Seekers recognizes that any member of the community may be called upon by God to give us the Word, and thus we have an open pulpit with a different preacher each week. Sermons preached at Seekers, as well as sermons preached by Seekers at other churches or events, are posted here, beginning with the most recent.
Click here for an archive of our sermons.
Feel free to use what is helpful from these sermons. We only ask that when substantial portions are abstracted or used in a written work, please credit Seekers Church and the author, and cite the URL.
“GUNS – From Despair to Hope” by the Eyes to See, Ears to Hear Peace Prayer Mission Group
December 13, 2015 
The Third Sunday of Advent
Pat Conover
I was afraid, very afraid.
It was the late 1950’s and early 60’s. I was 16, 17 … 21, 22. It was the time of mutually assured destruction when we could kill every Russian more times than they could kill each one of us, tens of thousands of atomic and hydrogen bomb explosions.
My friend and I decided we did not want to die, that we would try to survive. We were thoughtful and planned carefully. Just the right unmarked cave about forty miles west of Tallahassee, a cave in a hill which meant it would never flood. It had two entrances, neither one obvious. It had a room as big as this one [Seeker’s Church sanctuary] with a spring in it that would provide fresh clean water. We stocked the cave with food, medical supplies, and a bicycle powered electrical system that provided plenty of light.
“Getting Ready for Incarnation” by Peter Bankson
November 29, 2015
The First Sunday of Advent
This year our Advent theme is an invitation to celebrate not just the birth of Baby Jesus, but the incarnation of the Creator. Our reflection paragraph says it this way:
Perhaps the hardest thing to remember about Christmas is this. It celebrates the incarnation, not just the nativity. The incarnation is an on-going process of salvation, while the nativity is the once-for-all-historical event of Bethlehem. We do not really celebrate Christ’s ‘birthday,’ remembering something that happened long ago. We celebrate the stupendous fact of the incarnation, God entering our world so thoroughly that nothing has been the same since.
What will it take for us to recognize, claim and live more fully into the reality that God, the Creator, is alive and present in every rock and bone, in every drop of water and the blood of every living part of this reality?
What can we do to get ready, in these troubled times, for the deeper revelation that every thought and thing is part of the Creator?
As we look at the dismaying depth of trouble all around us, it makes me wonder: Are WE in trouble, or just everybody else?
“Holy Discomfort” by Pat Conover
November 15, 2015
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: I. Samuel 1:4-20, 2:2-4; Daniel 12: 1-4; Mark 13:1-8
The Samuel and Daniel passages make reference to three periods of Jewish history. Each passage was written by priests as stories that expressed their visions of kerygma, a word that means “saving truth.” Each story was written for there and then guidance.
The strengths of each story is that they addressed the spiritual needs of their diverse audiences. The weaknesses of each story is that they obscure or distract from the kerygma that was valuable during the period of reference. The same is true of the Mark story, a Jewish-Christian version of the apocalypse story we have in the Daniel passage
“Money:The Widow’s, Seekers’ and Yours” by Patricia Nemore
November 8, 2015
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus warns against hypocrisy of scribes (Mark 12:38-40)
A widow gives all she has (Mark 12:39-43)
WHAT WAS THIS WOMAN THINKING? SHE PUT IN ALL SHE HAD TO LIVE ON? How is she going to eat tomorrow? How will she pay her rent next month? Was she so despairing of her status and circumstances as a widow that giving all her money away seemed as logical as any other course of action? Perhaps she had children whom she expected to take her in. Or was she trusting of the scribes to care for her in her utter destitution? Jesus certainly wasn’t trusting of the scribes. Maybe she had a house to live in now but according to Jesus, the scribes would “devour” it and then where would she be? Did she feel coerced by Temple culture to give whatever she had? To whom was she making this wildly extravagant gift anyway? And did she give it joyfully or grudgingly?
“For All the Saints” – Marjory Zoet Bankson
November 1, 2015
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Texts:
A feast of rich food for ALL peoples … Isa 25:6-9
I saw a new heaven and a new earth … Revelation 21:1-6a
Raising of Lazarus … John 11:32-44
Today we celebrate all the saints who have gone before us in the worldwide family of God. In a religious tradition that goes back at least to the 8th century, Christians have marked this day to honor those people who have made the spirit of Christ visible to others. At first, All Saints celebrated those whom the church had canonized. Later, it became a celebration of all baptized Christians, saintly or not. In predominantly Catholic countries, it is often known as the “Day of the Dead,” when families visit the graves of their loved ones with flowers and food.
A year ago today, I, too, was scrubbing the moss off of the graves of my ancestors in Lynden, Washington: first, my parents, then my grandparents, and my father’s grandparents, who had come there from Holland. While Jacqie Wallen preached here at Seekers, I was doing church differently by walking among those immigrants who left their homeland in search of a better life in America. Most never went back, even for a visit. One of the first things they did as a congregation was to buy land for a cemetery. For them, it was a singular act of freedom from state controlled burials and it claimed this land as their new home.