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.
“Naming God” by Pat Conover
March 1, 2020
The First Sunday in Lent
Sandra was scheduled to preach this morning but is not well. I was scheduled to preach next Sunday and Sandra will take that slot. This sermon references the lectionary for next Sunday, particularly the famous John 3:16 scripture.
The first four sermons of March will be given by members of the Eyes to See mission group. The sermons grew out of our shared prayer time and conversations regarding the justice issues involved in naming God with masculine references. We had a mutually supportive conversation with Celebration Circle as part of our process. Our conversations deepened as we put our justice concerns in theological perspectives. We became aware that talking about God with gender references was part of the larger question of whether or not it is helpful to talk about God as if God is a human person.
“How the Light Gets In” by Jacqueline Wallen
from catacomb of St Priscilla (Rome)
February 23, 2020
Transfiguration
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
I love that line from the Leonard Cohen song we heard at the beginning of worship. There is a crack in everything and, if we catch it just right, we can see the light of the Divine shine through. That is because the Divine is in everything. And everything is the Divine. That’s what we are learning in Glenn and Kolya’s current School for Christian Growth class on Richard Rohr’s book, The Universal Christ. To me, this picture of a rainbow, taken from my living room window, represents a crack that lets the Divine Light shine through.
“Living Water for Our Creativity” by Cynthia Dahlin
from catacomb of St Priscilla (Rome)
February 16, 2020
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
This sermon starts with time travel. I liked last week’s lectionary better than this weeks, and Bokamoso sang and demonstrated it, but did not speak on it. So we are going back a week. “You are the salt of the Earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how can saltiness be restored? “ This sermon is a shaggy dog story which will get back to this passage from Matthew after a detour through Palestine, Amsterdam, Palestine again and Australia. “You are the salt of the Earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how can saltiness be restored?”
What does Banksy, the stencil peace and justice street artist have to do with the call of the Living Water mission group here at Seekers? Here we go!
Bokamoso 2020
February 9, 2018
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Today the young people from Bokamoso again joined us, bringing us songs and stories from their lives in Winterveld, South Africa.
There is no text, but only our joyous memories of their visit and our anticipation of their return next year.
“Communion Sunday” by Kevin Barwick
from catacomb of St Priscilla (Rome)
February 2, 2020
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Some of you might remember the Twilight Zone hosted by Rod Serling several decades ago. One episode in particular stuck with me all these years. It opened up with a man sitting in a chair talking about how nervous he was about the soon-to-be removal of his bandages over both his eyes. The doctors said the new surgical procedure would allow him to be able to see perfectly that next day. All his hopes rested on the successful unraveling of those bandages. The next day arrived to find him busting out with excited anticipation of the long-awaited day. The doctors told the nurses to pull down the blinds as the street lights might be a little too bright at the beginning. The doctors slowly unfurled bandages around his head. The man then gently and slowly opened his eyes. He began to see shapes. Then definitions. Then colors. He began to connect long time voices with people’s faces. He thought his whole life had just changed because he could now see. As family and hospital staff gave him privacy in the room, he walked around reverently touching everything he could. Life now had meaning to him, he thought. Although the doctors warned him not to go to the window, his impatience got the best of him. He eventually went there eagerly wanting to experience everything beyond the felt world. He lifted the blinds to find a beautiful, colorful, exciting, delicious world out there. As he longed for what was beyond his reach, all of a sudden everything went dark. He couldn’t, wouldn’t believe it. He was enraged! He screamed, “It didn’t work! It’s a sham! It wasn’t worth it! It didn’t work!” Sadly, he became so despondent that he threw himself out the window to his ugly death. Little did he know, however, that after only a minute the city-wide lights came back on after the short blackout. Little did he know probably he was looking outside of himself for fulfillment rather than right around himself for reality.
It’s a sad and kinda weird story. After all, it’s the Twilight Zone! But it rings true for me. About three months ago, if you recall, after communion and during the reflection time I spoke up saying that I was frustrated how communion was experienced that morning. I was somewhat angry and probably underneath more a sadness that communion had on that day appeared to be taken as a frivolous act as if to appease the gods that month. It said to me we were not taking it seriously or applying the words of Jesus to our lives. In other words, I was being a very good Pharisee!