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.
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“Love Your Neighbor as a Cure for Loneliness” by Margreata Silverstone
Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost
October 29, 2023
When I signed up to preach today, I did not check what the lectionary passages were. I simply had been struck by a message that I needed to share and this was the first Sunday that was open. Frankly, I am not sure I would have had the gall on my own to pick the Sunday with the Greatest Commandment and the Second Like it. Yet, the message that has been in my heart fits.
I will confess I will be holding up a challenge which I do not always follow myself. Not through lack of effort, but that my energy and focus and will do not always align with the commandment. I do not always love God with my full heart and mind and strength. I get tired. My heart is full with sorrow and grief. And at the end of the day my emotional and physical strength have been spent. Certainly I don’t always love my neighbor as much as I love myself. Sometimes that gets cut short because I don’t love myself. When I am in one of those moods, where I look in the mirror and think I am just fat and lazy and privileged, it is hard to think loving thoughts towards myself. Thinking of loving thoughts of others? Where is love supposed to come from when it isn’t inside me?
“Recommitment: What Comes Next” by Jeanne Marcus
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
October 15, 2023
Recommitment: what a day of gladness and promise. We are grateful for the gifts of the last year of life in Christ and in Seekers community. We look forward to the year ahead, and to experiencing the ways Christ will be present and acting within us, between us and beyond us.
While writing this sermon, I found myself calling to mind the names and faces of those of us who’ve been on this Recommitment journey these past weeks. And I felt what a miracle it is that exactly these individuals have been linked together as members in Seekers Church today. I don’t think this is random. We are the very people who God planned and contrived to bring together here and now: I trust that this has meaning and purpose.
“Making and Keeping Promises” by Deborah Sokolove
Ninetenth Sunday After Pentecost
October 8, 2023
When I started to write this sermon, I did not intend to say anything about the situation in the Holy Land. However, yesterday, while I was visiting my oldest daughter in the peace and safety of her home on the Eastern Shore, we woke up to the news that Hamas had sent 3000 rockets and some unknown number of invaders into Israeli settlements, towns and cities on a major Jewish holy day. Unsurprisingly, the Israeli army retaliated with even greater force and more killing, and now there is a full-on war. At this time, we have not yet heard if any of our relatives have been killed, injured, or taken captive.
“Thirsting for God” by Kolya Braun-Greiner
Eightenth Sunday After Pentecost
October 1, 2023
Ex 17:1-7
Mt 21:23-32
Phil 2:1-13
As I prepared to lead the Seekers Silent Retreat at Dayspring last weekend, I stayed at Overlook on personal retreat for a few day and while there I also reflected on the themes of scripture for this Sunday and what emerged for me was trusting n God’s presence, intentional pacing ourselves on the journey forward and responding to our call individually and collectively as a community.
Commitment to call and community takes trust.
“Committed to the Jesus Way” by David Lloyd
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
September 24, 2023
Have you noticed that our Seekers Church member’s commitment statement doesn’t include a profession of faith? Whether committing for the first time or recommitting, I merely affirm “my relationship with this Christian community in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, linked with the people of God through the ages.”
Our omission of a profession of faith has helped a number of people over the years who didn’t initially name themselves as Christians become members of Seekers. Some described themselves as spiritual rather than as religious. A few described themselves as Buddhists or as Christian Buddhists. If I remember correctly, we’ve had one or two members of Alcoholics Anonymous who regarded our member’s commitment as similar to the third step of AA, “a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” And some said they were just followers of Jesus.