The Way of the Lord
So, I woke up a while back, looked out my window, and all of a sudden, I was living on a one-way street. I realize that sounds more like the start of a blues song than a sermon, but it’s…
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The Days Now, and Yet to Come
Good Morning. Not only do I have the privilege of delivering a sermon for the first time in a UCC congregation, but on the first Sunday of Advent! Rev Dan decided to just toss me into the ocean and I’m…
The Element of Exposure
So, I’ve been thinking lately about different kinds of “exposure.” Don’t worry, this isn’t about Covid exposure. It’s not about exposure to the elements given our frigid though finally seasonal recent weather. It’s a little deeper than that. I’ve also…
Refugee Resettlement Ministry
First Church Provides Space and Volunteers for Welcome to newly arrived families May 14, 2024 We are pleased that First Church has built a strong relationship with partners at the state and local level. Because of this, the Commonwealth of…
We Are Alive!
Good Morning first Church! Would you please pray with me? Dear God, may the meditations of my heart and the words that come out of my mouth be as one with your spirit. God may Jesus’s love and companionship be…
The Lord is My . . .
A few months ago, a poet friend of mine texted me a link to a website that a colleague of hers had created. I clicked, and it brought me to a blank page with just 12 lines of text. It…
Become a Sponsor of First Church Homeless Ministries
UNCOMMON: A Virtual Gala in Support of First Church Homeless Ministries’ Uncommon Commitment to the Common Good Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 7pm featuring special guest Michael Sandel, renowned political philosopher and author of The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become…
Transition at First Church
August 29, 2024 A First Day Message from Mike Here’s a brief video from our new Interim Senior Minister Mike Solberg, as he begins his work with us. In the video, he says he would love to get to know…
Jesus, Our Center
And so, the season of Epiphany comes to a close, with Jesus in prayer on a mountain, and the disciples starting to doze off—only to see their teacher transfigured by dazzling light! In an instant the veil between earth and…
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Years ago, I was interviewing someone and asked her to tell me about her strengths. At the end of her list, she wryly shared a humble-brag I hadn’t heard before. She said, “I like to think I have a high…
Mary’s Magnificat
Dear God, My soul magnifies you, my soul thirsts of your living water. I rejoice knowing that you are within us, that we are works in progress and nothing can separate us from your love. Loving God bless the words…
O Come, O Come
24“But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, 25 the stars will fall from the sky and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they…
Run to Win
Good morning First Church! Let me begin by expressing my most heartfelt appreciation our Senior Minister Pastor Dan, Pastor Lexi and the best co-intern in the world Pastor Carla, an amazing staff, and a warm and welcoming congregation. It was…
Jesus and Creation
Sighs. This is a tough passage. During our staff meeting this past week, I was so tempted to ask, “does anyone want to switch preaching dates?” Thinking – how the heck did I end up with this one? I think…
Earth Stewardship
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all!” —All Things Bright and Beautiful, Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848 who we are Here at First Church, we are committed to…
Weaving the World Anew
I saw a video on TikTok the other day that made me laugh out loud because it made me think that this would be something my family would do to me. The video starts with a mom gleefully putting on…
Adelante, No Mas
I’d like to begin today by sharing with you a few lines from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” Who is the third man who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when…
A Baptism of Repentance
Like many of you, my mind has been spinning in current events for much of this past week. After a blessed holiday hiatus from the headlines, I was first shook when I read way back on Tuesday morning, pre-insurrection, that…
Beloved Community Timeline
The following is a timeline summarizing many of the events and activities working towards a vision of First Church Cambridge as a multicultural and multiracial church in which people of all races, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, economic situations, ages, and abilities feel…
A Prayer for Milestones and Marathons
Sunday Morning Worship June 14, 2020 by Senior Minister Dan Smith Holy One, Spirit of Love and Life, where do we begin in our prayers to you on this Sabbath day? Our hearts are overflowing, God, yet we know you…
The Lord is My Coach
The last time I shared a sermon on Psalm 23 was three years ago, almost to the day! It was April 25, 2021! Think back with me, though none of you were here in person! We had a skeleton crew…
It’s Uncontainable!
Before we dig into this strange and dazzling story of Jesus’s so-called transfiguration, please allow me to speak from the heart for a bit about the news I’ve recently shared with all of you! First, heartfelt thanks to all of…
Regathering 2023
Blessing the Ties: Fall 2023 and Regathering Sunday, September 10 As we regather this fall in worship, in meetings, and on retreat, we look forward to blessing the ties that keep us connected—to one another, to land and lineage, and…
A Teaching, Trusting, Towering Faith
One of my all-time favorite teachers was, and is, the late, great Rev. Peter Gomes. He preached and taught at Harvard for many years. He would often share with his students something I now pass along whenever I can: that…
Racial Justice
First Church has been working to reckon with our history of enslaving persons of African and Indigenous descent and to learn about the harmful, inequitable living legacy of slavery and white supremacy in our church, city, and nation. We are…
Staffing Updates: Transitions, New Faces, and Shifting Roles
As we regather this fall, the theme of transition can hardly be missed, especially within our staff. Here’s a quick summary of how roles are shifting to meet the needs of the church. Mike Solberg joins us as our new…
Tending our Spirits in Grief and in Gratitude
Around this time last year, I left Wollaston Congregational Church in Quincy,having served as sole pastor for seven years. And so, I have not been attending. First Church for very long. But I did visit here one summer Sunday a…
On Good Authority
After church Last Sunday I had the chance to drop-in on a lovely conversation that Carla was leading with our newcomers, including all three who joined today. They were getting to know each other, asking questions about the church. When…
Stewardship 2024
Track our progress toward our campaign goal a future with hope: our 2024 stewardship campaign In the midst of difficult times of anxiety and worry, interspersed with glimmers of hope and promise, our 2024 stewardship campaign “A Future with Hope”…
Blessing the Ties
Texts:  Hebrews 11 (excerpted) Friends, today we begin again – a new season, a new programming cycle, a new year in our life together! Though Regathering Sunday is nowhere on the liturgical calendar of the big C Church, it’s…
The Urgency to Discover
Would you please pray with me: God I come here today with the desire to be a vessel of your love, a carrier of light and I pray that you may bless the words that come out of my mouth…
Thanks In All Circumstances
It’s been quite a week already, full of grief and gratitude on the personal front and here at church. And yet, on Friday, my wife Nancy shouted out an especially giddy “Oh My God!” from her home office! She had…
Fall Pastoral and Building Staff Changes
This fall, we are thrilled to welcome back Carla Arevalo Carbajal and Ahmaad Edmund in their new roles as half-time Pastoral Associates! As they complete the third year of their Master of Divinity program at Harvard Divinity School, they will…
A Shared Becoming
Let us pray: God of infinite manifestations, free us of shame that confines and judgment that destroys. Bring healing to the wounds of being told we are too much or too big or too proud or too young or too…
Reconstituting the World
Good Morning on this Earth Sunday and Healing Sunday! Perhaps to your surprise, we heard this morning the 23rd Psalm from the King James Version of the Bible read with She/Her pronouns. A mix of tradition and newness- a combination…
Prayer of Praise and Protest Cry
We’ve made it! Palm Sunday. Parade Sunday! Megaphone Sunday! The day when we hand out pieces of a tropical tree, when we eat sweet hot crossed buns for breakfast and look forward to Easter celebration plans next week. The day…
All Things New
Happy New Year, everyone. So, what are you hoping for in the year to come? What are you hoping for most deeply, with your truest heart? for yourself…? for our world…? As a person of faith, what is your deepest…
The Parable of Good Questions
*some sentences and portions of this original manuscript differ from the video recording of this sermon* Will you please pray with me? May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you…
My Peace I Give to You
A while back, a beloved colleague and mentor of mine told me she was leaving the area for a new job on the West Coast. It sounded like a fantastic opportunity, the perfect fit for her gifts. She was thrilled,…
Changes to Masking Guidelines at First Church
APRIL UPDATE: Due to an expected increase in the number of people worshiping in person, as well as our plan for robust singing, we will continue to require masking in the Sanctuary through Easter, at least. As communities across the…
All Parts Welcome at the River Bank
This past Friday I got to officiate my best friend’s wedding on a rooftop in Dorchester. It had been a long wait since the pandemic had delayed their celebration not once, but twice. They trimmed down the guest list to…
We Cannot Afford to Look Away
Our text contains a speech given by the Apostle Peter to the Gentiles. When Peter says God shows no partiality. Here he is referring to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, in the preceding verses he says, “You know it…
Always a Time and a Season for God’s Response
 Ecclesiastes There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and…
Lost and Found in the Cloud
2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one[a]…
Who do YOU Say I Am?
Will you please pray with me? May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you Oh God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. A couple of years ago now, I decided to…
Hard Work Has to Be Shared
It has been yet another hard weekend for us all as we mourn the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg…a hard weekend on top of a year already full of fear, loss, isolation, pain. *pause* It sometimes feels so odd to…
The Work of Resurrection
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law,…
Available Spaces
The Sixth meeting house of the First Church in Cambridge, built in 1871, is a stone building at the corner of Garden and Mason Streets. The exterior of the building is an example of the early Gothic revival period. The…
Building Use and Weddings
Thank you for your interest in using space at First Church in Cambridge. FCC offers beautiful, handicapped-accessible spaces for your concert, reception, wedding, meeting or other event. In 2018, First Church underwent a major renovation of spaces outside our sanctuary.…
Get to Know Us
At nearly 400 years “young,” trying to encapsulate “us” is no small endeavor! We are a community diverse in age and experience, race and culture, social network and social location. In all of our diversity, we are united through certain…