Sermons

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.

March 5, 2017

First Sunday of Lent

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the season leading up to Easter when we are invited to engage in self-examination and repentance.  This morning, I am going to share some of my self-examination with you.
If you go to a Speakers Meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, you’ll probably hear two recovering alcoholics speak for 20-30 minutes each, telling the story of their life. Their assignment is to tell us “what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now.”  Often, it seems to me that they spend 90% of their time talking about their active alcoholism – the “what is was like” part — & only about 10% on their recovery.  In my impatience, I get frustrated that they spend most of their time on the Problem, rather than the Solution.

I really like today’s scripture readings, because they give us both the Problem and the Solution. 

February 26, 2017

Transfiguration

Scripture: Exodus  24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9, 2 Peter 1;16-21

Exodus,  Matthew and 2 Peter – Holy mountains, mystical clouds, and prophets show up in all of our scriptures today. I confess, I love symbolism so I look for what may be the deeper meanings of these elements? Richard Rohr invites us to read the bible as rich with metaphor. Mountains are not only physical places, but also a place of spiritual enlightenment or revelation.  In our common speech we refer to the “Mountain top experience” of awe or inspiration. 

Clouds are a representation of the Holy Spirit or shekinah (feminine spirit of God) in which the wisdom of God may be heard just as Moses entered the cloud on the mountain to hear God’s message.

What about this “transfiguration”? – a mysterious event that boggles the scientific mind.  Borrowing from the late biblical genius, Marcus Borg, regarding these stories of miraculous occurrences, said, they may not have really happened, but they are still true.  Some native traditions hold the possibility of “shape-shifting” one’s body into the shape of  an animal, but for Jesus this transformation is more than a physical one.  It is a kind of spiritual metamorphosis. Jesus is infused with light or perhaps the light already within him is made more magnified!