Within
Dan Schrock
One day a long time ago, my phone rang. The man on the other end of the call fumbled around for a bit and then finally said, “I want to talk to you sometime soon. Would you be willing to meet me?” I knew this young man fairly well, but I had no idea what […]
Empathy, Vulnerability, and Immanuel
Joanne Gallardo
Back when I worked as a case manager, Brene Brown came into my consciousness with her work on empathy. Empathy was talked about so much in our social work circles, in fact, that we often made jokes about it. Empathy is a learned skill, we were told. Empathy is learning another’s world view. As Brene […]
The Parable of the Disgraced Father
Mark Schloneger
For most of my life, I have heard stories about the first house that my parents lived in. It was known to them and their neighbors as The Mengises. Mengis was the last name of the first owners of this house. So, in that rural community in Wayne County, Ohio the Schlonegers lived at the […]
Taking Jesus Seriously and Ourselves Less Seriously
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
One day, years ago, the phone rang, and the caller said, “Mrs. Froese?”, when I answered. Now, whenever I hear someone call me Mrs. Froese, or in some way mispronounce or stumble over my name, I assume that this is a marketing call, I don’t know them, more importantly, they don’t know me, and I […]
Prayer, Justice and Persistent Hope
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
When she learned of the death threats against her, Malala Yousafzai thought about how she would respond if a Talib came to kill her. She first thought she would hit him with her shoe, but then she thought, “If you hit a Talib, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You […]
Rubbish
Dan Schrock
During Lent we’ve been playing with the theme of honor and shame in various biblical passages. Our purpose has been to explore how God honors us, especially through the person of Christ; and how we in turn give honor to God. The text in front of us this morning is an eye‐popping passage. Paul plays […]
A Kiss of Peace
Dan Schrock
We already know what this parable means, right? We say this parable is about a foolish son who grabs his inheritance early, then wastes the money on prostitutes and other stupid expenses. The “prodigal” son, we call him, even though that word prodigal is not in Luke’s text. “Prodigal” because he’s wasteful and extravagant, because […]
Ashamed No More: Invitation, Challenge and Grace
Marilyn Rudy-Froese
Stories of war, disaster, tragedy fill our newspapers and news channels. Innocent people dying from drone attacks, school shootings, and suicide bombers. Intentional acts of violence targeting innocent and not‐soinnocent people alike. It is disheartening to listen to the news or read the newspaper. And yet, there’s also a part of human nature that wants […]
Humiliation to Glory
Dan Schrock
In this part of Philippians, Paul says Jesus Christ is a “Savior.” We and other Christians in the world often say Jesus is our Savior. It’s one of our favorite ways of talking about Jesus. “Jesus saved me from my sins,” we might say, “and he can save you from your sins too.” Through his […]
Honoring God
Dan Schrock
I grew up on a dairy farm, where one of our favorite pastimes was talking about neighboring farmers. We told stories about the three Schalliol brothers who lived on the farms north of us. We talked about the Vandecaers who lived on the next farm east of us. We chatted about the Hahns and Hunsbergers […]