It is gift to see each of you here today. My name is Ben, I’m the pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship. Raleigh Mennonite – thank you for joining us today! Thanks to pastor Melissa and everyone that collaborated today in this service. This is the third week after Easter that I will be preaching […]
Acts
Witnesses to the Resurrection
When I was a college student at Bethel College in Kansas we had to go a certain number of these mandatory convocation lectures. One Monday mid-morning in the spring of 2012, I was a lanky freshman sitting slouched into an uncomfortable auditorium seat. Gregory Ellison II, a young professor from Emory’s Candler School of Theology […]
Community of Resurrection
For the next few weeks in this Easter season, I am going to be preaching from the book of Acts, focusing on the impact of Jesus’ resurrection for the community of the church. Our short passage from Acts for today is a beloved one. Over the centuries folks from monks in monasteries to Anabaptists farming […]
Beginning as Beloved
Today is the celebration of Christ’s baptism. And yesterday in the church calendar was Epiphany, remembering the three wise men from the east who journeyed to offer gifts and see the Messiah. It’s the time in the church year when we celebrate Jesus bursting onto the scene of the world’s drama – making himself known […]
Saying Yes
Anabaptists embrace adult baptism (or baptism at a discerning age), since this is what Jesus models and what is portrayed repeatedly throughout the Bible. For Anabaptists, baptism is a sign of faith, of readiness to be part of the church. The belief is: we aren’t born ready. This leads me back to Lydia.
The wounds of love
I spent four hours this week in the car with Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket, and Grandpa Joe. Leo and Julian listen to books on CD, and I recently burned an audio copy of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. How many of you have read that or seen one of the movie versions—raise your […]
Forgiveness of sins
The Easter story is so familiar to us that I think we miss the shock, perhaps even the terror, of someone coming back from the dead. Especially when, as we hear in our passage from Acts, this Jesus, back from the dead, is God’s judge. We hear that this Jesus is the one who has […]
Disturbing the city
The young woman in the story we heard is a slave. Her life is a possession of a wealthy Roman family. Her body is owned by business partners. They have economic rights to her. They exercise dominion over her. They control her. She is nameless because she doesn’t need one. She is an object, a […]
Miracles
I’m guessing you’ve already heard this news—what happened this week, over the past several days. Twenty-five people were captured by ICE in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Durham—kidnapped by president Trump’s Gestapo-like federal agents who raid peoples neighborhoods, officers who invade homes, who come with guns and handcuffs, arresting our neighbors, without warning, without permission of […]
Clean
When his friends found out that Peter was eating with gentiles, he told them a story, the story of his revelation from God. Peter explained it to them step by step. The key line is verse 9, after Peter tells God that “nothing profane or unclean has ever entered [his] mouth.” Then it says, “But […]
like a dove
Four years ago I was in a bad car accident. My body hurt all the time, for months. Muscle spasms, throbbing pain everywhere. I couldn’t think of anything but the pain. I remember one Sunday, here at church, I asked for prayer, because I was overwhelmed, and after we all closed our eyes, and as […]
Pentecost: Oscar Romero
Day of Pentecost On Pentecost we pay attention to the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God poured out from heaven: God’s spirit alive in us, alive in our world. What are the signs of the Holy Spirit, the signs that the Spirit of God is at work? I thought I’d see if […]
Vines, Eunuchs, and Love
Fifth Sunday of Easter Listen again to 1 John 4:16, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” And hear again the words of Jesus from John 15:4, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” In those short verses we hear the word “abide” five […]