"Holy Noticings"
Psalm 119: 33-40
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
September 6, 2026

[Pray.]

Back in June, we sent you all off with a Flat Jesus to go our separate ways on vacations. You all traveled to so many places around the world and saw incredible sights and spent time doing some really amazing things – whether that was rest or adventure.

I wanted to take some time today to reflect on what we noticed over the summer. When did you see God showing up? Where did you feel like you were standing on Holy Ground? What types of experiences did you have that drew you nearer to God? I hope you came with some stories, otherwise this is going to be a brief sermon time.

But first, I want to honor a legendary poet, novelist, and environmentalist who passed this week, Wendell Berry. He was an incredible writer and observer of nature. He believed deeply in agrarian values as he tended his farm for the last forty years in Kentucky. Much of his poetry touches on the natural world and his experience of it. So before we begin, a poem by Wendell Berry called “The Vacation.”

The Vacation
By Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.

With the advent and prevalence of technology, it’s really easy to be distracted on vacation. It’s easy to be there but not really be there. It’s easy to capture an experience to share or revisit later, but then we sometimes miss being present in the actual moment.

As our scripture reminds us, we need help diverting our attention from distractions to focus on what is at hand.

So tell me, tell us: what did you notice this summer? Where or how did you experience God?

For all that has been, we give thanks.

Amen.