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Raleigh Mennonite Church

As a Christian community, called to peacemaking and reconciliation, we affirm that people of any race, ethnic identity, gender, who are gay or straight, of any ability, age, or economic status, are welcome to full participation in our congregation.

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Experiments of Peace – June 22, 2025

June 23, 2025

Melissa Florer-Bixler Experiments of Peace

Matthew 5: 43-48 With the recent American bombing of Iran, we now move into a time filled with tension, fear, calls for war, and calls for reprisal. As Christians we must remember that we are called to a different path than the world. Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches on our Covenant Sunday that we must pay close […]

Experiments of Peace – June 22, 2025

Tagged With: Gospel of Matthew, Iran, Melissa Florer-Bixler, pacifism, peace

Not What God Is, But Who – June 15, 2025

June 16, 2025

Romans 5: 1-5 On Trinity Sunday Melissa Florer-Bixler preached on the words of Paul in Romans. Paul didn’t focus on what the makeup of the Trinity is, but who the persons of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are. Essentially, God is not vengeful, cruel, or indifferent. God, through the trinity, is the giver of […]

Not What God Is, But Who – June 15, 2025

Tagged With: gift giving, gifts, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Trinity, Trinity Sunday

When God is Lost in Translation – June 1, 2025

June 2, 2025

1 Corinthians 3:11 This Sunday RMC’s own Jordan Morehouse preached on the foundations of our faith. We often use scripture, tradition, and faith practices to justify all manner of evils against our neighbors. Jordan reminds us that we must be ready to change our actions and views when we see that time honored parts of […]

When God is Lost in Translation – June 1, 2025

Tagged With: faith, foundation, Jordan Morehouse, theology

Swimming Toward Sharks – May 25, 2025

May 25, 2025

Melissa preaching at RMC on May 25, 2025, with one hand extended.

Scripture: Isaiah 12:1-6 Melissa opened her sermon sharing about a man who helped rescue a friend who was attacked by a shark. He swam directly toward the injured swimmer, putting himself in direct vicinity with the shark. The backstory behind most people who show real bravery in the midst of danger is that they have […]

Swimming Toward Sharks – May 25, 2025

Tagged With: courage, Grant Bowser, hope, Isaiah, Melissa Florer-Bixler, sharks, testimony, trust

Abide! – May 18, 2025

May 18, 2025

Melissa speaking at RMC on May 18, 2025.

Scripture: John 15:1-10 “Abide” is central to John’s gospel. Abide is the orientation of our lives to Jesus, but also of Jesus’s life with us. Jesus tells his disciples that he will abide with them, even as he goes away. In this goodbye it’s interesting that Jesus actually never tells the disciples that they ought […]

Abide! – May 18, 2025

Tagged With: abide, Gospel of John, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Sabbath

Come as Children – May 11, 2025

May 11, 2025

Scripture: Matthew 18:1-5 The disciples of Jesus have “power problems.” Who’s going to be greatest? Who’s going to sit next to him? And as usual, Jesus has to gently put them in their place. He tells them, Unless you turn around and become like a child you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus […]

Come as Children – May 11, 2025

Tagged With: Children, dignity, disciples, God's will, Gospel of Matthew, Melissa Florer-Bixler

Lean not on your own understanding – May 4, 2025

May 4, 2025

Melissa preaching at RMC in front of a quilted banner on May 4, 2025.

Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-8 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,   and do not rely on your own insight.In all your ways acknowledge him,   and he will make straight your paths.” It’s easy to “weaponize” this teaching in Proverbs, to make us believe that the rational or scientific reasoning may be suspect. That can open us up to a […]

Lean not on your own understanding – May 4, 2025

Tagged With: Creation, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Proverbs, trust, wisdom

Giving Up In Order To Win – April 27, 2025

April 29, 2025

Miquel Cruz - Giving Up In Order to Win

Jeremiah 17: 5-8 This week RMC’s Miguel Cruz preached the sermon in Spanish. The English voice you will hear is that of the live translator in the sanctuary. Due to the nature of the recording tech, there is some residual audio of Miguel’s voice in the background. ** Preaching from Jeremiah, Miguel asks us to […]

Giving Up In Order To Win – April 27, 2025

Tagged With: hope, idolatry, Jeremiah, Miguel Cruz, Relying on God

The Resurrection Is For The Hopeless – April 20, 2025

April 21, 2025

Melissa Florer-Bixler

Luke 24: 1-12 Happy Easter everyone! This week Melissa Florer-Bixler preached from the Gospel of Luke. The women Disciples (the men having scattered) around Jesus, despite their deep grief and despair, stayed with Jesus through his arrest, death, and burial, and then returned only to find the tomb empty save for shining beings that declared […]

The Resurrection Is For The Hopeless – April 20, 2025

Tagged With: Easter, Gospel of Luke, Melissa Florer-Bixler, resurrection, women in the Bible

The Gospel of All Creation – April 13, 2025

April 14, 2025

Luke 19: 28-40 What could we possibly have to learn about the Gospel message from a donkey? Luke spends as much time in his Gospel on the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as he does on the Lord’s Supper. Melissa Florer-Bixler reminds us this Palm Sunday that our Anabaptist ancestors were keenly […]

The Gospel of All Creation – April 13, 2025

Tagged With: donkey, Gospel of Luke, Jesus, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Palm Sunday

God’s Love is Reckless – April 6, 2025

April 7, 2025

Melissa Florer-Bixler God's Love is Reckless

John 12: 1-8 This week Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches on Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive funerial perfume meant for Lazarus, whom Jesus had recently raised from the dead. Mary knows that Jesus plans to go Jerusalem soon to die, and her offering is a reckless offering of love, not just grief, as she sacrifices in […]

God’s Love is Reckless – April 6, 2025

Tagged With: anointing, foot washing, Gospel of John, Jesus, Mary, Melissa Florer-Bixler

Rewriting the story of justice – March 30, 2025

March 30, 2025

Scripture: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 How many times have we heard Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15? While the focus is usually on the son who leaves with his share of the inheritance and squanders it away, Melissa brings us a fresh perspective on the father and the eldest son. Not only was […]

Rewriting the story of justice – March 30, 2025

Tagged With: Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, penance, prodigal son

From Confession to Penance – March 23, 2025

March 23, 2025

Melissa preaching at RMC on March 23, 2025

Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-9 God’s version of confession and penance is entirely different from the world’s understanding of confession and penance. During Lent we have to let go of the anxiety that comes from the long-held cultural myth that confessing can only make things worse. Penance is to accept responsibility and to repair what is broken. […]

From Confession to Penance – March 23, 2025

Tagged With: confession, Isaiah, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, penance

Anger Without Sin – March 16, 2025

March 16, 2025

Jordan Morehouse's first sermon at RMC

Luke 13: 31-35 Many of us are uncomfortable, especially pacifists, with anger and how we treat each other when tempers flare. The Bible is clear, however, that Jesus often became frustrated or upset with those around him, and even God gets angry too. Jesus, though angry with his own disciples and the evils of Herod […]

Anger Without Sin – March 16, 2025

Tagged With: action, anger, Gospel of Luke, Jesus, righteousness

Jesus’s Son of God SAT Test – March 9, 2025

March 9, 2025

Melissa preaching on March 9, 2025

Scripture: Luke 4:1-13 When Jesus is tempted in the desert, Satan offers Jesus power over all of the world, which Satan has been given, if Jesus will just worship Satan. (Luke 4:6) God has handed over the powers of this world to a cosmic being called Satan. We may wonder why God allows this arrangement. […]

Jesus’s Son of God SAT Test – March 9, 2025

Tagged With: Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Satan, temptation

Prayer: Describing Our Reality – March 2, 2025

March 8, 2025

Melissa preaching, using her hands for expression, March 2, 2025.

Scripture: Luke 9:28-36 As told in this passage from Luke, through Jesus’s transfiguration we learned that prayer is getting caught up in God’s glory. To pray is to know at any minute you could be surrounded by the glory of God. Prayer invites us into a wholly different relationship with God than that of extraction […]

Prayer: Describing Our Reality – March 2, 2025

Tagged With: Gospel of Luke, Melissa Florer-Bixler, prayer, transfiguration

Stewardship, not Ownership – Feb. 23, 2025

February 23, 2025

Stewardship, not Ownership

Acts 2: 43-47 Much of the focus of Pentecost is on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the signs, wonders, and languages being heard and spoken. Melissa Florer-Bixler reminds us this Sunday that the Apostles selling their possessions and giving the money to those in need was also a significant part of the signs […]

Stewardship, not Ownership – Feb. 23, 2025

Tagged With: Acts, Anabaptism, capitalism, Melissa Florer-Bixler, stewardship

Sheep in the Midst of Wolves – Feb. 16, 2025

February 17, 2025

Matthew 26: 47-56 As a pacifist, if you could end cancer or stop the next Hitler and save millions just by killing an innocent person, would you do it? These ridiculous scenarios are often posed to Anabaptists, seeking the knife’s edge that would cut through our nonviolent convictions. Melissa Florer-Bixler points out this week that […]

Sheep in the Midst of Wolves – Feb. 16, 2025

Tagged With: Gospel of Matthew, Melissa Florer-Bixler, pacifism

Follow the Water of Life – Feb 9, 2025

February 9, 2025

Romans 6: 3-4 What does it mean to baptized into Jesus’ death or walking in the newness of life? Melissa Florer-Bixler unpacks this passage in Romans by explaining some of the symbolism of baptism, the three fold nature of baptisms, and what this means for us as Christians and Anabaptists. The water used in baptism […]

Follow the Water of Life – Feb 9, 2025

Tagged With: Anabaptism, baptism, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans

What are you waiting for? – Feb. 2, 2025

February 2, 2025

Phil speaking at Raleigh Mennonite on Feb. 2, 2025.

Scripture: Luke 2:22-40 Simeon and Anna were waiting for something big their whole lives. They were waiting for God to keep their promises. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be consecrated, Simeon knew what he had been waiting for had come to pass. Looking at that little baby’s face Simeon was […]

What are you waiting for? – Feb. 2, 2025

Tagged With: Anna, Gospel of Luke, Phil Jackson, promises, Simeon, waiting

What does God look like? – Jan. 26, 2025

January 26, 2025

Melissa preaching on Jan. 26, 2025 in front of a colorful banner quilt.

Scripture: 1 John4:7-21 On this Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday, Melissa began her sermon with a 2017 video illustrating what young kids thought God looks like. You can watch the video on YouTube. How God looks is a mystery to us. But there is something that might get us pretty close. Maybe it’s even better. If […]

What does God look like? – Jan. 26, 2025

Tagged With: Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday, God's image, I John, love, Melissa Florer-Bixler

Expectations – Jan. 19, 2025

January 19, 2025

Melissa preaching in the sanctuary at Church of the Good Shepherd. She stands in the podium with her hands in front of her with a marble pillar seen in the background.

Scripture: John 2:1-11 We held a joint service with Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal this Sunday, the congregation we rent space from. The service was held in their sanctuary and Pastor Melissa brought the message. In recognition of its 500th anniversary this week, Melissa shared some of the history of Anabaptism, and even included […]

Expectations – Jan. 19, 2025

Tagged With: Church of the Good Shepherd, Expectations, Gospel of John, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Wedding at Cana

Bound together by water – Jan. 12, 2025

January 12, 2025

Melissa preaching on Jan. 12, 2025 in front of a purple and yellow quilted banner.

Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Jesus’s baptism is what shows that he was not just the Son of God, but also human. His baptism is what shows his solidarity with humans. On this Sunday, Melissa encouraged us to take time to remember our own baptisms, or to consider becoming baptized if we weren’t already. Baptism in […]

Bound together by water – Jan. 12, 2025

Tagged With: baptism, community, Gospel of Luke, Jesus, Melissa Florer-Bixler, water

Guide Our Feet, Lord – Dec. 22, 2024

December 22, 2024

Emily Alexander preaches

Luke 6: 17-36 Our intern Emily Alexander preaches from the Gospel of Luke on the final week of Advent, as we ready ourselves to celebrate the good news of Christ’s kingdom arriving. In this passage, Jesus is trying to get his followers accustomed to a radically new kind of kingdom philosophy. He inverts the natural […]

Guide Our Feet, Lord – Dec. 22, 2024

Tagged With: Advent, Emily Alexander, Gospel of Luke, Kingdom living

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121 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27603

Phone: 919-831-2969

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