Sermons

April 9, 2017

Palm/Passion Sunday

On Palm Sunday, we usually hear the Biblical narratives of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem and the passion Jesus experienced in the days that followed.  Although these readings are powerful, they can also easily become stale and routine and after hearing them every year they can wash over us with such familiarity that we are sometimes not even touched by them.

This year Celebration Circle decided to do something a bit different that might allow us to hear these stories with new ears and open hearts.

In a few minutes we will hear poems read by Lauren, Dave and Mary Carol, reflecting on the events of Palm Sunday and Christ’s passion.  We hope that these new words, retelling this powerful and ageless story will touch you in surprising ways.

April 2, 2017

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Last weekend, Judy Lantz and I represented Seekers at the Church of the Saviour discernment retreat at Wellspring. On Saturday, 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 bald eagles nesting at the National Aboretum. On a low altar in the center of our 23-person circle was an empty bird nest placed carefully on a hand-crocheted prayer shawl. For me it became the image of our work.

Bald eagles mate for life and they return to the same nest, year after year. This pair has used the same large flat nest at the arboretum for the past three years, so you can watch their activities LIVE from two hidden cameras. Like some other large birds, eagles share time on the nest, alternating the incubation duties with foraging for food. During the recent ice storm, Cheryl watched late into the night as one of them, covered with snow, clung to the nest and sheltered their two eggs in high winds. Their task, she reminded us, was to “shelter the possibility of new life.”

March 26, 2017

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Here is the sermon I preached at Seekers Church this morning. It provides a report on my time in Vancouver a month ago. The biblical text is John 9:1-41, the story of Jesus restoring sight to a man born blind. (Quotations within the sermon come from the Inclusive Bible, an egalitarian translation not available online.)
The sermon began with the experiential activity outlined here: “Who are you?”
“Who are you?”
• Find a partner
• One minute each — one person asks “who are you?” the other answers. “Who are you?” is repeated after every statement.
• Switch roles
• Find a new partner
• Same instructions– but no role or responsibility (no professional, no caretaker, sister/daughter/mother)
• Switch roles
• Find a new partner
• Don’t use anything you’ve used before in the other two minutes
• Switch roles
• Silent reflection: what did you notice?

March 19, 2017

Third Sunday of Lent

I’d like to thank Sandra Miller and everyone here for the opportunity to share some reflections about my work.

For the past seven years I have been working with the World Org for resource Development and Education (WORDE) – an educational organization dedicated to enhancing communication and understanding between communities to mitigate conflict.

One day one of my colleagues looked at me and said, Mehreen what are we doing? It was the day that Trump signed the first executive order banning immigration from seven Muslim majority countries.

Another one of my colleagues had just gotten off the phone with us to let us know that she was on suicide watch for one of her clients…

Over the past three years, WORDE, had set up a small social service agency to provide counselling, mental health and other wrap around services for youth and families from the Middle East, South Asia, and North, West and East Africa.

One of our clients, had been waiting for her mother to apply for asylum status in the US – and with the new executive order in place, she feared that she would never see her mother again. Losing all hope, she had become suicidal.

March 12, 2017

Second Sunday of Lent

I think Celebration Circle has created a very rich and evocative liturgy for this Lent season. I heard it for the first time as we all read it last week and was impressed by how solid and grounded it felt. I felt  it spoke to me very clearly and directly. This is the first time I’ve done a real sermon at Seekers. I haven’t felt an urge to preach because I thought my contribution to worship came through the music we sang or heard. I’m thankful to all who have stepped up to provide music so I can think about standing here, in this new role.

I find the Lent tradition of looking inward to be very helpful. I didn’t have this practice when I was growing up and I’m glad we uphold it in Seekers. Today I’m going to share about my thoughts from the scriptures and lectionary, and I’m going to talk about some ideas about music. I hope something I say will be helpful.

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church in Los Angeles, California. It was full of nice, mostly Japanese-Americans, who dressed conservatively, and worshiped fundamentally. I learned about Jesus, the bible heroes, the saving power of Jesus blood, his sacrifice on Calvary, what I owed for forgiveness of sins.

I memorized scripture, did Vacation Bible School, worried about missionaries in China, Japan, or Africa, take your pick. It was: bringing-in-the-sheaves. old-rugged-cross. born-again. Convicted-of-the-spirit, and I just want to praise you Lord… a bunch of things I now think of as: Baptist Technology.