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.
“More Than Food” by Marjory Bankson
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
August 6, 2023
Matthew 14: 13-21
Our text for today begins with an odd sentence: “When Jesus heard this, he withdrew….”
Jesus has just been told that his beloved cousin, John, has been beheaded as a favor to Herod’s wife. Stunned, Jesus gets into a boat, needing a deserted place where he can be alone. Imagine what that news would mean to you. How you might feel — and how welcome a needy crowd would be. Or picture yourself as a member of the crowd, following a beloved teacher on foot — in the wake of his grief and your fears about what this means for the reform movement which was beginning to form around them.
This is NOT the mood we want to set for celebrating Emmy Lu’s 100th birthday, and yet I want to honor the discipline of dealing with the gospel text assigned for today. And death, whatever form it takes, will come to all of us. It’s certainly waiting in the wings as we celebrate Emmy Lu’s 100th birthday.
“Embarking on the Purpose-Path: My Vision Quest Story” by Oswaldo Montoya
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
July 30, 2023
How do we connect with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit? This question was the subject of Jacqie Wallen’s sermon on Sunday, May 29 of this year. Among the different spiritual practices she shared, she highlighted the communion with nature. Just the day before I had returned from the mountains of West Virginia, where I was on a vision quest, so the sermon resonated deeply with my recent experience.
A “vision quest” is a rite of passage into nature. Its most visible phase is a solitary retreat of several days, in which you expose yourself as much as possible to the forces of nature, carrying only the essentials to survive and fasting. It is a journey to “the sacred mountain” in search of answers and guidance.
“Finding Seekers” by Marta Brenden
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
July 23, 2023
Good Morning. This sermon is about me, it’s why joining Seekers Church has made a significant change to my life and how I expect to live. Please bear with me, because in preparing this message for today I faced my personal history, my work and how I have lived my life. I could do this because I feel at home here. You have given me nourishment for my spiritual life. The Circle Time, the liturgy, the Word and the interests of the community in social justice — all are meaningful. Let me explain how I am affected.
“Faith, Money and Racial Justice” by Mike Little
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
July 16, 2023
Good morning,
Thank you for this invitation to share with you today. Preaching to the choir – I have been inspired by your Racial & Ethnic Justice Ministry Team- commitment to racial justice and your continued weekly vigil. I hope we can continue to learn from one another.
I thought I would start with a little of who we are, Faith and Money Network, (FMN) and what we do. Most of you know and have supported our ministry over the years and a few of you were around when the original call was sounded by Don McClanen and others. Don recognized the relationship between money and fear and anger, and he realized that few people addressed these problems from the perspective of their faith.
“Love Your Transgender Neighbor As You Love Yourself” by Cynthia Dahlin
Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
July 9, 2023
Good Morning.
Deborah Sokolove asked me to preach in Pride Month, but I was out of town most of June. So I’m late, but it works out in time, as my message flows right out of what the delegates from New Story Leadership talked about last week: change is hard, and sometimes harder within ourselves than we are expecting, even when we have the best of intentions and desires.
Capernum Temple Leaders Opposed Jesus’ Teachings
This week’s Gospel reading includes a part of a longer story and rant by Jesus. John the Baptist had heard about Jesus’ miracles and teaching and sent his followers to ask Jesus if he was the expected Messiah. Jesus sent them back to John and said to report on all his miracles, and blessed everyone who took no offense at his actions. By this, he is beginning to criticize and preach against the Jewish leaders, who charge John is possessed by demons as he is a desert hermit, and call him, Jesus, a glutton and drunkard for eating with sinners and tax collectors. He chastises the leaders of small villages of Chorazin and Bethsaida, both in walking distance from Capernum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and says that if the deeds of power done in those towns had been done in places outside the lands of Israel, those people would have repented and sat in sackcloth and ashes, but not these towns, which he knew well. The deeds of power he was probably talking about were the actions to exclude those who the leaders of the Jewish community thought unworthy, such as tax collectors, or ignore prostitutes, or beggars, or those who were not Jewish, but needing help.