Sermons
Fishing
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
We tell and retell the story of Jesus, to our children, to each other, to other people. (Sometimes I find myself telling a story of Jesus to my friends who aren’t church people, who aren’t Christian. Even I am surprised when that happens.) Each of us may have different reasons for telling the story. And […]
Beauty & Truth
Speaker: Gene Miller
Those of you who were here a few years back and who listened to me deliver what was probably the longest sermon in Hyattsville’s history will remember that my sermon that day focused on the missing faces in the history of western Maryland, a part of Maryland that has come to be dear to my […]
Listening For The Word
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Six years ago today, Sunday, January 27, 2013, we celebrated moving back into this space after worshipping for 10 months at the Church of the Brethren. During those ten months, this building was rebuilt, transformed with a new foyer, new restrooms and importantly, a lift. That Sunday, six years ago, we read the same two […]
Martin Luther King, Jr. & Other Contemporary Prophets
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
This weekend we remember Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. 51 years after his death, with his own federal holiday, we are well into the process of making Dr King safe, sanitizing his dream. We are tempted to congratulate ourselves for having come so far – then we see the videos of young (Christian ) white men taunting […]
A Nature for Nurture
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
During the season of Advent, we have been pondering the nature of journey. We’ve been on a journey of waiting together. Waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The celebration of Immanuel: God with us. That celebration has come in the form of Christmas and now here we are several days past that […]
God’s Time
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
It is tempting to pass over this story of Mary and Elizabeth. It’s just the prelude. The main thing, the exciting part is yet to come. Let’s just jump over the boring stuff and go directly to the scene in Bethlehem with angels and shepherds and stars and animals and the baby. Oh, we did […]
Hope in the Journey: YHWH is Our Justice
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
The word of God in scripture is very present in our worship today. It is a lot to digest and understand: a beseeching prayer in the Psalm; words of hope from Jeremiah; apocalyptic images and advice from Luke; gratitude and blessing in Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica. Instead of trying to tackle all […]
Visions of a Royal Reign
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
The Lord be with you. (and also with you.) I am grateful to be back among you after missing two Sundays, one for travel after the Women Doing Theology Conference and then last week because I was sick. Gathering for worship with you anchors me and reminds me who I am and what I am […]
Bridges of Nurture
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
Oh, Hebrews. What a book of the Bible you are. We don’t know exactly who wrote you – although your words have at times been attributed to Paul. We don’t know quite when you were written – but probably before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70AD, otherwise you would most likely reference […]
“I want to see”: Resilience, Survival, and Hope
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Mennonite Heritage Sunday: Lamenting the Doctrine of Discovery It is three and half weeks since my second cataract surgery. I see more clearly than I have for many years: colors and patterns that eluded me, now delight and surprise me. What is still hard to see or what I would rather not see is the injustice […]