Sunday Worship 7.31.22 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Credits:

The video above includes the full service, except for the time for sharing.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained through One License with license A-727859. Copyrights for songs given after the sermon text

Faith Begins By Letting Go – Voices Together #585. Text: Carl P. Daw Jr. (USA), 1995, © 1996 Hope Publishing Company. Music: David J. Gonzol (USA), © 2019 David J. Gonzol.  All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved.  

He Came Down – Voices Together #239. Text: Cameroon traditional. Music: Cameroon traditional; arr. John L. Bell (Scotland). © 1990 WGRG, Iona Community (admin. GIA Publications, Inc.). All rights reserved.  Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved.

We Dream of a Turning – Voices Together #209. Text: Adam M. L. Tice (USA), 2008, © 2009 GIA Publications, Inc.; Music: Scottish traditional; arr. Kathryn Harsha (USA), © 2019 Kathryn Harsha (admin. MennoMedia).  All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved.  

Loving Spirit – Voices Together #697.  Text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), © 1987 The Hymn Society; admin. Hope Publishing Company. Music: Gross Catholische Gesängbuch (present-day Austria), 1631; harm. William Smith Rockstro (England), 19th c.  All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved.  

La paz de la tierra (The Peace of the Earth Be With You) – Voices Together #838. Text: Spanish; Guatemalan traditional; translation Christine Carson (Scotland) © 1998 Christine Carson & WGRG, Iona Community (admin. GIA Publications, Inc.). All rights reserved. …

CMC service 7-24-22 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

Credits: 

The video above includes the full service, except for the time for sharing.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained through One License with license A-727859. Copyrights for songs given after the sermon text

Sermon | “Teach us to pray” 
Texts: Genesis 18:22-33; Luke 11:1-4
Speaker: Joel Miller

One day Jesus was praying.  Afterwards, one of his disciples, apparently speaking for the group, asks: “Lord teach us to pray.”

It’s a curious question.  The disciples would have been around prayer their whole lives and no doubt had given it a try a few times themselves.  They had been surrounded by liturgies, and blessings, and intercessions, and benedictions from birth to the present moment and yet they come to Jesus with this simple, loaded request: “Teach us to pray.”  

And Jesus, for once, gives a pretty direct answer to an inquiry. 

He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”   (Luke 11:2-4)

This is Luke’s version of what we call the Lord’s prayer.  The longer version we’re more familiar with appears in Matthew.

When asked by his companions to teach them to pray, Jesus offers them – words.  These words.  Word that the church in all its diversity of cultures and languages, has been praying ever since. 

Words that express an intimate familiarity – Abba, Father – yet reverence for the Divine – you are holy.

Words that speak of a kingdom, or a kin-dom, that becomes better known and realized in lived reality.

Words that speak to our most basic human needs and longings.  Daily bread.  Forgiveness and grace…

jul 17-Up to 4K from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

The first 10 minutes of the service are unavailable due to internet issues. 

Credits:

The video above includes the full service, except for the time for sharing.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained through One License with license A-727859.

Holy Spirit, Come with Power  – Voices Together #57.  Text: Anne Neufeld Rupp (USA), ©1970 Anne Neufeld Rupp. Used with permission of Byron Rupp (current copyright holder).  Music: attr. B.F. White (USA), The Sacred Harp, 1844; harm. Joan Fyock Norris (USA), © 1989 Joan Fyock Norris. All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved. 

Gott Ist gegenwärtig (God Is Here among Us) – Voices Together #62.  Text: Gerhard Tersteegen (present-day Germany), Geistliches Blumengärtlein, 1729; trans. The Hymnal, 1940, alt.; Music: Joachim Neander (present-day Germany), Alpha und Omega, Glaub-und Liebesübung, 1680.  Public domain.

Faith Begins By Letting Go – Voices Together #585. Text: Carl P. Daw Jr. (USA), 1995, © 1996 Hope Publishing Company. Music: David J. Gonzol (USA), © 2019 David J. Gonzol. All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved. 

Together – Voices Together #389. Text & Music: Nathan Grieser (USA), 2014, rev. 2018, © 2014 Nathan Grieser, MennoMedia Inc.  All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-727859.  All rights reserved. 

New Earth, Heavens New – Voices Together #377. Text: Harris J. Loewen (Canada), 1982, Assembly Songs, 1983, rev. 2019. Music: Harris J. Loewen, 1982, Assembly Songs, 1983; acc. Andrea Welty Peachey (USA). © 1991 Hope Publishing Co. All rights reserved.   Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from…

CMC Worship07:10:2022.mp4 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

The video above includes the full service, except for the time for sharing.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained through One License with license A-727859.

Sermon Manuscript

Saved by a Samaritan 
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Speaker: Joel Miller

There’s a story in the book of 2 Chronicles that gets told about as often as other stories from 2 Chronicles – not much.  It happens during the days of King Ahaz.  Ahaz was one of the bad kings of Jerusalem.  Chronicles has two categories for kings.  Either they “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” like David and Solomon.  Like Jotham, Ahaz’s father.  And Hezekiah Ahaz’s son.  Or they “did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”  Like King Jehorah.  Like Ahaz.  In Chronicles, when Jerusalem has a king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, good things happen – like a building campaign.  Like military victories, or years of peace in the land.  When Jerusalem has a king who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, bad things happen.  Disease, famine, military defeats.  2 Chronicles is so committed to this pattern that it tends to leave out the bad things that happened during the reign of righteous kings – failures and missteps – things that its main source, 2 Kings, includes.

When Chronicles introduces a new king, after the father has died, we’re told how old they were when they began their reign, how long their reign lasted, and, right up front, whether they did or didn’t do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  The statement serves as some not-so-subtle foreshadowing about whether good or bad things…

CMC service 7-3-22 from Gwen Reiser on Vimeo.

The video above includes the full service, except for the time for sharing.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained through One License with license A-727859.

Sermon Manuscript
Texts: Acts 4:32–37; 2 Cor 8:1-15
Guest Speaker: Alison Casella Brookins

Interdependence Sunday

So. Happy Independence day weekend. The favorite Mennonite holiday celebrating the

beginning of a war, commemorated every year by the setting of off tiny bombs all night

for a whole weekend (or, where I live in Chicago, for a month), the holiday when babies

can’t sleep and dogs go on poop strike.

When I’m explaining Mennonites, I often say: “Our denomination holds its meeting

every other year over the 4th of July weekend in a conference center in the hottest place

in the country. No one else is holding their conference in the sweltering heat of a holiday

weekend, so it’s inexpensive. This demonstrates our core values: not aligning too closely

with the political state, and being cheap.”

Independence day.

This holiday makes me uncomfortable. But I think it’s something deeper than just a

reaction against the “rockets’ red glare.” There’s something at the core of what it means

to our society to be American, to be independent, to be free, that feels very twisted.

**

I was not financially viable in my early to mid 20s.

I had quit college in my third year to intern on farms for a few years and then moved

back to my hometown to figure out what the heck I was going to do next. I worked—a

lot—but all low-paying work, a mix of barista-ing and gig work cleaning houses,

babysitting, and farm and garden work for friends and family.

When I figured out that I really did need to finish college I balked at the price tag. There

was no way THAT was going to work.

I talked…