Scripture: John 18:33-37 and Ruth 3 Ruth forged a future where there wasn't one. Her mother-in-law Naomi only sees a life of constriction, defined and closed. She sees no options, no future. Ruth, on the other hand, is a future-oriented person. She consistently speaks in the future tense. While she might have told Naomi, "I accept everything that you say," she still sees a possibility. To use the future tense is to create possibility, to counter the facts. And that is where God is at work. The reign of God is a woman directing her future when no future seems possible ..read more

Scripture: Ruth 2 In the book of Ruth two of the thousands of nameless poor people of those times take center stage. The story is not about powerful men carrying out great works. Ruth and Naomi live in the time of political chaos. Sound a little familiar? This short story--just four chapters--traces God's intricate work in small movements towards hope through ordinary people. It's not just through the powerful or through "mountain top" experiences that God works. Rather, God works with ordinary faithfulness. In the process of doing the work put before us, we realize that much of what we need i ..read more

Scripture: Ruth 1:15-18 What do we do when we are shocked, overwhelmed and devastated? When our hands feel empty and the troubles to come feel so massive? What do we do now? The petty dictators of this world, however severe their terrors, they do not change who God is and how God's word in Jesus comes to us. What do we do now is the question we will ask for many years to come. But what we do will be grounded in another question, a deeper question. Who are we? We are the church of Jesus Christ. In other words, we're followers of Jesus in the same way we were last week and the week before, who w ..read more

Isaiah 43:1-7, Hebrews 11:32-12:3 In just two days we have a national election. It's something that has many of us anxious and concerned. The two texts for today are both addressed to people in anxious circumstances. Even with all of the anxiety of the situation in the first passage, the summation of the Isaiah's prophecy to these people is, "Do not be afraid, for I, God, am with you." Some variation on that simple sentence appears more than 300 times in the Bible. So it seems like God realizes this is a problem for us. Do not be afraid, for God is with you. Knowing that doesn't make passing t ..read more

Isaiah 40: 1-8 This Sunday Melissa Florer-Bixler continued to move further into the words of the prophet Isaiah, when the Persian king Cyrus allowed God's people to return to Israel, ushering in a time of comfort and hope. The prophet spoke of a highway being built from through hostile land between Babylon and Jerusalem, and Melissa reminded us of the tradition of the aesthetics, the desert mothers and fathers, who also lived in hostile places and prayed for all people and ministered to those who came to grief on remote highways. Much like the aesthetics, there have been faithful people in our ..read more

Isaiah 46: 1-13 Melissa Florer-Bixler invites us to consider the question, "why do we come to church every Sunday?" as she preaches on Isaiah's message about idols. Isaiah mocks the idols of Israel's former conquerors, now laid low and unable to even help themselves from falling over. In last week's sermon, Melissa stated that we become what we choose to love, and now she adds that when we put our hope into idols that cannot help, we in turn become helpless. Tech giants, political figures, possessions, and all the other trappings of the world offer no more hope than the worthless idols that Is ..read more

Isaiah 11: 1-9 Melissa Florer-Bixler preaches on Isaiah's vision of the lion laying down with the lamb and reminds us, rather appropriately on World Communion Sunday, to consider more deeply in that context how we address the multitude of intractable conflicts occurring throughout the world. Naturally, we cannot rely on willpower alone to overcome the worst "carnivorous" parts of our nature that inflame these conflicts. Rather, it is through the transformative gift of Jesus that we are remade in the image of God and can then work to build real peace. We invite you to listen and join our congre ..read more

Scripture: Isaiah 1:1-3, 11-20 Our world is not well. Our politics are not well. Our land and our oceans and our air is not well. We may be anxious. About the future, about elections, about what comes next for you and your family. So this series based on Isaiah will spend time with people who are in the middle of political and social and personal crisis. These are the people of Judah in Jerusalem. The Bible is for people who are down on their luck. The Bible is for people facing odds and terrible outcomes. That's when hope shows up. That's when hope matters. The shape hope takes in our lives h ..read more

Isaiah 9: 1-7 Merry Christmas everyone! We know it's only September, but Raleigh Mennonite Church took a moment this Sunday to sing Christmas carols and reflect on the birth of Christ during a season far less busy and distracting than the end of December. Melissa Florer-Bixler's sermon reminds us to take time and examine the coming of Jesus, made flesh, without the holiday sentimentality that can undermine the innately powerful political message embodied in the humble beginnings of Jesus. Not political as we see it today, with everyone looking to a figurehead in one party or another to correct ..read more

Scriptures: Isaiah 2:1-11, Matthew 5:1-12 Melissa continues her sermon series, Hope in a Time of Fear, focusing on the book of Isaiah. As we're drawing closer to the election, what does hope look like for followers of Jesus? The people who heard Jesus' sermon on the mount may have been thinking about Isaiah's words when they heard Jesus speak. They had been crushed beneath the heels of a Roman occupation. And here, at this moment, when all hope is lost, the word of God is born into the world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the me ..read more