Sermons
Seekers recognizes that any member of the community may be called upon by God to give us the Word, and thus we have an open pulpit with a different preacher each week. Sermons preached at Seekers, as well as sermons preached by Seekers at other churches or events, are posted here, beginning with the most recent.
Click here for an archive of our sermons.
Feel free to use what is helpful from these sermons. We only ask that when substantial portions are abstracted or used in a written work, please credit Seekers Church and the author, and cite the URL.
.wp-show-posts-columns#wpsp-4136 {margin-left: -2em; }.wp-show-posts-columns#wpsp-4136 .wp-show-posts-inner {margin: 0 0 2em 2em; } I’ve been thinking a lot about light recently, partly because I’m awakening before dawn and can just see the faint light above the horizon as I go out to get the morning newspaper. We are three and a half weeks past the winter solstice. Here in the northern hemisphere every day the dawn comes just a smidgeon earlier than the day before and the sunset is just a smidgeon later. We are moving towards the season of light. In our secular calendar, this is the first Sunday in the New Year. This might itself be the basis of a decent sermon, but that solution that is not available within the liturgical tradition, which challenges the preacher with a three layered view of this particular Sunday. First, an arguably most important, it is the Sunday on which we celebrate Epiphany, usually with a focus on the visit of the wise men (sorry – I just can’t say “wise persons” in this context), and, as she has for number of years, Emmy Lu enriched this focus just now with her reading of T. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi”. The biblical account from Mathew 2 has its own problems because we traditionally celebrate the wise men’s visit on Christmas Eve and again on Epiphany. Dealing with this discrepancy is actually made easier by the fact that the entire Christmas story lacks any historical basis and was probably made up decades after the fact to call attention to the divine aspect of Jesus as the Christ. What seems to us to be discrepancies and inconsistencies become much less important in the context of myth rather than history. Opening It is not news that we are living through unsettled, troubling times. War and starvation; political and cultural oppression; climate crises; population explosion all contribute to the rising tide of suffering, for all life and the planet that sustains it. On the surface it seems like everything we value is threatened or coming apart. How can we cope? And how can our faith community help us stand faithfully in this turbulent time? On this last day of 2023 I’d like to offer a few observations on this, focusing on hope, blessing, and the potential value of community. This “No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant” is borrowed from Rev. Dan Harper, who adapted and modified it for use at First Unitarian in New Bedford from Rev. Jory Agate of First Parish in Cambridge, who got it from someone else. This version was modified by Deborah Sokolove for Seekers Church from the Harper version found at https://www.danielharper.org/archive/?p=40, which says that it is in the public domain. Parts: Mary, Joseph, Caesar Augustus, Herod, Wise Persons, Stable Animals, Star, Angels, Shepherds, Sheep Places: Nazareth, Bethlehem, Fields, Jerusalem From time to time, Seekers Church takes time out from its regular preaching schedule for a service of chant, prayer and reflection modeled on the worship of the Taizé Community in France. This Sunday was one such time. Repeating the chants together until they die away into the silence provides rest for our world-weary spirits as well as an opportunity for individual reflection on our faith journeys. This time, as we joined in spirit with the monks at Taizé, we were nourished by their faithfulness as well as by their music and accompanied by the sounds of recorders played by the Sligo Creek Recorder Club.Is the Light of Jesus Still Shining? by Dave Lloyd
January 14, 2024
Second Sunday After Epiphany
Epiphany and Baptism by Ken Burton
January 7, 2024
Celebration of Epiphany
Baptism of the Lord
Christmastide – Waiting Together by Peter Bankson
December 31, 2017
Christmastide
“The No-Rehersal Christmas Pageant” by Deborah Sokolove
Third Sunday in Advent
December 17, 2023
“A Service in the Style of Taizé for Advent 2023”
Second Sunday in Advent
December 10, 2023