The Pacifist Aggressive

One of my ministry gifts is being able to see things with fresh eyes. One of my favorite parts of motherhood is watching my girls learn things and experience them for the first time. Seeing through the eyes of a child is truly wonderful. I often use the technique of defamiliarization in sermons to let us get at old stories and reveal something new. " Defamiliarization i s the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. " In central Kansas, we are in the calm before the storm. Pastors in NY and other overwhelmed places are writing out and saying that first come the online worship services and the questions about how to be community. But soon those concerns change to “How do I comfort the dying when they are quarantined?” “How do I comfort the widow in quarantine?” “Do I livestream a funeral??” As Joy Harjo writes, “What shall I do with all this heartache?” Artist Geof...

My body has forgotten how to cry. I mean, I regularly tear up, I’m not a monster. But to cry, actually let the tears slip down my cheeks, sob, any actual catharsis, no. I cried at the beginning of last summer. It was the last day my family was worshipping at the church where we had attended for 11 years, where I had been the youth pastor, where my girls were born, with the people who rebuilt my house after the fire . It was also the last Sunday some of our best friends would be there. They were moving to Iowa. I cried from the moment worship began and all through the carry-in meal. I cried as I told them, “Thank you for allowing me to help raise your children and for helping me to raise mine.” That was the last time. Before that, I cried twice in the fall of 2018: both pretty intense circumstances. But, generally, the tears don’t come. They ball into a painful pressure at the top of my sternum. (Yes, I am aware that’s the heart chakra.) The world feels like it’s falling down. I have n...

The OT scripture this week for Lent 3 Year A is the beginning of Exodus 17. The Israelites are thirsty and need to drink water after all the manna they have eaten in Exodus 16. The amount of dialogue in this text lends itself easily to an interactive reading. Narrator : The Israelites left the western Sinai desert. They traveled all together from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim (ref-i-deem) -- a resting place, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they turned against Moses and started arguing with him. Congregation : “Give us water to drink.” Moses : “Why do you bicker with me? Why are you testing the Lord?” Narrator : But the people were very thirsty, so they grumbled against Moses. Congregation : “Why on earth did you bring us out of Egypt? Did you bring us out here so that we, and our children, and our cattle will all die without water?” Moses : “Lord, what can I do with these people? They are ready to kill me.” The Lord : “Go before t...

The last weekend in January, Abby and I attended Junior High Snow camp at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. Mennonite Church of the Servant was the only church that managed to bring 100% of our Jr Youth. We combined with Bethel College Mennonite Church and Zion Mennonite Church to help make the sponsor numbers per gender work out. The 14 of us rode on a charter bus organized by Whitestone in Hesston. All 56 seats were occupied. This gave our Kansan kids--many of whom know each other from Mennoscah-- a 10 hour opportunity to connect before camp. Overall, retreat attendance was around 90 youth and sponsors-- roughly ⅔ Kansans and ⅓ Coloradans. A few takeaways from the trip: I thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride to camp. Upon arrival, I told my friend how much I love middle-schoolers and that surely there is something wrong with me. Electronic devices were allowed on the bus, but completely banned during our mountain time--there’s no reception or wifi anyway. I did not hear a single compl...

Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate image credit  : Shawn Miller/Library of Congress This interpretive reading also uses language from Joy Harjo's Speaking Tree which was also read during the worship service. Reader One Reader Two Jeremiah 17:5-8 5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in humanity,     who draws strength from mere flesh     and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;     they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,     in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,     whose confidence is in God. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water     that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes;     its leaves ar...

Readers’ Theater Widow Weynken Adapted from Martyrs’ Mirror Parts: Narrator Weynken Woman 1 Woman 2 Man 1 Man 2 Man 3 Narrator: In November of 1527, Mrs. Weynken, a widow, was brought as a prisoner to the Hague, in Holland, under the charges of being an Anabaptist which was outlawed by the government. She was arraigned before the governor and the full council of Holland. There a woman asked her: Woman 1: "Have you well considered the things which my lords proposed to you?" Weynken:   "I abide by what I have said." Woman 1: "If you do not speak differently, and turn from your error, you will be subjected to an intolerable death." Weynken:   "If power is given to you from above I am ready to suffer."  Woman 1:   "Do you then, not fear death, which you have never tasted?" Weynken: "This is true; but I shall never taste death, for Christ says: 'If a man keeps my sayings, he shall ne...

An order of service for a Thanksgiving worship of praise Psalms. Gathering Music Welcome and announcements I invite you to join in the experience, not just contemplation Every experience we have changes us as people, may we leave here both blessed and changed today people of God Prelude *Call to worship Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We give thanks from the height of joy to depths of despair  because we know that hope and salvation is in our God.  We give thanks in times of bitterness and anger because it is our God who redeems. We give thanks in times of peace and prosperity because it is our God who gives good gifts. We come to give thanks as a people, broken and beautiful. Blessed be the name of the Lord! *Hymn - How Great Thou Art Gray Songbook  *Invocation Children’s story Thanking God with Body and Voice *Song Blessed be your name (insert) (children dismissed to children’s t...