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“Windswept.” A sermon based on 1 Kings 19 :1-15a, Galatians 3:23-29 and Matthew 14:22-32 delivered on June 22, 2025 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
The High Plains are the beginning of the desert West, and although they are most often thought about as beginning in the Dakotas, they actually begin in Northwestern Minnesota. A colleague of mine, when I served churches in Minnesota and South Dakota, commented to me one day that she had to leave the churches that she served in that area (near Fargo/Moorhead on the Minnesota side) because “the wind wore her out.”
I didn’t understand what she was talking about until I traveled to that area, . . .
To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
“Splinters of Fire” A sermon based on Acts 2:1-21 and John 14:8-17 delivered at the First Congregational UCC 0f Onekama, Michigan on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025, by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
The scripture actually says this, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit . . .” That’s what it says! Wowza! It is quite a stunning description. And although we picture fire when we hear it, we need to be cautious because it says “what seemed to be tongues of fire.” . . .
To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
“God—The Be-All and End-All” a sermon based on Psalm 118:1-2;14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; and John 20:1-18 delivered on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
When we end the Lord’s Prayer like we do. We say “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” And then we say “Amen” –which in essence means in Hebrew “that’s the truth.” When Paul writes to the church in Corinth he is saying much the same thing. In Chapter 15 verses 24 to 28 Paul says that when the end comes, Christ “hands over the kingdom to God the Father,” and this is because “‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ . . .When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.”
In the end, Paul writes, God will be “all in all.” God will BE “the kingdom, power and glory forever.” God will actually be “the be-all and end-all!” . . .
“Dream Church” A Weekday Lenten Message based on Philippians 3:4b-14 delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young on April 9, 2025 at the Onekama Church of the Brethren, Onekama, Michigan.
Every pastor that I have ever known longs for a dream church. Paul literally and figuratively found such a rare thing in the church that he founded in Philippi. We read in Acts 16 that after traveling throughout Phrygia and Galatia, Paul, Silas and Timothy were prevented by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia and were further prevented to enter Mysia and Bithynia. They got to Troas and Paul has a dream which featured a Macedonia man begging them to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” So they went.. . .
“Sticks and Stones” A sermon for Palm Sunday, based on Psalm 118:1-2;19-29; Philippians 2:5-11; and Luke 19:28-40 delivered on April 6, 2025 by Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational Church UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
(Our Theme throughout Lent will be the Lord’s Prayer. Today we explore the words: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. . .”)
“Sticks and Stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me” . . this is the chant of children on the playground, a chant meant to self-comfort children who are being taunted by bullies or being called names by those who need to do that sort of thing in order to feel “better than” someone else. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me” . . .is almost a chilling statement for Palm Sunday, for in the case of Palm Sunday in the stark face of the reality of what we now call Holy Week—the chant become a mockery—because it did not hold true!!! . . .
“Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary?” A sermon based on Philippians 3:4b-14; and John 12:1-8 delivered on April 6, 2025 by Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan.
(Our Theme throughout Lent will be the Lord’s Prayer. Today we explore the words: “On earth as it is in heaven . . .”)One thing I used to say is: if I use an allusion to a nursery rhyme, a fable or a fairy tale in a sermon and no one in the congregation gets it . . .I should probably retire—Again. Hopefully, “Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does our garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and little maids all in a row” still strikes a note of recognition? (wait for it!)
So, when I point to this Mary who “took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.,” (v. 3) you will understand how contrary that would have been in that time and place. And add to that, that she was a woman intimately touching a man in public! Contrary, indeed! . . .To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
© Copyright 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young
“Prodigal Kingdom” A sermon based on Psalm 32, Corinthians 5:16-21, and Luke 15:1-32 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 30, 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
The “Prodigal Son” is a story many of us learned about in Sunday School. Like Aesop’s Fables it was meant to leave us with a moral teaching. The prodigal son was a bad person. He took the money his father gave him and wasted it, then came crawling back home when he was homeless and starving—literally surviving on the pea pods left for the pigs to eat. At least that’s what I remember from what I was taught. The word “prodigal” has a thoroughly negative connotation for most of us.. . .
To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
© Copyright 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young
“Just Visitors” A Lenten Weekday Meditation delivered on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at the Church of the Brethren in Onekama, Michigan by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
We can’t really understand the letter of Paul to the Philippians adequately unless we go back to the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16 verses 12-40 where the story of the founding of the church in Philippi is told. It was a prayer group predominantly made up of women meeting by the river. Most prominent of the women was the merchant Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, in whose house the church would eventually have its meetings. After Lydia and her whole household were baptized there by the river because “the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message“ (v. 14c), Paul and Silas followed Lydia from the prayer meeting back to her house.. . .To read the full meditation, click the Download Full Meditation button below.
© Copyright 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young
There is an old joke that you may have heard. In Sunday School one day the teacher was trying to teach students about God, and how the Jewish people would not say God’s name when reading scriptures. In fact, she said, God really didn’t have a name, just a title “Yahweh” which means in Hebrew, “I AM.” A young girl held up her hand. She was perplexed. She said, “I thought God had two names—maybe one is just a nickname, but God has two names.” The teacher now looked perplexed. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Well,” the little girl explained, “Don’t we say, Our Father who art in Heaven, Harold be thy name?” And his nickname must be “Andy” because in the hymn we sang last week it says “Andy walked with me, Andy talked with me!”
That word hallowed can trip us up every time! . . .To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
© Copyright 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young
“Heavenly Citizens” A sermon based on Psalm 27, Luke 13:31-35, and Philippians 3:17-4:1 delivered on the Second Sunday in Lent, March 16, 2025 at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young.
(Our Theme throughout Lent will be the Lord’s Prayer. Today we explore the words: “Who art in heaven . . .”)
When we hear the title of this message, I am sure we picture angels–the multitude of the Heavenly Host– Cherubim and Seraphim and all those ethereal beings that we heard about in various scriptural readings, both in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. They are the citizens of heaven. We, on the other hand, are citizens of the earth.. . .To read the full sermon, click the Download Full Sermon button below.
© Copyright 2025 by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young
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