Location, Location, Location
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
Location, location, location. If you are in the market for a place to live, that is the song of the realtors. That has certainly been a factor for us both times we’ve bought a house. Thinking about work and school, and the proximity of those to where we lived was, and is, really important. Of […]
Mary, Breaker of Codes and Conventions
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
One of my favorite novels is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, set in South Carolina in 1964. In it a white teenager, Lily, struggling to make sense of her hazy memories from the afternoon her mother was killed, and living with a father who is abusive, runs away from home with […]
A Reluctant Prophet and a Persistent God
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
I debated preaching this sermon from the doorway, just as Jeremiah preached his temple sermon in the gate of the temple. What difference does it make where one stands to speak? Does it sound different if spoken in the doorway, rather than from the pulpit? It’s an interesting welcoming strategy as well, to speak this […]
Even Solomon in all his Glory
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Matt.6:28-29; Luke 12:27) The Gospels of Matthew and Luke include this reference to Solomon in Jesus’ teaching about worry and anxiety over food, drink […]
Blessed and Sent
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
With this sermon, we begin our narrative lectionary. The narrative lectionary follows the overarching Biblical story of God and God’s people. Preaching from this lectionary will hopefully give all of us a sense of how God has been at work throughout history and of how the story of God and God’s people continues today. Our […]
Love in Action
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
“In the days when the judges ruled….” Right away, this little book of Ruth begins with a whole lot of trouble. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a lot of trouble in the land of Israel. After Joshua died, another generation grew up after him, who did not know the Lord or […]
Wild Hope
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
It is perhaps fitting that our 2 scripture texts use images of nature, planting, sowing and growth, after the events of the last couple weeks. On the one hand, we experienced the damaging effects of the wind and the many hours of cleaning up after it! And on the other hand, we have a wonderful […]
Children of God, Members of One Body
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be the church lately. Perhaps it’s because there are denomination-wide discussions on what it means to be the church together, even when we disagree; perhaps it’s related to the fact that I’m currently enrolled in an AMBS online course on Anabaptist polity–the structures we have […]
Easter
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
The challenge of Easter is that we have heard this story so many times, we stop listening to it because we know what happens. We know how it ends. Jesus died, and rose again. End of story. Now what’s for dinner? That’s the challenge for all of us, preacher and listener alike. We know this […]
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