Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 26th, 2008 No Comments »
Using the Israelite experience of bringing their first fruits to the temple as a narrative for remembering the great acts of a saving God, Phil Kniss, lead pastor of the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA., told his congregation that the modern American church has lost this narrative in a consumer culture. “We need to restore this narrative today,” he said in his sermon entitled “How (not) to worship.” This larger story, he said, is all about sacrifice, about giving up of ourselves to the larger purposes of God.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 19th, 2008 No Comments »
In his sermon entitled “Two Streams of Life Join in Jesus,” Roy Hange, co-pastor of the Charlottesville Mennonite Church and overseer for the Harrisonburg (VA) District of Virginia Mennonite Conference, compared the “spiritual authority” of the ancient Judaic leaders such as Joseph’s reconciliation to his violent brothers, to the grace of David toward jealous King Saul to the reconciling ministry of Jesus, who though tempted with political and social power, became the “righteousness of God” as he calls us, his followers, to be.
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Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 12th, 2008 No Comments »
There is no doubt that the evil systems that resist God’s saving grace are pervasive in our world, Phil Kniss, lead paster at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA. told his congregation Sunday, and that we as citizens of God’s kingdom need to confront them. “But we cannot and should not confront them alone,” he insisted, “but to as a body of Christ, as a powerful force that together decides when and where to confront the powers.”
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Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 5th, 2008 No Comments »
“Today, as we share the bread and cup,” Barbara Moyer Lehman, told the Park View Mennonite Church, on World Communion Sunday, “we give thanks that Jesus loves us unconditionally. When we recognize God’s goodness, God’s mercy, God’s love, then we seek reconciliation rather than revenge. God’s forgiveness just pours upon us from a bottomless bucket that has no end.
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