In the Valley of the Shadow
Mark Schloneger
“Jesus wept.” Jesus wept. That’s it. “Jesus wept” is the verse that I’d blurt out when I was asked by my childhood Sunday school teachers to share scripture that I had memorized. A little smart-alecky, I know, a sad part of my checkered history. And to you children’s Sunday school teachers who are watching, all […]
Looking Toward the Finish Line
Dan Schrock
I’ve watched at least two dozen people die, possibly three dozen. Many of those deaths were navigated well, but at least two of them were not. The first death happened to a young man with AIDS. Back in those long-ago days, getting AIDS was an automatic death sentence because medical science had no way of […]
Good Grief
Joanne Gallardo
I took a brief break from the Lectionary for this week and decided instead to focus on the story of Lazarus. I hesitated doing so, wondering if I was the only one particularly attached to grief lately. However, 2 things happened a few weeks ago as well as this past week. Deb Detweiler was mentioned […]
Repent
Dan Schrock
Most news reports focus on sad, evil events. “Three People Die in Weekend Crash” says the headline on the front page of the paper. Listen to the news on your car radio and you might hear something like, “Today in western Kansas, a tornado ripped through several towns. As emergency workers rushed to the scene, […]
The Next Great Adventure
Joanne Gallardo
(Sermon includes Apocryphal text, Wisdom 3:1-9) Last year I preached an All Soul’s day sermon after the actual All Souls day, so I was inclined to do the same this year. Around this time of year, not just because of the liturgical season, people (myself included) start to think about family and loved ones. We […]
Come, Lord Jesus!
Dan Schrock
Six years ago Tyndale House, an evangelical Christian publisher, released a book called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond this World. This book begins with the story of how six-year-old Alex Malarkey, and his father, Kevin Malarkey, were involved in a traffic accident. The accident […]
The Smell of Love
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
She couldn’t get the smell of death out of her nostrils. It seemed to cling to her—her clothes, her hair, her skin. It didn’t matter where she went, or how many times she had bathed, the smell went with her. It didn’t matter that Lazarus was now alive and eating with their friends; he had […]
God’s Presence in Our Worship: The Manger is Empty
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
God’s presence in our worship…we continue with our theme of God-with-us this morning, with the boy Jesus in the temple. Each week, we come to worship, expecting, hoping, longing to find God here; wondering perhaps how it is that God is here; wondering if God is here. In our worship, we offer to God all […]
Meditation for Easter
Dan Schrock
There’s a detail about this story that always intrigues me. It’s this: Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus the first time she sees him. This is interesting because she had spent lots of time with him during his ministry. She knew the way his eyes twinkled when he told stories. She was familiar with the way his […]
Learning from the Death of Jesus
Dan Schrock
In this series on death and dying, we’ve thought theologically about funerals, explored the pathway of grief, heard stories of loss and thought about responding to loss, and last Sunday, named some ways to prepare for our own dying. One important topic still remains for us, and that’s to think a little today about how […]
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