Rev. Nancy S. Taylor

Festival Worship - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

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I had a relative, a great-uncle. I never met him, but in my mind’s eye he looked like John D. Rockefeller. Staring straight into the camera he was impeccably well-groomed and he exuded confidence.
My great-uncle was a shining example of the Protestant work ethic. He didn’t have a lazy bone in his body. On the contrary he was nothing if not industrious. So far as we know he never oppressed anyone, or cheated anyone or misbehaved in any other way. By all appearances he was a successful, hardworking, smart-thinking, long-range-planning sort of guy.

Festival Worship - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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The Temple is packed. It is standing room only. Everyone is decked out in their finest garb. The place is a buzz.
Isaiah, too, is there. He has joined his fellow citizens for the coronation ceremony of Israel’s new king.
The pageantry is awesome: a long, grand processional with priests and princes in resplendent garments. Colorful banners swirl through the air.
Israel’s best musicians have pulled out all the stops: the music is huge, triumphant and celebrative.

Festival Worship - Congregational Care & Support Sunday

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Jeremiah is listening. He hears the sound of grief coming at him from two directions. From the direction of God’s people he hears wailing and lamentation: women keening, men moaning. It is a wailing that fills the land. At the same time, but from the direction of heaven Jeremiah hears God’s great distress and pain … a wailing that fills the skies.
God’s distress is empathic. If God’s people are in pain, God is in pain.

Festival Worship - World Communion Sunday

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John is exiled … banished to the island of Patmos for his Christian faith. Isolated from family and friends, he suffers privation and hardship.
On the mainland, his fellow Christians are suffering persecution: being rounded up, arrested, flogged and crucified. His family own family is endangered.
But here’s the thing: as bad as it is, John is given a vision. He sees beyond what is, beyond the pain and anguish, to the future God intends:

Festival Worship - Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

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The first chapters of Genesis take us inside the Artist’s studio. We are looking over the shoulder of the Creator God and watching God at work. The Artist’s hand moves with swift, sure strokes, bringing into being that which, only moments before, existed solely in the Artist’s imagination: trees, rivers, stars, clouds, birds, reptiles … each emerging from the tip of God’s paint-dipped brush.

Festival Worship - Hymn Festival Sunday

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“Nancy, look Mr. Jones in the eye. Smile. Extend your hand and introduce yourself. Say, ‘Nice to meet you, Mr. Jones!’ Say it like you mean it.”
Do you recognize those instructions?
My parents taught me that was how to greet people: Look the other person in the eye. Smile. Extend your hand and introduce yourself. Say, ‘Nice to meet you!’ Say it like you mean it.”
This attitude and these gestures communicate respect for the other and kindness and interest in the other.

Festival Worship - All Saints' Sunday

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Deo gratias! Thank God, you have come!
Some of you will know of St. Benedict, considered by many the founder of Western monasticism. In the year 530 of the Common Era St. Benedict composed a rule, “The Rule of Benedict,” by which his monks would live an ordered, holy and monastic life.

Meeting House Sunday

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God is good! (All the time) Happy Thanksgiving!
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I recently got to wondering about a curious phrase in the English language. The phrase, “Let’s talk turkey.” Wherever did that come from?
Here’s one explanation: Back when, an English settler and a Wampanoag Indian went hunting for birds. Together, they caught a number of turkeys and buzzards. When the pilgrim "divided the game, he took for himself the two turkeys, leaving four buzzards for his companion."

Festival Worship - Second Sunday in Advent

Sermon Transcript

It’s unnatural. It’s aberrant behavior. So aberrant, so unnatural that St. Paul called it scandalous. Unnatural! Aberrant! Scandalous!
It is because of this scandal that a lot of people look askance at Christians, assuming we are mad as hatters and crazy as loons.

Festival Worship - Third Sunday in Advent

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Seventeen, they say, is the most interesting number. Seventeen is superior say some, and scarier say others, to any other number.
David Kelley¹, a math professor at Hampshire College, specializes in 17.²

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Rev. Nancy S. Taylor

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