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 – and all indicators point to a future of human-caused climate breakdown for the rest of our lifetimes.1 “The sun will… More
Sermons
Worship is more than preaching. Each worship gathering draws from the wealth of gifts of the community. We have rotations of volunteers who share the responsibilities of preaching, song leading, and service planning. We take turns reading the assigned Scripture readings for the day. The high point of our worship is our time for response and sharing. Since we believe that anyone can offer an interpretation of the Bible, we provide time in our worship for people to offer their own reflections on the Scriptures and the sermon.
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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 world. Last Sunday we heard the books’ opening verses, written by John, a 1st century Jewish follower of Jesus, exiled… More
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. Texts from Revelation very rarely come up in the cycle of the lectionary, the church calendar offers us a sampling… More
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 Little Birds, and it was starting to grate on me: Don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna… More
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 God as a gardener who fertilizes a fig tree – even when it bears no fruit. And we’ve hiked with… More
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. From this mix of disciples and onlookers, curious and skeptical alike, packed around him, a few people pipe up: “Hey,… More
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 and First Nations folks – would volunteer to be dropped off alone into some north county wilderness location with a… More
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 the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah, and the stunned disciples nearby. Of all the biblical scenes that could be chosen… More
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 them. I was going to begin this sermon talking about the many different sorts of people from different places, socioeconomic… More
True Treasure
Have you ever reached a crossroads in life? I am sure you all have. Where you can metaphorically choose one path or another path in life. I think life presents many crossroads. And this is exactly what is placed before the disciples and the prophet Isaiah. The Triune God calls for them to follow in… More
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 are all sorts of great reasons to be a part of our church community… from chasing away the Sunday-evening scaries… More
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 crisis confronting the community or the ordinariness of a moment – when a holy word is called for – in… More
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 of life, and grief. The ice-breaker question that began our session was this prompt: “Before I die, I . .… More
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 deals and self-indulgence to an emphasis on self-improvement. New Year, New You type products. The ad that ironically got me to… More
Community is the Center of our Lives
There’s a great saying attributed to Dorothy Day, the great 20th century friend of the poor, anti-war and labor activist, and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy is remembered as saying: “Everyone wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.” After I graduated highschool I was a gangly seventeen year old, bored… More
Jesus is the Center of Our Faith
Last Sunday, on World Communion Sunday – in his sermon – Jonathan Larson offered us a necklace of stories, a string of tales from scripture, Anabaptist history, and his own life – all examples of moments when the whisper of beloved community was heard, that as Hebrews said – “Jesus is not ashamed to call… More
Why Being Mennonite Matters
Living God, by the power of your Spirit, help us to hear your holy word, that we may truly understand; that, understanding, we may believe; and believing, we may follow in faithfulness and obedience [and joy!], seeking your honor and glory in all that we do, through Jesus Christ. Amen. We just prayed the words of Ulrich Zwingli –… More
Doers of the Word
For the past few weeks I’ve been preaching from the book of Ephesians, exploring its encouraging words to Christians, newly baptized into the community of faith. We wrestled with how walking in God’s love enables us to do something useful with all of our emotions, even anger. We celebrated how God’s Spirit moves us to… More
The Armor of Peace
I feel a little extra brave whenever I’m wearing a backpack fit for the occasion. Whether it’s hiking those first miles of dusty trail wearing a pack full of food and gear for the week’s upcoming trek….or striding up into a school bus to travel to a sporting competition with your teammates all if you… More
Making Melody
Our short text from Ephesians today opens up with apocalyptic urgency: “Be careful how you’re living!” “The days are evil!” “Make the most of your life!” “Seize the day!” “Don’t get drunk – because that’s debauchery!” When you start hearing this passage you might think that you’re in for a whole long list of warnings… More
Doing Something Useful
Do any of you all ever get angry? Take a moment to think about a time when your blood was boiling, when the fiery rush of anger welled up in you… What did that feel like? Where in your body do you experience anger? Take a breath and remember what that felt like. Maybe the… More
Look for the Helpers
David, you are this man. David, God entrusted you with the care of God’s people, and you failed. David, your reign has turned rotten; instead of protecting the vulnerable you are now preying upon them. Instead of sacrificing your life for your people, you’ve demanded sacrifices laid at your feet. David, you’ve become a pharaoh. “David,” Nathan says, “why have you despised the word of the Lord?” More
Looking Down
It’s hard to be a human. The growing pains of learning how to live in these bodies, the search for belonging and friendship, the daily need to provide food and shelter and a future for our loved ones, the questions of purpose and meaning that gnaw at us. Being a human is filled with all manner… More
Part of God’s Story
I’m often intrigued by the way stories with known endings continue to fascinate us. Our favourite books we reread over and over again; our favourite stories we tell again and again, even when everyone hearing them knows what will happen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our reading of the Bible: we go to… More