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What is God Waiting For?
Continuing in Advent, Dotti Ozolins begins with her own family history of learning to wait for God… These stories are richly ingrained in my psyche and my identity. My name itself means “gift from god” and is a reflection of my mother’s long history of infertility. They were on their last round of treatment and…
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What Are We Waiting For?
For the first Sunday of Advent, Tim Reardon preached from Isaiah 2:1-5 and Romans 13:8-14. This is the Christian New Year, when a new cycle of the church calendar begins. And with Advent, it begins in waiting. The question in the sermon title is “What are you waiting for?” But, perhaps as important is the…
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An unlikely King, an unlikely Kingdom
Sam Bills preached from Luke 23:33-43 and Colossians 1:11-20. In Luke, at the hands of the reigning empire, every attempt is made to humiliate Jesus. This is to contrast him to the Roman emperor. And in contrast, Jesus takes violence on himself, and finds space even on the cross to forgive. Colossians shows us how…
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Youth Sunday
On November 17, the PMC Youth Groups took over and planned and led our Sunday service. Mark Leard and Jadyn Tipton gave reflections on Isaiah 65:17-25, where Isaiah speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. Mark sees this passage as what a perfect relationship with God is like. This relationship is our center.…
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Mercy or Justice: Which is it?
At the end of October, Bob Nolty preached from Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, Amos 5:24 and Micah 6:8. Bob introduces us to the book “My Imaginary Jesus” by Matt Mikalatos. In chapter 1, the apostle Peter shows up, smelling like fish, and convinces Matt that the Jesus he’s been hanging out with is an imaginary…
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The Resting God
Two weeks ago, I spoke about the “Creating God,” the God that forms us and all Creation out of the TAHU VABOHU, the formless void, the chaos. Today, however, rather than talking about “the creating God,” I want to talk about, “the resting God.” I want to move from the beginning of this Creation story…
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The Creating God
What are the stories that form you? There are so many stories that shape us and many that lie to us — we must be good story tellers ourselves. Telling stories about the creating God, a story bigger than just ourselves but that encompass all Creation, about a God who creates life and peace from…
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Negative Space
Looking at Luke 16:19-31, Jason Smith once again wove in art as an example to look at the gospel from a new angle. Jason began with an invitation to consider negative space, telling a story of a Dutch artist visiting the Moorish palace of Alhambra in Spain. “He had visited this beautiful Moorish site before…
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Faithfulness in Community
Melissa Spolar preached on September 8th on the story of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz from Ruth 1:19-22. She began with an invitation for us to think about our lowest point in life — and to sit with that feeling in preparation of thinking about Naomi. After both of Naomi’s sons die, Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law…
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Dropsy & Healing
Tim Reardon preached from Luke 13:31 – 14:7 where Jesus, eating in the home of an elite Pharisee, is confronted with a man in need of healing. In first century Palestine, who you eat with and where they sit affect who gets to eat — as well as demonstrating power and social control. And to…
Pasadena Mennonite Church 