God-Smacked
Dan Schrock
During my first year at Chicago Theological Seminary, I lived in one of the seminary’s dormitories. One afternoon at 5:00 I left my dorm room and walked down to the dormitory kitchen, located in the basement. This kitchen served all the students who lived in that dorm. We each had our own cupboard and cooked […]
Boundaries, Buckets and Blessings
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
The Jews and Samaritans had been estranged for a long time. It all started when those who had been in exile and those who had not been in exile, couldn’t agree on where the temple should be. Initially, it was a mild estrangement, but around 200 BCE, it grew in intensity. It ended with the […]
Parables Worship Team
Parables, a worship ensemble from Goshen College, combines music, original drama and personal stories to create an engaging worship experience designed to inspire, comfort and challenge. This year’s theme, “Where the River Will Never Run Dry” focuses on songs and stories of healing and home, addressing our deep-seated need to experience God as the ever-present […]
Jesus’ Temptations—and Ours
Dan Schrock
For many of us this story is extremely familiar. We hear it nearly every year in our Lenten worship services because Matthew, Mark, and Luke each tell a version of this story. We call it “the temptations of Jesus,” though I’m not sure how tempting Jesus actually found Satan’s three offers. I don’t know about […]
At the Peak
Dan Schrock
This story seems unreal. The face of Jesus switching from a lovely brown tone into something that shines like the sun? Come on, how is that possible? Or his clothes shifting from tan to white? Fabric can’t do that. And Moses and Elijah appearing side‐by‐side with Jesus? Those guys had been dead for hundreds of […]
Friendship and Intimacy
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
In February 1944, when she was 13 years old, Anne Frank, a Jew who was in hiding in Amsterdam, wrote: Today the sun is shining, the sky is a deep blue, there is a lovely breeze and I am longing–so longing–for everything. To talk, for freedom, for friends, to be alone. And I do so […]
Singleness – One Voice
Margaret Stoltzfus
I have written this meditation in my mind numerous times trusting that the Spirit would bring to my attention the pieces that would be most beneficial for each of us. How well I have succeeded remains to be seen. I cannot speak for all single persons but I can share my story. My present singleness […]
God’s Presence . . . and Ours
Dan Schrock
Until today, I’ve never prepared a sermon on gay and lesbian relationships for this congregation. I’ve avoided this topic because the issue has been so contentious and emotional for Mennonites in the last 30 years. In families, congregations, conferences, and in the denomination, we have vociferously disagreed with each otherover this. In 2011 during the […]
Temples of the Spirit
Dan Schrock
Many of us in the modern world regard marriage as something of a capstone in human experience. The ideal, we think, is to marry, have children, buy a home, and live the good life. The fact that so many gay and lesbian couples want to marry shows how much marriage is idealized in our culture. […]
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall….Reflecting God’s Image
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
I love the bodies of babies and young children. It amazes me how they enter the world with everything they need in order to survive‐‐healthy lungs that breathe and support their strong voices, digestive systems that take in food and expel what is not needed. And yet, these bodies are vulnerable, weak‐‐most newborns can’t hold […]
Page 39 of 44
