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.
A Service in the Style of Taize for Easter 2017
May 7, 2017
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Several times each year, Seekers Church takes time out from its regular preaching schedule for a service of chant, prayer and reflection modeled on the worship of the Taizé Community in France. This Sunday was one such time. Repeating the chants together until they die away into the silence provides rest for our world-weary spirits as well as an opportunity for individual reflection on our faith journeys. As we joined in spirit with the monks at Taizé, we were nourished by their faithfulness as well as by their music.
“What Resurrection Looks Like” by Grace Fowler
April 30, 2017
Third Sunday of Easter
Good morning! I am so excited to be worshipping with you today.
I want to break down this story with you all and then dive into what it means to me. The first thing we have to do is put ourselves into the story. When I was in college, I was in a bible study/ministry group called Intervarsity. The most important thing I learned from that ministry was to put myself into the shoes of the people living the bible story. As 21st century readers, it is really easy for us to pass judgement on bible characters. We tend to bring a moral superiority to the bible. Well we treat women better and would always understand Jesus’ teachings and would never doubt a promise from God. That is because we read the bible through the lens of the resurrection. We get to see the fulfillment of the promises in Jesus Christ! So before we tackle the gospel, it is wise to set aside some of those 21st century ideals for a moment and just live into the reality of the disciples. As we go through the text, keep in mind that the disciples don’t have the resurrection goggles that we have.
“Meet Me in Galilee” by Marjory Zoet Bankson
April 16, 2017
Easter Sunrise Service at Wellspring
Text: Matthew 28: 1-10
When I was here at Wellspring three weeks ago for the Church of the Saviour discernment retreat, Cheryl Hellner led us in two sessions of “gathered silence.” She began by saying that, during Lent, she had “apprenticed herself” to the pair of eagles nesting at the National Arboretum. Cheryl’s description of watching them protect their two precious eggs through the icey windstorm earlier that month made a deep impression on me. I felt that we, too, were gathered here to protect and nourish the possibility of new life in Church of the Saviour.
“Homeward Bound” by Billy Amoss
April 23, 2017
Second Sunday of Easter
How do we know where we belong? Where is home?
This week death has visited me twice.
On Thursday evening our beloved representative in Palestine, Costa Mustaklem, a Jerusalemite, an observant Christian and an Arab, died of metastatic cancer in Switzerland, where his wife and children live. He was a wonderfully kind and intelligent person, hard-working, openhearted, easy to love. And yesterday I learned that my 95-year-old cousin, Rosanne Blake, who with her husband Mel took me and my family under her wing when we first moved to Washington in 1988, is in hospice and on morphine to ease the pain from her Parkinsons Disease. Rosanne is a practicing Catholic. Her remaining life can be measured in days now, perhaps only hours.
Part of our Christian tradition – today most vocally expressed by Christian evangelicals – puts forth the belief that this world is not our home, that our earthly body is just a temporary residence for our spirit, thus only spiritual things matter because they last forever, and that our real purpose on earth is to please God by pursing spiritual matters – witnessing, reading the Bible, praying, or attending church, doing charitable work – so that when we die we can go to our true home, called heaven.
“Unimaginable” by David Lloyd
April 16, 2017
Easter Sunday
Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed.) Hallelujah!
After 2,000 years when we say “Christ is risen indeed” we may feel one or more of a range of emotions. We may feel joy so profound that it can bring us close to crying. We may have a feeling of absolute certainty that gives us hope and confidence for the present and the future. But some of us might feel uncertainty or even heaviness as we say it. Some of us might even say it with reluctance – while feeling that we shouldn’t feel reluctant. A few of us may even say it with disbelief, mentally rolling our eyes and crossing our fingers. Our range of emotions about the resurrection of Jesus reflects how challenging that resurrection is for us modern, rational, post-Enlightenment, educated folk.