by Amy Norton-Benfield, April 24, 2025
This winter and spring we’ve been journeying through the Gospel of Luke as we trace Jesus’ life and ministry as it led him to, and ultimately beyond, the cross. During Lent we focused on exploring how God meets us “in between” extremes, such as between lost and found, righteousness and mercy, grief and hope. Our Bible story this week depicts another encounter with Jesus, this time in between the close of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the opening of the next chapter in the life of the church. Guest preacher (and United Parish member) Kate Baker-Carr writes, “The second Sunday of… Read More
by Kent French, April 17, 2025
This Lent (March 5-April 20), we’ve followed the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between. One of my usual tropes is that our modern media is so good at proclaiming the bad news, the things… Read More
by Amy Norton-Benfield, April 10, 2025
This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between. This Sunday, we mark the beginning of Holy Week with Palm Sunday, the day when we remember (and even sometimes re-enact)… Read More
by UPB Editor, April 04, 2025
Do you have enough to eat? Do you want to stand up against current trends that cut help to our neighbors in need? You (and your friends!) can help others who have difficulty affording food by joining and/or contributing HERE to Project Bread’s annual Walk for Hunger, the oldest charity pledge walk in the country and a long-time United Parish tradition. The Walk for Hunger is the annual fundraising event for the organization Project Bread, an Eastern Massachusetts non-profit organization that takes leadership in connecting people and communities to reliable sources of food and advocates for policies that make food… Read More
by Amy Norton-Benfield, April 03, 2025
This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between. If Zacchaeus’s story was set in 1940s France, he might have been cast as a collaborateur. In our modern era, he… Read More
by Kent M French, March 27, 2025
This weekend we celebrate our annual collaboration with Temple Shir Tikva with shabbat services at 6:15pm in Wayland (link here) and 11am worship at United Parish. This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray,… Read More
by Anna Jeide-Detweiler, March 19, 2025
This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between. Think about the last time you stepped outside. Was anything different? Was there daylight? Was the air warmer? Could you… Read More
by Kent M French, March 07, 2025
REMINDER: Daylight Savings starts this Sunday, set clocks forward one hour. This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between. Many of us may be familiar with the… Read More
by Amy Norton-Benfield, February 27, 2025
Living the Word: from now through Easter (April 20), we follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows us a loving God in his teachings, healings, and relationships with people pushed to the margins. His commitment to love leads him to Jerusalem and the cross. “What’s going on? What does it mean? What the heck?!” This week we meet a couple of the disciples in that liminal space between sleep and waking. You know the feeling- when you’re awake enough to question if you’re dreaming, but not yet awake enough to realize that the answer is ‘yes.’ Imagine being… Read More
by Amy Norton-Benfield, February 20, 2025
Living the Word: from now through Easter (April 20), we follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus shows us a loving God in his teachings, healings, and relationships with people pushed to the margins. His commitment to love leads him to Jerusalem, and ultimately to the cross. In our weekly church school teacher Bible study, we were discussing the text for this Sunday, in which a woman described only as a “sinner” tearfully approaches Jesus and anoints his feet with oil, drying them with her hair. One of our members described how they envisioned what came next as a… Read More
