Raleigh Mennonite Church

Scripture: Psalm 1

Laws were made for people. But people weren't made for laws. The law is fulfilled in the new command that Jesus gives his disciples, to love one another.

Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22

The way of Jesus demands that we determine jurisdiction by design.

Scripture: Philippians 4:4-8

Making peace in the world begins with making peace with ourselves.

Exodus 20: 1-4

Pastor Trey Ferguson contemplates in his sermon the concept of idols, considering God's admonishment in this week's scripture that we should have no other gods before God. Trey puts forth his hypothesis that we become what we worship. This means that we must carefully identify who and what we worship. In fact, there are a great number of gods competing for our devotion; ones we inherit and ones we create. For example, in America we often worship the impersonal god of Capitalism, whose "invisible hand" in the markets casually impoverishes many and is not concerned with our welfare, health, or if we are exploited for the gain of others it favors more. Militarism, consumerism, fame, ideology, and more compete for our adoration. Trey argues that there is only one god worthy of our devotion, because God frees us from slavery to all the other gods in our lives. God is our foundation for freedom from all slavery, freedom from gods that extract, tear down communities, and never return justice or goodness in return. Trey goes further and shows how we often construct our own unworthy gods to cope with normal human emotions, especially fears, in unhealthy ways. When we are truly free from these gods, we are truly free to follow the new commandment to love each other and work together to bring God's Kingdom here on earth.

Philippians 1:27-30

It is a foundational principle in the gym that if you are not challenging your body, you are not getting stronger. When lifting weights, for instance, if you are not struggling on the last repetitions, or not a little sore after your workout, you are only maintaining the status quo. Pastor Trey Ferguson reminds us that throughout Jesus' entire life and ministry he encountered resistance from almost every angle: the government, his hometown, religious leaders, and the doubts of his own followers. Since the Church is the body of Christ here on Earth then it stands to reason we should expect to struggle as well. Paul is even writing our reading for today in Philippians from prison. Trey reminds us that even if there is struggling in carrying the good news of the Gospel, it is always fruitful. But if the news is so good, why is there resistance? Trey explains how the Gospel is viewed as a threat to those who hold and wield power unjustly and benefit from creating a climate of fear and bad news. If we pretend we are persecuted online through ridiculous culture war battles we provoke or enflame, and then return to our very comfortable lives and feel smug about our spiritual life, we should ask ourselves this question. Is that the spiritual equivalent of going to the gym and never breaking a sweat or never failing a repetition, and then taking a selfie to put on social media to congratulate ourselves? We must endeavor to live our lives worthy of the Gospel of Jesus, making God's love available equally to all. The hard resistance, born of the sinful nature of the world, is evidence of God's working through us to redeem the world. We invite you to listen as Trey reminds us that the important work of carrying the Gospel is never easy, but we are never alone in doing it.

Matthew 18:18-20

Power can be a dangerous thing. It has the capacity to build, destroy, redeem, or condemn. Pastor Trey Ferguson preached on our scripture from Matthew 18, where Jesus reminds us how much collective power we wield whenever we are in organized and in agreement. Trey ties this scripture to the Lord's Prayer where we ask God's will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Our collective ability to bind and loose both in Earth and heaven presents us as believers with a unique situation of immense responsibility as co-creators with God. Trey reminds us that too often we focus on salvation and getting to heaven in order to escape the problems of Earth. Instead we should focus on the message of the incarnation of Christ that shows the manifestation of God's love and his commitment to our wholeness in the here and now. Trey's sermon asks us to consider how we will use our collective action as we work with God to shape both heaven and Earth in the name of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jonah 4:1-11

This Sunday Trey wrapped up the four-part series on Jonah. But ultimately this story isn't really about Jonah. It's about what God looks like in the hands of angry sinners. It's an invitation to the way we try to corner God into being our attack dog, exacting vengeance against our enemies instead of redeeming them.

We must consider if this quest to turn God into the wrathful being we'd like to see sometimes is doing more harm to our enemies or to our own souls.

Do we need to be saved from the wrath of God, or do we really need to be saved from our own wrath?

Jonah 3:1-10

God's desire for a universal salvation is a nearly unbelievable truth.

In this third Sunday in Trey's four-part series on Jonah, we find Jonah in Nineveh proclaiming their upcoming demise. The message is rooted in justice; they deserved to experience the wrath of God. But they listened to what Jonah had to say. They lament, they repent and God relents.

Too often we don't take the time to lament, but instead move quickly to anger and rage. We need to learn how to grieve again. That can be the foundation of repentance. Sometimes our salvation looks like changed behavior; hearing a word from the Lord and responding in faith and with feet. When we do that, God responds with brand new mercies.

Jonah 1:17-2:10

Pastor Trey continues his series on the story of Jonah. We pick up with Jonah praying from inside the belly of the fish. When Jonah prays this prayer he prays it from the position of someone experiencing the pits. He's not just conceptualizing this. It's not a philosophical entreaty for Jonah. He is in the deepest pit imaginable to a human.

Likely one of the reasons that fear-based religious narratives lose steam is because it's hard to warn somebody about an eternal hell when they're in the middle of experiencing it on earth. How are we supposed to connect with the divine when we're not sure that the divine is interested in connecting with us at all, at least in any positive way? How do we talk to God when we feel distant from God? The mere prospect of the presence of God inspires Jonah to keep on praying. As we sit with Jonah's prayer from the belly of this fish, we learn that trusting in God is the only way out of the pit.

When Jesus compared his approaching time in the belly of the earth to the time that Jonah spent in the belly of the fish, was he preparing himself and his followers for how to survive what would feel like an eternity in a dark place? Perhaps trusting in the God who delivered Jonah and Jesus is the way out of the dark and heavy places that our journeys lead us through sometimes.

Jonah 1:1-17

This Sunday Pastor Trey launches into a new series on the story of Jonah. God's desire for global salvation is a nearly unbelievable truth. We are invited to reflect on the first chapter of Jonah through this lens of expansive salvation.

When we look at Jonah, we see that God can work salvation through wayward people and stormy conditions. This salvation is not a get out of hell free card. Rather, it's deliverance from the consequences of a life lived with no compass nor compassion. It's about liberation from a matrix of systemic oppression and destruction; of remission from a sin-sick society and the cancellation of the harm we inflict on ourselves and others.

Jonah doesn't provide an easy moral lesson about how we ought to respond to the spirit of God prompting us to do things that we don't want to do. Jonah merely holds up a mirror to many of us.