

Prefer to read it? Download the PDF here.

Featured image credit: Zacchaeus by Niels Larsen Stevns. Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from his height in the tree. {{PD-US}} Wikimedia.

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SERMON: Death, Resurrection and Pumpkin Spice

Guest speaker, Zach Dubord, explores our current connections to, or meaning from, Romans 18-25:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time…”

Explore the connection between this bit of scripture and the current time in Zach’s full sermon.

Listen to the full sermon here.

Featured Image Credit: Pumpkin Spice from Pixabay (PD Image – thank you!)

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SERMON: Season of Creation: The Storms of Life.

Rev. Lisa reminded us that, “The Storms of Life rage around us. Some are literal storms like Dorian.  Others are illnesses or tragedies that impact us personally.  Through them all, Jesus is in our boat, to bring calm, to see us through.”

Download and/or Listen to the full sermon here.

Featured image credit: Ludolf Backhuysen:
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1695). PD Wikimedia.

 

Audio Sermons, Sermons

SERMON: Set Free

Jesus healing the bleeding woman, Roman catacombs, 300–350. Public Domain, Wikimedia.

Rev. Lisa shares, “A woman was bent over from some ailment for 18 years. A brief encounter with Jesus, one Sabbath day, healed her and set her free.”

“What burdens weigh us down?” she asks. ” What has us bent out of shape?”

“Perhaps Sabbath can be freeing for us too.”

Follow the “Set Free” theme – listen to the full sermon here.

Learn more about First Congregational Church (UCC) Binghamton’s Mission-Inspired Action.

 

Audio Sermons, Sermons

SERMON: What’s in Your Toybox?

Here’s Rev. Lisa’s teaser for Sunday’s sermon:

“A rich fool had an overly abundant harvest and planned to keep it all for himself.  Riches may not fall into our laps, but we all have abundance that we hold onto and don’t share.  We all have our “toybox” of favorite things we collect.  But what we hold onto leaves little room for God.”

Listen to the full sermon here.

Feature Image Credit: Abundance of Riches, public domain image, Pixabay.