A couple of months ago, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine and the conversation turned toward my experience as a gay man.  Because this woman is a friend and because she showed a genuine interest in hearing about my experiences, I was happy to share some of my story with her.  After we talked for a while, she said something along the lines of, “I love and support gay people, but I just don’t understand why they need to fly those rainbow flags outside their houses.  Why do I need to know what goes on in their bedrooms?”   June is upon us, so we are all likely to see more rainbow flags flying around the city.  CMC is even getting a group together to participate in the Columbus Pride Parade on June 20th.  So what does it mean to ‘fly those rainbow flags’ and how does this

School’s out tomorrow! – at least if you’re a second or third grader in Columbus City Schools.  Schools in the area are letting out, and many graduations have already happened.  Students are about to skip into the glory of summer, parents are about to adjust their routines, and teachers, God bless them, are about to finish their grading and enter into a much needed summer Sabbatical. In church life, this Sunday will be our last session of spring Sunday school.  We will have a teacher appreciation time half way through the Sunday school hour.  A tremendous thank you to the teachers and organizers who have given their time and energy toward the spiritual and intellectual formation of children and adults.  This summer’s Sunday school hour will be a time informal fellowship with games and snacks available for all. In the Gospel of Mark class I have encouraged participants to write

At the beginning of this year our congregation officially joined the Supportive Communities Network and this Sunday SCN Coordinator Carol Wise will be a guest speaker during worship, the Sunday school hour, and at a luncheon held at the church (open invitation, food provided).  Carol is also the Executive Director of the Brethren-Mennonite Council (BMC). As we strive to be an inclusive congregation, we are a part of a national denomination, Mennonite Church USA, that is in the throes of conflict over how to relate to Christians who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer – lgbtq.  One group of congregations, calling themselves the Evana Network, a combination of the words “Evangelical” and “Anabaptist,” has recently parted ways with the denomination and is welcoming others who wish to affiliate. Resolutions for this summer’s MC USA Convention in Kansas City have recently been released and two of them deal directly

I don’t usually draw attention to the sermon from the previous Sunday and advise folks who weren’t present to definitely read or hear it online – but that’s what I’m doing here.  If you weren’t in church on Sunday, you should catch the sermon.  The reason isn’t so much that it was unusually stellar – but that it includes a call to action in which everyone is encouraged to participate. Here’s the summary: When Jesus taught his disciples to pray – what has come to be called The Lord’s Prayer – he included the phrase “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”  We sometimes plug “sins” or “trespasses” into that slot, but the original language speaks of “debts.”  The majority of folks in Jesus’ time were buried in debt in a system overloaded with high rents, fees, taxes, and tolls. In our time the high cost of US