Here are some links to other informative and useful sites:

 www.ucc.org - The main site of our national denomination

www.vtcucc.org - Our Vermont Conference Home page.  See what your neighboring churches are doing.

www.corinthvt.org - Our town government’s web site.

http//bible.oremus.org - You can select a translation and book, chapter, and verse of your favorite Bible passages.

 http//email.secureserver.net - A web email source.

http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary A great lectionary source

Mission Statement

As the East Corinth Congregational Church, United Church of Christ our mission is:

To worship and celebrate life in ways that glorify God, inviting others to share in our weekly worship services and special events.

To provide an environment where people of the community feel welcome and nurtured, and where individual talents are recognized and appreciated.

To nurture and reinforce individuals’ spiritual lives, providing educational opportunities to study the Bible (and other religions) as we grow in our relationship with God and others. 

To live out our faith in Jesus Christ by reaching out and serving the physical, social and spiritual needs of our community and the world

Sermon, Rev. Dr. C. Michael Caldwell

Ecumenical Sunday (Week of Prayer for Christian Unity)

Martin Luther King Day Second Sunday after Epiphany

January 20

Isaiah 49.1-6

 Introductory Text:

Of the four “servant songs” in Isaiah which prophesy a suffering messiah to save Israel, this is one of the most powerful...Listen for the Word of God in the words of the prophet:

49Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. ²He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. ³And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” ⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.” ⁵And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— ⁶he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

During the sermon, we’ll repeat that last part of the last verse.

My part: “I will give you as a light to the nations…”

Your part: “…that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

 I’ve always had a strong ecumenical streak in my ministry. Wherever I’ve served, I’ve tried to advocate passionately for area churches to do things together, (And you will see me doing that here)  To show the “oneness” for which Jesus prayed in John 17 when he prayed for believers “that they may all be one.”

 It’s not only the “oneness” of people in the local congregation that’s critical for healthy churches.  It’s the oneness of the churches that’s critical for the world to see the love of Christ, the love of God.

 And I love the Rev. John Nutting’s take on “oneness.”

He says our oneness is not about uniformity – like we’re supposed to be “cookie-cutter Christians.”  No.  We’re all different.

Our oneness is a unity in diversity. That’s the same thing the world needs, the thing that exemplifies and amplifies the love of God.

 So, for example, if one believer is pro-life and another believer is pro-choice, they are commanded by our Lord to love one another,

By respectfully listening to the stories and the convictions which lead to a certain position, focusing on the person, and not missing the person in the sharing of diverse views. 

In an election year, it’s imperative that we hone these skills of loving one another across our various differences.

 And let’s use a current example in our area that will help us with this imperative.

 How many of you saw the letter in the Journal Opinion Wednesday from Bambi Porter about the Porter funeral last week?

 For those that didn’t see it, briefly, Porter was respectfully challenging the policy of the Corinth Bible Church in Corinth Center, which refused to hold a funeral for her father-in-law in their sanctuary because he wasn’t technically a “member” there.

He had contributed to the life of that church in many ways over the years, and Mrs. Porter was eloquent and respectful in her criticism of their refusal.

 That’s the heart of the Christian life – to be direct and candid about our differences, and to do it with love in our hearts and respect in our manner.

 For us, who are members and friends of the only other active Christian church in the town of Corinth, that’s our role too.  We need to seek ways to make our view known that we are a church where anybody and everybody is welcome for funerals, weddings, baptisms, because we rejoice in the opportunity for demonstrating God’s love to families especially in these times of need, times when families need God’s love more than ever.

 We are called to pro-actively share that, in light of these circumstances, and I hope we will find ways to do that, with people who can spread the word about who we are as a welcoming church in the face of the smallness of the policy of our neighbors’ church.

 “I will give you as a light to the nations / that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

 The challenge for us is to be clear about what we do believe – because Congregationalists can be so open and welcoming that their Christian identity can be compromised or see as unclear or waffling.

 In our January Echo – our newsletter – I put it this way:

If you were arrested for being Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

 That question is not just rhetorical.  In these days of an increasingly pluralistic society – a good thing –how will we assert the Christian value of peace and nonviolence in the face of a militarism that’s more dangerous now than General Eisenhower could ever have imagined in his speech against the military-industrial complex in 1961?

 How will we give active voice to the Christian ideal of “unity in diversity” in the face of forces in our political scene that seem to thrive on polarization?

 How will we demonstrate the Christian practice of “loving rebuke” in a time of nasty mean-spiritedness?

 We will be able to do these things if we affirm our Christian identity, learn more about what our Christian identity implies for our lives, and commit ourselves to a devotional life whereby the Holy Spirit can convert us – yes, convert us – more and more toward becoming the Body of Christ Paul said we should be and more and more toward becoming the spirit-filled disciples capable of lovingly challenging all the forces of darkness that threaten peace, justice, and the integrity of Creation.

 “I will give you as a light to the nations / that my salvation may reach to the end of the Earth.”

 Jesus our Lord knew these words of the prophet Isaiah, written down more than 500 years before his time. He saw himself in the prophecy.  He saw himself called as the servant who would extend God’s salvation far beyond the Hebrew people who originally proclaimed it.

And he called disciples who would imperfectly extend that salvation  “to the ends of the earth, as the waters cover the sea.”

 There are those who would provincialize Christianity and narrow salvation to a select elite.

But if we can live out our faith and discipleship with a passion for the universalizing of salvation that Christ intended, taking his cue from Isaiah, then one day the world will be at peace, one day another 25 thousand kids don’t have to die every day from preventable malnutrition and disease, and one day the Earth can resurrect from the environmental crucifixion it’s now going through.

 God’s not going to zap the kingdom into being.

God sends God’s servants to demonstrate the kingdom of God’s love – To bring it, to usher it, to incarnate it.

God sends the servant Christ, and God sends the servants of the servant Christ – to make a difference in a world of indifference, to show love in the face of hate, to change the world by changing ourselves, to believe God’s purposes in God’s prophets can indeed be fulfilled, that it’s not only possible, but imperative that the kingdom comes, on earth, as in heaven.

 That’s who we are folks – servants of the servant Christ, serving by being lights to each other, lights to our neighbors, lights to the nations…

 “I will give you as a light to the nations / that my salvation may reach to the end of the Earth.”

 Amen.