On this Sunday, Pastor Megan shared the words of Jan Richardson, offering them as sustenance. © Jan Richardson, “The Gastronomical Jesus,” Reading from the Gospels, Year B, Proper 13 / Ordinary 18 / Pentecost +9: John 6.24-35, www.paintedprayerbook.com/2009/07/27/the-gastronomical-jesus/. [Photo by Ales Krivec on Unsplash]
Summer Ministry Intern Thalia Neufeld dives into the way the Holy Spirit moves throughout Scripture and her understanding of the Spirit's work in the world. She also relates her experience with the !explore internship program at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and how the collective experience with other young people doing ministry work shapes the way she understands the work of the Spirit in her life.
Jesus and his message of God's reign of love were rejected in the town where he grew up. That rejection pivoted Jesus into a ministry that was even larger and more broad, full of healing and the love of God than the people in Nazareth imagined. Pastor Amy explores how rejection can be turned into empowerment.
A large groups of SMCers traveled to Boise this summer and had a great time! Pastor Megan reports on the annual meeting of Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference that took place in Boise ID at the end of June. She shares stories, reflections, business, "fun details," and highlights from our time of worship and delegate meetings, service projects and shared meals, anvils and donuts, and even getting to know the new Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, Glen Guyton. [PHOTO: presenting a gard...
We welcomed Erica Lea-Simka, pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church in Albuquerque NM, to preach for our Pride Sunday worship.
Pastor Megan reflects on the most "boring" of all parables in which nothings happens ... or is it EVERYthing happens? Listen for punch lines like: "the smallest of all seeds which, when sown, grows and becomes the greatest of all ... shrubs!" and "if there were 7 habits of highly effective seeds, they would be 1)grow, 2)grow, 3)grow, 4)grow, 5)grow, 6)grow, and 7)grow." Also: a word for our grads and the adults who most love them.
Reflecting on Mark's story of Jesus facing accusers very early in his ministry, Pastor Megan explore how "Scribes ... they're just like us!", has a few words to say about the supposed "unforgiveable sin," and shares her desire to be among the misfits who get to sit at the table with Jesus and be claimed by him as true family.
On Trinity-ish / Trinity-PLUS Sunday, Pastor Megan shares snapshots of some of the MANY names for God and images of God that make up her limited yet growing collage of who God is.
The Holy Spirit is active and expansive and there is no getting away from her. God's promise is to breathe into our dry bones and enliven what feels barren, to bring life where there is no hope. God's Spirit is as powerful as a mighty wind and as intimate as each breath. From Ezekiel to Acts to the beloved ones receiving the waters of baptism, to all who hear this word, "I will put my Spirit within you and you will live!"
All goodbyes are not created equal. Listen as Pastor Megan reflects on a couple of the goodbyes she's experienced, her semi-obsession with good goodbyes, and what we can learn about all of this from the time Jesus said goodbye for the last time to his closest friends and companions. It's Ascension Sunday and it's time to stop craning our necks...[Photo by Katarzyna Gonsior on Unsplash]
Pastor Melanie reflects on the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip from the book of Acts, listening for some resonance with our Community Ministries here in the Lake City neighborhood. From something about Jesus that is attractive and transformative ... to nothing preventing the baptism of one formerly excluded ... to building social capital in movements for justice in our communities ... listen for these threads exquisitely woven together.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, Jesus said.I must bring them also… So there will be one flock, one shepherd.Pastor Megan reflects on those other metaphorical sheep. In the particular. Who are they? Who are WE?[Photo by Jose Francisco Morales on Unsplash.]
Pastor Megan reflects on fearful disciples gathered behind locked doors in Jerusalem. Through the locked doors of their fear, in strides Jesus. Speaking a word of peace, in strides Jesus. [Photo by Bogdan Dada on Unsplash]
Pastor Jonathan reflects on when life goes sideways and finding hope amidst the impossible and fearful. Sharing stories of the unexpected uprising of life in our own community, this sermon is not to be missed.
Jesus' carefully calculated and lampooning political march into Jerusalem helped ensure that he would need to be crucified, along with many other brave prophets before and after him. Pastor Megan reflects on James Cones' eye-opening theological work in "The Cross and the Lynching Tree." Like lynching in our own country, crucifixion was a public act of terror designed to intimidate a subjugated people into silent compliance, meaning that all who processed with Jesus - his co-conspirators and fell...
Jason Rust preaches for us - reflecting on glory and death and earthiness and bodies and Mary Oliver poetry and unplanted seeds and lassitude and recklessness in love. You'll just have to listen to how these delightful strands are woven into an intricate whole...![Photo by Nico dit l'Ours on Unsplash]
What to do with the story in Numbers of God sending poisonous snakes to mortally wound the Israelites in the desert? What on earth could this story have to say to us? Listen as Pastor Megan takes a crack at seeking understanding and a word of good news in this strangest of biblical tales.
As Christians we've inherited a rather confused message about "The Law." Historically Christians have loved the Ten Commandments, even advocating for their physical presence at our public places (hello ... separation of church and state??), while dismissing the rest of The Law as made irrelevant in light of the freedom offered by Jesus (hello ... Christian supersessionism??). Listen as Pastor Megan wades into the very tricky territory of exploring with the Hebrew Law might mean for us as Jesus-f...
Pastor Amy tells anew the story of a queerly named God who gives new names and new identities to Abram and Sarai and calls them into new identities in ways they cannot comprehend. Like them we are called to understand that our bodies and biology do not determine the path and promise God has for us. As a welcoming and affirming church, can we think anew of how our queer kindred receive as a gift the blessing of church community affirming names, pronouns and gender even when biology might say some...
Pastor Megan leads us in lament for victims of gun violence, specifically the 17 precious youth and adults gunned down by a teenager with an assault rifle in Parkland, Florida this past week. And then she reflects on the very first covenant described by the Bible - a unilateral covenant God makes to all creation to never again destroy, even when fed up with humanity's unquenchable thirst for violence....Sung hymn is a "hymn lamenting gun violence" - Tune: Jean Sibelius, 1899 (“Be Still, My Soul”...
Pastor Megan invites us - like Jesus did when he retreated for prayer in the dark early morning hours - to dwell with the Psalms as we begin to process together having heard a challenging word from our Peace Lecture guests last Sunday, Waziyatawin and John Stoesz.
WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE? The Struggles for Liberation in Indigenous Homelands. Speakers Wazitayawin and John Stoesz shared with us the experience of the Dakota struggle for land justice in Minnesota, and explored its application for communities like ours in the Pacific Northwest. In their morning presentation, "Naming Injustice to Find Justice," Wazitayawin and John Stoesz' question for settler communities was: What does it mean to benefit from genocide, forced removal and stolen land? What ...
WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE? The Struggles for Liberation in Indigenous Homelands. Speakers Wazitayawin and John Stoesz shared with us the experience of the Dakota struggle for land justice in Minnesota, and explored its application for communities like ours in the Pacific Northwest. In their morning presentation, "Naming Injustice to Find Justice," Wazitayawin and John Stoesz' question for settler communities was: What does it mean to benefit from genocide, forced removal and stolen land? What ...
WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE? The Struggles for Liberation in Indigenous Homelands. Speakers Wazitayawin and John Stoesz shared with us the experience of the Dakota struggle for land justice in Minnesota, and explored its application for communities like ours in the Pacific Northwest. In their morning presentation, "Naming Injustice to Find Justice," Wazitayawin and John Stoesz' question for settler communities was: What does it mean to benefit from genocide, forced removal and stolen land? What ...
WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE? The Struggles for Liberation in Indigenous Homelands. Speakers Wazitayawin and John Stoesz shared with us the experience of the Dakota struggle for land justice in Minnesota, and explored its application for communities like ours in the Pacific Northwest. In their morning presentation, "Naming Injustice to Find Justice," Wazitayawin and John Stoesz' question for settler communities was: What does it mean to benefit from genocide, forced removal and stolen land? What ...
Pastor Megan preaches about Zebedee left standing in the boat when his sons leave to follow Jesus. [Please note there's a long silence in the middle of this recording. It is not accidental.]Photo by Trevor Cole on Unsplash
Pastor Amy explores the way the 'light' of empire, exemplified by the violent and cruel reign of Herod is of a fundamentally different nature than the light of the star guiding the magi. Like the song says, "Jesus is now our star divine, brighter and brighter he will shine." May Jesus be our guiding star.
How to preach joy on the week when one of our beloved friends has died ... and far too young?
Hymnal: A Worship Book 653
