Sermons
Gifts of Epiphany
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
As the Christmas season draws to a close for another year, and we sing carols that weave together the birth stories, I feel that preacherly responsibility to pick apart and untangle the two very different gospel stories of Jesus birth. During advent and on Christmas Eve we heard the story from Luke. It comes (sort […]
Lessons from the Desert
Speaker: Jay Forth
I am honored to worship with you this morning. Throughout my undergraduate studies at Messiah College and graduate school, I’ve been gratefully immersed and influenced by Anabaptist traditions. And so, I’m thankful to return to a somewhat familiar space and for us to be together. However, we aren’t quite together, are we? Right now, I’m […]
Anticipating | Incarnating
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
2020, the most apocalyptic of years, is finally winding down. This means that we are starting a new liturgical year, which always begins with – wait for it – apocalyptic biblical texts. In the beginning of the liturgical year, we are invited to start all over again, waiting for God, watching for the presence of […]
In The Round
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
Intro – No Slide 2003 – Becky & I moved to MN – I was excited about seminary and really excited about living close to this sculpture: Slide I – Spoonbridge and Cherry (Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen – Minneapolis, MN) This is a sculpture entitled Spoonbridge and Cherry Walker […]
Waiting For Justice
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
There is a certain irony that in a week that involved so much anxious waiting we have this parable about waiting, waiting late into the night, waiting so long you run out of energy. It seems strange to talk about waiting today, since the wait for election results is ostensibly over. The joy in my […]
It All Comes Back To This
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
It is a season of questions, debates, and expressions of opinions. I suppose if we are honest, all of life is that season – it is part of being human and in relationship to share our ideas and feelings with each other. Debates, in theory, help us test the waters of what we believe and […]
Give To Caesar?
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
These are days of bluster: autumn winds and politicians. These are times of trying to trap public figures in hypocrisy, and public figures being unashamed of hypocrisy. We hope the endless speeches and talking points will end after Nov 3 but living where we do, we know it never really ends, the volume just goes […]
Granular Power
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
Today on World Communion Sunday, people across the globe break bread together. Around the world Christians eat the bread of Christ together. This small sign of unity seems, to me, like an even smaller gesture than usual. In the face of a global pandemic, rising white supremacy and nationalism, climate change, increasing poverty, name the […]
What Is This?!
Speaker: Michelle Burkholder
“In country town or city, some people can be found – who spend their lives in grumbling at everything around, oh yes, they always grumble no matter what they say, for these are chronic grumblers and they grumble night and day….Ooooooh…they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, grumble on Thursday too…grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, grumble […]
Just Love
Speaker: Cynthia Lapp
In these days when facts are untrue and laws are unjust, these words from Romans 13 are exactly what we need. They are a reminder of how basic our faith is: just love. Hold onto love, share love, with each other, with yourself, with God. Love is the fulfillment of the law. If only everyone […]