Sermons

A Sermon by Rev. John Gibbons With a Time for All Ages by Deb Weiner Sunday, February 7, 2021 The First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist   Opening Words “Things were done very literally.  One thing they did at that church that I’ll never forget, was that they had a big ply-board thing, in the … Read more

Rev. Annie Gonzalez Milliken Sunday, January 31, 2021 The First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist   Opening Words excerpts from “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes and “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman   A Visit to the Future    excerpt from the Flash Forward podcast hosted by Rose Eveleth   Reflection                               “Daring … Read more

A Sermon by The Rev. John E. Gibbons Delivered by Zoom on Sunday, January 17, 2021 The First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist This, of course, is Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and we honor not just King’s legacy but the moral imperatives that remain upon us.  In one of our hymns we sing, “What … Read more

A sermon by Rev. John Gibbons Delivered (via Zoom) on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2020 The First Parish, Unitarian Universalist, in Bedford, MA   Reading A Family Christmas My father told me this story. It occurred in the early twenties in Seattle, before I was born. He was the oldest of six brothers and a … Read more

A Sermon by Deborah Weiner, Developmental Director – Faith Development for Children The First Parish in Bedford, MA, Unitarian Universalist November 15, 2020   Opening Words adrienne maree brown, from Emergent Strategy: E–V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G—is connected. The soil needs rain, organic matter, air, worms and life in order to do what it needs to do to give … Read more

A sermon by Rev. John Gibbons The First Parish, Unitarian Universalist, in Bedford, MA 8 November 2020   Opening Words From the writings of Buddhist African-American collleague, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams: “Our anxiety comes from the desire to have things be different,” says Ms. Williams. “There’s going to be the day after the election. And the … Read more

Sermons by The Reverend John Eric Gibbons Part I: originally delivered on Sunday, September 27, 1992 Part II: originally delivered on Sunday, October 4, 1992 Preached again, with slight revisions on October 4 and 11, 2020 at The First Parish in Bedford, Massachusetts   Part I (Two lawn chairs are on the chancel platform as … Read more

“Choose Something Like a Star” A Sermon by Rev. John Gibbons with “Astronomical Observations” by Alan MacRobert The First Parish in Bedford, MA, Unitarian Universalist September 20, 2020   Opening Words (in memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg) When Great Trees Fall, by Maya Angelou When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker … Read more

Rev. John Gibbons First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist September 13, 2020 The other day in the New York Times (a respectable publication) I read a remarkable story about frogs that eat beetles.  Now, it won’t surprise you, when frogs eat these bugs, these beetles…that usually results in the death of the beetle.  Get eaten, … Read more

The First Parish in Bedford, MA, Unitarian Universalist 15 March 2020   [NOTES: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the church building was closed on March 13, 2020. This is the first worship service that was conducted virtually on the Zoom platform. In our 2019 church auction, our staff offered “a sermon on the topic of … Read more