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.
“Howard Thurman: Restoration and Community” by Deryl Davis
October 28, 2018
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
I. Common Theme in today’s scripture lessons and in theology of Howard Thurman: Restoration to Fellowship and Community (Israel from exile, Bartimaeus’ sight, Howard Thurman’s theology)
A. Idea of community major theme of Thurman’s theology of hope: We are created for community, and any obstacle to that has to be removed.
“Responding Joyfully with Our Lives” by Deborah Sokolove
October 21, 2018
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost: Recommitment Sunday
In our gospel reading for today (Mark 10:35-45), Zebedee’s sons James and John ask Jesus to let them sit at his right and left hand when he is in his glory. The answer that Jesus gives them is not the one that they want to hear. He says, you don’t know what you are talking about! I’m about to drink the cup of suffering, to be baptized with blood. Are you up to that?
When they assure him that they are, he says, ok, you will get that, but it’s not up to me to give you the honor that you want, because that’s already been prepared for someone else.
He does not say who will be sitting on his right and left hand in that undefined future that scripture calls “his glory,” but it is clearly not these two pushy brothers. Instead, they almost immediately get a small taste of the cup of suffering they say they are ready for when the other ten disciples angrily confront them for their naked ambition. Jesus then says they are asking the wrong question. It’s not about who is doing the best work or the most important task or who will get honors in this life or the next. Rather, he says, in the upside-down world of the Reign of God, the first will be last and the one who wants to lead must serve the community.
“Why I am Recommitting” by Brenda Seat
October 14, 2018
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
When we first arrived in DC in 1985, I was struggling with so many questions about God, what it meant to be a Christian, who Jesus was, and why any of it mattered. We had just gone through a complicated pregnancy, losing one baby while another, our oldest daughter Marian, lived. There were complicated questions about death and life, and why these things happen to good people like us. It was a complicated time, with Keith working long hours at a high-powered law firm and my choosing to stay at home with Marian. We heard about Church of the Saviour through the leadership in the church we attended in Kansas City. We had never read Elizabeth O’Connor’s books and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we just showed up one Sunday at 2025 Massachusetts Avenue.
“Jesus, Creation, and Us” by Elizabeth Gelfeld
October 7, 2018
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Last weekend I went on the Seekers Silent Retreat, at Dayspring. Dayspring is 210 acres in Germantown that the Church of the Saviour purchased in the 1950s, the very early days of the church, so that they could have a place to go for renewal and healing in nature. Dayspring has woods and meadows, lakes and streams, all lovingly maintained now by members of Dayspring Church.
Saturday was a perfect fall day, sunny and crisp. Shortly after sunrise I was walking down the path from the Lodge to the Inn for breakfast, and suddenly I saw, ahead and a little to my left, two enormous spiderwebs, one behind the other, each suspended between a pair of trees. The rising sun’s rays illuminated the webs in all their delicate detail, and the sight was amazing. I stopped, and breathed thanks — for the beauty, for the spiders, for the surpise of it, and for joy.
“Saying ‘Yes’ Again and Again” by Peter Bankson
September 30, 2018
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
INTRODUCTION
Here at Seekers Church we’re in the middle of our annual season of recommitment. Today we will have the membership log available in the Skylight Room. It has the signatures of each person who has made their annual commitment to this community each year since 1976, when we began our life together as a separate family of faith. We will have the membership log available each Sunday until Recommitment Sunday on October 21st.
Last week, Marjory reflected on the importance of our annual recommitment. She said:
“REcommitment was another surprise. Wasn’t a one-time commitment good enough? But after a while, I realized that yearly recommitment helps me stay conscious of how my relationship with God and this community has evolved over time.”