One of the many benefits of reading through the entire Bible in a year is re-reading scriptural gems that I had forgotten about. This morning I started reading Second Corinthians and ran across a forgotten favorite in verse 20: For in [Christ] every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” Here is a Call to…
*This is an excerpt from last Sunday’s sermon. You can read the entire sermon text here. Acts 6:1-7 So, did you get what happened here? Some people in the church went to the pastors and said, “Hey. The care, the charity of the church, is not being distributed fairly. You Hebrews aren’t giving our Hellenist…
We have been in our new home for about two months now, and an introduction to the space is long overdue. Ryan and I have taken to calling our 3.3 acres a “ranchette,” and we have lots of plans for future gardens, paths, arbors, native prairie grass, a fountain, a pond, maybe even a gazebo.…
[This is from a sermon preached at Peace Mennonite Church on August 4, 2013. See this page for the full sermon text.] In many ways, this odd little fable-story from 2 Kings reveals the folly of our attempts at national security. But in the end, Israel does achieve security. Elisha will not let the King…
At Peace Mennonite, we are doing a worship series on the book of Acts. I won’t be preaching this coming Sunday. (I’ll be out of town doing a wedding at a winery near Lake of the Ozarks. This pastor thing can be rough.) I am, however, putting together the order of worship. And this is…
On August 13, a group from the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance organization gave a presentation at our church. They talked about the terrible environmental damage done by leaking and broken tar sands pipelines and the substantial health issues faced by (inevitably poor) people who live near the pipelines and processing plants. (For a very…
Here are the prayers we will use this week for our hymn sing worship service. Blessings to you all as you plan, lead, and live worship this week–and beyond. Call to Worship (from Psalm 63:1-5) You, God, are our God, earnestly we seek you; we thirst for you, we long for you with our whole…
I still don’t have internet at home, which is hampering my blogging activity somewhat. But I’m hunkered down at work this afternoon trying to make all of the necessary cyber connections before I go back into my own beautiful and unconnected wilderness. So here are some thought’s on this coming Sunday’s Lectionary passage from Hosea.…
They are brought into the Tucson, Arizona, court room seventy at a time. Brown-skinned people, mostly men. Dusty jeans. Faded t-shirts. Calloused hands. Muscled arms. Weary faces. They are already seated when we enter. Quietly taking our seats in the back. It’s hard to see the handcuffs and chains, because they sit with their hands…
When I was in Phoenix this summer for our national Mennonite Church USA convention, I had the privilege of going on a border trip with Borderlinks. I learned about the good work of organizations like Southside Worker Center and Scholarships A-Z. I witnessed a Streamline trial and learned a little bit about the devastating effects…
Spacious Faith 