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Old First Reformed 
United Church of Christ
151 N. 4th Street (at Race Street), Philadelphia, PA 19106 · (215) 922-4566
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Do You Come to Church to Be Shook up and Thrown Off Balance?
Posted May 12, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Deuteronomy 12:4-14 and Luke 24: 13-35. The Road to Emmaus is a favorite among favorite resurrection stories. It promises, according to good Christian theology, that God in Christ finds us where we are. Knows more about our situations than we do ourselves. And finds us for a purpose– in order to reveal to us what [...]
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No Immigrants Here! …because Everyone Belongs (Which Side of this Border Are You On?)
Posted May 2, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Transposing Feasts or Leap Frog Sundays — not sure what we should call them: but last Sunday, Earth Day Worship outside was wet and a washout. So we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday instead. Today, I worried it’s be too cool for worshiping outdoors in the shady front courtyard. So we jump ahead again and grab [...]
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Bearing One Another’s Burdens (or “We’re not Communists, Rev. Warren: We’re Christians Witnessing to the Resurrection by Celebrating Our Responsibility for One Another”)
Posted April 16, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Psalm 133; Acts 4:32-35. I disappoint myself sometimes — my sermons don’t end up as political as I’d fancy them to be. That may be a relief to some of you! But I believe faith sets us in an activist position between now and eternity… calls us to attend to our individual lives as well [...]
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Come, Experience God, Sermon 03.25.12
Posted March 28, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 and John 12:20-33 Last Sunday afternoon, when I sat down to read our Scriptures for today– Jeremiah’s new covenant and John’s Gentile coming to Phillip wanting to see Jesus… as I read these texts, I couldn’t help, but think about the new covenant Old First is moving towards… It’s too early to have [...]
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God Doesn’t Delight In Our Suffering, but In Our Willingness to Go, Help, Serve (like Jesus)
Posted March 19, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Psalm 107: 1-3; 17-22 and Numbers21:4-9 This morning we begin taking up a special collection for One Great Hour of Sharing. Envelopes are in your pews. There’s more information on an insert in your order of service. You might say it’s a 2nd mile offering — after your basic giving to Old First’s Ministry, 10% [...]
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Sheer Silliness (or Human Strength Can’t Compete with God’s Weakness), Sermon 03.11.12
Posted March 13, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Psalm 19 and I Corinthians 1.18-25 I’m living dangerously… preaching about fools for Christ on the Sunday we finally get to installing all of elected leadership for the 2012 year. T That phrase usage — ”installing officers, or pastors… or any people into an office” — sounds sort of queer. One installs a new computer [...]
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Yesterday’s Covenant; What’s It Mean for Today?, Sermon 03.04.12.
Posted March 5, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 and Mark 8:31-38 This week’s Hebrew Scripture places us in the second of God’s great covenants. Last week, we attended to what tradition considers the first– after the flood, God’s covenant God with Noah, and thereby all humanity, or all creation– the rainbow as a sign of God’s foreswearing destruction… no matter [...]
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Proudly, even Defiantly UCC (advocating for Women’s Reproductive Health and L, G, B,T Affirmation)
Posted February 26, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons, Uncategorized.
Genesis 9:8-17 and Mark 1:9-15 A few days ago, I was speaking with a colleague who’s serving as one of the UCC’s 38 Conference ministers, he mourned: “It’s a tough week to be UCC.” He was referring to recent derogatory comments Franklin Graham and Rick Santorum made about President Obama’s faith. The Washington Post summed [...]
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A Letter to the Editor Defending the UCC
Posted February 26, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Christian Education, Featured, News, Sermons.
Bob Molsberry, the UCC’s Conference Minister in Ohio, explains: “When Senator Santorum came to my city and dissed my theology, I decided I needed to respond.” To the Editor Columbus Dispatch February 19, 2012 A lot of outlandish things are said on the campaign trail, but Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum went too far on [...]
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Weird, Surprising Experiences that Keep Us Looking Up, Sermon 02.19.12.
Posted February 22, 2012 by Michael Caine. Filed under Sermons.
2 Kings 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-9 Extraordinary happenings — what since Dr. King’s speech the night before his assassination have become commonly known as “mountaintop experiences” — are a part of our human existence. Jesus and his disciples are on the top of a mountain when suddenly Moses and Elijah appear, and then Jesus, well, [...]