Holding Space for Transformation
Eric Frey Martin
It is good to be here with you all this morning. As I look around the room, I see many familiar faces and feel a sense of kinship here at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship. It is an honor to be here with you today on this day in which you mark the installation of Billy […]
War, Worship, and Sacrifice
Mark Schloneger
June 19. June 19, 1865. On that date, Union soldiers arrived in Texas, the remotest state in the former Confederacy and proclaimed to both enslaved people and slaveowners that the war had ended and that all slaves were free. That’s what Juneteenth commemorates. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture calls this […]
Cross Purposes
Richard A. Kauffman
Where were you on the morning of 9/11—that is, if you were born and are old enough to remember? I was pastoring the Toledo Mennonite Church at the time. That morning I was in a pastors’ meeting at a restaurant on the edge of Pettisville, OH. One of the owners interrupted our meeting to tell […]
From Privilege to Cruciformity
Richard A. Kauffman
Many of you here know of Michael “MJ” Sharp, I assume. He spent part of his growing up years in Goshen and went to Bethany Christian High School, where he had a bit of a reputation as a trouble-maker. But he was very smart and had an expansive vision of what he wanted to do […]
Sabbath Resting
Steph Wieand
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Who among us is not weary these days and in need of rest? A word that comes to mind for me, and I’ve heard others say the same, is EXHAUSTED. We, collectively, are exhausted. […]
Viva la Revolución
Mark Schloneger
Isaiah: I see you. I hear you. I am Isaiah, the prophet, and these are my words: I see a king who will reign in righteousness I see rulers who will rule with justice. Each will be like a shelter from the wind, like a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the […]
Where the Dove Went
Mark Schloneger
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all. (Emily Dickinson) Genesis, chapter 1. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of […]
Nagging God
Mark Schloneger
“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Sometimes, Luke makes things easy for us, or at least he appears to. Before we even get to the parable, before we even read the story, Luke provides us with the moral, the meaning, the golden nugget of […]
Church as Exile
Mark Schloneger
He saw her in the market, a rare breath of beauty amid the misery of his life in the refugee camp. Someone said she was from his village back in Syria, which he fled when a Syrian government plane dropped bombs that destroyed his home. And now, on a hot afternoon two months later, Samah […]
The March of the Kingdoms
Mark Schloneger
With a high school band or soldiers in basic training, one of the first things taught is how to march. And that’s not an easy task. Learning how to march takes practice, hours and hours of practice. Hours and hours spent paying attention to even the slightest details. The length of the stride. The pace […]
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