Sermon Archives

Seek Peace and Pursue It
July 10, 2022

Family Likeness

Family Likeness

When my oldest granddaughter was four-years-old, she made a bold pronouncement: “I’m a strong, independent woman.” That drew some chuckles, recognizing where that came from: she picked it up from her feminist mother. Often, in observing the conduct of children, we’re inclined to say: Doesn’t she just remind you of her mother/father. Or, You can […]

June 26, 2022

Gospel of Peace

Gospel of Peace

We are willful human beings. Our wills bump up against each other. This can lead to conflict, alienation, enmity. Sometimes our offences against each other are small and we can just move on. Other times they are large and need to be attended to. Otherwise, relationships can break down—there is no longer a sense of […]

June 19, 2022

War, Worship, and Sacrifice

War, Worship, and Sacrifice

June 19. June 19, 1865. On that date, Union soldiers arrived in Texas, the remotest state in the former Confederacy and proclaimed to both enslaved people and slaveowners that the war had ended and that all slaves were free. That’s what Juneteenth commemorates. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture calls this […]

June 12, 2022

Cross Purposes

Cross Purposes

Where were you on the morning of 9/11—that is, if you were born and are old enough to remember? I was pastoring the Toledo Mennonite Church at the time. That morning I was in a pastors’ meeting at a restaurant on the edge of Pettisville, OH. One of the owners interrupted our meeting to tell […]