Sermons

Title: Untitled 1 Texts: Micah 5:2-5; Luke 1:39-55; Hebrews 10:5-10 Date: December 20, 2009 (Advent) Author: Matt A couple of weeks ago Celia preached on advent and the expectation that comes along with waiting. She likened waiting to pregnancy – 9 months of hopes and expectations building and building, climaxing in the arrival of new… More

Title: Deconstruction Texts: Phil 4:4-7, Lk 3:7-18 Date: Dec 13, 2009 Author: Isaac Villegas The people come out to John to be baptized. But apparently John never learned how to be nice, how to be open and kind and polite and say excuse me before leaving the table and thank you and please, and how… More

Title: An Advent Reorienting Texts: Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6 Date: Dec 6, 2009 Author: Monica Schmucker As you looked at your bulletin and listened to the Scripture passages, you probably noticed that the lectionary has done something peculiar this week: the Psalm passage is replaced by a psalm of sorts from the New Testament. This… More

Title: Christ our King Texts: Dan 7:9-10, 13-14; Rev 1:4b-8; Jn 18:33:37 Date: Nov 22, 2009 Before I get started, let me say something about where we stand today in the church calendar. We stand at the edge of Advent. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. And during Advent we wait with Mary… More

Title: A body at home Texts: Dan 12:1-4; Ps 16; Heb 10:19-25; Mk 13:1-8 Date: Nov 15, 2009 Author: Isaac Villegas Jesus stands outside the towering temple in Jerusalem—at its highest point, the walls probably reached up to 175 feet high. You can see the building from miles away, dwarfing all the other structures in… More

Title: Leftover grain, Leftover people Texts: Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17; Mark 12:38-44 Date: Nov 8, 2009 Author: Thomas Lehman Our passages from Ruth and from Mark could hardly be more different as literature. After a first reading of the material from Ruth one could ask whether it belongs in the Bible. In contrast, Mark is familiar… More

Title: Jesus wept Date: Nov. 1, 2009 Texts: Wis. of Sol. 3:1-9, Rev. 21:1-6a, Jn. 11:32-44 Author: Isaac Villegas Jen has been writing online about her life with her child Martin who is autistic. Jen was one of the founding members of our church. She and her husband were here from the beginning, but now… More

Title: Please Pray With Me Texts: Job 42:1-9, Hebrews 7:23-28 Date: October 25, 2009 Author: Dave Nickel Jane’s Story: It’s a Friday afternoon in late August. Jane has just finished mowing the lawn at her two acres in “the county.”  Her mobile home shines in the bright North Carolina sunshine. As she surveys the surroundings,… More

Title: A Baby’s Slave Text: Mk. 10:35-45 Date: Oct 18, 2009 Author: Isaac Villegas The sons of Zebedee, James and John, come up to Jesus and tell him what they want: they say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mk. 10:38). It’s a bold… More

Title: The Priesthood of All Believers Date: Oct 11, 2009 Text: Hebrews 4:12-16 Author: Chris Gooding Two weeks ago, Jews around the world celebrated Yom Kippur for the year 5770. Since I’ve been trying to learn more about Jewish liturgy in order to aid in interpretation of the Old Testament (and to further inter-religious dialogue… More

Title: Broken visions Texts: Heb 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Ps 26; Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Date: Oct 4, 2009 Author: Isaac Villegas How to go on when our world gets turned upside down? How to make sense of our life when everything collapses? How to put one foot in front of the other when nothing makes sense anymore?… More

Title: For such a time as this… Date: Sept 27, 2009 Text: Esther 7 Author: Catherine Lee Tonight we are looking at the story of Esther. We’re not going to do justice to the whole story. If you hear nothing else, hear my suggestion that you go home and give it a read yourselves this… More

Title: Tongues of Fire Date: September 13, 2009 Texts: James 3:1-12 Author: Isaac Villegas “The tongue is set on fire by hell” (James 3:6). That’s what James says. Are we really to believe that our words have so much power, the power of hell’s fire? I know that words can hurt sometimes, but it seems… More

Title: Desperate Texts: Mark 7:24-37 Date: Sept 6, 2009 Author: Isaac Villegas Jesus wants to keep a low profile in Tyre. He’s in Gentile country, far away from the Jewish masses that flock to him wherever he goes. A woman comes to him. She’s desperate. Her daughter needs to be set free from an unclean… More

Title: “Come away” Date: August 30, 2009 Text: Song of Songs 2:8-13 Author: Isaac Villegas Our passage from the Song of Songs is an excerpt of a love poem. That simple fact is important. Our bible, this book that is central to our faith, is full of poems. The bible isn’t a book full of… More

Title: Solomon’s Request Texts: Psalm 111, 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58 Date: August 16, 2009 Author: Tom Lehman Psalm 111 was read a few minutes ago; it is an acrostic. After the opening “Praise to the Lord” there are 22 lines, each beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (Waltner)… More

Title: Absalom, Absalom Texts: 2 Sam 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 Date: August 9, 2009 Author: Isaac S. Villegas “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son” (2 Sam 18:33). With these words David is at his end. It’s too much for… More

Title: Being Church Texts: Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35 Date: August 2, 2009 Author: Dave Nickel Last summer, I was asked if I would be interested in doing an internship with the five congregations of Eastern Carolina District. I said yes, but I had some reservations.  Most of them were pragmatic: How would my time be… More

I gave a short meditation during a worship service for our Virginia Mennonite Conference summer assembly: “Jesus is our peace.” They asked me to share about Jesus’ beatitude on peacemaking from Matthew 5: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Below is what I came up with. ————————————————————– Isaac S.… More

Title: Desire Date: July 12, 2009 Texts: 2 Sam 6:1-5, 12b-19; Mk 6:14-29 Author: Isaac Villegas Lord of life, lead us into your grace and truth. Give us eyes to see the truth about ourselves, and the grace to not run away from what we see, but receive your new life. Amen. Sometimes the truth… More

Title: Weakness and Perseverance Texts: Mk 6:1-13, 2 Cor 12:2-10 Date: July 5th, 2009 Author: Dave Nickel 1.     The church we attended in Phoenix had a “mentoring” program.  Through this program, I was asked to mentor a high school student named Dan. I agreed to try, but I didn’t know what it meant to… More

Title: Available Date: June 28, 2009 Texts: 2 Sam 1:1, 17-27; Ps 130; Mark 5:21-43 Author: Isaac Villegas “God made everything that is made for love; and the same love sustains everything, and shall do so for ever.” ~ Julian of Norwich I’ve never seen a grown man beg like Jairus. He came to Jesus… More

Title: David and Goliath Date: June 21, 2009 Texts: I Sam 17:32-49, Mk 4:35-41 Author: Isaac Villegas I used to play a lot of soccer growing up. I was part of a club team, which basically means High School soccer wasn’t good enough for us. We played all year round, traveling all over the country… More

Title: Closer Date: June 7, 2009 (Trinity Sunday) Texts: Isa 6:1-8, Ps 29, Rom 8:12-17 Author: Isaac Villegas In April, celebrities took over downtown Durham. Hollywood came to town. They were filming a movie called Main Street. Most of the young ladies were very interested in the star of this movie, which is Orlando Bloom.… More