August 24, 2025

“The Touchstone’

“The Touchstone” A sermon based on Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 103, and Luke 13:10-17 delivered by the Rev. Alison Andrea Young at the First Congregational UCC of Onekama, Michigan on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

A touchstone is a black silicone stone, somewhat like flint, which was used to check the purity of gold and silver by the streak left on the stone when rubbed by the metal. Thus, a touchstone, is anything by which a thing’s true quality is tested. So, touch is a very powerful thing. In our Jeremiah passage this morning—touch is everything! When God touches Jeremiah’s mouth, it is not just a small thing, for God goes on to say that in that touch are God’s very own pure words! Touch conjures up memories and makes connections for us that we cannot make so easily from other sources—from hearing someone else’s description of something, for instance, or from receiving touch secondhand. . . .