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United Church of Paducah
4600 Buckner Lane
Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-3722
Worship Times
Sunday Service: 10:00a
Refreshments &
Fellowship: 11:15a
Christian Education
For All Ages:
11:20a - Noon
Nursery Services Provided Handicap Accessible
All Are Welcome!
A Congregation Of The
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From March 09, 2008
Death's Door
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
In the Navajo world, anything related to
death is taboo. So organ transplants are off limits. So are
open caskets. The taboo against death reaches further than
you might expect. When Navajos shop in thrift stores, for
instance, they are reluctant to buy for anyone other than
babies and children; adult clothing may have belonged to
someone no longer living.
As different as our culture may be from the Navajo, we too
have our difficulties with death. I am reminded of this
every month when those touched by a loved one's suicide
gather in the Parlor for mutual support and healing. Group
members choose their words carefully, as if to spare the
rest from looking death squarely in the eye. Even though
death has everyone's full attention.
Each week during Lent, we inch closer to Jerusalem and
Jesus' impending death. Unlike those who accompanied Jesus
so long ago, you and I make this trek already knowing that
death will not have the last word. No, the last word is
God's. And God's word is always life.
Read More From March 2, 2008
Shadowed Valleys
Psalm 23
Jesus walked this lonesome valley, he had
to walk it by himself.
O, nobody else, could walk it for him, he had to walk it by
himself.
I learned this song as a kid standing next to my mother
while she played the piano. Why are we singing this, I would
wonder to myself. We usually sang happy songs--Broadway show
tunes and upbeat ditties from Hollywood musicals.
But Lonesome Valley? It made me so sad for Jesus. Sad in
same way that movie, The Robe, did. It made me want to cry,
thinking about the hard life Jesus had, and how it got
harder with every step he took. Even as a kid, this seemed a
great injustice, a sorrowful and unnecessary thing, since
all Jesus had ever wanted was for people to know God loved
them.
Read More From February 24, 2008
The Other Red Carpet
John 4: 5-42
Hollywood's red carpet has been rolled in
time for the 80th Academy Awards tonight. All it has to do
is wait for A-list actresses and actors who, even before the
first Oscar is presented, already know they are the best of
the best.
While Hollywood's most gifted and glamorous prepare to take
their places in the spotlight, you and I are here with Jesus
as he sits well-side under the blazing noon-day sun. He's
here resting on the dusty trek back home from the holy city
of Jerusalem. Hungry, the disciples have left Jesus behind
while they go in search of food.
As he waits at the well, he's a man out of bounds, Jesus is.
Rather than take the long way (make that the proper way)
home--around Samaria, Jesus has opted to cut straight
through a country inhabited by dirty, half-breed
unbelievers. Or so that's who the Jews said the Samaritans
were, despite common roots that connected them like cousins.
Read More
From February 17, 2008
How Can This Be?
John 3: 1-17
On Tuesday night while Paducahans huddled in
darkness wondering when their power would be restored, Ella
Bailey was dancing around her living room. You see, Ella had
just returned from Western Baptist where she had taken her
first peek at Bailey Grace, her brand new niece.
As Ella, Crystal, and I sat by firelight talking about the
awesome miracle of birth, Ella's eight-year-old mind
stretched to comprehend the beautiful bondedness between
mothers and their babies that begins in the womb.
"Mama," Ella said, her voice brimming with affection, "I
wish I could climb back inside you, like before I was born."
Ella's comment was touching, of course. But it was also
marvelously coincidental. Earlier that day I had been
mulling over Nicodemus' darkness-draped conversation with
Jesus and his clear sense of the impossibility of returning
to the womb.
Read More From February 10, 2008
Into The Wild
Matthew 4: 1-11
"Kaaaaren. Kaaaaaaren." The dime inside Jay
Riley's desk was calling my name. I had seen it countless
times before, nestled in a cubby space, and hadn't given it
any thought. That is until the day I asked Tony Knight to
walk me home after school. Stopping at the Fourth Street
Market and springing for a little treat would clinch it for
me in the 3rd grade girlfriend department.
"Kaaaaren. Jay won't miss me. You can replace me tomorrow
and he'll never, ever know." That dime sounded so sure of
everything.
Jesus wasn't the one to hear a seductive voice laying out
choices. We do, too. And it finds us in all sorts of
places--not just in the wilderness. That voice finds us at
school and work, in the mall and family gatherings. Where we
go, it goes. It's just as simple as that.
More... From February 10, 2008
Into The Wild
Matthew 4: 1-11
"Kaaaaren. Kaaaaaaren." The dime inside Jay
Riley's desk was calling my name. I had seen it countless
times before, nestled in a cubby space, and hadn't given it
any thought. That is until the day I asked Tony Knight to
walk me home after school. Stopping at the Fourth Street
Market and springing for a little treat would clinch it for
me in the 3rd grade girlfriend department.
"Kaaaaren. Jay won't miss me. You can replace me tomorrow
and he'll never, ever know." That dime sounded so sure of
everything.
Jesus wasn't the one to hear a seductive voice laying out
choices. We do, too. And it finds us in all sorts of
places--not just in the wilderness. That voice finds us at
school and work, in the mall and family gatherings. Where we
go, it goes. It's just as simple as that.
More... From February 3, 2008
We Couldn't Go if We Didn't Know
Matthew 17: 1-9
Six days later, at the top of a mountain and
in the presence of three disciples, Jesus is transfigured.
His garments blaze with light and a glory more stupendous
than the sun shines from his face. Israel's greatest
prophets, Moses and Elijah, appear and confer with Jesus,
inspiring Peter to devise a plan to house them. A voice from
the heavens points Peter and his friends in a more fitting
direction. "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well
pleased; listen to him!"
Six days laterthese three little words matter.
Before the transfiguration, important things were taking
place. Jesus was struggling yet again with the religious
establishment, who yet again could not see him for who he
was. Jesus then turned to his disciples and asked them to
tell him who ordinary folks thought he was and after
listening to their replies, Jesus put the question to them.
Who did they think he was?
More... From January 27, 2008
You're Hired!
Matthew 4: 12-23
My first career came to an end when the
university for which I worked was forced to down-size. For
fifteen wonderful years, doors on campus opened without much
knocking on my part--something that served to put me at a
disadvantage when it was time to move on. A supportive
colleague in the Personnel Office recognized this and so
graciously volunteered to coach me.
Putting a resume together was a snap. But my mock interview
left my colleague underwhelmed. No, make that concerned. It
seems very time he posed a question, I would quickly look
away, pause, and then look back again as I responded. "I
hate to tell you this, Karen," my friend said in his kindest
voice, "but you come across as sorta shifty. People may
think you've got something to hide."
But even with a super-polished presentation, there are no
guarantees. You know this if you've ever watched "The
Apprentice." How many times do we hear "You're fired" before
The Donald finally says, "You're hired!"
More... From January 20, 2008
Recognizing The Messiah
John 1: 29-42
Not until I moved to Oregon did I know there
was such a thing as chainsaw sculptures. They were
everywhere. Ferocious grizzlies, amiable Yogi the Bears,
whole families of bears sometimes. There were eagles and
owls and, at Christmas time, tin soldiers standing at
attention.
I thought I'd seen every variation until one day I pulled
off the highway into the parking lot of a roadside market. A
winding path connected the lot to the front door and as I
walked along, I spied a new kind of sculpture up ahead--a
man in a pose like that famous one, The Thinker.
The artistry was incredible. The proportions were spot-on
perfect and the sculptor had lined the face with wrinkles
that were most realistic. Stupendous, just stupendous, I
thought to myself as I trudged along. Just as I thought
this, it moved! This was no sculpture but a real live old
man, one in deep and motionless thought.
More...
From
January 13, 2008
The Making of a Minister
Matthew 3: 13-17
People frequently assume I've always been a
pastor. Nope. Before this, I had a rewarding career in
higher education, one that prepared me for parish ministry
and which continues to influence my thinking about how you
and I can be the church together.
I talked about this a little at Tuesday night's Council
meeting. But not until I tossed out a question I know no one
expected. "Do you remember," I asked, "do you remember when
your ministry began?"
You should know right now that council meetings don't
typically begin this way. Usually I read a passage from
scripture, make what I hope is a helpful comment or two, and
then before we move into our agenda, I offer a prayer.
But Tuesday night was different. Do you remember when your
ministry began, I asked, looking around the circle and
inviting responses from the ministers gathered there.
More... From
January 6, 2008
The Fourth Wise Man (An Epiphany
Story)
Matthew 1: 1-12
In the days when Augustus Caesar ruled the
Roman Empire and King Herod reigned in Jerusalem, there
lived among the mountains of Persia, in the city of
Ecbatana, a man named Artaban. Like his three
friends--Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar--Artaban was a
devout follower of the faith of Zoroaster and excelled in
the highest form of learning: knowledge of the stars.
One night Artaban and his friends were scanning the sky when
they spotted a new star shining more brightly than any they
had ever seen. From their life-long studies, the men knew
that this star signified the birth of someone most rare.
Because of this, they felt compelled to follow it together.
The four agreed to rendezvous at the Temple of the Seven
Spheres in Babylon. From there they would set out by
caravan, following the star to pay homage to the child born,
according to their calculations, in the homeland of the
Jews.
More...
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"Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie
Allen
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