Sermons

CMC Service 5-1-22 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 | A common center, ever-expanding

Text: John 21:1-17
Speaker: Joel Miller

Every fall I teach an Inquirers Sunday school class. It’s open to anyone, with a special invitation to new-ish folks. We do an overview of Christian faith in a Mennonite perspective and look at the story of this congregation.

One of the things we talk about is a couple different ways of forming community. One focuses on strong boundaries, the other focuses on a strong center. If you’ve been part of that class, this will sound familiar.

In a community with strong boundaries, there’s a pretty clear line between who’s in and who’s out. Or at least what you need to do to be in, and stay in. In congregations this often comes down to a set of beliefs and a few moral issues. The key is whether a personal can...

Worship | Keeping CMC Safe Sunday | April 24

CMC Service 4/24/2022 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.

Sacred Work

Scripture: John 20:19-29

(Sermon by Mark Rupp)

Last Sunday while I was worship leading, I mentioned that Easter is not just a day, but a season. It is a season on the liturgical calendar that extends through Pentecost and invites us to ask the “so what?” questions about the resurrection that we celebrate on Easter day.

So what? These questions about what Easter–what the resurrection–means for us today are questions that we ask all year long. In fact, if you’ve ever done the math about how Lent is supposed to represent the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, you may have noticed that on the calendar, Lent lasts longer than 40 days. This is because Sundays don’t count toward those 40 days of repentance and contemplating our mortality. Every Sunday is meant to be a kind of “mini-Easter” celebration.

I’ll let you decide...

Worship | Easter Sunday | Turn/Return | April 17

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 | Return from the depths, turning toward life

Texts: John 19:38-20:1,11-18; 1 Peter 3:18-22

Speaker: Joel Miller

When I say “Christ is Risen” you say “Christ is Risen Indeed.”

Christ is Risen…

Every story, we are told, has a beginning, middle, and end. Our lives track this simple outline with our birth, our life, and our death.

It’s one of the great wonders and delights of Easter to break the mold of this story.

On Easter morning, “early on the first day of the week,” as John and the other gospels tell us, Mary Magdalene, and other women, visit the tomb. This is a story that starts with a tomb. Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ death on a cross, is what begins the Easter story.

The cross has come to be...

Good Friday Service | April 15

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.

Prelude

Guitar improvisation

Quartet - VT 325 | O Sacred Head Now Wounded, Vs. 1 and 2

Welcome

Call to Worship

On this night, as the shadows deepen,

We come to be present with Jesus.

With the glory of Palm Sunday behind us and the victory of Easter not yet come,

We will sit together in this space with our listening and breaking hearts.

In this world that is at once beautiful and tragic,

We seek to be present with all who suffer.

We will be present with ourselves

In the dark valleys of life, when sorrow threatens to overwhelm,

We long for a safe and sacred space to sit with our grief and our questions.

Jesus Christ, holy friend,

We know that you are here with us.

Let us...

Worship | Palm Sunday | April 10

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 | Parades and parables of peace | Palm Sunday
Text: Luke 19:28-42
Speaker: Joel Miller

We all have places we return to each year. These are the places that remind us who we are. Or at least give us a chance to reflect on who we’ve been and who we are becoming. I’m likely in the minority of people my age whose parents still live in the house where I was born and raised. Going back to Mom and Dad’s, or to the farm, or 1471 – the county road address I memorized at a young age – Going back there, even if for a brief stop, is always full of memory and meaning. A family cabin, or a camp, or a beloved destination spot can become a spiritual home that we return to, a place we can...

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