Seekers recognizes that any member of the community may be called upon by God to give us the Word. Our Guidelines for Preaching help us prepare sermons. This section collects for study and reflection drafts of sermons that happen to have been prepared in electronic form. The most recent sermon is on the top of the page.
New Story Leadership for the Middle East has been connected to Seekers through the Eyes to See Ears to Hear mission group for many years. Two Seekers, Margreta and Ron, are members of their board of Directors. Caroline Mays, Executive Director of NS, introduced two of this summer’s participants, who spoke to us on Zoom from their homes. No text of what was said is available at this time.
[The following is a transcript of Larry’s sermon]
Good morning. After Cynthia’s sermon a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would pick my own memorial service picture. Not that I’m planning to be going anytime soon, but I want to pick my own picture. If Erica could put that up for everyone. [photo of Larry with his arms around two little children on screen]
Oh, that’s me! Me and my 2 little darlings! And so the little boy on the left. His name is Everett. I was actually just a dog walker for some younger parents.…
O God, may you touch my mind, heart, and mouth, that the words I utter are the words you have put there for me to speak, and may you and those present hear well what I offer freely.
May it be so.
Both prayer and service to others reveal to us the tremendous truth that to be a person is to be a gift, and to give that gift is to receive the gift of being a person.”
-James Finley, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, p. 98 (Inward/Outward)
I’m not sure that this is where I want to start, but I was, and still am, at such a loss as to how to proceed.…
Good Morning. It is All Saints’ Day, and I am here on behalf of the Living Water Mission Group to honor those people from within our congregation and fellowship who have died this year, and to let you all mention other saints in your lives for us to remember, and thus keep alive in our hearts and minds.
I am not going to try to work in our lectionary reading. It is one of those I could contort around to fit my own deep value of marriage as a way to really try to know another person deeply and thus love another as myself—but today I will skip to the last lines that God is the God not of the dead, but of the living, for to God all of us are alive. …
Note: Lucy Slater’s prayer for Peace and Justice follows Erica’s sermon text.
Over the last year and a half I have seen how speaking a truth can give it a life of its own. A word becomes flesh, if you will. And so I hold that power with care and hope as I stand here this morning.
Eighteen months ago, in April of 2021, I scrapped a sermon I had been working on for three months and instead preached about Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd and the need to do something about the epidemic of police violence against people of color in this country.…