Dr. Taylor is currently Assistant Director of Recruitment and Admissions at Pacific School of Religion. She was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1988, and since then has had a wide-ranging career in seminary administration, parish ministry and work with at-risk women. (Click here for a more complete biography.) In this sermon, Dr.…
In this very personal sermon, Pastor Tracy explored her feelings in response to the election results of the week before. She started by unpacking the nature of expectations – – of all sorts – – and their inherent connection to resentment, We need to pray for the courage to wrestle with the vast sea of…
October 23 was “Youth Sunday” when the members of our youth group planned and delivered the entire worship service. This included a pair sermons by Reyna and Taylor exploring the meaning of The Burning Bush and The Promised Land (From Exodus 3: 1-12) in today’s world. For more pictures from Youth Sunday, click here.
To illustrate the meaning of the familiar scripture about letting your light shine (Matthew 5:13-16) Pastor Tracy draws on a personal epiphany she experienced with our Summer Academic Program and a girls’ dress-up tea party.
This was our annual outdoor service where we bless all our pets and other animal friends. In her sermon, Pastor Tracy wove a serious message about caring for each other out of Herrod’s fear of Jesus (Luke 13:31-35), an Australian sheepdog, a mother hen, a psychic cat and Buffy the Vampire Slayer! (Don’t ask, just…
For World Communion Sunday, Pastor Tracy explored the difficulty we all have accepting a truly new idea. She illustrated this with an ancient fable of a Samurai warrior questioning a Zen master and with Jesus’ attempts to communicate a larger vision of his mission to his followers (John 6:25-35.)
Pastor Tracy examines one of the most-repeated ideas in the Gospels: the valuable thing that is lost and then found . . . The Lost Lamb, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son. She notes that these are also among the most misunderstood and misquoted passages in scripture. She explains why with a true (and scary)…
Sonny Graves is a 2016 graduate of Pacific School of Religion. He is currently working in the office of The Northern California Nevada Conference of the UCC and is interning at First Church Berkeley while he seeks his first call. In this sermon he starts by examining the story of Jesus’ clash with the Temple…
M. Todd Whitley is a second year student at Pacific School of Religion. In this sermon he uses a story of Jesus traveling in hostile territory (Luke 9:51 – 62) to explore the idea that most opportunities to do something important start with a need to go somewhere we aren’t comfortable, and part of maturity…
HIlary Spaulding is a long-time member of FCCSR who holds a degree in Divinity. After a successful career in Law, she is now “in discernment” with the United Church of Christ seeking a call to ministry. In this sermon she examines the idea that Jesus’ call to not worry (Luke 12:22-34) is not a simple…