Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 30th, 2008 No Comments »
As a guest preacher, Carmen Schrock, of Harrisonburg, VA., told the congregation of Park View Mennonite Church, that the “doubting Thomas” we have been taught to cast in a negative light in the post-resurrection story of Jesus appearing to his disciples is an unfair characterization because he is “all of us.” We, too, need to see and touch Jesus in a very human way to have faith. Jesus did not condemn Thomas for his unbelief, but accepted his insistence on having proof and pushed him to develop his faith to the point of “not having to see” to believe.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 23rd, 2008 No Comments »
In his Easter sermon, Phil Kniss, senior pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA. related the story of the two Marys going to the tomb of Jesus and being terrified at finding it empty. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, however, they ran to find Jesus, the source of their light and life. Likewise, we, enveloped in a world of darkness and evil that can many times immobilize us with fear, need to engage our faith by looking for the God of victory, the one promised by the prophets to be “always with us.” We need not deny, or defer or disclaim this rampant evil, but rather “name the darkness,” but hold it up to the light of Jesus and live in the resurrection hope. This is the opportunity of Easter.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 16th, 2008 No Comments »
In her Palm Sunday sermon imagining the variety of dreams and disappointments of the people of ancient Jerusalem, Barbara Moyer Lehman, associate pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, brought new insight to the familiar Holy Week passage by focusing on the lowly donkey as the means of transportation for the coronation of a king. After all, she noted, our president rides on Air Force One, the British queen rides in an ornate horse-drawn carriage, dictators and rulers ride in bullet-proof limos and even the pope rides in his Popemobile. Certainly Jesus could have done better, the people thought, as they lined the palm-strewn road on which He rode this beast of burden into town. It was a powerful symbol, prophesied much earlier, not of power and might, but of leadership and authority defined by humility and servanthood. “It was a planned political demonstration with a subversive mission.”
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Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Ross Erb, associate pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, preaches on the fifth Sunday of Lent, drawing on Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones that came to life, and the Gospel story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. He used these stories to illustrate our need to be open to the breath of God’s spirit, as it seeks to blow new life into the church in a time of multiple global crises, and into our own lives as members of the body of Christ.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 2nd, 2008 No Comments »
In this fourth Sunday of Lent, Phil Kniss, senior pastor of Park View Mennonite Church, takes a deeper look at the “longest healing story in the Bible”–the narrative about Jesus healing the blind man. The story, he claims, is not much about healing, but more about the dialogue between the blind man and the religious powers of the day. Jesus used this healing episode, he said, to address the systemic evil that had accrued under the strict adherence and additions to the Mosaic law, a system that had ultimately blinded the people to the purposes of God. At this second level of brokenness, or blindness, the Pharisees had lost sight of justice, compassion and shalom for all people.
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