WildWords: Sermons from Wildwood Mennonite Church

Happy Thanksgiving! Grab a turkey leg, loosen those pajama pants and sit back for a tale of woe from the ancient Hebrews... When it comes to searching for Peace, for better or worse, their story is our story. Okay, so it's mostly for worse...but can we make it better? Come and see! And bring your voter registration card!

What do peace and Revelation have in common? Anyone love games? How about Paul and a beach good-bye party? Dwight will try and weave them all together as well a story about his parents and see if this has anything to do with being a peace driven church.

Shalom!

"In the Name of the Prince of Peace: Stomp! His! Face!" Ummm... is God really the God of Peace when that's pretty much a direct quote from Scripture? (Romans 16:20, if you're curious). So what are we supposed to do with the violence apparently done by, or at least done in the name of, the God of Peace?

"We Are People of God's Peace" - our "church founder" Menno Simons declared it so in 1552, and that has been central to the Mennonite identity ever since. But what does that mean, exactly? And what do we do when we don't all agree about that, much less manage to live up to our high ideals?

School's back in session; time for a little bit of Peace Church 101!

This Sunday at Wildwood we are celebrating 100 Years of Mennonite Central Committee and Wildwood's participation in serving together with MCC. We are pleased to have Eileen Klassen Hamm, Executive Director of MCC SK and part of our WMC family share with us on the themes of creation, abundance, hospitality & reconciliation.

Goldfish? "Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion" from a literary giant? A bit of unnecessary biblical Greek? And was that a very weak attempt at a Yoda voice I heard in there? Yep, it's sermon time at Wildwood... The Realm of God is within/among/in the midst of you! And even the nonsense is somehow "on fire with the same force that lit the stars" (David Foster Wallace) Grab your marshmallow sticks and join us!

Watch "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace here: https://youtu.be/eC7xzavzEKY

Our guest speaker from the internet this week is Erna Kim Hackett, with a sermon on Psalm 139. Most of us have heard that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," but do we let that awareness permeate and transform the way we see ourselves? And do we let that knowledge shape our relationships with everyone and everything else? Grab some knitting needles and join us!

You can watch Erna Kim Hackett's sermon titled "Love" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g29ihatalm8.

"...then Jesus told them a parable: Look at the fig tree, or any other tree." What does a common, ordinary tree have to do with what surely sounds like a prophecy about the end of the world? And wow, that's a pretty dire prophecy, all violence and destruction! Where is God when the whole world is on fire?

Mustard…Rapeseed…Canola…. Regardless, a tiny seed can grow into a huge shrub! And it really doesn’t matter - unless you’re cooking with it! In this time of pandemic, and maybe because of it, what seeds of hope for the world would you like to plant?

The Parable of the Rich Fool is a cutting indictment of... something...  Wealth? A lack of faith? Greed? This week's exploration of The Realm of God considers what it means to be on the watch for "all kinds of greed."