Sermons

We may have determined at some point in our lives, that to hope is to be sure of disappointment. There are many reasons to feel despair and a sense of hopelessness. So why hope at all? Sometimes it is hard to be hopeful; to live in hope and move forward in hope. So how can the stories of Rebecca and of Corrie ten Boom be stories of hope? And what assurance can they give us?

Read "Finding Rebecca, Finding Hope" from Eileen Klaassen or listen below

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Published: 10 September 2019

As we've been searching "Beyond Sunday" for the voice of God this summer, perhaps we've noticed that we're not the only ones out there with ideas about God and spirituality. How do we relate to those other religious and non-religious traditions and expressions, while remaining authentic to our own faith? How do we build relationships with those whose understanding of God is quite different from our own? Complex questions, but it begins with the posture of listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd beyond the walls of our familiar pastures.

Read "Beyond Ourselves" from Joe Heikman or listen below

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Published: 06 September 2019

Our Sunday worship service brought us 100 feet outside our doors, to the beautiful Wildwood Community Garden, carefully tended by WMCers and other members of our community. It was a "you had to be there" kind of service, so for the online record we'll simply share two poems by Wendell Berry that book-ended our worship:

V.

The cherries turn ripe, ripe,

and the birds come: red-headed

and red-bellied woodpeckers,

blue jays, cedar waxwings,

robins--beautiful, hungry, wild

in our domestic tree. I pick

with the birds, gathering the red

cherries alight among the dark

leaves, my hands so sticky

with juice the fruit will hardly

drop from them into the pail.

The birds pick as I pick, all

of us delighted in the weighty heights

--the fruit red ripe, the green leaves,

the blue sky and white clouds,

all tending to flight--making

the most of this sweetness against

the time when there will be none.

by Wendell Berry, from Given (2006)

X.

Teach me work that honors thy work,

the true economies of goods and words,

to make my arts compatible

with the songs of the local birds.

Teach me patience beyond work –

and, beyond patience, the blest

Sabbath of thy unresting love

which lights all things and gives rest.

by Wendell Berry, from Given (2006)

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Published: 27 August 2019