Podcast – Pasadena Mennonite Church

PMC’s Justice and Service Commission invites us into ministry around affordable housing, indigenous rights, peacemaking amidst war and world conflicts such as in Gaza, and political advocacy in these and other areas. Justice is aspirational but also is possible, so the commission places Justice before Service in its name as a reminder to seek justice and not settle for direct service, valuable as that is. Our panel will share briefly about specific ministries.

PMCers Join Coalition at Oak Flat Prayer Rising.

Below: Hear David Gist, Pastor Katerina Gea, and Bert Newton as they speak about Justice & Service Projects and PMC.

Executive Conference Minister of Pasadena Southwest Mennonite Conference, Stanley Green, spoke into our Anabaptist Basics series on October 16th. His sermon on the Spirit and spirituality was entitled Spirituality and the Profane. Stanley talks about he and his wife, Ursula, being among four other couples that founded Pasadena Mennonite with retired missionary, Dorothy Smoker, 36 years ago. This was also their welcome into the Mennonite denomination, where Stanley went on to serve as Executive Director of Mennonite Mission Network, prior to which he served as pastor, conference minister and mission executive in South Africa, Jamaica and the United States.

Stanley describes his first pastorate in South Africa, where his parishioners were menial laborers on farms producing ostriches and grapes. Stanley knew that the very religious white owners of the farms would beat their workers. They were paid little, forcing them to buy on credit from the farm store half-way through the month. And at 13, children were taken out of school to work the farms.

Photo: Josh Appel

This history created an interest for Stanley regarding the topic of spirituality. Current definitions and the history of the western church created a duality between mind and body, and other-worldliness over earthliness, as well as linear thinking. This has been manifested through sexism, climate change, and wide-spread disease that plagues our society.

It is time to bring back what has been forgotten: the body, the physical world, and those labeled as “other” back into our consciousness so that our world can heal and find restoration.

Hear more as Stanley talks about the impact of this history on discipleship, as well as born out in Jesus incarnationational ministry.

Cara Pfeiffer uses the story of the woman caught in adultery, John 8:1-11, to share the practical peacemaking steps Jesus took in that encounter to deescalate the situation and to protect a vulnerable woman.

Questions for thought:

1. What everyday conflicts in your life could be deescalated with practices of pause and non-threatening body language?
2. What are some practical steps you could take in your own life to have a more peaceful coexistence with difficult people in your life?

Listen to the sermon and discussion below. (Audio is a bit uneven given the set-up for group exercise.)

On September 11th, we were honored to hear from Sarah Augustine, a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant and the author of The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery (Herald Press, 2021). This is the first week in a back to basics series called Anabaptist Academy, and centers around Jesus and Justice.

We were privileged to have Sarah speak to us several years ago, and learned about and became members of Reapair Network for the Anabaptist Coalition for Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, commited to becoming a people that repudiates the doctrine of discovery in our words, thoughts, and actions.

Sarah talks about becoming a mediator through Lombard Mennonite
Peace Center, learning the tools for effective nonviolent resistance. Her theme on this September 11th Sunday was how violence is exponential in its growth.

The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal doctrine, a paradime for creating law. It is the current legal doctrine in the United States that defines reality for indigenous peoples, dating back to colonization., mission, and economic development. It was last cited in 2005 in a majority opinion written by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said that this is a matter of settled law.

And it is also based upon Christian doctrine deployed by the church.

Hear more as Sarah talks about indigenous boarding schools, the role of Indian agents and pastors, missions and economic development, and the current impact of the Doctrine of Discovery — along with Jesus’ message of justice.

(Apologies that the first lines of her sermon were clipped.)

Mike Rewers decided to step into the pulpit after 25 years of listening due of his love of empathy — both in receiving empathy and in helping others to extend it. And we give less empathy when we’re blind to what is happening. The topic of empathy was week 6 of the 9-week Peaceful Practices we’ve been going through as a congregation. Mike, a therapist, spends his week helping others find ways to bring more peace into their lives. And our primary scripture for the day is with Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42, where Martha asks Jesus to send Mary to help serve. Mike extends his look Martha and Mary by adding two other glimpses of them from the book of John, giving us a fuller picture. In addition, you’ll hear him refer to the second passages Matthew 13: 10-15, with Jesus quoting Isaiah about listening without understanding, looking without perceiving, and hearts that have gone dull.

Mary and Martha, by He Qi

We enter the passage with a rather unpeaceful Martha — and Mike empathizes with her blindness in the situation. While it can be soothing and loving to feel understood by someone, we enter this passage with Martha feeling unseen. Yet God helps us move from being blind to seeing the one needful thing — the transformative love of God that allows us to see both within ourselves and to see others.

The more we are aware of our own blindness, the more empathy we can have for others in their blindness. Both parties on different sides of a conflict think the other just doesn’t get it. But culturally, are 50% of people just stupid? And it’s always the 50% we’re not on, right? But at some point the gospel has to be about helping us to see beyond our own perspective. When we can see that we are blind, we become more able to see the other with loving and accepting eyes, which is how God sees us — and them. But we have to bump into others to become aware of ourselves. God lives in the space between us and the other, and calls us into healing.

This passage isn’t about making Martha into Mary, but about having a deeper understanding of who each of them are — actually seeing one another. In order to see our brokenness, we need to learn forgiveness, acceptance, and vulnerability. When we can become aware of our own pain, we can begin to have empathy for others. We must be able to see the other from outside of our own perspective in order to comfort them.

Hear more as Mike walks through the emotions of Martha, and her ensuing interaction with Jesus — and how this impacts their relationships going forward.