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.
“Dismantling Racism” by Sandra Miller
April 28, 2013
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
I want to tell you everything in my heart from my too small understanding of racism to the insidiousness of the mass incarceration of people of color, and of course, I can’t. I stand in fear and trembling simply because I am called more and more deeply to the work of dismantling racism, because the more deeply I am drawn into examining the effects of racism on the oppressed the more deeply I understand myself and my weaknesses, and because of how my words will be received by my beloved community.
“Diving into the River of Life” by Peter Bankson
April 21, 2013
The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Since Monday I’ve been struggling to understand what difference the Boston bombing makes in my life. More fear and hatred don’t get me very far. More prejudice isn’t what I want. Although I lived for four years within a mile of the site of the attack it seems far away from where I am now and how I feel called to spend the rest of my life. For most of the week, the news cycle felt more like something to avoid than something to learn from. And, frankly, until Friday I had successfully avoided adding this latest violent tragedy to my thinking about what I would share with you this morning.
“Dying Into New Life” by David Novello
April 14, 2013
The Third Sunday of Easter
As many of you know, I have practiced Zen for many years. Since I tiptoed back into a Christian church about 15 years ago, I have been struck by how some newer views of Christianity – what Marcus Borg calls “the new paradigm” in his book, The Heart of Christianity, which my mission group recently read together – are strikingly similar to Zen in certain respects. There are important differences, of course, but I remain struck by the similar threads. (Besides, when it comes to spirituality and religion, I find I am more interested in universals than differences.) One of these similarities is the need to die before you die. In the Christian tradition, we say that this is needed before one can be born again from above, or experience conversion. In Zen, and Buddhism generally, death of the self is necessary to wake up and be one with all that is. A Buddha, after all, is anyone who has awakened.
“Let’s Dive Into the River of Life-Giving Water Together” by Josef Lorentz
April 7, 2013
The Second Sunday of Easter
Josef Lorentz is a participant in Discipleship Year, a year-long residential experience that actively engages volunteers with issues of social justice and servant leadership. Seekers Church supports Discipleship Year, which is a program of the Festival Center, another of the offshoots of the Church of the Saviour.
This year — 2013 — I’m officially an adult. Sure, I said the same thing six years ago when I was legally recognized as an adult… Well, I have a confession to make. Last week, this brand new adult threw a bit of a temper tantrum…
“Open my Eyes” by Marjory Bankson
Easter
March 31, 2103
When I was a girl, growing up in Bellingham, Washington, the Cascade Mountains were usually shrouded in clouds. But sometimes, on clear days like this one, my dad would cry out from the kitchen, “Look! The mountain is out!” And so it was – clear blue flanks and a dazzling peak, giving off a faint plume of steam to remind us of the caldron at its core. Mt. Baker is a 10,000 foot peak, rising from sea level, not 50 miles from where we lived. We knew it was there, but most of the time, we couldn’t see it. I think resurrection is like that: close by, constant, and rarely seen.