From Suffering to Glory
Dan Schrock
Many of us in this congregation know a thing or two about suffering. We’ve lived through car accidents that damaged major parts of our bodies. We’ve miscarried children. We’ve endured the surgeries, radiations, and chemotherapies of cancer. We’ve trekked through the desolate territory of cold, bitter relationships. We’ve sat beside people we love who have […]
Fully Committed God
Dan Schrock
I know a man who has had a hard life. He and his immediate family members have experienced bipolar disorder, two nasty divorces, long periods of being out of work, chronic physical illness, and a car accident that killed the driver. Because of these chronic conditions and misfortunes, this poor man’s life has often been […]
Resisting Racism
Dan Schrock
When I was 12 years old, my parents adopted another child. One morning in May 1971, I went to school without a brother; that same day when I came home from school, there he was, my new brother, who had been born in the Goshen hospital just 3 days before. Matthew is biracial: his biological […]
Strong and Courageous
Dan Schrock
We Mennonites should spend more time learning from the book of Daniel. More than most books of the Bible, Daniel gives us ideas for living and working in an empire. How can we be faithful to God while living in an empire that does not share our vision or our values? That is the overarching […]
The Heart and Soul of God’s Reputation
Dan Schrock
While living in Miami in my early 20s, I was mentored by a man named Leroy, who cared very much about his reputation in the community. Leroy cared about his reputation because he was both a businessman and a pastor. Leroy believed his success as a businessman depended mostly on how other people evaluated his […]
A Response to Graces
Dan Schrock
To understand this story, let us read it in its proper literary context. Let us go all the way back to Genesis 12, when Abraham and Sarah, then known as Abram and Sarai, first received their call to ministry. In summoning them to ministry, God was both blunt and specific. God said: “Go . . […]
A God who Sees and Hears
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
For the last 2 years, I’ve been part of a group of 10 women pastors from IN-MI conference and Central District conference, who get together about 4 times a year to discuss a book we’ve read. We have deliberately chosen to read theologians who are not white men. Some of our richest, and most challenging, […]
Sheltering God
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
I’ve been thinking about forts and temporary structures this week. It’s mostly related to preparing for this sermon, but it’s also related to the events in the last week or so, in our world and in our conference. The news coming from Orlando has been disturbing on so many levels, the most obvious one being […]
Drawing Circles
Jim Brenneman
Have you ever sat by a pond just as a few rain drops started to fall? There before our eyes we watch nature draw near perfect circles, rings rippling out from the center of the drop. From Apelles to Rembrandt to Picasso, it’s been argued that no human is capable of drawing a perfect circle […]
Idolatry
Dan Schrock
I once knew a college student whose idol was reason and logic. He loved the life of his own mind, the way his brain could dance and leap from one idea to another idea. In a split second, he could spot the flaw in someone else’s argument and tear it to shreds. He loved smashing […]
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