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The Spirit of Tabitha
Lisa continues our reflection of the roles each of us uniquely play in the kin-dom work that our community has set out to do. Hopefully, our small efforts at righting the world add up and bring us closer to the kin-dom of God described and displayed to us by Jesus. The story of Tabitha in…
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Keeping up with the Joneses: Social Status and Desire in 1 Samuel
Sarah Fuller takes on a tricky passage following the Israelites’ demand for a king to lead them. Saul, a man of status, is annointed as king, but fails to obey God. God instructs Samuel to anoint a son of Jesse instead. The selection process reflects God’s perspective: “…the Lord does not look at the things…
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What do we memorialize?
This Memorial Day sermon makes clear that what we remember and how we remember matters — for our understanding of the world, and for how we define ourselves. Memories are foundational for how we connect with our past and with others. They help build collective memory, social memory, memories that we all hold in common.…
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Life in the Spirit
Lila Hunt went looking for something missing in her relationship with God, and found positive influence in the pentecostal tradition. And so as an anabaptist, she considers herself a hybrid. Pentecost in Acts occurred during Shavuot — or Pentecost in Greek. It commemorated the giving of the Torah by God at Mt. Sinai. The risen…
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Witnesses to the Ascension
What is Ascension Sunday? Resurrection part 2? “Why are you staring toward heaven?” two white-robed men ask. And for us as well, our focus is here. This king, this proclaimer of good news to the poor, this enemy of the state, this executed criminal, has been enthroned — and stands at the center of all…
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Organizing as Shepherds
Bert Newton unpacks John 10:1-16, and asks, “How do we become shepherds in a society where often our official shepherds are much like the hired hands that Jesus describes?” What do shepherds do? They organize sheep. And in organizing, we are all both shepherds and sheep. Together, organized and using our diversity of gifts and…
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Reflection and Prayer amid Today’s Guilty Verdict
God of justice, as we mourn the death of George Floyd, the continued deaths and criminalization of Black and Brown lives within our nation, we thank you for this verdict. We pray, Lord, that you make more cracks in this thin veneer of “law and order,” that the powers and principalities that structure our world,…
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The Christmas Star
The reflection that was provided by the heavens during Christmas week was perfect: in the midst of our seeming darkness, we saw a Christmas star — though it was actually the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. Christmas falls amid the darkest days of the year. In scripture, the star illumines the way for the Magi,…
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Do Not Fear
Do not fear! These are the angel’s words to Mary. But there is so much to fear! So much to anticipate! Something is coming. Something has already come. Change is on the horizon. Change is already overwhelming us. When the angel’s words come to her, what does Mary hear? Mary’s world was also unsettled, living…
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On the Road to Restoration
Isaiah 61 involves some of the same geographies that are in the news today: Iraq, Israel, and Iran. Iraq roughly correlates with the ancient nation of Babylon. In 597 BC, Babylon invades Judah — the remaining southern kingdom of Israel that hadn’t yet fallen. Judah becomes an occupied territory. Ten years later Jerusalem is leveled.…
Pasadena Mennonite Church 