This week, Erica Scoffield Nellessen led us in a reflection on faith. She calls us to consider our faith as a faith beyond our own vision, but that is a hope in the faithful God. To this end, she invites us to consider both Jesus's call to Peter to step out in faith, and God's call Abraham to step out similarly. This faith is a trust and belief in God's own vision and love, a living out a beautiful imagination, a commitment deeper than our ability to see how it all works out, a faith grounded in a God who is good, faithful, and beautiful. The post Faith of a Future Not Our Own appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

This week we reflected on the beginning of our Lenten journey in the wilderness and how our imagination of wilderness shapes this journey. Doing so, we spent time thinking about white-settler colonialism, its "wilderness," and the recent Supreme Court win for the Creek nation. In resetting our imaginations we think of wilderness as a place where we hold joy and lament in the hope of life, flipping the script on common perceptions of wilderness. The post Jesus, the Wilderness appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

On February 14th, as part of PMC's first healing service amid the pandemic, Mariann offered this reflection on healing and wholeness, and Romans 12:10-15 While certainly physical healing is part of this, this sermon focuses on the ways that we can be agents of healing, promoting healthy systems and healthy relationship, as agents of God's love and seeking our own wholeness amid this current moment. As a community we are invited into creating and resting in frameworks of love. As the reflection concludes, Mariann invites us all to find ways to encounter God's love, to reflect on and receive it, to imagine ourselves enveloped in God's love. The post Healing and Wholeness appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Every year at Pasadena Mennonite, we engage in something called Consecration Sunday. On this day, we take stock of our common community, recommit to our Covenant of Faith, determine how we will be able to contribute to our community throughout the year in our time and finances, and sometimes we even welcome some new members into our community. This Consecration Sunday, Tim preached on abiding in love, in the foundational, mysterious, and overwhelming love of God, that, strangely enough is manifest in the little acts and love of our little community and its common life. The post Dwell in Love: A Consecration Sunday Sermon appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Reflecting on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, we remember the King rejected by polite society, pushed to the fringes of social discourse, and still relentless in his concern for justice in his fight against racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. This sermon focuses on King’s last days and last speech, while considering “the mark of Cain,” a trope traditionally used to justify the enslavement of Black and Brown people. The real mark of Cain, Cain's foundational violence, is visible today in whiteness and has reared its head marking the American project. In the spirit of King, what we need is a real, deep, costly love; truth; and an embracing of the gift of repentance. The post Whiteness and the Mark of Cain appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

The reflection that was provided by the heavens during Christmas week was perfect: in the midst of our seeming darkness, we saw a Christmas star — though it was actually the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. Christmas falls amid the darkest days of the year. In scripture, the star illumines the way for the Magi, but they still need to recalibrate their expectations. Assuming they know where the newborn king should be, they go to the power-center of the region, Jerusalem, to find Herod, who rules by Roman allowance and maintains power through violence. But the newborn Messiah is not there. Jesus is not born in a palace not among riches and worldly power, but among the people — regular people at a modest house in Bethlehem. It is here that a light shines forth. The post The Christmas Star appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Do not fear! These are the angel’s words to Mary. But there is so much to fear! So much to anticipate! Something is coming. Something has already come. Change is on the horizon. Change is already overwhelming us. When the angel’s words come to her, what does Mary hear? Mary’s world was also unsettled, living as she did under Roman occupation. Her song, praising God who turns the world upside down, shows us that she is well aware of the injustices of the world around her. Yet she comes to us with a message of disruptive joy. The post Do Not Fear appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Isaiah 61 involves some of the same geographies that are in the news today: Iraq, Israel, and Iran. Iraq roughly correlates with the ancient nation of Babylon. In 597 BC, Babylon invades Judah — the remaining southern kingdom of Israel that hadn’t yet fallen. Judah becomes an occupied territory. Ten years later Jerusalem is leveled. In 539 BC, Persia defeats Babylon, and the exiles of Judah are allowed to return home — to a homeland that has been destroyed. Yet there is joy in returning. And into this homecoming, Isaiah speaks good news — of promise to these poor returning home, and many yet to come. The post On the Road to Restoration appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

Advent is a season of preparation — doing the work of getting ready for the Lord to come. Yet this year preparing for advent has felt really tough, and the stakes for what’s coming have never felt so high. This year has been hard. Yet Isaiah 40:26-31 points us toward God and his strength and presence in our weariness. Our hope is in midst of the messiness of human weakness. The post Preparing the Way of the Lord appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.

In many ways, Advent is a prayer. We come to this time amid our own trials, amid a world of uncertainty and hurt — real pressures and hardships — but we also come with an expectation and a hope. We come bearing one another’s burdens and we come in anticipation of a coming Savior. It is a season long prayer — a meditation that is both lament and hope — existing in tension. But it is a moving into hope. The post The Prayer of Advent appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.