Sermons

October 23, 2016

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

I picked today to preach because I just love the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  I have been thinking about it since smacked me in the face three years ago when Luke was last featured in the lectionary.  That that year, like this year, I heard the following line read aloud:  “The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’” Then he enumerates to himself all of the ways in which he is such a righteous man.  While he is congratulating himself, a tax collector is beating his breast and berating himself, begging for God’s mercy, not even daring to stand near the Pharisee or to show his face to God.  Tax collectors were despised by the Jews because they worked for the Romans.  But which man received God’s grace and mercy?  It was the tax collector, not the Pharisee.  When I heard this, three years ago, I immediately said to myself, “Thank God I am not like that Pharisee!”

October 16, 2016

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

This is a very hard time of year for me. As I was preparing this sermon for what is, in many ways, the most important day of our life together as a church, Recommitment Sunday, I was simultaneously aware of being in exile from a community in which I spent the first forty-two years of my life. I didn’t always observe the rules and regulations, I wasn’t always a member of a congregation, but until my baptism, I always knew that I was welcome to participate whenever and however I wanted to. When I became a Christian, I knowingly and willingly put myself outside of that community.  This Wednesday, I did not spend Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, fasting among my people. Although I no longer chant a long list of sins, beat my breast, and sing “ve’al kulam, eloha s’lichot. Selach lanu, mechol lanu, kaper lanu” these words are written on my heart. For all our sins, O God of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

October 9, 2016

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

            We’re approaching Recommitment Sunday.  I will certainly be recommitting to Seekers.  Marjory talked in her sermon last Sunday about how, for her and Peter, Seekers is like a biological family, in one important respect: as she ages, she hopes and prays that we Seekers will take care of her.  That’s how I feel too.  I have no biological family left, and of course no children, though thanks to Katie, I’ve inherited a very nice group of her family.  But when I think of being old, and depending on others for help, it’s Seekers I’m picturing. 

            So this moment in our liturgical year doesn’t have a lot of drama for me.  I’m one of you, and I’m not going anywhere.  But I’ve been thinking about recommitment in general – recommitment to what it means to be a Christian.  How did I get here?

October 2, 2016

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 17:5-10 “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Recommitment season happens at Seekers every year at this time, and it recalls our roots in Church of the Saviour. From 1946, when it started, to 1976, when it was reborn as six small churches, C of S became widely known through Elizabeth O’Connor’s books and Mary Cosby’s presence at various conferences. As a mark of its vision for Christian unity, Church of the Saviour even joined the World Council of Churches in 1948 as the Council was forming after WW II. And that’s one of the reasons why we use the lectionary today – because it links us with church unity by using the same biblical texts that other churches use around the world.

During the 30 years of its singular existence, Church of the Saviour became famous for taking seriously the biblical mandate that every person has a call and gifts for ministry.  In her book, Journey Inward/Journey Outward, Elizabeth O’Connor described the personal disciplines that we still expect of our members, and she described collective action by mission groups as the “journey outward.” Most churches functioned with a committee structure, headed by an ordained clergy person, and spiritual guidance was left to the preacher. Even at Church of the Saviour, understanding mission groups as the primary means of spiritual formation did not take root until the early 70s.

September 25, 2016

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

INTRODUCTION

Annual recommitment is a key element in the life of Seekers Church, maintaining a tradition of the Church of the Saviour begun with the initial commitment of founding members in 1947. Each year we renew our commitment to Christ and to the Seekers Church in a conscious and intentional way. In Seekers, God’s call and our commitments are linked together. Every choice you make, every call you answer changes all of us! This year “Recommitment Sunday” will be October 16^th, three weeks from today.