“Peirasmos” is the New Testament Greek word for trial or temptation, any situation of adversity that tests our faith.  In this four-week study, we explored key passages in the New Testament to understand how Jesus and his disciples responded to “peirasmos” and how we, as individuals and as a church, might respond in faithfulness and faith. Here are some of our discoveries…

LEADER: David Morrow

Week One – Matthew 6:13 (The Lord’s Prayer)

• This is not the petition of the spiritually self-confident, but of the poor in spirit.
• God’s children can always ask God not to lead them into “peirasmos.”

 
Week Two – Matthew 4:1-11 (Jesus’ Peirasmos in the Wilderness)

• The Holy Spirit, did lead Jesus into a place of “peirasmos.”
• God may call us to challenges that involve “peirasmos.”
• Jesus overcame “peirasmos” because he knew who he was, he knew God’s Word, and he lived by God’s Word.

 
Week Three – Mark 14:26-42 (Jesus’ Peirasmos in Gethsemane)

• Jesus wanted his community with him in a time of “peirasmos.”
• Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane was a form of the Lord’s Prayer
• How to face “peirasmos” like Jesus – emotional honesty, humility, community, and prayer.

 
Week Four – Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:14-16, 5:7-9 (Jesus Helps Us in Our Peirasmos)

• God heard Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane
• Because he was fully human, Jesus can empathize with us in our weakness.
• Because he was fully human, Jesus can help us when we face “peirasmos.”

​(Readings in the Gospel of Mark)
Leader: David Holcomb

What does it mean to follow Jesus in a fragile world?  In 2025, that question seems highly resonate. However, it was also a question at the forefront for the earliest followers of Jesus. Mark’s Gospel was written in a context of fragility – whether the context was Rome and early persecution of Christians or Galilee / Syria and the destruction of Jerusalem (the two most likely settings). Mark’s gospel is filled with responses of fear and also responses seeking control through power, but Jesus offers a different way: a way of trust and vulnerability, sharing and compassion.  Come join us as we ponder the intersections of God’s story and our story. 

Class documents:

The Chicana theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa tells us that to create the basis for solidarity across difference, we must learn our own and each other's histories. 

We must do so in all the complicated realness of those histories, without flinching. In the presentation, "Münster, Mennonite Innocence, & the Siege of Palestine," Cass Diaz will discuss a complex episode in Mennonite history--the militant Anabaptist takeover of the city of Münster--in relation to the current violence in Gaza. In these two disparate events, we will ask what it means to reach a hand out to our estranged ancestors and how doing so can help us see more clearly in our present moment. 

Presenter Cass Diaz (they/any) writes in the subjects/genres of poetry, media criticism, history, and philosophy. They ground their work in community and action at Seattle Mennonite Church and other groups in Seattle. Cass was raised in the Reformed Church and has attended SMC for just over a year, where they have developed an interest in the Anabaptist tradition's engagements with questions of justice, peace, and social transformation.

The Anabaptist movement can look very different depending on the context, but the movement has a few core values that tie it together. In recent years, this framework – Jesus is the center of our faith, community is the center of our life, and reconciliation is the center of our work – has been a good way to capture these values. During the fall, we want to ask ourselves this question:
 
As a part of the global Anabaptist movement 
and as a local faith community that is engaged with the broader culture, 
how are we to live in a way that centers 
Jesus, Community, and Reconciliation?
 
So, there will be some history, some looking back at our roots. But the focus will be on who we are now at PMC and how best to move into the future in our particular Pacific Northwest context. Much of our discussion will be based on two writings of Parker Becker: this pamphlet from 2008 and this book from 2017.
 
Below are resources from our 8 weeks of discussion:
 
Slides and Other Resources
Week 1 slides – Introduction
Week 1 video clip
Week 2 slides – Jesus part 1
Week 3 slides – Jesus part 2
Week 3 – link to article by John Roth (referenced by Luis)
Week 4 slides – Community part 1
Week 5 slides – Community part 2
Week 6 slides – Reconciliation part 1
Week 7 slides – Reconciliation part 2
Week 8 slides – Wrap-up
 
Videos
We have videos for Weeks 1 and 3-7 but not for weeks 2 and 8. These videos can be found here.
 
Discussion Questions
Week 1 responses - summary
Week 2 small group questions
Week 3 small group questions
Week 4 small group questions
Week 5 small group questions
Week 6 small group questions
Week 7 small group questions

Mission of this Class:
Encourage Portland Mennonite Church to become a community of alternative practices, grounded in our Anabaptist commitments to simplicity and peacemaking, that responds practically and prophetically to the alarming realities of global climate change
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This is a six-week class discussion on how food, transportation, consumerism, and housing choices affect climate change. How does the Mennonite commitment to simplicity and peacemaking inform our responses to this crisis and how are we as a PMC community responding to caring for the environment?