Church on the Hill, UCC Lenox

written and preached by Rev. Natalie Shiras

March 11, 2012    Exodus 20:1-17

God has made covenants with the people ever since the world began. The sign of the covenant for Noah was the rainbow. The sign of the covenant with Abraham and Sarah was the promise of a great and populous people, and the sign of the covenant with Moses was the Ten Commandments. God is still calling us into covenant, a mutual relationship in which God claims us, loves, us and empowers us for transformation. Continue reading →

written and preached by Rev. Natalie Shiras

March 4, 2012     Mark 8:27-38

Very few of us welcome change. This Sunday’s scripture marks a change, a turning point in Mark’s gospel about Jesus’ purpose that his disciples did not welcome.

In the first chapters of Mark it has been one healing and one miraculous moment after another as Jesus travels through Galilee, rebuking the wind and the waves during a storm, feeding 5000 people, standing up to criticisms, and telling demons to be silent. Continue reading →

February 22, 2012   2 Corinthians 5:17-6:7

This capacity to see ourselves and others in their true light comes from the inner transformation of being in Christ. The last two Sundays we have explored how Christ lives in each of us.

In today’s scripture Paul writes that the old has passed away and the new has come. The old refers to the purposes and desires of the self-centered life and the new refers to the purposes and desires of the Christ-centered life. Our thoughts are no longer focused on ourselves. They lose their appeal. Instead our thoughts are focused on a life in Christ. Continue reading →

Written and preached by Rev. Natalie Shiras

February 19, 2012  Mark 9:2-9

Today Michael Cohen consciously took on the way of Christ through his baptism. When an adult is baptized he has taken his own journey to this place. How many here were baptized as infants? We came to be part of the family of Jesus Christ because that is what our family wanted for us. As infants we were not conscious. Continue reading →

February 5, 2012         Mark 1:29-39

written and preached by Rev. Natalie Shiras

Last Wednesday the youth group, along with two parents and me, met with Mike Knybel, principal of Lenox Middle and High School and Ed Costa, superintendent of schools, to discuss bullying and drinking. This meeting was initiated by the youth as a result of the recent death of a junior at the school that involved drinking and driving. Continue reading →

Written and delivered by Barbara Sims

Mark 1:21-28         January 29, 2012

We are fascinated with powerful, authoritative people. Those with authority can enthrall us, or terrify us. They can move us to create and they can move us to destroy. I learned this in my 6^th grade History class. We were studying two men who came in to their own during the 1930’s -the rise of Adolph Hitler inGermany, and the rise of Franklin Roosevelt in theUnited States. I remember my teacher’s name because it was Mrs. Snodgrass, of all things, and I can still see her standing at the front of the classroom –I remember this so clearly- she held out her hand and cupped her palm and said to us “I am the authority in this classroom, I hold your minds in the palm of my hand. Right now you will believe whatever I tell you because you are young and I am the authority. Continue reading →

Written and preached by Rev. Natalie Shiras

January 15, 2012    1 Samuel 3:1-20

Dramatization of Hebrew scripture:

I wonder:

What is God’s purpose here?

What is happening for Eli? For Samuel?

How are we to distinguish the call of God? Continue reading →