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 […]
Not What God Is, But Who – June 15, 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 […]
When God is Lost in Translation – June 1, 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 […]
Swimming Toward Sharks – May 25, 2025
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 […]
Abide! – 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 […]
Come as Children – 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 […]
Lean not on your own understanding – 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 […]
Giving Up In Order To Win – April 27, 2025
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 […]
The Resurrection Is For The Hopeless – April 20, 2025
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 Gospel of All Creation – April 13, 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 […]
God’s Love is Reckless – April 6, 2025
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 […]
Rewriting the story of justice – 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 […]
From Confession to Penance – 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. […]
Anger Without Sin – March 16, 2025
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 […]
Jesus’s Son of God SAT Test – 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. […]
Prayer: Describing Our Reality – 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 […]
Stewardship, not Ownership – Feb. 23, 2025
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 […]
Sheep in the Midst of Wolves – Feb. 16, 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 […]
Follow the Water of Life – Feb 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 […]
What are you waiting for? – 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 does God look like? – Jan. 26, 2025
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 […]
Expectations – Jan. 19, 2025
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 […]
Bound together by water – Jan. 12, 2025
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 […]
Guide Our Feet, Lord – Dec. 22, 2024
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 […]