…the scribal expert meant when he asked Jesus (Luke 10: 25), "And who is my neighbor?"

He should have known better, and so should we, whenever we ask Jesus a question that is actually an excuse. To see what Jesus did with that question, and how he turned it from a trick question into a time bomb, check out yesterday's message at Download wrongquestion.doc, along with some other stupid questions just begging for snappy answers like:

"Is there anbyody sitting in this [obviously empty] seat?" or

"Is it raining outside?"

And please reply by email to let me know if you think I applied Jesus' response correctly to a current situation.

Mathew Swora, pastor

Emmanuel Mennonite Church

What was Martin Luther doing meditating on the Ten Commandments when he himself insisted that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works of the Law (trick question)?

What do the Ten Commandments have to do with peace, when some people nearly came to blows when a monument to the Ten Commandments was being taken out of the Alabama state capital building a few years ago? Or when, in ancient Israel, one could get stoned to death for breaking some of them?

The case almost seems closed against them if you, like many people today, consider any religious or absolute moral commitment to be not only the prelude to violence, but an act of violence itself. For the thoughts that were shared at Emmanuel Mennonite Church this past Sunday, June 8, check out the following link to Download ten_commandments.doc

are the theme and subject of our program of worship and children's Sunday School this summer at Emmanuel Mennonite Church. Prepared and offered by our denomination, Mennonite Church USA, it aims at integrating our inter-generational worship with the youth and children's Sunday School program, so that our messages and many of the songs and prayers will focus on the same scriptures and subjects as what the Sunday School classes will be doing. And everyone, children and adults, will be challenged to memorize the following words of Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5: 43: 

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Why would he say that, especially when the wisdom and ways of the world are so contrary to that, as well as our basic instincts and our bodily, adrenaline rushes? And especially since carrying out his own teaching cost him his own life, through an excruciatingly (literally) painful death? Skip the idea that this is only a "spiritual" message with no connection to politics. Jesus' disciples, his audience and his enemies would have known who the "enemies" and "persecutors" were, and would have heard his message in a very political way. For more on these provocative ideas, check out this past Sunday's message (June 1) at

Download Makeforpeace1.doc

OR FAMILY-BASED KINGDOMS? (like the Cosa Nostra)

Politicians and preachers say a lot about "family values" and how "the family is the basis of everything good in society." True. To a point. But how do we square that with the following account from Mark 3:31-35:

 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. The crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."  "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.  Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

That loud, high-pitched shrieking sound you might be hearing just now, echoing across the centuries, would be a Galilean mother, once someone told her what her son, Jesus, had just said. For more about what Jesus said and why, and what that means for citizens of the Kingdom of God, check out last week's message at Emmanuel Mennonite Church at

Download kingdom_and_family.doc