Sermons

 

 

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.
...

 

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 GoVoices Together #585. Text: Carl P. Daw Jr. (USA), 1995, © 1996 Hope Publishing Company. Music: David J. Gonzol (USA),...

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...

 

 

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 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: Of mantles, discipleship, and NYC
Texts: 2 Kings 2:1-2,6-14; Luke 9:51-62
Speaker: Joel Miller

For spring break this year Abbie and I took Eve and Lily to New York City.  Ila had some special time with her grandparents in Bellefontaine.  Despite spring break being a break from school, I found myself unable to resist the urge to be our high school daughters’ self-appointed teacher for the week.  Especially in regards to how that city that plays such a large role in their culture.

The first time we got on the subway I pointed to the white brick-pattern tiles lining the cavernous walls.  “You know those tiles in our shower at home?” I asked.  This is why we call them subway tiles.  New York City.  I hadn’t planned this little lesson.  It just kind of happened.     

The girls...

Pages