In the days of protest, riot and rage over police violence against black people and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade and many others, we gather for Pentecost. We call on the Holy Spirit to come with power. We call on the Holy Spirit to burn and breathe in us as we kindle a fire under white supremacy in ourselves and in our systems. We remember that the Spirit breathes within us and within the bodies of black folks even to their last breath. #blacklivesmatter Permission ...
Jun 01, 2020•52 min
Death swallowed up in life? That might be a little hard to swallow, considering the mounting statistics or loss of beloved ones in our lives. But when it comes down to it, what Paul is trying to communicate to the Corinthian church is how important our bodies are to God - in life and in death. That Jesus put on a human body to heal and feed and minister to other bodies like ours mattered to God too. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929....
May 25, 2020•41 min
What can be said of 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter," that you haven't already heard at one hundred weddings? How might we refuse to dismiss it as just another smarmy love song, and instead live every more fully, beautifully, heartachingly into its sacred siren song of love incarnate? Listen in as we sing together, pray together, and hear a familiar Scripture anew in the prophetic voices of some of our youngest ones. ++ 1 Corinthians 13.1-13 PHOTO: "Elephant Love Medley," Nicole Kidman &...
May 17, 2020•38 min
The early community of Jesus-followers in Corinth struggled with factionalism - over-identifying with particular leaders. Just as Paul urged his friends to re-center Jesus, we too seek to center our collective call to discern how to walk the Jesus Way together in the particularities of our time and our place. It's Leadership Discernment season at SMC, and the very good news is this: we are a WE, and together - with our whole and real selves - we've got this. Listen in as we sing and pray togethe...
May 10, 2020•48 min
What does the Thessalonian community have to do with popular broadways musical Hamilton? Like the musical's tribute to the battle of Yorktown, Paul's arrival in Thessalonica shook up the established Jewish community and turned their world upside down. Unlike the American revolutionaries, Paul calls the new believers to a revolution of non-violent love and justice. Knowing all about what it feels like to have our worlds turned around, how do with consider what we want to keep upside down as Jesus...
May 04, 2020•41 min
Joy infuses our worship and singing together; longing ignites our prayers. Pastor Megan's homily explores how biblical stories that seem to equate healing with miraculous physical cures, at best confound the deeper and more beautiful complexity of what we know about healing, and at worst cause great harm. At first glance our story from Acts 3 appears to be a transactional healing story (in the form of a physical cure) for one man, but upon holding its steady gaze reveals itself to tell a wildly ...
Apr 26, 2020•47 min
This week, we jump from the gospel of Mark into Luke's distinctly different world and voice, as experienced in the book of Acts. Jesus is kidnapped by a cloud (!!!), and the disciples are left, jaws dropped, gawking at the sky. They are looking in the wrong direction, two messengers inform them, and they are also looking for the wrong thing altogether. Jesus doesn't call them - or us - "back to normal," but to something altogether different; you might even say ANYthing but normal. Listen in to o...
Apr 19, 2020•45 min
Easter comes whether we're ready or not. Thanks be to God! We gather to hear Mark's (short! sweet! scandalous!) resurrection account, to sing a couple of our favorite Easter chestnuts, to create a joyous cacophony of Hallelujahs, and to pray for and with one another. Oh, and Pastor Megan's "sermon in a sentence" this week? Fear isn't the final word; you are. Tune in for more on the Oxford comma, dangling prepositions (is that a real thing?!), and a gospel on loop. +++ Mark 16.1-8 PHOTO: Easter C...
Apr 12, 2020•56 min
We gathered for a Good Friday service via zoom, to hear Mark's Passion Narrative, to sing, and to pray together. +++ Mark 15.16-39 +++ Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved. Jesus walked this lonesome valley, words and music: traditional spiritual. Were you there, words: Old Plantation Hymns, Boston, © 1899, music: African-American spiritual. Stay with me, words: based on Matthew 26, music: Jacques Berthier, © 1984, ...
Apr 11, 2020•28 min
We celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with Jesus and shouts of Hosanna and waving our branches. Then Pastor Amy reflects on the good news of love poured out. Jesus silences the haters who would shame a woman for her loving gift and affirms extravagant love. He reminds them (and us) that there is more than one kind of good news. We will always be called to serve the poor. We will always be called to extravagant love. +++ Mark 14.3-9 +++ Permission to podcast the music in this service ...
Apr 06, 2020•34 min
Sermon-in-a-sentence this week: "Keep alert and don't worry; its only the apocalypse." Tune in to hear Pastor Megan's brief reflection on reading the apocalyptic text of Mark 13 during a global pandemic, and to join our prayers and singing and sharing Christ's peace with one another. [Photo by 심 은하 on Unsplash ]...
Mar 29, 2020•39 min
Our new rhythm of gathering for zoom church from our respective homes each Sunday morning prompts Pastor Megan to claim with more regular intention her occasional practice of sharing a "sermon-in-a-sentence." This week's scriptural reflection can be distilled to this: "The heart of our faith is love of God, neighbor, self; all the rest is commentary." Tune in to hear a bit of that commentary, and to join your church community in praying and singing and recommitting ourselves to God's shalom visi...
Mar 23, 2020•36 min
There were 69 households participating in worship this past Sunday! Listen along to the prayers and sharing, music and reflection on scripture. Use the links below to find some of the resources named in the recording. Scripture: Mark 12:1-12 Children’s Time: The Breaking News by Sarah Ruel Offering: donate page of SMC website More music by Michael B: Bai Tu Long Bay Holy God, whose presence is known in the structures we build and also in their collapse, inspire in us a community of hope, not to ...
Mar 16, 2020•40 min
Our first experience of gathering as church via Zoom. While absolutely nothing can replace being in the same space with our whole body-spirit selves, given the circumstances, this was a delight . Forty or more of us logged in for Lenten worship and prayer, and even some fellowship with folks who stuck around at the end. What an unexpected and sweet surprise it was to be able to gather with some in our SMC diaspora, as well as SMCers who are currently traveling away from home. We convened from Mi...
Mar 08, 2020•33 min
Not going to lie: this is a TOUGH message about the laughable impossibility of wealth in God's kindom and the dispiriting reality of growing homelessness on the West Coast and specifically on our front doorstep. But it's also about Jesus' love for we who have much, Jesus' sense of humor to help we who have much to perhaps laugh at ourselves, even if a bit uncomfortably. And it's also about the joy of God's kindom where - because wealth is NOT accumulated and pooled disproportionately - all have ...
Mar 01, 2020•16 min
Smack dab in the middle of Mark's gospel and SOMEone finally knows how to answer the persistent question: Who is Jesus? Peter responds, "You are the Christ ." At this fulcrum, we've now tipped over to the second half of the gospel in which Jesus sets out to teach what being the Christ actually means. Jesus' first attempt to teach Peter about suffering, rejection, and death doesn't go so hot (mutual rebuking, Jesus calling Peter Satan...). When Peter thinks the bleachified, glowing, transfigured ...
Feb 16, 2020•21 min
The story of an insane, self-important, opportunistic, incestuous, tyrannical (but pretty small-time) political family is dropped into the Gospel of Mark just as Jesus' ministry is taking off: Herod. He thinks he can stop the Gospel message, but the Gospel cannot be stopped. Where there is oppression, there are prophets who name it and call it out. John way beheaded for it, but his message found new life in Jesus, and as Jesus disciples we are called to do the same to our leaders...some of whom ...
Feb 09, 2020•22 min
A woman audaciously reaches for her own belonging and healing. There's not much left for Jesus to do... except to stop, seek her out, and quietly create the conditions for her to speak her whole truth in the presence of the community that has amplified rather than alleviated her suffering.
Feb 02, 2020•20 min
We are just starting our journey with Jesus through Mark's gospel, and already there's a pattern to his movement: margins --> centers of power --> get into / cause trouble --> retreat to margins for prayer and rest (and around and around). This causes Pastor Megan to think of a piece of our Mennonite history from Rosemarie Freeney Harding, with the formation of Mennonite House in Atlanta GA as a place of respite for activists and leaders in the black-led southern Freedom Movement of the...
Jan 12, 2020•21 min
Using poetry from Lifting Hearts off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry , by Lyla June Johnston & Joy De Vito, Pastor Melanie reflects on the beginning of Jesus' ministry and on what Jesus' followers are called to - both in scripture and today. -- Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash...
Jan 06, 2020•23 min
After a brief introduction by Dan, Kathryn Smith Derksen shares reflections on 4 years of life in (complicated and diverse, awe-inspiring and pain-filled) South Africa. And then she beautifully brings the message home with gracious truth-telling about colonialism in our own (U.S.) lands and among our own (Mennonite) people. Listen to her powerful invitation to resist bumbling around in denying, defending, or disappearing our problematic histories and present realities, and instead lean into reli...
Dec 29, 2019•21 min
Daryl Morris powerfully raises his voice in word and song to reflect on his experience of seeking liberation from white supremacy. He raises his voice in longing and expectation for liberation as a response to the listening he has done to the voices of black folks - the prophetic and liberating voices of black history and the prophetic and insightful voices of his children.
Dec 27, 2019•7 min
An Advent sermon about longing and liberation, scrooge-y Zechariah and prophetic singing, despair and hope. Pastor Megan tosses out her written manuscript and dives deeper into why Advent is her truest spiritual home, and why she can't do faith solo.
Dec 22, 2019•19 min
Kat Goering reflects on the work of justice from her perspective as a public health grad student working with immigrant communities. She relates her experience of emerging from her white-centric, individualized analysis into the uncomfortable work of collective justice and liberation. She encourages our collective at SMC to seek the divine in each other and to seek to enact justice for all.
Dec 18, 2019•7 min
Comfort Y'all, My People Pastor Amy cedes the sermon to a better preacher but reflects on the experience of the exiles Israelite being called by God to comfort each other in community. When God speaks, "Comfort, comfort my people" this isn't an offer but instructions. Offer each other care and comfort, for you who are troubled and in need also know bests how to console.
Dec 13, 2019•6 min
Jeremiah writes as his nation crumbles around him - from a prison in occupied Jerusalem, on the brink of the mass deportation of his people. Which makes his words of promise for justice and hope that God is making things right throughout the land surprising and incredible. On this first Sunday of Advent in which we are asking "What are we waiting for?" Pastor Megan invites us to tap into our own deep longing for God's justice, and to be ready to step INTO the vision as participants in more fully...
Dec 01, 2019•18 min
Okay, so Hilkiah isn't *actually* Indiana Jones, but a whole epic adventure begins when he is sent on a mission into the under-construction temple and (re-)discovers the lost book of the law. Hearers of the lost-and-found-again scroll, including King Josiah and ALL the people, are chagrined to learn how far they've strayed from the faith, practices, and covenant of their ancestors. Engaging this epic adventure leads Pastor Megan to wonder about - in our own time and place and for our own church ...
Nov 24, 2019•19 min
In startling twists: 1) cockroaches will apparently NOT be the last ones standing in a global apocalypse, 2) like a screeching record, a love ballad delivers lyrics of divine judgment, and 3) despite our best (read: worst) efforts, God's hope in us refused to be slaughtered. Listen in as Pastor Megan wonders about God's project of re-wilding for the sake of renewed life.
Nov 17, 2019•13 min
If you've ever found yourself on the pointy end of betrayal, I bet you'd tell a story of someone you loved. Or love still. So it is with God and God's people - at the time of the prophet Hosea and now. How can we ever come back from the ways in which we have betrayed our beloveds (especially our children and their futures), God's beloveds (everyone and all creation), especially when we are motivated by the best of intentions? Can we trust that God's most decisive motive toward us is impenetrable...
Nov 10, 2019•21 min
Pastor Amy recites the tale of Elijah's encounter with King Ahab and the dramatic showdown on Mount Carmel. Elijah was accused by the king of being a troublemaker. He absolutely was. In the way he challenged courageously, engaged humor and sarcasm (he had a potty mouth) and yet ultimately with prayerful humility, Elijah gives us a model of saintly trouble-making, calling God's people to the heart of God. Skip ahead to minute 4:37 if you want to get right to the preaching and skip over the story....
Nov 04, 2019•15 min
