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.
Mark 9: 2-9 What will we do when we meet God? Will we run away? Cower? Ask questions? Or can we make a tent for God to inhabit and live among us? Melissa Florer-Bixler explores and unpacks the experience of Peter meeting God in the story of the transfiguration of Christ in the Gospel of […]
I Corinthians 9:16-23 Paul descended into the laboring class rather than being paid for his ministry. That way he was able to be free from the patronage of the wealthy people of Corinth and others. There was something more significant in his life. He had been found by Jesus and this good news. The spirit […]
Scripture 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 How do we conduct our lives as believers when our decisions affect not only ourselves, but can cause harm or distress to other Christians or those in other communities around us? What do we do when our choices are technically righteous, but still harm other believers with a different interpretation? […]
Scripture: John 10:14-15 Each year, Anabaptist-related churches around the world are encouraged to worship around a common theme on a Sunday close to January 21. On that date in 1525, the first Anabaptist baptism took place in Zurich, Switzerland. Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday provides an opportunity to remember our common roots and celebrate our worldwide koinonia. Today […]
Scripture: Mark 1:1-14 Nina Balmaceda provided the sermon this Sunday. Nina is on the faculty at Duke Divinity and president of the Peace and Hope International. She and her family are active at RMC. In the context of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, Nina shared about the history of baptism and its relevance for us […]
John 1:6-8, 19-28 and Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 On this third Sunday of Advent, Melissa shared about a list of “I am nots” that she made this week. John the Baptist knew who he was not, and who he was. Think about (or make) your own lists of “I am nots.” How does that sentence end? […]
Mark 1:1-8 and Isaiah 40:1-11 On this second Sunday of Advent, Melissa reflects on our relentless focus on time; our need for efficiency. Time is invented; we made it up. Advent invites us into a different pace of time, a pace we call “Waiting.” Time’s first purpose was to be loved by God.
Isaiah 64:1-9 On this first Sunday of Advent, Melissa acknowledged that there is so much in our lives, in our world, to be afraid of. We are not in control of the world. We are vulnerable beyond our imagining. Somehow though, God is at work in this Apocalypse. She told the story, among others, of […]
Susan Scott preached during Christ the King Sunday, and yet the lectionary scripture for this sermon is Luke 23: 33-43, telling of the crucifixion of Jesus where he is mocked by the guards and one of the condemned for proclaiming his lordship. Susan invited us to see the kingship of Christ not as a ruler […]
Melissa’s sermon focused on Matthew 25: 14-30, the Parable of the Talents. This passage has often been used to justify a variety of teaching praising rampant capitalism or aggressive evangelization and placing God in the role of the master who casts out the lazy slave into darkness for burying the talent he should have invested. […]
Melissa’s sermon this Sunday focused on the parable from Matthew 25:1-13 about the bridesmaids waiting for the long-delayed bridal party, with all of them falling asleep and half of them running out of lamp oil. Jackie and Trixie provided a reenactment of how things maybe could have gone better had they stayed awake. What might […]
Revelation 7:9-17 The great ordeal John writes of in this letter from exile in Patmos is the persecution of the church. It’s a real and living threat to Christians in the first century. If you were to join up with the Anabaptists in the sixteenth century, there was a very good chance this would get […]
Matthew 22: 1-14 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet We often try to interpret parables to find easy lessons and clear allegories, but Melissa Florer-Bixler invites us to ask how the “Parable of the Wedding Banquet” interprets ourselves, the recent violence in Israel and Gaza, and where we can find the character of God and […]
Exodus 17:1-7 & Matthew 21:23-32, World Communion Sunday “Is God here?” is a question that comes up throughout the Bible. And it has come up for many of us. But maybe there’s another question lingering in the lines between the lines of the scripture. Maybe it begins by saying, “What is that I need?” If […]
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35 In this parable we learn something remarkable. We determine our relationship to God by how we live. We have been forgiven. We owe nothing. And you need to do nothing in order to earn forgiveness. But the only way that you actually believe this? That you believe that it’s true? Is your […]
In the third sermon on the theme of “What is church for?”, Melissa talked about God’s countercultural vision of hierarchy demonstrated by Paul’s body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12: 14-31. Since antiquity, the institutions of government and the economy have a distinct continuity: they have created social, political, and economic hierarchies that we have often […]
In the second sermon on the theme of “What is church for?”, Melissa talked about stewardship, speaking from Acts 2:38-47. She shared the story of the Diggers. Every once in a while Christians begin to live so near to the life of Jesus, so deeply in tune with the Spirit of God at such a […]
John 2:1-12 This Sunday Melissa begins a three-part series on the question: What is the Church For? The miracle at the wedding of Cana seems like a superfluous act on the part of Jesus. There’s nothing practical or useful about the sign. Jesus doesn’t cure disease, raise a person from the dead or feed hungry […]
Dr. Candace Laughinghouse brought the sermon during this last Sunday in the summer series focused on Genesis 1 and creation care. God applies purpose and abundance to the earth even before humanity’s existence. From earth’s exception to today’s reality. How did we get to this place of chaos, catastrophe, and destruction? Today’s text reminds us […]
RMC’s summer series on the Genesis account of creation continues with this Sunday’s sermon by Elizabeth Korver-Glenn. Dr. Korver-Glenn is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, and a member of Raleigh Mennonite. Elizabeth began by sharing from a booklet she and Randall received at their wedding. God creates out of […]
Continuing the summer’s theme on creation, this Sunday Dr. Derek Hicks brought the sermon. Dr. Hicks is associate professor of Religion and Culture at Wake Forest University. What is creation for ALL if some are pushed to the margins? Or left out altogether? How does that square with the radical nature of Jesus’s declarations about […]
Our summer series focusing on the creation story from the beginning of Genesis continued. Dr. Christopher Hays, president of Scholar Leaders, joined us this Sunday. He shared the Babylonian creation story, the “Enuma Elish,” comparing and contrasting it with the biblical creation story. The Enuma Elish provides insight into how the contemporaries of the ancient […]
In the continuing summer series on Genesis 1, this Sunday’s guest speaker was Ren Martin. Ren is the Eco-Justice Connection Program Coordinator for the North Carolina Council of Churches. Genesis teaches us that all of creation is a gift from God. Our response to this gift should be one of deepest respect and gratitude. We […]
As our summer series focused on creation from Genesis 1 continues, Chas Edens brought the message this morning. Melissa introduces him at the outset. Do we name and care for creation, for the environment, as an asset or part of our livelihood, an extension of ourselves? How we look at it may depend upon our […]
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