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.
Melissa spoke from Matthew 21:1-11 on this Palm Sunday. She shared the story of one of her favorite parties she has been a part of, when women were released from jail after their bond was paid by members of SONG. “When I see the women with radiant faces celebrating their freedom, I am there with […]
Susan Scott spoke from Matthew 17:1-9, which shares the experience of Jesus and three of his disciples going up into a mountain where they meet Moses and Elijah. In that interchange Jesus’s divine nature is revealed, with God appearing in a cloud, claiming Jesus as God’s beloved Son, telling the disciples to listen to him. […]
Scripture: Matthew 5:21-37 Today we’re listening to Jesus challenge our misconceptions about what this Jesus-centered life is that we have chosen to live. If you’re here because you’re trying to find a behavior modification program to make you more moral, this is not the right place. Jesus is actually interested in the heart of the […]
Scripture: Matthew 5:11-20 Melissa asked the congregation to help shape the sermon and interpret scripture together in this message about the oft-heard passage of the church being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Matthew 2:13-23 Scripture doesn’t tell us a lot about Jesus’ early life, when God became a human baby. The story at the beginning of his life will form the whole rest of the story. It turns out that what it means to be God is actually what it means to be perfectly human, to love […]
Scripture: Isaiah 7: 10-16, Matthew 1: 18-25 Melissa preached from home since she had a child with COVID. We continue to hear from the prophecies in Isaiah on this fourth Sunday of Advent. God rolls God’s eyes at Ahaz because of Ahaz’s reluctance to listen to God. And God sends a token that Ahaz doesn’t […]
Scriptures: Isaiah 35:1-10 and Matthew 11:2-11 How does one tie in excitement about the World Cup with the third Sunday of Advent? Leave it to Melissa!
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42 While Melissa is on sabbatical we are privileged to have a number of guest speakers. Yuri Yamamoto recently graduated from Shaw University with her Master of Divinity and is commissioned and endorsed by the Federation of Christian Ministries as a Christian minister and chaplain. Yuri is very active in the community and […]
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-45 We were honored to have Sarah Jobe and Cindy Locklear share in today’s service. Melissa introduced chaplain Sarah Jobe from the Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women who shared about the prison awareness quilt crocheted by women incarcerated at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women as they survived COVID in prison. Cindy shared […]
Melissa recounts stories of Mennonites in Java–doing harm and learning to do better–as we reflect on what it means to be part of the larger global Christian church on World Anabaptist Sunday. Healing and restoration is always ongoing. We engage in repentance, over and over again, recognizing that this is how the reign of God […]
On this fourth Sunday of Advent, Melissa spoke from 1 Samuel 1:19-28 and Matthew 1:18-25. Both Hannah and Mary faced incredible oppression and ridicule given their situations. But Elkanah and Joseph bear that shame along their wives. Elkanah and Joseph must both transgress the boundaries of their culture. These men recognize the power vested in […]
In this final sermon in the fall series on gifts, Melissa preached from Matthew 3:13-17 and Acts 2:1-13. The holy spirit is somehow both a gift and a giver of gifts. One of the awkward parts about Jesus’ baptism is that Jesus does not need to be baptized. Jesus does not need to receive the […]
Melissa continues the series on gifts, this time speaking from Exodus 16:1-21 and Matthew 6:24-34. Jesus tells us that our lives are more than food and our bodies are more than clothing. Almost the entirety of Jesus’ time on earth is spent fixing and feeding and holding and weeping and walking and exorcising. So do […]
Scripture readings; Mathew 1:1-16 and Mathew 22:23-33 Matthew 1:1-16 recites Jesus genealogy ad nauseum. How many begets does it take to tie Jesus to the promise of David and Abraham? If we look closer, Jesus’ lineage is spotty; some ancestors are extraordinarily holy and brave others extraordinarily awful. All shape Jesus and Christianity. The same […]
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46, 26:6-13 Jesus comes to bring a new rein, a new order of creation, and to invite us into it. It is a new world, an inversion. It’s built not on scarcity or fear, not bound to the way things are, but this rein that has already come into being in the life, […]
Melissa speaks from Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the bridesmaids. While one would think the moral is about not letting your lamps run out of oil, rather it’s about staying awake. We are all facing the problem of coming unprepared and then falling asleep. It’s a warning to each of us about the lives we […]
Matthew 18:21-35 Melissa tackles this difficult passage that juxtaposes this new way of doing life–this kingdom of God way of forgiveness, grace and hope–and points out how it doesn’t mix with the old order of carrying out justice. But if that new way of doing things is one-sided, the whole thing falls apart. When the […]
Matthew 5:14-16 Kathy Boos continued our summer series of sharing about a song or scripture passage that has been impactful. Melissa provided the scripture background from these verses from the Sermon on the Mount before Kathy shared her thoughts on the song. Kathy reflected on the importance of all kinds of music in her life, […]
It’s Palm Sunday. Instead of processing around the outside of Hope School as we’ve done the past couple of years, we waved our branches from our homes, worshipping together via Zoom. (See raleighmennonite.org/2020/palm-sunday for a link to the video shared during the service of several RMCers waving branches in front of their homes.) Indeed, things […]
Matthew 4:1-11 The temptations Jesus encountered shows Jesus was the Messiah. The most god-like thing to do in that moment was to not be godlike and while Jesus had the power to be godlike he chose not to. What would you do in the moment of temptation if you were in Jesus’ position and had […]
Matthew 26:17-30 On this first Sunday that we held worship at Fletcher Academy, Melissa recounts the story of the Last Supper, Jesus having Passover with his friends. The account in Matthew spends more time talking about the betrayal by Judas than it does about breaking of the bread and sharing the cup. When we come […]
Matthew 3:3-17 NOTE: There were electronic issues during the recording which caused interference in the audio. It gets progressively worse toward the end of the recording, but it’s a good sermon, so if you can persevere, it’s worth it! Baptism is a little death. At the same time, all of life is baptism. There is […]
John 1, Matthew 2:1-12 Stan Wilson provided the sermon this morning. Drawing from Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Stan says to be true to our Christian vocation, we need to “not belong.” For the church to not belong, we need to be part of a community that is called to embrace the wholeness and […]
Isaiah 7:10-16, Matthew 1:18-25 Even though Joseph is not Jesus’ biological father, Jesus becomes a part of Joseph’s story; the inheritor and adopted child of the whole line of God’s promises. Our story as Christians is also one of adoption. We were destined for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ.
