The 13th Sunday after Pentecost
August 23, 2026
Good morning, Celebration Circle has organized a wonderful program of sermons around two simple questions: What attracted you to Seekers Church? and How has being at Seekers affected your spiritual life? So far I have been amazed by the sermons from this series. I am most interested in how different your lives have been from mine, yet somehow similar. By a turn of events I got the chance to add my story and share my thoughts and experience from my life.
scripture
In our lectionary we have the famous story of baby Moses in his basket, and an interesting part of Paul’s letter to the Romans that, by my reading, describes our church very well. Moses mother saves his life by putting him in a basket which floated down to a princess of Egypt. He escapes slavery and grows up to become a leader of the nation. The idea I find useful for my sermon today is the experience of leaving one’s birthplace and finding another home elsewhere.
In the Romans passage Paul tells us to transform ourselves by renewing our minds and by doing that work we might discover the will of God which is good and acceptable and perfect. I think he is saying “change your thinking and by that action discover the best, most acceptable, and perfect life you can find.” In this lectionary passage I sense a strong affirmation of Seekers polity and practice.
my / our story
Part 1:
What attracted you to Seekers Church?
I was raised in a small Southern Baptist Church in Los Angeles. People there were friendly and supportive of me, but as I got older I questioned the Baptist view of life; that the trinity was somehow male, women were not allowed to preach, or to be church leader. White folks were somehow more worthy than colored people; Jesus was really an American, and Jews and Catholics were sinners. Through the Baptist window God’s universe looked like America of the fifties.
The church wasn’t helping me find truth that could help me live an authentic life; so before I turned twenty I left that church and Christianity behind. I was still looking for a spiritual life so I began studying other religions and traditions.
I started with Buddhism and Shinto because they reminded me of myself, a Japanese-American former Christian, and continued on to Native American, Hindu, Chinese, and Tibetan religion and philosophies. I realized that I had a lot of wrong ideas those religious cultures.
I studied spiritual teachers and learned a lot. I absorbed new paradigms from teachers like: Alan Watts, Krishnamurti, Rolling Thunder, and Thich Naht Hahn. I learned ways of understanding the world from people on the left: the women’s movement, the peace movement, gay rights, anti-apartheid, and civil rights leaders. I explored meditation, Tai Chi, martial arts, and other practices. Years passed while I was doing this work.
In 1987 I met Deborah and we became friends. She was on her own spiritual path that led back the way I’d come: towards Christianity. I still held a grudge against the Baptists, and I knew that it was time to look back and find a way out of the sadness and disappointment I still carried.
I went with her back into the Christian neighborhood, with which I was intimately familiar, and it felt good to have her company on that journey. We began at my parents church.
They had since moved from a Southern Baptist to an American Baptist church. It was called Evergreen; and I am very glad God sent them before us to prepare the way. At Evergreen Baptist we met Pastor Ken. Deborah and I felt welcomed into the congregation, but not for long. Deborah got a job in a Virginia university, and we asked Ken to perform our wedding.
After hours of wedding counseling and conversation. Pastor Ken became our friend. He told us that growing up in Northern California he saw two career tracks: minister or comedian. In his church work he combines both brilliantly.
We were not really Baptists but he decided that he could support our marriage. Without his firm hand with my parents there would have been so much more trouble. Four months after our wedding we had moved across the country and were living in Columbia Heights. That year was 1990.
I asked what I thought was a ridiculous question when I asked Pastor Ken if he could suggest a church in Washington DC that we could explore. He paused a moment and nodded; he suggested we check out the Church of the Savior. He said he had heard they were doing good work. Okay.
A year after we moved we went to a service at 2025 Mass Ave. Gordon Cosby led that service and I was impressed. That old man, with a Baptist accent, taught like a Native American shaman; quiet, simple, and full of truth. He wove space and deep silences into his sermons that allowed my mind to reflect. I could relax into worship and not have to defend myself from an unpleasant theology.
We were told about the Potter’s House. We went there and found a list of the scattered churches. We thought that Seekers might be a good fit. On a random bright Sunday morning we arrived at Seekers.
Part 2:
So how has being at Seekers affected my spiritual life?
In many ways I was formed as a Christian in Seekers. I was rather ignorant of my own religion as I had completed only the Southern Baptist curriculum with an Evergreen Baptist review before arriving here in DC.
Over the following years at Mass. Ave, then Carroll St, I picked up lots of history, theology, and praxis of the church universal, second hand, gleaned from Deborah’s seminary classwork. I also took many classes in the School for Christian Growth.
Over the years I learned all of the unique and practical Seekers theology that supports the life of our community. I have compiled a list of Seekers theology, but I am not reading that today. I’ll add it to the written text for the sermon webpage. You can look at it there if you’re interested.
Here are five Seekers ideas from my list that have affected my spiritual life:
Call
Our focus on Call, seems to include an expectation of permission, of creation and possibility. Call brings with it a well of spiritual energy and joy that motivates us to action. I think the feeling of freedom and excitement that comes from finding ones call is the clue to our next steps. Our belief and expectation of Call, I also think, allows us to practice…
Shared Leadership
This open pulpit every Sunday morning is an example of how we expect the God’s hand to come into our midst, through any one of us. We allow each person to take on the role of teacher or prophet when the inspiration comes to them; we trust that we will be blessed by that preacher’s experience or insight.
These two points undergird myriad areas of our community’s life in varied and interesting ways. There are other items on my list that lifted my heart, and made my spirit was happy. Here are three such:
Domestic and International Giving
When I learned what Seekers did with half of its yearly budget I was impressed and grateful. We understand the power in money and use that power to make things better.
Recommitment
I felt awe at the freedom we give to each of us to discern what is right for ourselves in each moment.
Reflection Time
Deborah said she thought that some of her colleagues at Wesley Seminary would be scared to preach at Seekers because we allow the congregation to respond to the sermon immediately. The level of scholarship and critique that we often experience in our services is extraordinary and rare.
All of these regular practices, performed without fanfare, has greatly increased my spiritual life.
About twenty-five years ago Deborah and I went on vacation to France. We stayed in Paris for several days and since I had never been there so we went to see the famous sights. You might imagine us wandering in the Louvre, off to see the Mona Lisa, and my favorite Da Vinci painting “The Virgin of the Rocks,” and the majestic statue of Nike in the grand staircase, or walking up the winding path to Sacre Coeur, or down into the Catacombs. It was fun.
We were in the Abbey of Saint Germain-des-Pres. We walked through the aisles down the nave then around the choir to see the dark and intimate chapels at the east end of the building. Fairly standard stuff for that kind of church. I am revisiting our trip today because of our encounter with a seminal French innovation that has nourished our gathering.
On our way out of the Abbey we saw a bulletin board that listed a Taize service scheduled for a day we would still be in town. We resolved to return on that day.
We arrived an hour or so before sunset on the proper day and walked carefully through the dim nave to one of the small chapels at the far end of the Abbey. The curved walkway to the small side chapel was dark. Besides us, there was a small group of young people. We sat on the stone floor as candles were lit and chants were sung softly and after a few rounds ended in silence.
At the end of the service the candles were pinched out and we left silently.
That visit was the inspiration for our taize services. The relationship of the chants and prayer was made clear. Sharing that experience with you over the years comes directly from my sense of call, and always improves my spirit.
Scripture Reprise
Moses lived his destiny, and we know, was brought up in a new land. He was there a man with power that he used to free his mother’s people. His call was to become the liberator of his nation. Then, in a different time Paul warns us to leave the traditional world. He asks each of us to find and follow our own calls to a perfect life.
These passages, to me, describe our church as our forebearers moved away from the old country into a new landscape, then encourages us as we follow our hearts. As a single body, collectively, we are individually responsible for living a joyous life that improves the world.
Conclusion
My spiritual life is not complete. It’s complex and full of questions. I am a limited human being looking for best way to live. Here at Seekers I can approach spiritual meaning and joy that I could never find in my native church.
Seekers became my spiritual home; with a lovely kitchen with a fireplace, cozy living rooms, work spaces, and a team of experienced lay-theologians ready and willing to consider any of the religious, social, and personal questions I could come up with.
From the day we arrived on your doorstep our destiny was stretched before us but I did not realize it; and not until years into the future. Living in this new land has been good for me. I’ve slowly come to love this small body of Christ and appreciate all of the blessings and kindness you’ve shown Deborah and me.
All that I have left to say is: “thank you Pastor Ken.”
Amen
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List of ways Seekers Culture Affects My Spiritual Life
1. shared pulpit
2. emphasis on call
3. authority at point of gift
4. mission groups
5. consensus decision making
6. commitment
7. deep sharing
8. inclusive language*
9. acceptance
10. recommitment
11. progressive politics*
12. fun*
13. freedom to choose (accountability)
14. salvation*
15. Graduate-Level Christianity
16. inward / outward journey
17. this is a church for people who want to do things, or were bored in church
18. domestic and international giving
19. silent retreat*
20. Dayspring
21. Friday vigil*
22. Growing Edge Fund
23. other Seeker’s stories*
* not unique Seekers practices