(231)-889-4081 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m
(231)-889-4081 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m
Engage with our most recent sermons.
“Pointing Fingers” A sermon based on Isaiah 58:1-12, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 and Matthew 5:13-20 delivered on February 8, 2023 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
Take a good look at the picture in your bulletins this morning. Hold it out at arm’s length and look right at it unblinkingly. How does that pointed index finger make you feel? Are you squirming in your pew? Does it feel like you are being shamed and/or blamed for something? Do you feel like swatting it away and pointing your own index figure in a completely different direction altogether?!. . .
“Foolishly Blessed” A sermon based on Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young on Sunday, February 1, 2026 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
This sermon could just as easily have been named “Blessed Foolishness,” for what I want to bring across to you today speaks of both being what the Apostle Paul calls a “fool for Christ” and what the gospel of Matthew records in what has traditionally been called “The Beatitudes” (lat. The blessed) as being “blessed.” For many of us in this modern world, the Beatitudes appear to be foolish statements. How can it be a blessing to be poor in spirit, or persecuted, or hungry, or be in mourning, or be reviled? How, in short, can it be a blessing to appear to be a fool? . . .
“All the Light We Cannot See” A sermon based on Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1; 4-9 and Matthew 4:12-23 delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young on Epiphany 3 Sunday, January 25, 2026 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
As we moved through Advent, Christmastide and now Epiphany we are seeking one thing—Light. The trajectory of our worship services and spiritual practices reaches out into the darkness of our broken world and seeks to find the giver of the divine light of that iconic star of Bethlehem. Candles are lit, strings of colored lights decorate the rafters of our houses, sparkling icicle-like lights shimmer on our porch railings. We want and crave light in our lives . . .
”An Advance Man” A Sermon based on Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11 and John 1:29-42, delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young on Sunday, January 18, 2026 at The First Congregational UCC of Onekama, MI
We are all aware, I think, that whenever a VIP, a Celebrity or a famous entertainer are about to come to town there are various people that come ahead of them to promote their imminent arrival and pave the way for them. The divine wisdom of God was well aware of this need in the art of catching the attention of humankind. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it was just a short six months after John, the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, was born in the hill country near Nazareth. The lives of these two cousins were basically sealed together . . .
“Pregnant Pauses” An Advent Reflection based on a paraphrase of Luke 1:26-56 delivered on the Third Sunday in Advent, December 14, 2025, by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
Advent, among other things, is both figuratively and literally, a pregnant pause. Not just a time of shopping, making wreaths, attending craft fairs, walking in Sleighbell Parades and attending concerts, as well as lighting the candles on the Advent wreath each Sunday in church. Advent is a time in which Mary “great with child” struggled, haltingly to accompany Joseph on a trip of about 90 miles back to his hometown in order to be counted in a governmentally mandated census—probably having to take frequent rest stops and worrying and wondering if she would make it to their destination before the baby she was carrying demanded to be born.. . .
“The Silent Word” An Advent Reflection based on Luke 1:5-25;57-80 delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young on the Second Sunday in Advent, December 7, 2025 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
There is, of course, in our culture a disconnect between what is our experience of silence and what could be called “sheer silence” that is the kind of silence described in the story of Elijah, hiding at the mouth of a cave in 1 Kings 19. It is the one time that silence is mentioned when talking about the Prophets! Here in our morning’s scripture we have Zechariah struck with silence until the birth of his son . . .
‘The Invisible Kingdom” A sermon based on Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossians 1:11-20; and Luke 23:33-43 delivered on Sunday, November 23, 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
When I was a little girl at Mission Road Elementary School in Oceanside, California, I have a vivid memory of solemnly standing each morning, facing the flag, placing my right hand reverently over my heart, and reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Perhaps you share these kinds of memories. I remember reciting “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, invisible, with liberty and justice for all.” “One nation, under God, invisible”… I dutifully repeated this mistaken word morning after morning throughout my elementary school years . . .
To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
“Many Will Come in My Name” A sermon based on Luke 21:5-19 delivered
by Rev. Alison Andrea Young on November 16, 2025 at the First Congregational
UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
“Then Jesus began to say to them, “beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘1 am he!’ and they will lead many astray.” As people of the 20th and 21st Centuries, we hardly need to search very far to know what Jesus was trying to warn us about. Who can forget Jim Jones at Jonestown administering the grape Kool-Aid communion, which was poisoned, killing hundreds of people in his name? This event was so significant that a catch phrase “he or she drank the Kool-Aid” has become part of our vernacular.. . .
To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
“St. Ives” A Reflection on Luke 20:27-38 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young shared on November 9, 2025 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks, and wives. How many were going to St. Ives? (PAUSE)
“There were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then- the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will the woman be?” Luke 20:29-33b
Is it any coincidence that this traditional nursery rhyme and our scripture
lesson this morning sound like twins? . . .
“Out of His Tree” A sermon based on Luke 19:1-10 and 1 Corinthians 4:1-10 delivered on Sunday, November 2, 2025 by Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
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.
—Luke 19.3-4
If the crowd in Jericho that day were a more modern one, they might have said something like “Look at that little shyster tax collector guy—that sinner—always hate it when he comes to my door—what is he doing climbing up there? He must be ‘out of his tree!’” They would all agree with the self-descriptive words of Psalm 119: 141 “I am small and despised” to describe him! . . .
Email us to receive our monthly newsletter.