Litchfield Presbyterian

To listen to this Sermon Audio recording Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on Pentecost Sunday. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording Click Here

This sermon was recorded on  Mother’s Day 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording  Click Here

Genesis 11:1-9

Acts 2:1-21

The story of the confusion of the languages at the tower of Babel is itself quite confusing.  I mean, what is the problem here?  Why is God displeased that “nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” ?  The usual explanation points to the Promethean impulse among humans.

Perhaps you know the story of Prometheus?  It is from ancient Greek mythology.   Prometheus is a kind of lesser God who challenges the great god Zeus.  Zeus has withheld fire from humans as a punishment for the inadequacy of the sacrifices humans offered to him.  Not out of compassion for the humans, but out of spite for Zeus, Prometheus steals fire from Zeus and gives it to the humans.  The Promethean impulse among humans is therefore, the attempt of humans to achieve for themselves what they should receive as a gift from God.

Rather than allowing God to make them great, the humans in the tower of Babel story labor to make themselves great through their own efforts.  God is displeased with this self-promotion of the human race, and frustrates their project by confusing their languages.  When someone asks the perfectly reasonable question, “why are there so many languages among the human race?” The tower of Babel story provides an answer.

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This sermon was recorded on  Sunday, March 28, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording  Click Here

This sermon was recorded on  Sunday, March 21, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on  Sunday, March 14, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on March 7, 2010. To listen to the audio recording of this sermon Click Here.

Today I want to offer you an interpretation of the earliest years of this congregation.  It’s certainly not the only interpretation possible, but it makes sense to me and it is, I think, quite instructive.  It has become cliché to say that those who do not learn from the past are bound to repeat it.  Cliché notwithstanding, it is in the hope of gaining some useful insights from our past that I ask you to turn your attention for a few minutes to the very brief career of the first minister settled in this town, the Reverend Mr. Joshua Tufts.

Tufts was not the first minister to preach to the people of Naticook – as this area was first known. There are indications that at least three ministers preached here in the 1730’s.  Nor was Joshua Tufts the townspeople’s first choice for a settled minister.  Mr. Josiah Brown and Mr. Isaac Merrill (see Rev. Newhall’s Address) both were extended calls to settle here, but both declined.  Maybe they were just not the right men for the times.  Maybe Joshua Tufts was.  The story goes like this… (more…)

This sermon was recorded on February 14, 2010. To listen to the audio recording of this sermon Click Here.