Podcast – Pasadena Mennonite Church
152 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsAn Anabaptist Community in the Los Angeles Area
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Resurrection and Overcoming “Innocence”
April 05, 2021 21:03Our Easter reflection focuses on a Jesus who comes and dismantles the stories of oppression, colonization, and death that we have been formed into and invites us into eternal life in the present. Where the powers of the earth are not Lord; where death is not the last word; but Jesus is Lord, who comes in life and forgiveness. The post Resurrection and Overcoming “Innocence” appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Resurrection and Overcoming Innocence
April 05, 2021 21:03 - 15.3 MBOur Easter reflection focuses on a Jesus who comes and dismantles the stories of oppression, colonization, and death that we have been formed into and invites us into eternal life in the present. Where the powers of the earth are not Lord; where death is not the last word; but Jesus is Lord, who comes in life and forgiveness.
The Stairwell of Love
March 30, 2021 00:18 - 6.4 MBRob leads us through Jesus’s journey down the “Stairwell of Love.” Beginning with Philippians 2:1-11, Rob shows us how Jesus begins a descent out of love and obedience. This loving journey down this stairwell is mirrored in the days of Jesus’s crucifixion. Jesus moves from the top of the staircase, likeness with God, divinity, and moves through humanity, betrayal, arrest, denial, dissertation, and eventually crucifixion and into the grave.
The Time We Live In
March 23, 2021 20:46 - 14.1 MBThe people of Israel waited hundreds of years for the promise of a new reality, where, as Jeremiah prophesied, God would restore the people and write his Law on their hearts. Jesus, himself, tells us that the times have changed, that God’s salvation is at hand, that we are in a new time and a new reality. Though this can be difficult to imagine, we are called into a promise and living hope; God is with us and working through us. As we join in Jesus’ posture of humility and sacrifice, we also ...
Jesus and the Bronze Serpent
March 19, 2021 18:10 - 14.4 MBThis Week, we consider the strange comparison made in John 3 between Jesus and the story about Moses lifting up a Bronze serpent in the wilderness. Using a reflection from Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama, we reflect on how the central image of Christianity, the cross, is not a "bridge" but an encounter and a conflict.
Sign Language
March 16, 2021 22:02 - 22.8 MBThis week sermon, Jason leads us in considering signs, the signs that we reflect and display as we live in the way of the crucified. After considering the signs and significations of artist Retna, Jason contemplates Jesus’s clearing of the temple in John 2. Making the comparison to the false worship found in Jesus’s time with the false worship of Christian nationalism, power, and violence seen on display at the “temple of democracy,” Jason contends that rather than “abandoning the sign of th...
Faith of a Future Not Our Own
March 03, 2021 00:50 - 9.84 MBThis week, Erica Scoffield Nellessen led us in a reflection on faith. She calls us to consider our faith as a faith beyond our own vision, but that is a hope in the faithful God. To this end, she invites us to consider both Jesus's call to Peter to step out in faith, and God's call Abraham to step out similarly. This faith is a trust and belief in God's own vision and love, a living out a beautiful imagination, a commitment deeper than our ability to see how it all works out, a faith grounde...
Jesus, the Wilderness
February 28, 2021 19:03 - 17.8 MBThis week we reflected on the beginning of our Lenten journey in the wilderness and how our imagination of wilderness shapes this journey. Doing so, we spent time thinking about white-settler colonialism, its "wilderness," and the recent Supreme Court win for the Creek nation. In resetting our imaginations we think of wilderness as a place where we hold joy and lament in the hope of life, flipping the script on common perceptions of wilderness. The post Jesus, the Wilderness appeared first ...
Healing and Wholeness
February 24, 2021 23:15 - 17.8 MBOn February 14th, as part of PMC's first healing service amid the pandemic, Mariann offered this reflection on healing and wholeness, and Romans 12:10-15 While certainly physical healing is part of this, this sermon focuses on the ways that we can be agents of healing, promoting healthy systems and healthy relationship, as agents of God's love and seeking our own wholeness amid this current moment. As a community we are invited into creating and resting in frameworks of love. As the reflecti...
Dwell in Love: A Consecration Sunday Sermon
February 03, 2021 01:01 - 10.4 MBEvery year at Pasadena Mennonite, we engage in something called Consecration Sunday. On this day, we take stock of our common community, recommit to our Covenant of Faith, determine how we will be able to contribute to our community throughout the year in our time and finances, and sometimes we even welcome some new members into our community. This Consecration Sunday, Tim preached on abiding in love, in the foundational, mysterious, and overwhelming love of God, that, strangely enough is ma...
Whiteness and the Mark of Cain
January 18, 2021 21:43 - 19.1 MBReflecting on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, we remember the King rejected by polite society, pushed to the fringes of social discourse, and still relentless in his concern for justice in his fight against racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. This sermon focuses on King’s last days and last speech, while considering “the mark of Cain,” a trope traditionally used to justify the enslavement of Black and Brown people. The real mark of Cain, Cain's foundational violence, is visi...
The Christmas Star
January 06, 2021 01:33 - 8.24 MBThe reflection that was provided by the heavens during Christmas week was perfect: in the midst of our seeming darkness, we saw a Christmas star — though it was actually the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. Christmas falls amid the darkest days of the year. In scripture, the star illumines the way for the Magi, but they still need to recalibrate their expectations. Assuming they know where the newborn king should be, they go to the power-center of the region, Jerusalem, to find Herod, who ...
Do Not Fear
January 05, 2021 21:32 - 16.4 MBDo not fear! These are the angel’s words to Mary. But there is so much to fear! So much to anticipate! Something is coming. Something has already come. Change is on the horizon. Change is already overwhelming us. When the angel’s words come to her, what does Mary hear? Mary’s world was also unsettled, living as she did under Roman occupation. Her song, praising God who turns the world upside down, shows us that she is well aware of the injustices of the world around her. Yet she comes to...
On the Road to Restoration
December 16, 2020 22:43 - 15.3 MBIsaiah 61 involves some of the same geographies that are in the news today: Iraq, Israel, and Iran. Iraq roughly correlates with the ancient nation of Babylon. In 597 BC, Babylon invades Judah — the remaining southern kingdom of Israel that hadn’t yet fallen. Judah becomes an occupied territory. Ten years later Jerusalem is leveled. In 539 BC, Persia defeats Babylon, and the exiles of Judah are allowed to return home — to a homeland that has been destroyed. Yet there is joy in returning. A...
Preparing the Way of the Lord
December 09, 2020 22:59 - 11.5 MBAdvent is a season of preparation — doing the work of getting ready for the Lord to come. Yet this year preparing for advent has felt really tough, and the stakes for what’s coming have never felt so high. This year has been hard. Yet Isaiah 40:26-31 points us toward God and his strength and presence in our weariness. Our hope is in midst of the messiness of human weakness. The post Preparing the Way of the Lord appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
The Prayer of Advent
December 09, 2020 02:09 - 16.2 MBIn many ways, Advent is a prayer. We come to this time amid our own trials, amid a world of uncertainty and hurt — real pressures and hardships — but we also come with an expectation and a hope. We come bearing one another’s burdens and we come in anticipation of a coming Savior. It is a season long prayer — a meditation that is both lament and hope — existing in tension. But it is a moving into hope. The post The Prayer of Advent appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
The Responsibilities of Sheep
December 02, 2020 01:54 - 89.3 MB VideoOn November 22nd, Sarah Fuller engaged the lectionary passages of Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Matthew 25: 31-46. In these passages, it seems that there are some responsibilities that belong to sheep|people and some that belong to God|the shepherd. So how do we work for good, in obedience — while leaving judgement to God? The post The Responsibilities of Sheep appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Why Are You Here?
November 18, 2020 21:38 - 122 MB VideoTim talks about Elijah waiting in a cave for the presence of God, and Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. "I wonder if now, after this election, amid this pandemic, we find ourselves pausing to decompress, to take stock, though we are all surely processing it differently. Pauses can be helpful and necessary, chances to heal and reflect, as long as we remain mindful that we cannot simply hold onto these moments as if we do not have a journey ahead of us." The post Why Are You Here? appear...
Our Hope: the Love of Jesus Transforming our World
November 10, 2020 23:04 - 83.1 MB VideoWhat happens in this world matters very much. The Anabaptist way invests in helping to bring about God’s justice in this broken world. That can become an overwhelming burden — especially at times when it seems fruitless. Yet God is on a mission of transforming and redeeming this world, which started long before us and will continue after. We are invited and called into that work, but ultimately, it’s God’s work. God’s way is bigger than our political solutions, and vastly more creative — a...
Micah: the People of God Divided
November 04, 2020 01:21 - 139 MB VideoNov 1st — many of us are are distracted, exhausted, anxious, hopeful, emotional. We’re invested — not only in the election, but even more so in it’s aftermath. How do we hear God today? Micah was a mouthpiece for God during a time of turbulence and political unrest. On a national scale, the people of God were divided: Israel in the north, and Judah in the south, two kingdoms and two rulers. But they were still the one people who had made a promise of devotion to God — promised in the time ...
Christianity and Law
October 28, 2020 00:26 - 147 MB VideoIn this time of change and upheaval, summer uprisings that brought cracks in law enforcement and culture to the forefront, and another difficult presidential race — the idea of delighting in law brings tension. What do the seemingly idealistic words of Psalm 1 say to us in such a moment? Frank Scoffield Nellessen sees Psalm 1 as casting a beautiful vision of the world. The psalmist sees that God's law is delightful — and is actually a window into another world: a vision of God's world. The...
Images of God
October 20, 2020 21:50 - 105 MB VideoDo we know that God is a God of love AND of justice? Of compassion AND of holiness? Our images of God are snapshots. They guide us, but inevitably also distort our unapproachable God. They are necessary for us, but provisional and incomplete. Today's passages features words like judgement, justice, and righteousness. If we're scarred by a judgemental image of God, these terms may be off-putting. In Psalm 96, God is a judge. For the psalmist this is cause for rejoicing: God is concerned with...
Our Invitation to the Banquet of Justice
October 13, 2020 19:44 - 32.7 MB VideoOn October 11, Bert Newton spoke to the parable of the wedding banquet from Matthew 22:1-14. In Bert's words: Jesus tells a parable about a banquet of justice that the upper classes fail to attend. The result is the destruction of their city. In many ways the well-to-do and privileged and powerful of our society have largely been absent from the feast of justice, and it has led to many of the problems that now plague us. The good news is that we have so many ways that we can answer the call...
The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience & Kindness
October 07, 2020 01:34 - 62.4 MB VideoTim Reardon contines a series on the fruit of the spirit: kindness matters. How do we cultivate kindess in community? How did Jesus demonstrate kindness? And how kind can we manage to be? Mother Theresa kind? Perfectly kind as our our heavenly Father is kind? Our calling is to wholeness. Our measure is the kindness that God has shown to us. And we move toward this wholeness by drawing near to God. We imitate God as dearly loved children — moving toward a love that casts out fear. The post ...
Maybe Nonresistance IS Enough
October 07, 2020 00:10 - 59.5 MB VideoAre there times that we are called to absorb evil on behalf of others? Are we to resist evil? Much of Anabaptist history focused on non-resistance — even to evil. How does that contrast with our current expectation of nonviolent resistance? On September 27th, Bob Nolty brought those questions, as well as stories of nonresistance. He references 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 and Matthew 5:38-48, talks about Chief Joseph and his commitment to nonviolence, the Cherokee removal of the 1820's and 30's,...
The Fruit of the Spirit: Love
September 25, 2020 00:39 - 165 MB VideoOn September 13th, Tim Reardon began a series on the fruit of the spirit. He references Galatians 5:22-26 and 1 John 4:7-12. Paul is upset within the letter. He is addressing groups of people who have adopted practices designed to create hierarchies, and to divide — to exert power over one another. Tim's words are an entry point from which to think about the fruit of the Spirit, and the garden imagery Paul uses. This is the Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, who rested upon Je...
Reconciliation and the Cross
September 02, 2020 04:24 - 180 MB VideoTim references the 2 Corinthians passage as one that talks about a reconciliation that goes to the cross. A reconciliation that unmasks rather than props up the powers of violence and crucifixion. It lays bare the injustice and evil of the violence that supports them. Why then does the cross point to reconciliation? We see the justness of Christ, the love from which he comes. Christ seeks us out, so that we see the injustice of violence that comes to a head — state violence — and yet more. T...
Reconciliation with Others
August 26, 2020 00:42 - 113 MB VideoTim Reardon continues our theme of Reconciliation in relation to other people in response to the text of 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2. Tim sees in this passage a grand vision of reconciliation — one that calls us to love and by love — but also calls us to justice. Reconciliation is a beautiful but difficult concept. It calls us to a wholeness and peace in God, with each other, with all creation, and within ourselves. Yet the term is often abused: too often the focus is on the part of conciliatin...
Reconciliation with Creation
August 19, 2020 00:37 - 40.3 MB VideoRob Muthiah continues our theme of Reconciliation in response to the creation and Romans 8:18-25. Rob talks about the importance of air, water and soil in creation, and our need to reconcile our relationship with them in today's environment. Beyond that, he demonstrates how reconciliation with Christ requires us to face the inherent racism tied to the degradation of creation. The post Reconciliation with Creation appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Reconciliation with Ourselves
August 11, 2020 23:16 - 31.5 MBMelissa Hofstetter continues our theme of Reconciliation with the story of Zacchaeus from Luke 19: 1-10. She unlocks some of the language that tells us more about Zacchaeus from his name, and that plays on the applications of the idea of stature. Melissa weaves the story for us, and leads us into reflection on how it relates to the need to reconcile with ourselves and others — involving self-reflection, repentance, and restitution — restoring us to who we were meant and made to be. The po...
Reconciliation with God
August 05, 2020 01:08 - 44.3 MBThis Sunday, we began a four-part series on reconciliation, a value important to Mennonites, but also one that can be understood in many differing ways and often times misused. Tim offers up our first sermon in the series with a discussion of reconciliation with God, where he discusses the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) and the reconciliation that God offers us and the world. The post Reconciliation with God appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
God is Bigger than Death
July 29, 2020 18:10 - 22.5 MBDiving into Romans 8:26-39, Joe Bautista paints a detailed history of Rome at the time of Paul's letter, as well as Paul's history given in previous verses. In the last half of Chapter 8 of Paul's epistle to the Romans, Paul encourages the readers of his letter that the Spirit intercedes for them and that God is on their side. Despite the suffering they endure from masters, the Empire, and from the world at large, they "overwhelmingly conquer" (NASB). Not only that, but all the cosmic force...
Why I Am a Mennonite: Radical Imagination, Part 2
July 21, 2020 23:10 - 45.5 MBTim Reardon's sermon this week follows on the heels of his sermon on Radical Imagination two weeks ago: our call to completion in the love of God of Matthew 5:48. This love is, and emanates from, God. We are loved, meant to be loved, and return fully into that love. We do not know love completely, but we strive after it, imagine it, dwell in it, yield to it, are formed by it. Our completion is tied to God's complete love. And while we know Matthew 38-48, the admonition to turn the other che...
Why I Am a Mennonite: Reconcilation
July 15, 2020 20:10 - 25.1 MBIn the ‘cancel culture’ we live in, Christians are still called to seek loving interpersonal conflict and reconciliation, which is central to Mennonite practice. Melissa share’s here how being given a vision for reconciliation at PMC inspired her to commit to the Mennonite tradition. She delves into the value of reconciliation and shares radical stories of forgiveness. The post Why I Am a Mennonite: Reconcilation appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Why I Am a Mennonite
July 01, 2020 23:47 - 16.6 MBJudy Augsburger's beautiful summation of a lifetime as a Mennonite, anchored in the love of the God of the prodigal son in Luke 15: 11-32. "I think it’s not uncommon for people who are raised in a predominantly Mennonite community to want move away from the community for a awhile, try to step outside of it, so that they can then enter back in with a sense that they are truly making their own choice." Judy describes how this shaped her view of the world. "I learned to read the Bible in a wa...
Living in Freedom
June 16, 2020 20:42 - 38.6 MBLast Sunday, Frank Scoffield Nellessen addressed the current call to solidarity with those suffering violence in the spirit of Galatians 5:1: For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery; and 1 John 4:18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. Listen as Frank speaks to the movement of God's spirit toward dismantling systems ...
Why I Am A Mennonite: Creative Community
June 10, 2020 20:28 - 47.7 MBOn June 7th, Jason Smith, in signature style, wove together art, scripture, theological reflection, and the application of the woven strands to our community. He reflects on the creation story of Genesis 1:1 through 2:4a — the seven days of creation, and the patterns set that are born out throughout scripture. He uses as example "The Ancient of Days" — a series of etched and handcolored prints by William Blake. He talks about the God's consistent value of the last and the least. And he paint...
Ask, Seek, Knock
June 10, 2020 19:38 - 29.8 MBOn May 31st, David Gist prepared us for an advocacy campaign — with Luke 11:5-13, where Jesus tells a parable teaching us how to advocate for those in need. David notes that Jesus comforts his disciples, and us in turn. In this time of pain following the murder of George Floyd, over the weaponization of racism by Amy Cooper in Central Park, and the hunting down of Ahmad Arbery — and the many lives taken before these. Many are grieving over hurt, neglect, bigotry, white supremacy and the vio...
Why I am a Mennonite: Don’t Tell Me; Show Me
May 26, 2020 22:51 - 19.7 MBSarah Fuller, PMC congregant and a member of a Catholic Worker community in Los Angeles, continued our series "Why I am a Mennonite," basing her thoughts in Matthew 25:31-46. It is a passage from which we get the traditional list of the “Works of Mercy”: Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. The post Why I am a Mennonite: Don’t Tell Me; Show Me appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Why I am a Mennonite
May 26, 2020 22:51Sarah Fuller, PMC congregant and a member of a Catholic Worker community in Los Angeles, continued our series "Why I am a Mennonite," basing her thoughts in Matthew 25:31-46. It is a passage from which we get the traditional list of the “Works of Mercy”: Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. This care of practical needs of others as a spiritual practice is a central part of both Mennonite an...
Why I am (still) a Mennonite
May 19, 2020 20:49 - 26.9 MBEric Schnitger shares thoughts about how our history shapes where we arrive, the Mennonite "melodies" of pacifism (though complex); of consensus decision making — truly hearing and valuing the variety of points of view within community; and the value of mutual aid — which takes work given how counter-cultural it is. He then visits the question of what keeps him returning to his anabaptist faith. In the reality of the hurts that come within families and communities, Eric finds meaningful the...
God, Our Mother
May 13, 2020 23:05 - 37.7 MBOn Mother's Day, Tim Reardon spoke about God, Our Mother — a metaphor that helps us to image an aspect of God. Language is powerful, and can provide a lens to envision God more fully. And there is a history in the church of images of God as mother. We read from Hosea 11:1-4, where God as parent calls Israel son, teaches Ephraim to walk, takes Israel into his arms, leads with human kindness and love, lifts them as one would an infant to the cheek, and bends to feed them. From there we re...
The Fruit of the Spirit
April 29, 2020 20:59Our youth periodically take over the planning and leading of our worship service — always a wonderful learning experience for us. I find the closing statement of each especially moving: Through the power of the Spirit, when I am at my best, I am an icon of God's... The post The Fruit of the Spirit appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Solidarity in Apocalyptic Times
April 21, 2020 21:59 - 25.6 MBThe Parable of the Unjust Manager has long confounded commentators, but perhaps we are better able to hear it in these “apocalyptic” times. Perhaps the current crisis can open our eyes to see things, and to see people, that we were unable to see before. The post Solidarity in Apocalyptic Times appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
Resurrection
April 14, 2020 21:55He is risen! For many of us, this must be a strange time to celebrate Easter. Some have called for us even to pause our Easter until churches can meet together and truly celebrate the victory that is the resurrection, extending Lent until we might emerge from our own metaphorical grave. I do understand this impulse. Nevertheless, I am more inclined to follow the wisdom of a certain young Maggie Brannon (3 years old), related to me in a text from Drew a little over a week ago, “No one can st...
New and Unexpected Normal
April 08, 2020 19:46 - 21.7 MBLisa Thornton reflects on Matthew 20-20-28, where the mother of Zebedee's sons bring them before Jesus to ask if they might sit at Jesus' side in his kingdom. Lisa notes Jesus' reply that they do not know what it is they are asking. What they envision is not how things will be in his kingdom. She talks reflects on our own "new normal" in the social distancing of Covid-19. This too is not what we were expecting. But we are invited to envision ways in which it might become more than what we ...
Talking to Lost Sheep is Hard
April 01, 2020 02:53 - 35.2 MBLisa Danner talks about the instructions of how to talk to our brother/sister if they have sinned against us, found in Matthew 18. She illustrates some ways that this is hard to do, perhaps especially in our current society, and the fact that many of us attempt to prioritize peace or acceptance with people who offend us—often because pursuing them or trying to correct them simply doesn’t go well. The post Talking to Lost Sheep is Hard appeared first on Pasadena Mennonite Church.
The Canaanite Woman
March 24, 2020 21:03 - 25.1 MBFor our second COVID-19 Zoom service, Erica Nellessen preached to us from Mathew 15:21-28 — a passage about a Canaanite woman, which it turns out is a significant phrase in itself. this is a disruptive story. It’s in your face. Some of Jesus’ actions here are confusing at best and violent and racist at worst. But this is an encounter that disrupts our view of who Jesus is, who his followers are and how the kingdom operates. It’s a story that I had never heard preached in all my years in t...
Jesus in the Ordinary Sacred Spaces
March 04, 2020 22:22 - 32.8 MBFor our first Sunday of Lent, Lila Hunt spoke to Matthew 4:18-22, and the version of calling of the first disciples that this gospel presents. Referencing her history with the passage, and where her interpretation in the past had led her, she wanted to take a new look at the passage from a lens on the actions of Jesus in the passage, as he walks by the sea of Galilee. What if we were to take a closer look at the human side of Jesus — walking in the presence of God, sensitive to God's voice,...
The Color of Racism and the Color of Baptism
February 19, 2020 18:56 - 32 MBOn February 16th, Rob Muthiah spoke from Acts 2:1-12; 37-42; and 16:1-5 in the context of the the outpouring of God’s love and the expansive and inclusive nature of God’s mission. But somewhere along the way, the church in the West began to develop and live into a different vision. A new way of understanding who God wanted to bless began to emerge. And a new way of relating people to one another began to unfold, a schema that assigned value to people based on a color scale. The...