Title: The Miracle of Faith Text: John 20:19-31 Date: May 1, 2011 Author: Meghan Florian It’s late in the evening, and the disciples are gathered in secret, huddled in a circle, maybe, talking in hushed tones. So much has happened in a week. So many of their hopes dashed. Their expectations of power and glory… 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.
Click here to search our complete sermon archive
~
Mothers’ Day in Alabama, 1961
Title: Freedom Riders Date: May 8, 2011 (3rd Sunday of Easter) Texts: Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:36-41 Author: Isaac Villegas This past week was a historic week for people in America. This week, fifty years ago, in 1961, a group, assembled from all over the country, got on buses in Washington, D.C., and began their trip… More
A local Easter story
Title: A local Easter story Date: April 24, 2011 (Easter) Texts: Matt 28:1-10 Author: Isaac Villegas Let me tell you an Easter story. C.P. Ellis’s father died at the age of forty-eight, which meant that C.P. had to drop out of high school and become the bread winner for his family, for his mom and… More
Who is this?
Title: “Who is this?” Date: April 17, 2011; Palm Sunday Texts: Ps 118, Matt 21:1-11 Author: Isaac Villegas Jesus is the talk of the town. Crowds gather along the streets. Some are there to welcome God’s prophet, the one who will speak God’s truth about the world. Others are there to welcome a messiah, the… More
Double Vision
Title: Double Vision Texts: Ezekiel 37.1-14, Psalm 130, Romans 8.6-11, John 11.1-45 Date: April 9, 2011 Author: Nathan Rauh Prayer: Merciful LORD, thank you for giving your prophet Ezekiel his vision, and us your Scripture. Holy Spirit, go beyond my words to speak your Word to us, and point us to Jesus Christ, the Word… More
We are not blind
Title: “We are not blind, are we?” Date: April 3, 2011, Lent 4 Texts: Jn 9:1-41 Author: Isaac Villegas The disciples stand at a distance and are curious about the beggar; they use the blind man as a way into a theological discussion with Jesus. “Rabbi,” they say, “who sinned, this man or his parents,… More
Healing & Hope
Title: Healing and Hope Date: March 20, 2011 Texts: Jn 3:1-21 Author: Isaac Villegas In Fukushima, Japan, when everyone was told to evacuate the nuclear power plants, 50 workers refused to abandon the reactors. They decided to stay and work around the clock, doing all that they could do to try to prevent a meltdown.… More
Reformed earth (Ash Wed)
Title: Reformed earth Date: 3/9/11 (Ash Wednesday) Texts: Isaiah 58:1-17 Jesus once said, “Only the one who loses her self will save it.” I think that’s a pretty good way to summarize what Lent is about. It’s about learning how to lose yourself, to let go of the self you have created, the identity you… More
Grace & wealth
We cannot know Christ unless we follow him daily in life ~ Hans Denck, 16th century Grace must be lived out, or it is not grace ~ Karl Barth, CD II/2: 695 Title: Grace and wealth Texts: Isa 49:8-16, Matt 6:24-34 Date: Feb 27, 2011 Author: Isaac Villegas “Look at the birds of the air;… More
Holiness & Perfection
Title: Holiness & Perfection Text: Lev 19 Date: Feb 20, 2011 Author: Chris Gooding What can we learn from the strange book of Leviticus? I studied Jewish legal interpretation under a rabbi while I was at Duke Divinity School, and he would often cite one of the verses in our passage for today to teach… More
Choose life
Title: Choose life Texts: Deut 30:15-20, Ps 119:1-9, Matt 5:21-37 Date: Feb 13, 2011 Author: Isaac Villegas “Choose life so that you and your descendents may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you” (Deut 30:19-20). The God of Israel cares about life—not only… More
untitled, 2.6.11
Title: untitled Date: February 6, 2011 Texts: Isa 58:1-9b, Matt 5:13-20, 1 Cor 2:1-12 Author: Matt Morin In today’s passage from Isaiah, we hear the prophet announcing a word of God to the people in the southern kingdom of Judah: Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked… More
A reliable presence
Title: A Reliable Presence Texts: Micah 6:1-8, Matt 5:1-12 Date: Jan 30, 2011 Author: Isaac Villegas A couple weeks ago Reynolds Price died. With his first novel in 1962 he established himself as a gifted Southern writer. He went on to write a number of novels and plays and short stories and collections of poetry,… More
United by the cross
Title: United by the cross Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Date: Jan 23, 2011 Author: Meghan Florian Originally I’d planned to preach on our gospel text today, but after Tom’s comment last week I couldn’t help but take the bait and look more closely at 1 Corinthians 1. As Tom put it last week, in verses… More
Grace and peace, then and now
Title: Grace and peace Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 Date: January 16, 2011 Author: Thomas Lehman Today is the first of seven consecutive Sundays for which the Epistle comes from 1 Corinthians. Paul’s opening greeting appears in vv. 1 – 3. His prayer of thanksgiving is vv. 4 – 9, after which he rushes to reprimand… More
Words made flesh
Title: Words made flesh Texts: John 1:10-18 Date: Jan 2, 2011 Author: Isaac Villegas A few weeks ago my friend Chris was in town. We ended up spending a lot of time talking about life, about faith, about how we grew up. For both of us, American Christianity is embarrassing. For example, it’s embarrassing to… More
Like Mary, Like Joseph
Title: Like Mary, Like Joseph Text: Isa 7:10-16, Matt 1:18-25 Date: Dec 19, 2010 Author: Isaac Villegas Loved and Liked The story of Christmas, of Immanuel, God with us, is that we are not only loved by God, but that God likes us. Not only does God love us, God actually likes us. (See James… More
The house doesn’t always win
Title: The House Doesn’t Always Win Text: James 5 Date: December 12, 2010 Author: Chris Gooding Many of you know that I haven’t always been Mennonite. I grew up as a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS), which is the most conservative branch of the Lutheran church in America. To cite only a… More
Becoming fire
Title: Becoming Fire Text: Matt 3:1-12 Date: Dec 5, 2010 Author: Isaac Villegas John the Baptist appears in the wilderness and says, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt 3:11). First John… More
Our tortured king
Title: Our tortured king Texts: Col 1:11-20, Lk 23:33-43 Date: Novemeber 21, 2010 Author: Isaac S. Villegas Hanging on the cross, tortured, nearing death, a convicted rebel asks Jesus to remember him. Don’t forget me, he says, just before he dies alongside Jesus. We’re usually very good at running away from death. But our passage… More
Former glory
Title: Former Glory Date: November 6, 2010 Texts: Haggai 1:15b-2:9; Ps 145:1-5, 17-21 Author: Isaac Villegas Ah, the glory days. I’m sure you can remember them. We look back to some era of our lives, and think: Yes, those were the days. For me, I think back to the soccer field. Playing hard at weekend… More
The just shall live by faith
Title: The just shall live by faith Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10 Date: October 31, 2010 Author: Thomas Lehman As today is Halloween, Chapel Hill’s most celebrated holiday, it is appropriate to say that the word means the hallowed evening before November 1, All Saints Day, a holiday in Europe and elsewhere. In the… More
The beginning and the end
Title: The beginning and the end Texts: Gen 1:1-3, Ps 84, Jn 1:1-5, Rev 22:16-17, 20-21 Date: Oct. 24, 2010 Author: Isaac Villegas “The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:2). The first chapter of Genesis is… More
Lighthouse Mennonite
Title: Waiting for God at Lighthouse Mennonite Date: October 17, 2010 Texts: I Cor 14:26-33 Author: Isaac S. Villegas Waiting. Waiting for God. After Catherine’s sermon last Sunday, I’ve been thinking about what it means for us to wait for God. Catherine preached from the book of Jeremiah, about the Jews who had to live… More