Wheat & Weeds
Either/or binaries help us make sense of life. Wheat & weeds. Good seeds and bad seeds. A landowner and his enemy. A barn where the wheat will be gathered into… and a fire, where the...
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The SoilHas audio
Jesus uses earthy images in pithy, pointed, sometimes confusing parables that both illuminate and obscure what the kingdom of God is like. Just in Matthew’s 13th chapter he speaks of soil and seeds and weeds...
Walking in WonderHas audio
Ben spent last week at Camp Friedenswald in Michigan, a Mennonite camp supported by our conference, where he was the camp pastor for the pre-junior week. Ben draws on his camp experience to reflect on...
Enough Time to Do GoodHas audio
Resting, refraining, ceasing to do work on the Sabbath – helps the community delight in the gift of God’s goodness that might otherwise be missed in the frenzy of constant, anxious activity. But as Jesus...
Courage to CryHas audio
We are spending four-week in our worship services using on the theme "Rise Up! Take Courage," which is also the biennial theme for our conference - Central District Conference. Congregations have been invited to use...
Salvation Coming Home
Next Sunday, we will be remembering loved ones who have died - and we will be using alternate texts from the lectionary for All Saints Day. And so today - while I will just be...
Pray Always
There was a certain woman in a church I was once a part of. Every single Sunday, during every prayer and sharing time, when the microphone was passed around this woman would stand up and...
Return to Praise
It would be enough if all we take from our gospel text today is a recognition of the goodness of gratitude. It would be enough if the only moment that lingers with us from this...
The Solidarity of Tears
The lectionary this fall has given us the gift or misfortune of spending some time with the prophet Jeremiah of 8th century ancient Judah. Jeremiah is not an easy prophet to hang out with because...
Safe Church Sunday sermon
In our worship service on Sunday, September 14 - through song, prayer, and word - we made space to commit ourselves to being a church that practices beloved community, following Jesus who welcomed children and...
Reworked
It’s hard to look away from that spinning, centered mass of clay. Watching a skilled potter at work is mesmerizing. The kick, kick, kick, of the foot maintains the wheel's rhythm, propelling a vase or...
Today I Appoint You
Sometime in the period of dizzying self-awareness of all that stepping into responsibility might mean and all the swirling feelings of growth and possibility and shame and the desire to belong in this complicated world....
Ablaze
I grew up in extended family structures where there would be lots of cooks in the kitchen. When food was being made and served and eaten people would comment on it and say things like,...
Manifold Wisdom
As a kid at church, I would sit in the pew on the north side of the sanctuary a few rows back and I would take out my bulletin. And during the sermon I would...
The Foolishness of God
A few years back - the AC in our car went out in the midst of a sweltering summer. The problem confounded the multiple mechanics we took it to in New Jersey. And after an...
Waiting for the Promise
Waiting well is one of the hardest things we are called to do as humans. Maybe you’re in a conversation with a friend or family member. But it’s so hard to actually listen to them...
To the Next World
A novel based on the life of the Italian saint, lover of the poor and friend of creation, St. Francis, includes this story: One day, Francis was walking down the road, singing a song to...
Holy Imagination
Last year - 2024 - was the hottest year ever recorded. And the top ten hottest years ever recorded have all been in the past ten years. We have lived through a decade of record-breaking heat -...
Worthy is the Lamb
I’m continuing to preach from the book of Revelation. The Revelation or Apocalypse of John, is an unveiling, an unmasking of the truth of who God is and what God is doing to redeem the...
who is and was and is coming
For the next few weeks in this Easter season - I am planning to preach from the book of Revelation. Revelation is the last book of the New Testament, the last book in our Bible....
Remembering the Impossible
This past Wednesday, I was standing at a local coffee shop waiting for my iced coffee. Over the loud speakers, turned up a little too loud, poured out the chorus of Bob Marley’s song Three...
Found by Love
In this season of Lent we’ve been focusing on God’s radical invitation to abundance. So far we’ve encountered the image of God as a mother hen who fiercely and tenderly protects her brood. We’ve pondered...
Grace Reaches Deeper
In our text for today from Luke’s gospel, Jesus finds himself in a crowd. Or to put it more clearly - a crowd, yet again - has found and surrounded him, listening to him teach....
Alone
Sometime at the beginning of the COVID pandemic I found myself watching a few seasons of the survival reality TV series ALONE. Contestants of various hardy backgrounds - trappers and hunters and loggers and preppers...
From Glory to Glory
In the Eastern Orthodox tradition of iconography - supposedly one of the first icons that every monk-painter must paint at the start of their apprenticeship is the vision of the Christ, transfigured and shining on...
Truth on Level Ground
I was going to begin this sermon with a reflection on how these words of blessing and woe, providence and warning, hit us all differently depending on where we sit or stand when we hear...
When Good News Turns Bad
What brings you to church? Why are we all seated here on a Sunday evening, when there is sports to watch, movies and shows to stream, messy houses to clean up, homework to do? There...
Only One Sermon
I’ve heard it said that every preacher throughout their life really only has a handful of sermons that they preach over and over again. No matter how different the scripture text before them or the...
I Will Not Keep Silent
This past Friday I attended the second of four training sessions at a local hopsice. The training is for churches to better offer care to individuals and families as they journey through illness, the end...
Expecting the Spirit
I’ve noticed a change in the marketing algorithms targeting me in the last couple weeks as I scrolled the internet. At this start of the New Year - the product placements shifted away from Christmas...