Dunbar United Church of Christ, 767 Benham Street, Hamden, CT (2026)

09/14/2026

Scripture of the Day September 14, 2026

Mark 11:20-25

Power, prayer, and forgiveness

20 Early in the morning, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered from the root up. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look how the fig tree you cursed has dried up.”

22 Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God! 23 I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you. 25 And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings.”

Reflection:

We know this isn’t literally true. Even Jesus couldn’t move a mountain, or make a fig tree dry up or walk on water. When he talks about moving mountains, Jesus is talking about the immovable mountains of our own stubbornness or refusal to change. Mountains do change — over centuries and millennia and millions/billions of years. But a human being can live fifty or seventy or a hundred years and never change! A person can be like a fig tree that gives no fruit. Useless! A soup-fork!

Jesus isn’t telling us to plant fruit trees in this passage. He’s not telling us to rent earth-moving equipment to change the location of a mountain. He’s talking about the fruit we grow in our hearts and minds and actions — fruit of his spirit like love, compassion, mercy. He’s talking about moving the mountain of our life on the path of doing God’s will. And most importantly he’s telling us that only God can help us with this. So trust God, Jesus says. And pray. The fruit will grow. The mountain will move.

09/13/2026

Scripture/Sermon of the Day. September 13, 2026

Matthew 18:21-35

Parable of the unforgiving servant

21 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Should I forgive as many as seven times?”

22 Jesus said, “Not just seven times, but rather as many as seventy-seven times. 23 Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, they brought to him a servant who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. 25 Because the servant didn’t have enough to pay it back, the master ordered that he should be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the proceeds should be used as payment. 26 But the servant fell down, kneeled before him, and said, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 27 The master had compassion on that servant, released him, and forgave the loan.

28 “When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred coins. He grabbed him around the throat and said, ‘Pay me back what you owe me.’

29 “Then his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he threw him into prison until he paid back his debt.

31 “When his fellow servants saw what happened, they were deeply offended. They came and told their master all that happened. 32 His master called the first servant and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 His master was furious and handed him over to the guard responsible for punishing prisoners, until he had paid the whole debt.

35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if you don’t forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I. Forgiveness. Is that what the Bible teaches? I have two words to say about that: LEX TALIONIS. That’s what the Bible teaches. NOT FORGIVENESS, but GETTING EVEN. Listen to Moses:

“23 If there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (Exodus 21:23-25)

In other words, our Bible tells us that if we are harmed by another person, we are to RETALIATE. If you take out my eye, I’ll take out yours. You kill my family member, I’ll kill yours.

II. But what complicates this — for us — is our baptism.

This is where things get confusing. Moses taught retaliation. Get even. “An eye for an eye.”

But if we’ve been baptized into the Christian faith — that law of Moses isn’t the authority for us — Jesus is. I’ve baptized many infants here over the years. And on that special day, I say to the parents: “Will you teach this child about Jesus and do your best to help her or him follow the way, the truth and the life that is love.” And so far, every parent has said “YES.” I’ve never had anybody in all these years say, “No. Thank you for asking, but we want our child to follow Moses.”

I’ve never had that happen.

III. So the first thing we need to do is clear some of this confusion. THE BIBLE DOES TEACH REVENGE. It does say, “An eye for an eye.” BUT JESUS DOESN’T. Jesus said:

“FORGIVENESS…..FORGIVENESS….even if, even if, you have to do it seventy-seven times.”

IV. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, There’s one more thing I need to say about our reading this morning. We need to show more sympathy and kindness and understanding to this poor servant in Jesus’ parable who the master calls “wicked.” Because that servant is us. We are probably closer in terms of our behavior and consciousness to that “wicked” servant who can’t forgive than we are to Jesus.

So don’t take this story literally. The master, we are told, has compassion. So he’s not going to send anyone to prison to be punished — especially if the “wicked” servant was following the law. The law says if we don’t pay our debts, if we don’t pay our taxes, we go to jail.

The prison Jesus is talking about is the one we build in our hearts and minds. We all have one. We all carry an Alcatraz and a Riker’s Island within us. And it’s a prison that just holds one person —us. And when we are not able to forgive — and that includes forgiving ourselves for all the mistakes and wrong turns we’ve made in our lifetimes — WE LOCK OURSELVES IN THAT PRISON. Maybe for years and sadly, maybe for a lifetime.

But Jesus comes to us every day with the key to release us from the punishment of our self-imposed imprisonment — and that key is called forgiveness.

09/12/2026

Scripture of the Day September 12, 2026

Psalm 77:3-11

3

I remember God and I moan.

I complain, and my spirit grows tired.

4

You’ve kept my eyelids from closing.

I’m so upset I can’t even speak.

5

I think about days long past;

I remember years that seem an eternity in the past.

6

I meditate with my heart at night;

I complain, and my spirit keeps searching:

7

“Will my Lord reject me forever?

Will he never be pleased again?

8

Has his faithful love come to a complete end?

Is his promise over for future generations?

9

Has God forgotten how to be gracious?

Has he angrily stopped up his compassion?”

10

It’s my misfortune, I thought,

that the strong hand of the Most High is different now.

11

But I will remember the Lord’s deeds;

yes, I will remember your wondrous acts from times long past.

Romans 14:13, 19

13 So stop judging each other. Instead, this is what you should decide: never put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister.

19 So let’s strive for the things that bring peace and the things that build each other up.

Reflection:

The psalmist remembers better days when life seemed more — “wondrous.” Now the wonder is gone and God seems absent. Look at verse 8: “Has his faithful love come to a complete end? Is his promise over for future generations?” It’s like a prayer from Auschwitz. But the psalmist won’t quit his faith.

And in the Romans passage, Paul tells us to stop judging each other. This may be good advice but it’s hard to do because doing our spiritual work — like being patient, forgiving others, being kind to people who don’t like us, sharing — is hard. And if I can keep judging you, I can avoid doing my own spiritual work. If I can mind your business instead of my own -- if I can keep my focus on your business and everyone else’s -- then I can stay developmentally frozen like this. If I can be everyone’s judge I can avoid, for now, changing. I can be lazy and feel superior at the same time.

09/11/2026

Scripture of the Day September 11, 2026

Psalm 103:8-13

8

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

9

He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

11

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

12

as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

Reflection:

“You cannot say enough about the love of God,” is something the Trappist monk Fr. Thomas Keating often repeated. Psalm 103 is an example from the Bible that agrees with Keating’s statement. In the description of Jesus in the gospels, we have an idea of what love looks like as it is expressed in human form. We carry the seed of this same love — called the image of God in the first book of the Bible, Genesis — in us. We have it. The purpose of our lives is pray and do whatever we can to allow this seed to grow. It’s the whole aim and goal and purpose of our Christian faith. But love is a slow-growing plant. That’s why God gave us these bodies that can last in some cases a hundred years. I’m pretty sure that’s why we outlive just about any other animal. They’re already perfect — my dog Gideon and cat Tammy-Faye — are already perfect. The robins and crows in my yard, perfect. And in our later years, and with God’s grace and daily help, we will be too.

09/10/2026

Scripture of the Day September 10, 2026

Acts 7:9-16

9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was with him, however, 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. The grace and wisdom he gave Joseph were recognized by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole palace. 11 A famine came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great hardship came with it. Our ancestors had nothing to eat. 12 When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13 During their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five in all—and invited them to live with him. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a certain sum of money from Hamor’s children, who lived in Shechem.
Reflection:

The passage in Acts above encourages us to persevere through hardship because God is with us to guide us through present and future trials.

The reading this morning is a word of hope, reminding us that there will always be hard times, no matter where or when we are living. It’s life. Thousands of years ago, Joseph was betrayed by brothers, sold to slavery, and imprisoned — yet, he emerged to save Egypt AND Israel from a seven year famine.

The message is despite the appearance of disaster, trust God. We may not see the light or goodness in our present situation. But the promise from Acts is: God is always with us, as he was with Joseph, to give us grace and wisdom.

09/09/2026

Scripture of the day September 9, 2026

Exodus 13:17- 18, 20-22

God leads the way

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn’t lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, even though that was the shorter route. God thought, If the people have to fight and face war, they will run back to Egypt. 18 So God led the people by the roundabout way of the Reed Sea desert. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt ready for battle. 21 The Lord went in front of them during the day in a column of cloud to guide them and at night in a column of lightning to give them light. This way they could travel during the day and at night. 22 The column of cloud during the day and the column of lightning at night never left its place in front of the people.

1 John 3:11, 13-16

11 This is the message that you heard from the beginning: love each other. 13 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The person who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that murderers don’t have eternal life residing in them. 16 This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Reflection:

Sometimes the longer route, as we are told in the reading above, is the better one. Even our GPS technology knows that. If there’s an accident ahead it reroutes us by a longer or more indirect way to save time.

In the Exodus reading, God led the Israelites away from the Philistines (the warlike tribe that produced killers like Goliath) so they would not panic and run back to slavery in Egypt.

The first letter of John says if we don’t love, we’re dead, and if we hate, we're murderers! To live without love is like a life sentence in jail. But are we supposed to love people not like us? Should we feel compassion for anyone who suffers? Should I hurt when I see someone else in pain. Or maybe mind my own business. Maybe say a prayer for them. Like, “Thank you God that ICE isn’t after me!”

09/08/2026

Scripture of the Day September 8, 2026

Exodus 13:1-10

The Lord said to Moses: 2 Dedicate to me all your oldest children. Each first offspring from any Israelite womb belongs to me, whether human or animal.

Unleavened bread

3 Moses said to the people, “Remember this day which is the day that you came out of Egypt, out of the place you were slaves, because the Lord acted with power to bring you out of there. No leavened bread may be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going to leave. 5 The Lord will bring you to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors to give to you, a land full of milk and honey. You should perform this ritual in this month. 6 You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. The seventh day is a festival to the Lord. 7 Only unleavened bread should be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread and no yeast should be seen among you in your whole country. 8 You should explain to your child on that day, ‘It’s because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

9 “It will be a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead so that you will often discuss the Lord’s Instruction, for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with great power. 10 So you should follow this regulation at its appointed time every year.

Reflection:

Moses told the people of Israel: 1) Remember this day, 2) you were slaves, 3) the Lord acted. This is a spiritual insight as true today as it was 3000 years ago when Moses lived. The word “remember” appears often in the Bible, probably because we forget easily. As bad as life was in Egypt, when the Israelites were led into freedom by Moses and into the wilderness, they complained about the conditions and many wanted to go back. They forgot how they had suffered in Egypt. Many preferred slavery under Pharaoh to freedom in the wilderness with Moses. Moses tried to convince the people, for forty years, they made the right choice and living free, trusting the providence of God, was preferable to living as slaves.

There’s another meaning to the word “remember” and why it’s an important, recurring theme in the Bible. We forget who we are. “Created in the image of God,” says Genesis. Traveling in “the wilderness” of life in ultra-high-tech 2026, many people don’t know their core spiritual nature or that all of us are sustained by God’s love. (If God stopped loving us, says wisdom teacher Fr. Thomas Keating, we'd turn into grease spots.)

Moses said, “you were slaves,” but “the Lord acted” so now, potentially, we are free. This is a message from God to all of us. Slavery, in a spiritual sense, is life lived without love, without a daily connection to the God-of-love who made us. When the apostle Paul urged us to “pray constantly,” he meant if we want to be free, we must stay in touch, day and night, with the divine source of our lives. Cut off from our divine source, we are machines, amazing, beautiful, magnificent machines.

09/07/2026

Scripture of the Day September 7, 2026

Romans 13:1-7

Every person should place themselves under the authority of the government. There isn’t any authority unless it comes from God, and the authorities that are there have been put in place by God. 2 So anyone who opposes the authority is standing against what God has established. People who take this kind of stand will get punished. 3 The authorities don’t frighten people who are doing the right thing. Rather, they frighten people who are doing wrong. Would you rather not be afraid of authority? Do what’s right, and you will receive its approval. 4 It is God’s servant given for your benefit. But if you do what’s wrong, be afraid because it doesn’t have weapons to enforce the law for nothing. It is God’s servant put in place to carry out his punishment on those who do what is wrong. 5 That is why it is necessary to place yourself under the government’s authority, not only to avoid God’s punishment but also for the sake of your conscience. 6 You should also pay taxes for the same reason, because the authorities are God’s assistants, concerned with this very thing. 7 So pay everyone what you owe them. Pay the taxes you owe, pay the duties you are charged, give respect to those you should respect, and honor those you should honor.

Reflection:

This is one of those passages in the Bible that we read and say, “What? This can’t be right!” What about N**i Germany and the Third Reich? Was Hi**er “put in place by God?” This scripture says all government authorities were put in their place by God. Look at all the evil kings in the books of Kings in the Old Testament. Look at King Ahab who with his wife stole a man’s vineyard, lied about him so he was stoned to death, and then celebrated over their newfound acquisition. And Ahab and Jezebel (who worshipped Idols) are the authorities God chose?

This is one of the many examples of why just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean that it’s the word of God. This passage today is the word of Paul. Paul was in house arrest in Rome when he wrote this. Was he was trying to show the Roman authorities that he was not a threat to their government or the emperor? It didn’t work. He was executed shortly after he wrote this. By the Roman government.

09/06/2026

Scripture of the Day September 6, 2026

1 Peter 2:11-17

Life as strangers in the world

11 Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives. 12 Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your honorable deeds.

13 For the sake of the Lord submit to every human institution. Do this whether it means submitting to the emperor as supreme ruler, 14 or to governors as those sent by the emperor. They are sent to punish those doing evil and to praise those doing good. 15 Submit to them because it’s God’s will that by doing good you will silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Do this as God’s slaves, and yet also as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil. 17 Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Have respectful fear of God. Honor the emperor.

Reflection:

1 Peter tells the recipients of this letter to imitate Christ by doing good and being model citizens. Especially, he said, don’t retaliate against people who say bad things about you. The message is: be like Christ, do good, forgive.

1 Peter gives the best advice for his day and for ours — keep our focus on Jesus Christ, and let him be a model for your own spiritual practice. Whether we like the leaders or not, accept whatever authority is there for now and keep focused on doing right. Honor everyone.

If we read scripture critically, we’ll find parts that are not true, like verse 14 above: “They are sent to punish those doing evil and to praise those doing good.” This refers to politicians and rulers — who, in the Bible and up to our present time are often corrupt and do the opposite of what 1 Peter says here. Often the evil are rewarded and the good are persecuted. Verse 14 sounds like something one of the leaders inserted or something that was added by a later editor friendly to the political regime at the time. But — I’m sure, at least in practice, nobody believes that the Bible is ALL, literally, the word of God. Who, today, believes that a child who hits their parents must be put to death? Yet — that’s what we’re told to do by the Old Testament — in Exodus 21:15. Leviticus 20:9 instructs us to kill our children if they curse us. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says if a son doesn’t obey his parents, he must be stoned to death. These can’t be the literal word of God. Can any Christian imagine Jesus teaching this?

So we need to use our God-given discernment when we read these texts. 1 Peter advice to honor everyone is good. But when he says “Love the family of believers” — we need to add, “yes, and everyone else too, including unbelievers, enemies, and scoundrels.” (Because, if Jesus is our guide, that’s what he did.)

09/05/2026

Scripture of the Day September 5, 2026

Ezekiel 33:1-6

The lookout

The Lord’s word came to me: 2 Human one, speak to your people and say to them: Suppose I bring a sword against a country, and the people of the land take a certain person from their assembly and make him their lookout. 3 When he sees the sword coming against the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people. 4 If they hear the sound of the trumpet but don’t heed the warning, when the sword comes and they are taken away, they are responsible for their blood. 5 They heard the sound of the trumpet but didn’t heed the warning, so their blood is on them. If they had paid attention to the warning, they would have saved their lives. 6 If the lookout sees the sword coming but doesn’t blow the trumpet to warn the people, when the sword comes and takes away any of them, they are taken away in their sin, but I’ll hold the lookout responsible for their blood.

Reflection:

There are three major prophets and twelve minor prophets in the Bible. The prophets appeared in Israel’s history during the monarchy when kings ruled Israel and Judah (Israel was divided into the northern kingdom, which was Israel, and the southern kingdom, which was Judah). The prophets spoke as messengers from God and reminded people of the laws that God had given through Moses, which often the kings did not follow. Laws like worshipping the one God who freed Israel from Pharaoh in Egypt and then gave the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, and other laws. Especially the prophets told of God’s will to take care of the poor and the outcast and people from other lands who had made their homes in Israel and Judah. Usually, the people did not listen to the prophets and the kings often had them killed or imprisoned.

The plan was that with the prophet’s warning, people would change (repent) and realign themselves with God’s will. God’s will was always to treat one another with compassion and be responsible custodians of the earth, which belonged to God, not the people. . Ezekiel, in the above passage, says the prophet is like a “lookout”, warning people of the danger of living a selfish life that hurt God’s creation and other people. If people hear the prophet’s call to live with responsibility, justice and reverence for others — but don’t listen, then their doom is their fault. But if people are hurt because the prophet failed to warn them, then the prophet is responsible for their injury.

Dunbar United Church of Christ

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