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Christmas
Christmas Sunday for PMC was on December 30. Tim shared about a Mennonite community that strove for simplicity — so as not to burden others with material goods. He contrasted that approach to his memories of complex Christmas celebrations of his youth. Tim goes on to talk about why simplicity is best practiced as a…
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Joining Mary’s Joy
On our fourth Sunday of Advent, traditionally the theme of love is celebrated. Melissa Spolar reminds us that we celebrate a love defined by mercy, justice and peace. The final voice to declare the truth of what is finally coming — the birth that would fulfill years of promise — was that of Mary, the…
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Advent Joy
On our third Sunday in Advent, Tim addresses the traditional theme of joy in through the lens of Luke 3:7-18 — where John the Baptist teaches the crowds who have come out to the desert to learn how to prepare for the imminent coming of the Messiah. With humor, Tim contrasts his visit with his…
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A Community Refined
On the first Sunday of Advent, Lisa Thornton reflected on Malachi 3:1-6. She talks about how we often think of advent as a time of waiting — forgetting that as we wait we are asked to prepare for the coming of the Lord — cleansing, refining, purifying. With Malachi, we look at the gospel of…
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Simplifying the Complexity of Simplicity
Eric Schnitger welcomes our advent season with reflections on simplicity. We’d begun this topic at our fall retreat, and Eric offers thoughts about how simplicity ties in with the advent theme of hope. Eric opens with a beautiful quote by Michael Kofi, about how advent speaks about the future reign of Christ, when all will…
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Apocalyptic Resistance
Steven Chun brings us thoughts on Daniel 7:1-28. Chapter 7 follows many stories we’re familiar with — Daniel’s fasting, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, Daniel in the lion’s den — but then suddenly the language changes to apocalyptic liturature. Like poetry — we can get lost in the specifics and miss out on…
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Eating with the Crucified King
Tim offers us a close look at the Emmaus Road story — which culminates in the breaking of bread in a meal — and an invitation to reflect on: what keeps us from seeing Jesus? what Jesus are we seeing? why does Jesus appear in the breaking of bread? The passage opens with two disciples…
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Youth Sunday
A few times a year, the youth of Pasadena Mennonite Church take the reins and plan and lead the Sunday service, from the Welcome and Announcements through Worship in word and song. Here are shared two snippets of the service on November 11th: sermons by Liza Platonov titled “Fear Itself,” and by Jadyn Tipton titled…
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The Book of Revelation’s Revelation to PMC
With its psychedelic visions and violence, the Book of Revelation doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the New Testament. Despite all the oddness, revelation pops up all over within our culture. It’s been used and abused. It’s usually grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted — though we owe it to ourselves to not simply ignore it.…
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Psalm 104
The Creator is renewing the face of the earth and this is good news! Because the earth is burning in flames. Sometimes quite literally with bullets flying across neighborhoods, wars ravaging nations, fires consuming forests, or quite simply with burning strife in our homes and families. The earth burns, so today how will we sing…
Pasadena Mennonite Church 