Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 25th, 2009 No Comments »
Drawing from the two biblical narratives found in the Old Testament account of Jonah and the response of the people of Nineveh and the New Testament story of disciples Simon and Andrew, the two fishermen, casting their nets as Jesus’ commanded, Phil Kniss, lead pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, told his congregation that “our position as potential disciples is to be open to the work God wants to do in us.” God does not demand of us an immediate impossibility, but God invites people who are open and he provides miraculously what is needed for the journey. God’s time may or may not be our time, he insisted, but his is the ripe time. When the time is ripe, the fruit literally falls to the ground. When it is not the ripe time, no amount of effort on our part will produce satisfying life-giving fruit, try as we might. And we do try!
Read Full Post »
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 18th, 2009 No Comments »
Basing his remarks on Philip’s asking Nathaniel to “come and see” Jesus, the Nazarite, Phil Kniss, senior pastor of the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, insisted that likewise today, God, who is powerfully and uniquely at work in this world, is inviting His followers to come and see Him. He invites us to be present, to stick our nose in where it belongs, to get “in the way, to engage in the difficult, life-giving, sometimes costly but joy-producing spiritual discipline of “showing up.” God wants us to put down the TV remote and get involved in what He is doing in this world.
Read Full Post »
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 11th, 2009 No Comments »
Pastor Phil Kniss preaches on “Baptism of our Lord” Sunday at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Virginia. He emphasizes that throughout scripture God “pronounces” what is. In the Genesis creation narrative, God pronounced things into existence. In Psalm 29, God’s voice speaks and the earth trembles. In Jesus’ baptism, God pronounced a blessing on Jesus, naming him as his “beloved Son” in whom he was “well pleased.” All of us need to hear God’s voice pronouncing that same blessing on us. We are God’s children and we are loved. Being clear about that–about our identity before God–is the single most important thing as a grounding for our ethics. We know who we are (God’s beloved children), so we then know what to do (live in a way that honors the One who made us and loves us).
Read Full Post »
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 4th, 2009 No Comments »
As we enter this new year, 2009, Barbara Moyer Lehman, associate pastor at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, asked her congregation, what are we drawn to, what is inviting us, who are we following, or what star are we following? Are we following something that reflects the light of Christ? Are our decisions good ones, ones we can embrace wholeheartedly, and know that what we are doing illumines for us and for others the welcoming face of God? She gave as an example the poem at the base of the Statute of Liberty in New York City’s harbor, where the outstretched arms of that symbol welcomed the millions, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Read Full Post »
