For the first Sunday of Advent, Tim Reardon preached from Isaiah 2:1-5 and Romans 13:8-14. This is the Christian New Year, when a new cycle of the church calendar begins. And with Advent, it begins in waiting. The question in the sermon title is “What are you waiting for?” But, perhaps as important is the question about how we are waiting. On the surface is a straight forward question with no added implications, “What hopes and needs are waiting to be answered? How does this waiting change the way you live now?” There is something about this question that beckons us to move beyond waiting to action, which is important as we move into Advent. The post What Are We Waiting For? appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Sam Bills preached from Luke 23:33-43 and Colossians 1:11-20. In Luke, at the hands of the reigning empire, every attempt is made to humiliate Jesus. This is to contrast him to the Roman emperor. And in contrast, Jesus takes violence on himself, and finds space even on the cross to forgive. Colossians shows us how different this is from the empire of Rome at the time. The passage in Colossians seems to be a song — borrowed and familiar to the community in Colossae. Sam “song-explodes” the passage for us... Colossae was in the area of modern Turkey — far from Rome or Jerusalem. It was important in the textile trade — luxury goods tying them to the Pax Romana, and providing them peace and protection. What connected them to distant Rome and the Caesar? For a start, his image on coins — making this invisible state visible. What are some of the symbols in our nation and in our time? The post An unlikely King, an unlikely Kingdom appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

On November 17, the PMC Youth Groups took over and planned and led our Sunday service. Mark Leard and Jadyn Tipton gave reflections on Isaiah 65:17-25, where Isaiah speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. Mark sees this passage as what a perfect relationship with God is like. This relationship is our center. What are the struggles that keep us from this centered relationship? How do we go from where we are now to this promised new creation that Isaiah describes? Jadyn talks about what it means to be recovered — experiencing transformation — an image of what a transformed kingdom would look like. But is this all God's doing? Is this a passive view? God loves us — but because we also love God, we need to play a part in this transformation. The post Youth Sunday appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

At the end of October, Bob Nolty preached from Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, Amos 5:24 and Micah 6:8. Bob introduces us to the book “My Imaginary Jesus” by Matt Mikalatos. In chapter 1, the apostle Peter shows up, smelling like fish, and convinces Matt that the Jesus he's been hanging out with is an imaginary Jesus: a Jesus that we construct in our own mind that we can relate to. An imaginary Jesus may take some of the rough edges off the real Jesus. It can be difficult for us to reconcile God's role as judge with that of his role as mercy-giver. Being human, we tend to err on one side or the other. The post Mercy or Justice: Which is it? appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

What are the stories that form you? There are so many stories that shape us and many that lie to us — we must be good story tellers ourselves. Telling stories about the creating God, a story bigger than just ourselves but that encompass all Creation, about a God who creates life and peace from love, who is present with all creation, and calls us to the wholeness and reconciliation of all things. These are the stories that unite us and give us a common vision. We are children of a God who not only began to create, but continues to and will create. We serve a God who hovers over our darkness and forms new life, who sees our need for liberation and reconciliation and comes to dwell among us, suffering alongside us, confronting the powers, suffering execution and rising to new life. God is the creating God. The post The Creating God appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Looking at Luke 16:19-31, Jason Smith once again wove in art as an example to look at the gospel from a new angle. Jason began with an invitation to consider negative space, telling a story of a Dutch artist visiting the Moorish palace of Alhambra in Spain. "He had visited this beautiful Moorish site before as a young art student, but this time would forever change how he saw things." In the Gospel reading of Luke 16:19-31 we hear of a similar story. Near the early 30’s of the first century a thirty-something year old rabbi from Nazareth set his eyes toward the gates of Jerusalem. As he journeyed toward the gates of Jerusalem, he observed the structures and patterns of the world around him. In response he illustrated the structures and patterns of the world to come. He became known to the world as Jesus Christ, creator of elaborate parables and imaginative homiletic structures that stretched and contorted the City of Man, warping it upside down and inside out into the City of God. The post Negative Space appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Melissa Spolar preached on September 8th on the story of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz from Ruth 1:19-22. She began with an invitation for us to think about our lowest point in life — and to sit with that feeling in preparation of thinking about Naomi. After both of Naomi's sons die, Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to go back to their own families and remarry, for their own sakes. Naomi is bereft. Grandchildren were to be her legacy, as well as to provide for her in her old age. This has left her at the bottom of society. She had little use in the eyes of society. Melissa compares it to losing all of your closest loved ones, and going bankrupt at the same time. Her only hope is to return to Israel, where the famine is ending, and to enter a subsistence survival by being cared for as a widow. Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi and enter a foreign land where she will not be welcome. The post Faithfulness in Community appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Tim Reardon preached from Luke 13:31 - 14:7 where Jesus, eating in the home of an elite Pharisee, is confronted with a man in need of healing. In first century Palestine, who you eat with and where they sit affect who gets to eat — as well as demonstrating power and social control. And to this Sabbath gathering comes a man with dropsy, a disease of extreme swelling that made you thirsty to the point that you could drink yourself to death. In the first century, dropsy was also a metaphor for wealth addiction — a bodily representation for an insatiable desire for wealth — destroying yourself and others in the process of consumption. So how does this analagy translate? Good Americans consume — to the point that we are killing ourselves and our planet.

At the end of August, Rob Muthiah concluded our summer series on the Sermon on the Mount with Matthew 5:27-32 — a passage on divorce and adultery. Rob reminds us that the Sermon on the Mount has been important in the Mennonite tradition — as a call to whole-hearted discipleship that we are all called to live into. Jesus takes teachings that would be taken for granted by his listeners, and intensifies them. How are these connected to our covenant relationship with God?

Lisa Thornton continued the Summer on the Mount series with the scripture passage Matthew 5:21-26 — which begins with the reminder of the injunction against murder historically given to the Jews, and continues with instruction on the importance of relationship. Lisa unpacks the passage as preceded by the statement that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So how are we being invited to think about what might lie behind murder? How does this play out in the kingdom of God? It's an outward symptom of an inner brokenness. Yet the Kingdom of God is about relationships between people.