Raleigh Mennonite Church

Raleigh Mennonite Church
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Raleigh Mennonite Church Podcast

Audio from Raleigh Mennonite Church: primarily the sermons from Sunday morning worship, but some other surprises show up occasionally as well.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    An Impossible Pocket of Peace & Hope – Sept. 15, 2024

    Scriptures: Isaiah 2:1-11, Matthew 5:1-12 Melissa continues her sermon series, Hope in a Time of Fear, focusing on the book of Isaiah. As we're drawing closer to the election, what does hope look like for followers of Jesus? The people who heard Jesus' sermon on the mount may have been thinking about Isaiah's words when they heard Jesus speak. They had been crushed beneath the heels of a Roman occupation. And here, at this moment, when all hope is lost, the word of God is born into the world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. This is not the way it is in our world. The merciful are crushed by political pressures that announce being soft on crime. The pure in heart are taken advantage of and accused of being naïve. The poor face a crisis of debt and eviction. The meek are cast aside for faith and weapons. And yet, we hear in Isaiah: They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up nation, sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. A seemingly impossible scenario to ever occur. But the impossible is where we as followers of Jesus make our home. Take heart. Have no fear. Jesus is Lord!

    16 min

  2. SEP 1

    Hope: The mandate for our community – Sept. 1, 2024

    Scripture: Isaiah 1:1-3, 11-20 Our world is not well. Our politics are not well. Our land and our oceans and our air is not well. We may be anxious. About the future, about elections, about what comes next for you and your family. So this series based on Isaiah will spend time with people who are in the middle of political and social and personal crisis. These are the people of Judah in Jerusalem. The Bible is for people who are down on their luck. The Bible is for people facing odds and terrible outcomes. That's when hope shows up. That's when hope matters. The shape hope takes in our lives has everything to do with how we believe the universe is structured. Hope, writes Walter Brueggemann, is what this community must do. Because it's God's community.

    15 min

  3. AUG 25

    Jesus is the Bread of Life – Aug. 25, 2024

    In this last of Melissa's three-part series on Jesus' teaching on bread, the scripture was from John 6:56-59. As we eat this bread, this Jesus, we see God's life growing and healing us. We become a people; a people that believe that we love our neighbors as ourselves. We become a people who refuse to look away from suffering. We become a people who know that no one is the worst thing that they have done. We become a people who will move toward disaster and danger, because we know that is where God is waiting in the wreckage and where there is suffering. We also heard from Wick and Jude who shared about why they have chosen to become baptized.

    11 min

  4. AUG 19

    Chewing up Jesus – Aug. 18, 2024

    Melissa continues her three-part series on Jesus' discourse about bread. The bread of life, as Jesus talks about it in John 6:51-58, isn't a pill you swallow or compass giving directions. It's a feast that you get into. It's messy and visceral and fleshy. Jesus wants to get into our lives and become a part of us. Jesus wants to give us life and give it abundantly. Jesus doesn't intend for us to take a crumb of his life. He doesn't intend for us to use him as a ruler for measurements or a whip for self-destruction through guilt and shame. He is a meal, the life that fills us up, a life of abundance, a life that sustains us forever.

    14 min

  5. AUG 11

    God’s Persistent Care for Creatures – Aug 11, 2024

    Scripture: Exodus 16:4-8, 13-21 and John 6:35, 41-51 We, along with all the creatures of the world, are invited to be the fullness of our created being. The passages from Exodus and John tell a story of trust, a dependence on God. Jesus also reminds people about all of the non-human creatures who depend on the Creator for life. The story of manna and of Jesus's body is the story of God's persistent care for all creatures.

    14 min

  6. JUL 29

    Where Is God In Our Stories? – July 28, 2024

    2 Samuel 11: 1-5 Melissa Florer-Bixler's invites us to consider King David's abuse of power over Bathsheba, which mirrors abuses of positions of authority we now see in churches, businesses, and other institutions, especially since the beginning of the #MeToo era. The triumphant king in last week's sermon that danced with joy before God and her chosen people has now violated Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband, Uriah. Melissa cannot help but say the questions out loud that sit silent in our thoughts - where is God in this story? where is God in our stories? Listen to this week's sermon to see how Melissa uses the end of Bathsheba's story (which sees her son Solomon replace David on the throne of Israel) and God's intentional construction of the lineage and life of Jesus to demonstrate how God works to bring down the powerful who choose to exploit the weak and how God's abiding love inhabits all of our stories.

    12 min

  7. JUL 25

    Between Our Faith and the Valley of Shadows – July 21, 2024

    Psalm 23, Jeremiah 23: 1-6 What does it mean to wrestle with our faith when the word calls us not be afraid or reassures us of God's imminent just resolution to injustice? In their first sermon at RMC, intern Katie Magnum explores the connections between Psalm 23 and Jeremiah 23, which are vastly different in tone, but convey a message of God's intimacy and hope to both the individual believer and our corporate church body. Katie invites us to consider how we must turn to God and each other for comfort, guidance, and help in carrying out God's good will for all even when our global, local, and personal circumstances lead us into the valley of shadows.

    14 min

  8. JUL 15

    It’s Not More Truthful To Be Serious – July 14, 2024

    2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 What does David dancing with abandon, Jesus' life and suffering, a famous New York City gay nightclub, the subversion of toxic masculinity in modern Christianity, and the role that joy plays in the spiritual life of the church and the knowledge of God's character all have in common? Melissa Florer-Bixler ties all these disparate events and concepts together and shows how unabashed joy and playfulness in life and for God reveal truths about God's character and how surrendering to our sillier side can bring spiritual growth and build a healthier church community. The joy of the Lord is indeed our strength!

    12 min

  9. JUN 30

    The faith to be made well – June 30, 2024

    Susan and Hans provided a sermon dialogue based on the passage from Mark 5:21-43 of the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, a chief rabbi in the synagogue, whose daughter was deathly ill. They portrayed these two characters who met Jesus, allowing us to picture ourselves in the story. Through this imaginative retelling, we can be touched by the story and hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through the passage.

    15 min

  10. JUN 24

    No easy answers – June 23, 2024

    Susan Scott brought the message this morning from the book of Job. The story of Job is a literary construct. It's about faithfulness in adversity and raises a lot of questions, with no easy answers. Suffering often prompts a crisis of faith. It's okay to be angry at God; God can take it. Ultimately, God's love is bigger than our questions.

    15 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Audio from Raleigh Mennonite Church: primarily the sermons from Sunday morning worship, but some other surprises show up occasionally as well.

Information

  • Creator
    Raleigh Mennonite Church
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2024
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Raleigh Mennonite Church
  • Show Website
    Raleigh Mennonite Church

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