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Dear Siblings,

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday. Last week, I went up to Tennessee to be with my family, as my grandfather’s health continues to decline. He’s fine for now. Thank you for your prayers.

In the middle of the week, I went to Utah to visit a few friends. I enjoyed returning to Salt Lake City! This Sunday, we’ll encounter the Trinity and sit with the many names of God. I’m often curious what it is that we intend to do when we name God. Perhaps you’ll think about this a bit too over the next few days.

As always, there are many things happening in the life of our community, so be sure to check out the big updates below and check out the June edition of the The Monthly!

See you Sunday,

Thomas

Hallelujah! It’s here. The Day of Pentecost has finally come again. It’s my favorite, you know. Well, of course you know. I won’t let you not know. And, besides, as you often hear me say, Pentecost is never far away…even if it seems not near enough to suit me.

 Why, you ask? For a few reasons, the first of which is the wonderful surprise of it all. Religious life should have surprises, early and often. Don’t you think? The kind of surprises that draw us out of our certainties and limits, and into the realm of what is possible and beyond our knowing. Oswald Chambers once wrote, “The God who made birds did not make bird cages.” On the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was set free to fly where it will.

 Another reason—as our XYZ Acts class knows—is that the Pentecost story in Acts 2 takes us out of the experience the apostles have with Jesus and into their own experience of what his life and power can mean in them and in the world. Hey, and WE are those followers, too. Like them on that day, that power and Spirit can give us bold proclamation in acts and speech it makes us able for.

 The experience of the Holy Spirit is a bit of a pivot, if you will. In the Christian calendar, it marks the shift from “the Story of Jesus” to “the Story of the People of God.” It is also the promise of power redistributed; from what the power and spirit of God in Jesus Christ was able to do, to what the power and spirit of God IS able to do IN US, real time. All of us. Note the extraordinary diversity of that list of nations present. No respecter of persons, this Spirit. More possibilities than we can imagine, omni-competent, face fantastic, wicked smart and well-resourced as we surely are.

Still another reason to love Pentecost is that it answers the question “So Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead—so what?” It does not, however, answer definitively for everybody and always. Instead, Pentecost offers the experience of that day—the confusion, the astonishment, the awe—as a question to live with and live in. If the Resurrection is real, it will be visible in empirical forms in and through us. Can we know how? Perhaps, but only if we can open to and receive what is possible beyond our knowing. If we can be Pentecostal.

OK, that was a mouthful. 

Join us for worship this week, if you can. We will be singing in tongues, and hoping to see you and be seen in our gathering. The Phoenix Sewing Bee will present a Veteran’s quilt to James Holley, this by way saluting those who have served our country and especially those who gave their lives, as is appropriate this Memorial Day weekend.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

Dear Siblings, 

I’m sure you know that we are blessed to have a truly remarkable church campus. There are not many places that so carefully and intentionally engage the built environment with the goodness of God’s creation. One of my deepest prayers with our congregation is that we don’t ever take this space for granted. 

Recently, I’ve followed Rev. Liz’s lead and now sit in the pews during the sermon. It changes things for me. Listening to a meditation on our sacred texts, while looking at the world that God made, offers a different way of engaging with my faith. I’m sure many of you know this well. 

Recognizing the value of our place in the world, I’m glad for all the chances we have to care for creation. This Sunday, we’ll welcome Hannah Schultz, MDiv., the Program Director at Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. Hannah has a deep interest in the intersections of justice, theology, and the environment. After earning her MDiv at the Candler School of Theology, Hannah worked in college chaplaincy, before joining the team at GIPL. At GIPL, she leads an array of programs including Solar Wise, Power Wise, Water Wise, Zero-Waste, and Rewilding programs. 

Rev. Liz and I are so excited that she’ll bring us the Good News on Sunday, and lead a workshop after worship in the Fellowship Hall. 

See you Sunday,

Thomas

Dear Siblings, 

Every now and then, I don’t quite know what to write for the week. And that’s mostly because so much has happened over the past few days. I won’t recall all of those things in this note. But I will say that I am in a sort of mourning. Mourning for the world as it is, because I know how different it could all be. I am thinking most urgent about the rapid changes in the political representation of Black Americans. Yesterday afternoon, Tennessee split the city of Memphis, where I lived for college, into three separate congressional districts. Regardless of partisan positions, the result is a diluted voice for Black Tennesseans.

Unfortunately, this same scene is being played out in South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana too. Yes, I am mourning the reality that it seems this reconstructed country is turning away from the fulfillment of one its most grand ideas and still incomplete experiments: that in this new world, out of the ashes of the peculiar institution that was race-based slavery and civil war, a multi-racial democracy could rise and thrive. Yes, I am in mourning over our shrinking away from the possibility of such a vision. 

These words, shared by Dr. Terrence Johnson, the new Dean of Candler School of Theology, have sat in my head:

Mighty causes are calling us– the freeing of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty– all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifices and death. Mercifully grant us, O God, the spirit of Esther, that we say: I will go unt0 the King and I perish, I perish. Amen. – Prayers for Dark People (1980)

In a rather abrupt turn from the above, this Sunday is also Mother’s Day. This is a day that is filled with joy and for many people also sadness. And so, my prayer for you this weekend is that you receive what you need for this occasion. If you need the joy and celebration, the breakfast in bed, and handmade cards or phone calls, I pray you get all of that and more. But if what you need is a moment to visit a graveside, or to look at an old picture, or play an old voicemail, then I hope that you can make time for that too. If you’re someone who doesn’t quite know how to define your relationship to the person who birthed you, and would like for this day to simply not exist, then I hope that Sunday is simply Sunday. I pray that you receive what you need to receive on Mother’s Day. 

On Sunday, we’ll be open to an encounter with the Holy Spirit and sit with John’s Gospel. I hope to see you in worship, on-site or online! 

Thomas

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!