News

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Last week, a friend asked, “What’s the first thing you will do when you are no longer at Central?” Oh. Well. “Um, I will take piano lessons,” was my reply. This morning, however, it became clear piano lessons will more likely be the second, third or even fourth thing I do when I am no longer at Central.

The very first thing I will do is miss you. I will miss the people I work with every day. Miss gathering for worship and fellowship, even zoomies. Miss the conversations by (endless) email and the shared interest and purpose of this congregation. Miss the children. Miss the belonging to this living body of followers of Jesus. Sigh.

And, oh, yes, I will grieve. I must grieve.

Of course, I am anticipating the grief in the same way I anticipate other and all anxieties. Getting ready for it? Perhaps. But mostly not looking forward to it or, more precisely, practicing what I know so well how to do.

Don’t you think the Disciples might have been in a similar emotional soup in our Gospel reading for Sunday is John 14:1-14? Jesus is preparing them for the time when he is no longer present with them in the body. (Not comparing my own, humble self to Jesus, to be sure.) Their “congregation” would be without him and he without them. There had to be some grief there. That’s probably why I have so often preached funerals from this passage, a moment when sadness and fear of what is not known are ambient. That’s also why the resurrection accounts so often include, “Fear not.”

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…” (14:2) There is an invitation here that has not occurred to me before:

In that future place where there is so much mystery, there are oh, so many possibilities. Just use your imaginations and all that we’ve practiced together.

Ok, I will try my best. You mean, like improv?

On Sunday—can this be May already?—we will come together for a Service of Word and Table, as is our custom on first Sundays. Streamers, be prepared with your bread and cup in whatever form that takes chez vous. (Milk and s’mores has been suggested by a young friend.) Those of us who can get to the face-to-face will gather around the table of welcome and belonging with grape juice and gluten free bread. We will all be doing what Jesus did. Practicing. Again.

Here’s hoping to see or be seen in your company, one more time.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

Dear Siblings, 

I spent much of the past week in Philadelphia with the UCC’s Next Generation Leadership Initiative, as part of our Congregational Vitality trek. We visited three unique congregations. One is a multiracial Reconstructionist synagogue, Kol Tezdek, in West Philly, operating out of a commercial space in a mixed-use residential building. We also visited Old First UCC, a historic Congregationalist church in the Old City, which has adapted a significant portion of its property to support a new housing-first initiative. On Sunday, we worshipped with Salt & Light, a nearly 1000 member UCC/PCUSA church merger that has two campuses, a thriving ministry for children and teens, and is celebrating exponential growth in membership.

All three of these faith communities turn the current narrative about organized religion upside down. People are seeking these places out, in large part because they see these communities putting their hearts, minds, mouths, and money where they know their faith calls them to be— with each other in the struggle for a world made new. 

Aside from those campus visits, it was a wonderful time spent with the other folks in my cohort + the two other cohorts on this trip! A lot of idea cross-pollination happens on coffee runs, at lunch, or in between learning sessions. 

Our own congregation was the recipient of similar cross-pollination last week with Rev. Andrew Warner of the Wisconsin Conference. We’ll sit with the same text from last week, Acts 2:42-47. We’ll focus less on stewardship and more on our common lot and life together, as we discern our journey in ministry. 

Please be sure to stay after worship this Sunday for our Called Congregational Meeting. 

See you Sunday, 

Thomas

We will welcome Rev. Andrew B. Warner as our preacher for 11:00 am worship on Sunday, April 19, 2026. He will also offer a presentation after worship on generosity and giving for all who are able to attend. I trust that includes your own dear self.

Our own Bill Harrison has led Central’s efforts to establish a planned giving program and invited sister UCC congregations in the area and the Southeast Conference to join and learn along with us. At a stage in life where we begin to think of such things, Bill was moved to consider Central Church in his estate planning and, specifically, a legacy gift—the gift that keeps on giving long after we have departed this life. Why? This is giving that comes from the same depth of love and commitment we have to our family. That kind of love.

The late Channing and Carol Jeschke left that kind of gift to Central last year. That kind of love.

On Sunday, Rev. Andrew has chosen the lectionary readings for the following week, April 26, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, because these texts seemed more suited to his theme: a spirituality of generosity. His focus passages are Acts 2:42-47 and Psalm 23. 

More about Rev. Andrew: He serves as President of the Wisconsin Foundation UCC, a philanthropic arm of the Wisconsin Conference UCC and is a Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE). For many years, he served as a Generosity Outreach Coordinator for the national church, as well as 22 years as a local church pastor. He leads the fundraising efforts of the Wisconsin Conference, supports the planned giving and effective philanthropy in many congregations. The has organized the Wisconsin Foundation based on a community foundation model for the endowments of the conference and congregations. 

My favorite part of his bio is this: Andrew lives with his husband and two children outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He loves to cook and entertain, a practice he calls his “gastro-evangelism.” I’m in.

I am looking forward to worship on Sunday and to seeing you there. Or maybe you are seeing us from where you are. Either way, it will be good to gather once again and to welcome our guest preacher. Don’t forget to make plans to stay after for the session with Rev. Andrew Warner. There’s lots going on at Central. Set you GPS.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

What’s the deal with taxes anyways? Nobody really wants to pay them. It is increasingly more difficult to understand what tax dollars actually go toward.  And many Americans’ thoughts on taxes oscillate based on which party is in power. And yet! We pay. Taxes are simply an obligation that we owe to the state. It won’t surprise that Jesus has some thoughts on that. I’m sure you do too.

The title of this Sunday’s sermon, “Unfinished,” is not a reflection of its current state! Rather, it’s my understanding of our work in the world. This Sunday, we will sit the reality of power and the church; and of power and our faith. And we might trouble the waters and dare to imagine a world where the church as an institution says “actually, we don’t need power… at least not like this.”

What do we owe to Caesar? What do we owe to God? Where do we belong in the world? Think about those questions. 

We live in a world that works awfully hard to make us believe that our value comes through our relationship to power and authority. The Good News rejects that and invites us to embrace our value as bearers of the Image of God. An important lesson to remember as we move closer to Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the Resurrection.

Come on Sunday, and we’ll chat more about this together. 

See you soon, 

Thomas

P.S. Great things are happening before and after worship. Check em’ out below!

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Well, the Search Committee for Central’s next ministerial leader has formed and met. Central has taken the next step in embracing the challenges and opportunities that the future God has in mind in hand. A courageous group and formidable undertaking. We must pray for them and for their work. That will be important. 

And this comes as we approach the fourth Sunday in Lent and a focus on the  text in John 10:1-18, in which we are invited to reflect on accountable leadership. (Isn’t it wonderful when these ancient texts somehow know exactly where we are and what’s going on right here, right now? I love it, but it’s also kinda spooky.)

The invitation in this passage is to consider “the kind of leader Jesus is and what it means to follow someone who stays and protects,” as the good folk at Illustrated Ministry put it. Of course, we’re not searching for Jesus–well we are, of course, always, but that’s not the Search Committee’s job–but we are looking carefully at pastoral leadership. So, why not look here?

This (long) reading puts the shepherd in contrast with the hired hand. Clearly, while they both tend the sheep, they are not the same thing. The relationship is different. The commitments are different. 

The good shepherd is prepared to lay her own life on the line. It’s not about duties and responsibilities, the tasks of the job. The shepherd and the sheep have given themselves to one another, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, through many dangers, toils and snares, going along together, in season and out of season.

I always say, metaphors are a way of looking at one thing to gain new insight into something completely different. When Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,” the hearers get to think of him, their new leader, in terms of something they already know well. They know about sheep and shepherds, everybody does.

We, on other hand, may have trouble relating to sheep. And to following…like sheep? Americans don’t do sheep. Highly educated, privileged, well resourced, justice-loving, progressive Christians–can we relate to sheep? Hmm?

What is your metaphor for good, pastoral leadership? What’s the image or story that comes to you in your own experience of–your appreciation of--leaders in ministry? 

Yes, I believe I did ask us to reflect on these things and, while I’ve not heard much yet, I hope we are going back through our memories. And we will gather next Sunday, on March 22, after morning worship, to share. We’re all getting ready. Right? Hint: sometimes the best way to see what you appreciate is to recognize what you don’t, then flip that experience to reveal what you longed for and found missing. 

You know my metaphor for leadership already: Creating and holding space for a long conversation among friends, going along together, making sense of life as it happens, acting for good, between meals (Sacraments). Yes, it’s very low tech and slow (like gardening), with lots of inputs and outputs, and short on deliverables and outcomes that are quickly and easily seen. But it is the relationship to which the shepherd and the sheep are called, the social field we are part of. 

Well, expect me to be finding a way to make these musings a Sermon for All Ages on Sunday. In the meantime, I trust you are making plans to join us for worship, online or in person (live, not a moving picture), if you can. It’s always good to see you among the far-flung flock. (Beg pardon. I know we don’t do sheep.)

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

As a friend and I traveled in Europe last fall, we did what any former divinity school students would do, we visited (just a few) churches. One thing that really bothered me was the number of them that required a paid ticket for entry. Yes, maintenance is a huge consideration, but it just felt icky thinking about paying for the opportunity to dance and delight in a house made to honor and glorify God. To me, it’s putting up a barrier where one doesn’t really need to be. 

I share this story because it’s what I thought about as I read our texts earlier this month. The Canaanite woman, marked by her exclusion of the nation, is deemed unworthy of approaching Jesus. In one of his less than prophetic moments, even Jesus calls her a dog! Nevertheless, she persisted. She demanded to be seen, heard, and treated like any other person seeking mercy and healing. In doing so, she not only challenged assumptions about inclusion and belonging, but she also illustrated a kind of collaborative ministry that we should all look more closely at. Seriously. She wasn’t arrogant, or rude, or disrespectful. She simply looked at Jesus and dared him to imagine that maybe he and his disciples were wrong. And Jesus was transformed by that. 

I wasn’t there, so I don’t really know what that moment looked or felt like to those who witnessed it. But a part of me feels rather confident that Jesus’ ministry was forever changed by this encounter, this holy confrontation. I think that because this story is an illustration of the inclusive dimensions of Jesus’ ministry. And it’s an invitation for us to consider what exclusionary ideas or practices we hold, perhaps unwittingly, that make it difficult for everyone, everyone, everyone to flourish. 

On Sunday, we’ll consider that and more during our time together. We’re springing forward this weekend, and I have to remind myself to be positive about that. We’re exchanging one hour of sleep for a season of more sunlight. 

If you haven’t been to church in a while, our Sundays are bustling with activity. Read below to check out our Sunday School hour groups before worship and opportunities for connection that follow worship. 

Finally, there is a secret to entering those old churches for free:  tell them you’re there to receive communion. And that’s the beginning of the story of how I ended up on my knees in Westminster Abbey, drinking from a common cup that was brought to each of our lips… 

See you Sunday,

Thomas

P.S. 

Now, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the church has a “power problem” that we need to deal with. And then I promptly said “nobody wants to talk about this!! And I’m not going to today either.” I saw a few frowns and watched a few faces express disappointment. Fear not… we will get there by Easter. 

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Why do you imagine the theme “Disruptive Blessings” so appeals to me? This is the theme given to us for Lent TWO in our resource from Illustrated Ministry. – If you have not claimed The Work of Imagination devotional booklet, it’s not too late. Look for it online and for printed copies at the back of the sanctuary. —

Where was I? Oh, yes. What do you suppose makes the notion of “disruptive blessings” so attractive to me? Because I was a contrary child and still bear the vestiges? Because I like to work in change spaces, especially congregations that are in transition?  Probably all those things and a few others.

I often wonder why “reversals” make me almost giddy. Reversals are what we called them in the Judeo-Christian Tradition (JCT) class I taught to ninth- and tenth-graders that was not (could not be) a Sunday School class. As we did our survey of the writings of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, we looked for patterns and themes, one of which was reversals. You know, where the narratives “flip the script” so that mothers of great men are of questionable repute, a warrior king is discovered keeping sheep, and barren and/or virgin women bear children. My favorite, of course, is Eve who has the imagination to push the envelope that sets us all free to make choices (in the image of God).

If you have ever taken a good look at me, you will notice that I am an African-American, clergy woman of a certain age and very little height, at least two diagnosed disabilities, a couple of personality flaws (that need not be mentioned), who struggles with discipline of every kind, and has an unnatural love of shoes (contemporary art; I am a collector). My favorite numbers are the odd ones. I often feel like I am looking at the world from someplace just outside the circle.

Why do I like disruptive blessings? Because in the “upside down way of love” Jesus invites us to imagine in Luke 6:17-29, the Sermon on Plain, I might find a place that includes me fully, just as I am. Because when we let our imaginations loose to practice mercy and generosity and welcome without condition, the kin-dom of God comes near. If God and those who follow in the way of Jesus work to flip the dehumanizing script we somehow cling to, there’s hope for me and others like me. Hope is born of imagination. And, to quote Toni Morrison again, “if you cannot imagine it, you cannot have it.”

Our text for Sunday finds Jesus early in his ministry and teaching. The crowd that gathers includes the disciples who will carry on the ministry, as well as others who want to hear more about this healer/teacher. In my JCT class, we called this the “Jesus Playbook” brought out at the beginning of the season so the team can begin to memorize and practice how they’re going to do this new thing. New team, new season, new playing rules.

Note, also, that his preaching is sub-versive. Walter Brueggemann* posits that “preaching is sub-version…never dominant version, never has been. It is always a sub-version, always a version, a rendering of reality that lives under [below] the dominant version…a sub-version of dominant imagination.” As one who has not been well served by that dominant version, this sounds like Good News.

The question for Sunday—my question for Sunday—is how to preach sub-version in Central Church. Rev. Thomas reminded us that we take part in the power of empire. Do we have a taste for disruption?

Join us for worship on Sunday “online or in the house” and we will explore this sub-version a bit more. We also will gather at the Communion Table, so please ready your elements (bread and beverage). And I am looking forward to Sunday afternoon’s Concert of Music by Howard Niblock beginning at 2:00 pm, and I know just the place to grab a bite between worship and the musical. Howard is one of Central’s newest members and is kind enough to share this gift with us.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz 

*Walter Brueggemann was a member of Central UCC up until his death last year. Many of you knew him years ago and went through a painful time with him and Mary B. That was a very difficult time for me as her friend. For years, I struggled to forgive the man whose genius is so important to me. I still struggle, but grace and mercy follow me—they chase me!

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Remember this? Do you see a young woman or a more wizened woman? (Yes, I chose that more appropriate adjectival construction.) Can you see both? What do you see?

Our gospel reading in Matthew 17:1-9 is that writer’s telling of the Transfiguration, a moment when his (new) followers see the face and figure of Jesus in all the glory of God. It is a moment that today’s special effects, AI and computer generated graphics could have a field day with. Alas, those disciples had only the transfigured face of Jesus, in the glorious company of Moses and Elijah. Not bad for a carpenter’s kid of ambiguous parentage.

As it happens, that blinding, mountain top moment was only part of the challenge. Peter, James and John are instructed not to speak of it until after the Resurrection. Bummer, yes? What did they see that they weren’t to talk about or  make sense of (somehow) together? Perhaps Jesus was insisting that they “just be with that for a while,” as my friend Paul used to say. Hence, Lent?

Of course, I have a few thoughts about this which you will hear about when we gather for worship on Sunday.

Transfiguration Sunday is always the last Sunday in Epiphany, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, February 18, beginning the Season of Lent. Which, of course, is the road we take to Easter or Resurrection Sunday. In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 17 comes just after Jesus foretells his death and the trials in Jerusalem where he must go, and “(f)rom that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples” what he could about how his followers [us] bring the kin-dom and glory of God into our world (Matthew 16:21). 

Come be with us on Sunday, extend your Valentine’s Day celebration to the LOVE of God we know in Christ Jesus and the congregation of God’s people for one more day. (This is our celebration, not inspired by or dependent upon commercial interests.) We will sing and pray and praise and give thanks in the ways we hope will give us the courage and imagination to love and serve fearlessly. 

And we will be prepared afresh to do the business of Central Church in a congregation meeting just after worship. Please make your plans to stay. Copies of the documents needed are in the Enews and in print as you enter the sanctuary. 

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz