Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Basing his sermon on 1 Peter 3 on suffering for doing good, Phil Kniss, senior pastor at the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, said that when Christians fear what their detractors fear, they (Christians) do terrible things to each other. When empires function out of fear, they do ugly things, but when our fear is of the God we serve, it centers us, grounds us and aligns us with the purposes of God. This fear of what God purports for the world is a “beautiful fear,” one that enables us to speak to the power of our culture.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 20th, 2008 No Comments »
The goal of reaching heaven is fine, said guest preacher Millard Fuller in his sermon to the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, but this earth is where we live. What Jesus meant in his prayer “on earth as it is in heaven,” is that he wanted his followers to bring heaven to earth, not ignoring the “mess” of earth waiting to get to heaven. Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing, challenged his audience to “be the presence of Christ in the world today, to lighten it up, to be the leaven and the salt. He was in the community as part of a Millard and Linda Fuller Earth Day Blitz–a collaborative partnership between Potomac Highlands Partnership Housing, a covenant partner of the Fuller Center for Housing and Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 13th, 2008 No Comments »
If we believe, from the narrative of Psalm 23, Barbara Moyer Lehman told her parishioners at the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, in the fourth sermon of Easter, that God is our shepherd, then we believe that he will meet our every need, protect us and lead us to fuller lives (green pastures). He is a God of provision in every way. The Psalmist is echoed in the words of Jesus, when he says that “I have come that you may have life, the more abundant life.”
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 6th, 2008 No Comments »
In his third Easter sermon, Phil Kniss, senior pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, told his listeners that the disciple, on the road to Emmaus, was led from what he thought was clear by Jesus to some disillusionment. Cleopas, on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, had hoped Jesus was the new king of Israel, come to deliver the Jews from the occupying power of Rome. He never considered a Messiah who could establish the kingdom without lifting a sword or forming an army. But, at the breaking of bread, this disillusionment became clear. Likewise today in our popular culture, we want to make Jesus an icon, an image of all that is gentle, loving and nice. Instead, Jesus calls us to visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, sell all that we have and give to the poor. We need to see him again as the living presence of God rather than the iconic benign figure who condones and blesses our selfish living.
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