Sermon: Mennonites, War and Taxes

First Sunday of Advent: “Dreams, Signs and Wonders” Luke 21:25-36 We don’t like to wait. It’s almost a cliche to say it, but it’s true. Almost every technological change that has occurred during my lifetime has been an effort to reduce our need to wait.  We used to have to wait so much more. Do…

John 20:1-18 Early in the morning, around 5am, Mary Magdalene walks alone to the tomb where Jesus’ body lay. She has barely slept since Friday, when she watched — watched! — her teacher, her best friend, her soulmate, brutally murdered. The whole time she stood there, looking up at him, trying to communicate through her…

By Joanna Lawrence Shenk This is the fourth sermon in our Lenten series on the Christian mystics called “A Voice to Call Us Home.” “In the beginning there was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. The Word was present to God from the beginning. Through the Word all…

By Joanna Lawrence Shenk Exodus 19:3-5  If someone had told me a couple weeks before church retreat that not only would we be dealing with pandemic restrictions, like needing to wear masks indoors but that we’d also not have electricity for the first 24 hours of retreat and that I’d be the only pastoral staff…