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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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Lent

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

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

A Good Life Looks Like Wheat – Mar. 17, 2024

March 17, 2024

Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches

John 12: 20-33 Note: At 2:19, ten seconds of audio was lost due to a technical problem during the live recording. Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches on a time in Jesus’ life where there is no time left for ministry, but only to speak to those present of his imminent demise and fulfillment of God’s plan. The […]

A Good Life Looks Like Wheat – Mar. 17, 2024

Tagged With: crucifixion, Easter, Gospel of John, Lent, martyrdom, Melissa Florer-Bixler

The Difference Between Snakes Sent and Snakes Let Go – March 10, 2024

March 10, 2024

Melissa Florer-Bixler

Numbers 21: 4-9 John 3: 14-21 Our perspective on the trials and tribulations of life can have a profound effect and how we formulate our understanding of God’s character and our own place and purpose in God’s creation. Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches on the long and arduous Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt and how […]

The Difference Between Snakes Sent and Snakes Let Go – March 10, 2024

Tagged With: Easter, Gospel of John, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Numbers, snakes, Wilderness

The Temple is a Home – Mar. 3, 2024

March 3, 2024

Cleansing of the Temple

John2: 13-22 Melissa Florer-Bixler preached on the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus. From this gospel we learn that the existence of an economy for selling sacrificial animals and exchanging currency was not what angered Jesus, being necessary for travelers to participate in rituals, but rather the proximity of these activities, within the holy space […]

The Temple is a Home – Mar. 3, 2024

Tagged With: cleansing the temple, Gospel of John, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Wilderness

Stumbling Toward the Promised Land – Feb. 25, 2024

February 28, 2024

Melissa preaching in front of a colorful quilted background.

On this second Sunday in Lent, Melissa preached from Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 and Romans 4:13-25, focusing on the story of Abram. Way before Moses gives those laws on the tablets, Abram is righteous before there’s a temple to sacrifice things in. Even before circumcision. And that’s really important, especially for us, because most of us […]

Stumbling Toward the Promised Land – Feb. 25, 2024

Tagged With: Abram, Genesis, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans, Wilderness

Into the Wilderness of Lent – Feb. 18, 2024

February 18, 2024

Phil Jackson

RMC member Phil Jackson preached on the temptation of Christ in the wilderness as told in Mark 1: 9-15. Although this relation of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is very brief, we should not be fooled into reading too quickly past Mark’s description of this pivotal event. In it we can see how Jesus is […]

Into the Wilderness of Lent – Feb. 18, 2024

Tagged With: Gospel of Mark, Lent, temptation, Wilderness

No One Needs to Know You’re a Chicken – March 26, 2023

March 29, 2023

Melissa preaching at RMC on March 26, 2023.

On this fifth Sunday of Lent Melissa preached from Romans 8:6-11. Our bodies are not neutral. We are formed by environments, constrained or freed, or subjected to housing laws and legal decisions, physical borders, corporations. Our bodies, our racialized bodies, our aging bodies, our gendered bodies, these are formed by forces much larger than our […]

No One Needs to Know You’re a Chicken – March 26, 2023

Tagged With: Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans

Confession and Sin – March 12, 2023

March 14, 2023

Melissa preaching at RMC on March 12, 2023 in front of a quilted wall hanging.

On this third Sunday of Lent, Melissa spoke from Romans 5:1-11. Most of our sins aren’t interesting or dangerous. They’re mostly petty and boring and cruel. We short change both the chasm of our failings and the grace of God when we limit the scope of our sins to doing bad things. Our sins are […]

Confession and Sin – March 12, 2023

Tagged With: confession, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans, Sin

Questions of Identity – March 5, 2023

March 5, 2023

Melissa preaching at Raleigh Mennonite in front of a quilted wall hanging.

On this second Sunday of Lent Melissa preached from Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, weaving in basketball with the ongoing theme of confession, along with talking about community and identity. What if our identity isn’t a story about heroics or world-changing? What if the only way to tell each other apart is that we forgive each other?

Questions of Identity – March 5, 2023

Tagged With: community, confession, Identity, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans

Making God into Something Else – Feb. 26, 2023

February 27, 2023

Melissa preaching at RMC on Feb. 26, 2023 in front of a quilted wall hanging.

On this first Sunday of Lent, Melissa preached from Genesis 2:15-17 & 3:1-7 and Romans 5:12-19. During this season we are focusing our time and attention toward “confession.” We have varied experiences with confessions. Confession is when we come clean, when we tell the truth about who we are. We are not God!

Making God into Something Else – Feb. 26, 2023

Tagged With: Genesis, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Romans

Pouring out Scarcity – April 3, 2022

April 3, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on April 3, 2022

In this continuing series during Lent, today’s story is about Mary pouring out expensive perfume, washing Jesus’ feet with it and drying his feet with her hair. Rather than agreeing with Judas’ chastisement for wasting money on such extravagance, Jesus says, “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my […]

Pouring out Scarcity – April 3, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of John, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Pouring out, scarcity, trust

The Angry son – March 26, 2022

March 28, 2022

The parable is The Prodigal Son but Melissa’s sermon focused on the older brother. The brother that stayed behind, served his father, tended the fields and flock and waited for his inheritance. He’s working in the field when his brother returns having squandered the inheritance he demanded while his father was still alive. Facing starvation […]

The Angry son – March 26, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Pouring out, prodigal son, sermon

Pouring out Despair – March 20, 2022

March 21, 2022

Continuing the series during Lent, Melissa preached from Luke 13:1-9. Despair is that intractable boulder that won’t move. Despair is the feeling of weariness after prying and pushing and pulling with all your might. From the passage, Jesus doesn’t provide pat answers when folks come to him in despair. “No, I tell you, but unless […]

Pouring out Despair – March 20, 2022

Tagged With: compost, despair, Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, new life, Pouring out, resurrection

Pouring out Expectations – March 13, 2022

March 13, 2022

Brian Recker preaching at Raleigh Mennonite on March 13, 2022

On this second Sunday of Lent, Brian Recker provided our sermon based on the passage from Luke 9:28-36. The last two years have been tough. During that time we’ve had lots of expectations that have been thwarted. Whether they were expectations in our personal lives or in the world around us, the last few years […]

Pouring out Expectations – March 13, 2022

Tagged With: Brian Recker, Expectations, Gospel of Luke, hope, Lent, Pouring out, transfiguration

Pouring out Control – March 6, 2022

March 6, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on March 6, 2022

On this first Sunday of Lent, Melissa preached from Luke 4:1-13, the story of Jesus’ temptation. The last two years of the pandemic have held untold losses. We are entering Lent brimming with trauma and fear of these past two years. We each have been holding in so much. It’s hard to know what the […]

Pouring out Control – March 6, 2022

Tagged With: Control, Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, pandeminc, Pouring out

Fasting from Food Waste – Article in Sojourners

April 3, 2020

Produce rescued from a dumpster.

Sojourners recently published an article, “Fasting from Food Waste in a Season of Hoarding,” that features a core group from Raleigh Mennonite Church who have made a commitment this Lenten season to reduce food waste as a spiritual practice. Little did the group know when Lent started that this season would land us in the […]

Fasting from Food Waste – Article in Sojourners

Filed Under: Table Tagged With: COVID-19, food rescue, Food waste, Lent, social justice, Sojourners

Temptations – March 1, 2020

March 1, 2020

Ryan Paige preaching at RMC on March 1, 2020

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 […]

Temptations – March 1, 2020

Tagged With: Gospel of Matthew, Lent, power, Ryan Paige, temptation

A Conversation about Jesus’ Death – March 18, 2018

March 18, 2018

Melissa Florer-Bixler preaching at Raleigh Mennonite Feb. 18, 2018

Melissa changed up the format a little this Sunday for her sermon. Speaking from John 19:1-16a about Jesus’ trial and condemnation to death, she provided an introduction then invited the congregation to help answer the age-old question, “Why did Jesus die?”  There have been multiple perspectives or understandings of why Jesus was crucified. We interpret scripture together […]

A Conversation about Jesus’ Death – March 18, 2018

Tagged With: Gospel of John, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, message

The Banality of Evil – March 11, 2018

March 11, 2018

Melissa Florer-Bixler preaching at Raleigh Mennonite Feb. 18, 2018

Before Melissa’s sermon, we listened to Billie Holiday’s rendition of the haunting song “Strange Fruit.”  The sermon was based on John 18:28-40, about Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate. Crucifixions were a common thing during Roman rule. They served not so much as death penalties as they were a form of social control.  Bodies on crosses […]

The Banality of Evil – March 11, 2018

Tagged With: cross, Gospel of John, Lent, lynchings, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Pilate, Strange Fruit, trial

The Fire of God’s Love – March 4, 2018

March 4, 2018

Rachel Taylor speaking at Raleigh Mennonite Jan. 1, 2017

Rachel brought the sermon based on John 18:17-27, reflecting on the oft-told story of Peter denying he knew Jesus, his teacher.  Peter was later able to take the experience of his failure, look at it with God’s eyes, and use it to imagine something new.  She links the charcoal fire they were gathered around in […]

The Fire of God’s Love – March 4, 2018

Tagged With: charcoal, fire, Gospel of John, Lent, Peter, Rachel Taylor

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – Feb. 18, 2018

February 22, 2018

Melissa Florer-Bixler preaching at Raleigh Mennonite Feb. 18, 2018

John 11:1-44 – The Death of Lazarus Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, a time for prayer as we anticipate with sorrow Jesus’ death. This year Ash Wednesday was marked by the death of 17 students and teachers at the High School in Parkland, Fl. The Ash Wednesday cross contains ashes representing death. Melissa reminds […]

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – Feb. 18, 2018

Tagged With: Ash Wednesday, Gospel of John, gun violence, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, resurrection

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121 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27603

Phone: 919-831-2969

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