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.
“While it was Still Dark” by Marjory Bankson
24 April 2011
Easter
“While it was still dark,” John’s gospel reminds us, Mary Magdalene made her way to the cave where the crucified body of Jesus had been sealed behind a huge stone. What she hoped to accomplish is not clear. I would guess she was drawn by love to keep a vigil there. When I don’t know what else to do, I would simply say BE THERE.
“What Would I Have Done?” by David Lloyd
17 April 2011
Palm/Passion Sunday
In Hebrew the term Messiah means “the anointed one.” Every king of Israel and of Judah had been anointed with oil at the onset of his reign. The Messiah too would become king, delivering Jews from oppression and into freedom and ushering in God’s kingdom, when the whole world worshipped the God of Israel and looked to the Jews for guidance, when evil and cruelty and hatred would be no more, when there would be no hunger or illness or disease or death, when ruined cities would be rebuilt and fields would be fertile, when Jewish refugees would return, when nations repented and atoned for their actions against the Jews, when peace would reign and there would be no need to create weapons, when there would be no sorrow but joy would last forever, when the dead would be raised. Belief in the coming Messiah is a very old tradition in Judaism, recorded in various scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures, especially in Isaiah. And of course, Jews still await the coming of the Messiah.
“The Resurrection and the Life” by Deborah Sokolove
10 April 2011
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
I am interested in examining Jesus’ statement,”I am the resurrection and the life.” For many years, I have wondered what, exactly, might that mean. Of course, I had some intuitions, but I never have been able to parse what it might mean for a person, a human being, to BE resurrection. How could Jesus BE life? It would obviously make grammatical, logical sense to say that Jesus is the agent of resurrection, or that resurrection comes through him, or something like that, but – until recently – I have been puzzled by this somewhat illogical sentence. And, no, I don’t think that there is any recourse in the original Greek. I checked. It’s just as peculiar.A couple of weeks ago, however, I had an insight that I’d like to share with you. It’s still kind of unformed and certainly untested, so I’d be happy to hear what you think after I try to explain.
“Where is our help from…? Stories of simplicity and surprise” by Jill Joseph
3 April 2011
The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Where is our help from? Recently, we have heard some things about where help is not to be found. On Transfiguration Sunday, at the margin of Lent, we realize that our help is not a static solution, not the booth on the hillside neatly constructed, but in the journey together toward Jerusalem and all it holds. And then we considered together the story of the desert temptations and we saw our help is not to be found in the conditional, in the “if this… then that” of evil promise, but in some quite unconditional assertion one’s own knowledge that ties us both to our God and to our history. Jesus replied to temptation not with a conditional logic of choice but with the assertion: “it is written….”.
“Living Water” by Elizabeth Gelfeld
27 March 2011
The Third Sunday in Lent
A creed is a clear statement of belief, and in my childhood understanding John 3:16 was salvation in a nutshell, simple and clear. Belief in Jesus Christ has been the central focus of Christianity from its earliest days, but what, exactly, is believed about Jesus has actually been quite variable, from the beginning as well as today.