The 12th Sunday after Pentecost
August 16, 2026
You are above us, O God, you are within. You are in all things yet contained by no thing. Teach us to seek you in all that has life that we see you as the Light of life. Teach us to search for you in our own depths that we may find you in every living soul. Amen (from Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter, by John Phillip Newell)
What brought me to Seekers? To answer that question I’ll share some threads of early growth in my faith life that illustrate why I came to Seekers. You may hear some familiar roots of your own story! I grew up “unchurched,” but attribute my understanding of Jesus as the epitome of love in action to my paternal Grandmother. Her witness was what I held in contrast to the fundamentalist Christianity of empire and colonization expressed by Campus Crusade for Christ, that I wanted nothing to do with. When I learned about liberation theology from the reading to prepare me for a mission trip to Jamaica the Methodist campus minister Tom Jones was organizing, that sounded like Grandma’s Jesus I wanted to follow.
After moving from Michigan to California, I was baptized 2 years later in the United Methodist church that my Grandmother Viola attended in Napa on Easter Sunday. That was where I heard Helen and Henry Moser teach a bible class in which we “held the scripture in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” (Karl Barth’s advice) Fast forward, I first felt the call to attend seminary about 5 years later when I was invited by my pastor, Dave Bunje to be one of the leaders at a youth camp, Christelation, where I initiatied a program for youth on experiencing God in Nature. There I met the first clergy women in my life. I’d never witnessed a woman preach and I was inspired to join their call in following God’s call to ordained ministry!
All that laid the groundwork for where I first heard about the charism or founding spirit of what is now Seekers Church. I chose to go to Union Theological Seminary where liberation theology and preaching the social gospel was central to the teaching and engagement in the world. When I was serving the required internship during my middler year, we had sharing groups with other seminarians to talk about our experiences in the locations we served. Fellow seminarian, Kelly Gallagher shared that she was taking a train down to DC every weekend to serve at a place called the Church of the Savior. When I heard that they held a high value for practicing a priesthood of all believers as a community with a commitment to being engaged in healing the world through peace and justice, I said “That sounds like my kind of church!”
At that point I was struggling with whether ordination and a hierarchy of clergy “set apart” from laity was what I really believed. In addition, what I loved and felt called to do was teach, peach and create liturgy, so it was a good thing I witnessed my supervising pastor spent the majority of her time on administrative and pastoral care concerns, to which I did not feel called. On top of that, I morally and personally opposed the Methodist Church’s prohibition of ordination for gay and lesbian people, which only got finally resolved in 2024!
When my family moved here to Takoma Park, I began visiting Seekers Church because I learned that it originated from that Church of the Savior I’d heard about in seminary so long ago. Our family came on “high holy days” whenever Mark was available from his church, the Presbyterian Church here in town. Until Sage went through confirmation and decided to join the Quakers, we had been a “one church family” – but I loved the messages I heard at Seekers! So I started attending here on a regular basis 10 years ago. Sometimes we take a sinuous path or circuitous journey either physically or spiritually toward becoming rooted in community.
I came here because the roots that were already embedded in my faith journey and the inspiration of God’s call that had drawn me to seminary, I witnessed happening here! I marveled at the deep examination and interpretation of scripture, along with stories about this community’s engagement in putting faith into action for peace and justice. And most of all I was – and still am! – so thankful for the practice of participatory worship here– people were actually praying out loud and feedback on the sermon was invited! This community was and still is manifesting what my seminary thesis called “Liberating the Laity for Liturgy”
How has being a member of Seekers enhanced my Spiritual Life? (growth)
When I learned that Seekers espoused practices of both the Inward and Outward journey, I felt like I found my spiritual home. It reminded me of a core tenant of John Wesley’s theology that I loved, of personal holiness, cultivating the inner spiritual life. combined with social holiness, the outward expression in service to to the world as a fruit of the inner reflection. Even, or not surprisingly, there was little talk, teaching or encouragement at my very activist seminary of practices of a contemplative life. To illustrate that, a small chapel had become a little used space and occasional storage area. A small cadre of us claimed the space and spruced it up to create a meditation space for anyone to drop in for moments of meditation or quiet reflection. It’s been a joy to discover the contemplative practice of silent retreat at Dayspring and be invited to stretch my spiritual life toward leading two silent retreats for Seekers on Finding Beauty and the other on Attending Creation’s Resilience, to learn from nature ways to support our resilience and bolster our resistance to degradation of Earth caused by climate change and extractive industries.
At Seekers, my contemplative life has been enriched and deepened through classes I’ve taken on mystical teachers, Hebrew prophets, holy wisdom, the psalms, being church, and even salvation (which I had frankly offloaded to the fundamentalists), where I learned that it really means healing, which seems so much more relevant in this world. And my love of learning, teaching and leading groups in spiritual reflection has been encouraged here! Any teacher knows, to really learn about a subject, prepare to teach it! It’s a deep dive into learning — from the first class I chose to teach on Pope Francis’ Encyclical “Care for our Common Home” a message intended for the whole world, not just Catholics about the Franciscan understanding of all Creation as one family of God and our call to promote justice for those most impacted by climate change and environmental degradation. Then, just before COVID shut down, I co-taught a class with Glen Clark, on Richard Rohr’s book The Universal Christ: how a forgotten reality can change everything we see, hope for and believe. Following that was a class “Reconnecting with Christ in Creation, on Joanna Macy’s Active Hope. Teaching has always enriched my spiritual life. In this case, I felt that the Rohr’s words were finally articulating succinctly what I felt and known a long time but didn’t have words for: “Christ is in all things everywhere.”
This sort of Christ consciousness that all of life is in sacred and spiritual relationship is what inspired me to is what led me to co-teach the class with Lucy on Becoming Indigenous: A Way of Life to Heal Earth and Each Other. I’m very grateful for the spiritual exploration we experienced together and look forward to incorporating more of that in my own life and in the life of Seekers.
My ongoing spiritual growth is enhanced by the meditations I prepare as worship leader for my Earth & Spirit mission group where I share from the deep well of resources I’ve collected over the years on creation care and naming the divine experienced in nature. And being in Learners & Teachers with whom I share a common call to “engage people to in lifelong learning that will inform and enrich their life of faith.” For both these groups I am humbly enriched in serving as Spiritual Companion, whenever I ponder and wait for what Spirit may be speaking, and respond to the written spiritual reflections of other members. To support and further equip me in this role, I’m deeply grateful for the deep sharing and learning that occurs in our monthly group, led by Marjory, of Spiritual Companions!
My regular practices, which sometime become irregular, are mindful breathing meditation, reading the lectionary, Mathew Fox’s meditations on the mystics, singing St. Patrick’s Breastplate each morning when I wash my eyes, prayers from Celtic theologian John Phillip Newell, journaling, paying attention to dreams, Qigong and walking in nature every day nearby my home between the creeks of Sligo and Long Branch in the Anacostia watershed.
Moving on to the lectionary passages for today, I confess I did not intentionally choose ones that do not match exactly today’s the lectionary passages. (which had nothing to do with the absence of this Sunday’s lectionary passages in our Seekers Summer lectionary!) I misread the number on my bookmark from 8th Day Community for the gospel text, but it seems it chose me because the passage spoke a message about my own spiritual growth of being a Seeker. So in true Seekers fashion I’ll attribute that to the Holy Spirit!
Today we hear that when Joseph’s brothers show up, he is in a powerful position as “Lord of the land,” but they do not recognize him. When he reveals himself to them, they cower in fear of what punishment he may inflict upon them for their cruelty and abandonment of him. He asks them “come closer to me,” an invitation of such welcome and intimacy. This invitation to be more deeply known speaks to my own struggle that I learned from Al-Anon, when I heard others share about this their challenges with intimacy rooted in family wounds of addiction. The fear of getting too close, but also the yearning to be seen, heard, known and more deeply connected with others, which is why I stay here at Seekers, committed to being in community. Joseph tells his brothers that he’s been sent ahead of them to “present a remnant on Earth for you to keep alive, and for survivors.” (Gen. 45:7) The gift of life, not death nor retribution. And then there are tears, holy tears… cried upon the shoulder of his brother in loving recognition and reconciliation.
And I hear something similar in Jesus question to the disciples in Matthew chapter 16, verses 15 & 16 “Who do the people say the Son of Man is?” followed by “but who do you say that I am?” I recall a class that Mark and I attended a class that focused on this enigmatic phrase “the Son of Man,” which the teacher Walter Wink referred to as the “Human One.” The disciples have all given rather predictable answers, like what they think they should say, instead of giving personal, individual answers based on their own lived experience. I hear this as Jesus, who modeled being fully human, inviting intimacy with him instead of rote answers. He’s inviting us to walk with him in his very intimate, loving and humanly vulnerable way. Who is Jesus within you? It seems that Jesus is inviting us to name the Universal Christ within us. I am always becoming, yearning to be more like Jesus. When I reflect on this I hear him in the Christ Spirit saying:
I am in the voice of Wind.
I am in the circling of Redtailed Hawk.
I am in the sound of Wood Thrush’s cyrstaline song.
I am in blooming of wildflowers.
I am in the Water of Earth.
I am in the Breath of your body.
I am also suffering with those who suffer.
I am in the suffering of the families in Gaza.
I am in the fear of Haitians with temporary protected status removed.
I am in the children and their parents swept away to detention camps.
I am in the life on Earth being decimated by fires, warming oceans and drought stricken streams. I am and we Seekers are all in a learning lab of love, how to be loving, how to be in solidarity with life in its many forms in both beauty and with the suffering, the true meaning of compassion. We are in life-long learning how to be humane and helping humans, following in the way of Jesus, together in community for the healing of the world. Amen.