View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon It had been a long, hot summer. The windless air was stagnant, refusing to blow in the much needed rain clouds. The blazing sun was burning up whatever sparse grass remained along the hillsides, so the shepherds were forced to wander farther and farther away from home, in search of food for their animals. But it was a summer like any other. The shepherd was tired. He had left his wife and…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon The Rock and the Wind Matt. 16: 13-20 Just over a week ago, in North Carolina – as the sun was rising, I woke, got dressed quickly and headed up the mountain behind our hotel room at the Ridgecrest Conference centre. The early morning sun was shining on the mountains above me, but had not yet risen far enough to illuminate the hotel and so being the morning person I am –…
View Archives Sermons Listen to this Sermon Listen and Understand Texts: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Matthew 15:10-28 I have seen the wind, our framing metaphor for sermons this summer, gives opportunity to reflect on some of the surprising ways in which God speaks to us. As I’ve meditated on today’s sermon over the past month or so, there have been a number of instances where it wasn’t difficult to sense the Spirit’s presence. One was at Mennonite Church Canada’s Annual…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Service Have You Seen the Wind?: Comfort in the unpredictable Matthew 14: 22-33 As Emily and the children have reminded us, we last heard the sound of wind chimes here on Pentecost Sunday when we used them to symbolize the wind that entered the room where Jesus’ followers were praying and waiting for the Spirit of Jesus to comfort them. But it didn’t just comfort them, it gave them power: strange power. …
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Service Marilyn and John’s wedding Text: Ephesians 4,5 Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togevah, too-day. Mawage, that bwessed event, That dweam wiffin a dweam I threatened them that I would start this way; so there you have it, nothing else to fear, right? For those of you who don’t recognize them, these are the classic lines delivered by the bishop in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride. The movie is…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Genesis 32:22-31; Matthew 14:13-21; Romans 9:1-5 I have seen the wind. I have seen the wind on the Sumas prairie, where I grew up, near Abbotsford, BC. One fall, in the 1970s, we woke up after a night of the howling wind that picks up speed as it swoops down into the Fraser Valley near Chilliwack and into the Sumas flats. Our neighbour, half a kilometre away across the…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Genesis 28:10-19a This week as I prepared my sermon I had the opportunity to “hang out” with or spend time with the biblical characters Isaac, and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah, and Laban. If there is ever any comfort to be had in contemplating one’s own family dysfunctions, just spend some time with these characters in Genesis. Our text for today does not give you the big picture of…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Matt. 13: 9-17 This morning I come to you both full and tired. Full of ideas, discussions, words, opinions expressed and stories shared – both public stories from the podium at the Assembly and private stories from new and renewed friends and acquaintances. I’m also full of the joy of worship at Assembly as well as full of the tensions and laments expressed over some of the decisions…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Two week’s ago we celebrated Pentecost, remembering how the Spirit of God came like a rushing wind, equipping and empowering the frightened disciples to become instruments of God. In her Pentecost sermon, Marilyn invited us to consider where we have seen the wind, where we have seen the work of the Spirit. And she invited us to prepare for Pentecost moments of the Spirit by opening ourselves to receive the…
View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon Pentecost Acts 2: 1-21 Marilyn Zehr It is another good morning to be gathered together as the people of God on this Pentecost Sunday. The wind is blowing – have you seen it? Our summer theme, which we begin today, invites us to recall times when we have seen the wind. In biblical and doctrinal terms we are being invited to notice when and where we have seen evidence of…