Call to Worship (from Isaiah 65 and John 20) In the light of this Easter morning God is doing something new! New heavens. New earth. New life. Weeping turns to joy. Sorrow to delight. Be glad and rejoice. The stone is rolled away. The grave clothes lie in a heap. Jesus, who was dead, is…
God of the cross, tottering down the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey, You are not the savior we expect. Your power doesn’t look like the power we want our God to have. Your wisdom makes no sense to us. We are happy to join the crowd, waving branches, But not so sure we want…
Sunday morning at the beginning of worship, I lit our peace lamp and then I lit four white candles: for Paris, Beirut, Aleppo, and Baghdad. I almost skipped the candle-lighting altogether because I couldn’t figure out how many candles to light. Beirut and Paris, of course. Those were horrific terrorist attacks among people who don’t…
[This reflection is excerpted from an earlier sermon.] 1 Samuel 1:4-18 We have before us in the text this morning a very odd scene. There is a woman, probably in her thirties. She comes to the shrine at Shiloh—the most holy of Jewish worship sites in these pre-temple days; the place where the sacred Ark…
Good Friday, April 3, 2015 Peace Mennonite Church Welcome and Introduction Hymn: Abide with me Call to Worship We are Jesus’ disciples, following him even as he moves toward the cross. Even as he wraps a towel around his waist. Even as he kneels to wash the filth from the feet of his friends. We…
Creative Prayer Experience You will need a piece of brown paper; pen, colored pencils or markers; collage materials if desired Cut or tear a cross shape from the piece of brown card stock. On one side of the cross, write, draw, or collage the burdens that you feel you are carrying. On the other side…
Three years ago I developed a creative arts Lenten retreat based on the Revised Common Lectionary passage. And guess what? The Lectionary has cycled back around to those same passages this year! So I will be sharing from that retreat material throughout Lent: scripture reflections, visual art prayer practices and creative writing prayer practices. The…
The Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA is meeting this weekend. They will be discussing the denominational response to Mountain States Mennonite Conference (since they licensed Theda Good) and talking more generally about issues of denominational structure and maintaining unity in the midst of theological disagreements–particularly related to our varied understandings of faithful sexuality. If…
This article is part of a MennoNerds Synchro-Blog on Missional Spirituality. With this event, MennoNerds is exploring Spirituality through an Anabaptist lens and what such spirituality means concerning participation in the mission of God. – – – – “Missional Prayer.” That’s my topic for today. And it seemed like a good topic weeks and weeks…
And for this week: Scripture Readings: Isaiah 63:7-9 and Luke 2:8-20 Call to Worship: Glory to God in the highest! And hope to every discouraged heart. Glory to God in the highest! And peace to every conflicted soul. Glory to God in the highest! And joy to every downcast spirit. Glory to God in the…
Spacious Faith 