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.
Scriptures: Isaiah 2:1-11, Matthew 5:1-12 Melissa continues her sermon series, Hope in a Time of Fear, focusing on the book of Isaiah. As we’re drawing closer to the election, what does hope look like for followers of Jesus? The people who heard Jesus’ sermon on the mount may have been thinking about Isaiah’s words when […]
Matthew 19:1-12 and John 1:14-16 Melissa wraps up the series about questions the congregation has asked this Sunday, focusing on the question of sex, and intertwines it with the need for grace. Just before his conversion to Christianity the saint and theologian of the church, Augustine of Hippo, is in a garden and he prays […]
Matthew 6:24-34 The third topic Melissa takes on in the series exploring questions, wonderings, and themes that come from our congregation, focuses on our relationship as Christians to other faith communities and religious groups. Serious sports fans may be the most ardent religious fanatics, forming around a common belief in something bigger than themselves, sharing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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