The letter of James, short and concise, yet filled with deep wisdom and hope for followers of Jesus, has been our companion for the last three weeks. In our first week in James, we explored 4 interconnected themes that form the foundation of the rest of the letter. Because our God, the God revealed in… Read More »

Part 1 (Reflections on James and Central Plains Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly): As you heard in the children’s story, Jada and I participated both in the annual assembly with Central Plains Mennonite Conference and the biennial national convention for MCUSA. The annual assembly was June 18-19, while MennoCon21 was July 6-10. Both of us participated… Read More »

We are in our second week, walking through the letter of James. Last week, we explored 4 themes in the first 18 verses of the first chapter: God is generous and gracious, so we can ask God for what we are lacking; as followers of Jesus, we are all on our own journey of becoming… Read More »

Over the next 5 weeks, we will be exploring the letter of James. Located between Hebrews and the letters of 1 and 2 Peter, it sits near the end of the New Testament. I think though that we are in a unique season that calls for this particular letter. First, James gave his audience in… Read More »

When I was growing up, I didn’t go to public school until the middle of my 5th grade year. Mom had kept my older brother, my younger brother, and I home for school. Because we came along during my oldest brothers’ elementary years, mom was not able to keep them at home as long. At… Read More »

Summer of stories, summer of parables. This morning’s parable is our last for this summer. We have listened and imagined several of Jesus’s stories, stories about forgiveness and generosity, ingenuity and inclusion, security and fellowship. We have explored parables about rich people and their possessions, about foolish parents and wandering children, about creative solutions to… Read More »

Summer of stories; summer of parables. The bible is full of stories. In our time together this summer, we have not discussed all of Jesus’s parables in the gospels but have focused on a select few, specifically 7 of the long parables. In those stories, we have explored forgiveness and generosity, inclusion and ingenuity, and… Read More »

Summer of stories; summer of parables. We have spent the last four weeks wrestling with Jesus’s favorite way of communicating in the gospels: telling stories that reveal something deep and true about the kingdom of God and the ways of empire. Through the parable of the unforgiving servant, we explored the difficult work of forgiveness,… Read More »

Summer of stories. We have been studying some of Jesus’s stories, called parables, over the last few weeks. We began with the story in Matthew 18 of the unforgiving or unmerciful servant, in which we explored the difficulty and hard work of forgiveness. In our second week on the 4th of July, we looked at… Read More »