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.
“Transformation Through Truth and Grace” by Paul Holmes
The 7th Sunday of Easter
May 21, 2023
Prayer: God, help me to not screw up too badly this morning.
Except for playing football in high school and college, I’ve never seen myself as fully competent to succeed in life. Per my own way of thinking, I’ve always fallen short. I’m not tall enough. I’ve got bad hair. My voice is not authoritative. I’m not sophisticated. I lack charisma. I’m a slow reader. And perhaps most importantly, I don’t really understand what I’m talking about. It follows then that whatever I say this morning will not satisfy. It will not be sufficient.
Despite that opening paragraph, I am OK. This sermon is not a pathetic appeal for pity. Rather it’s a sermon about two certainties that have been constant supports my whole life and that have allowed me to not only cope with my inadequacies, but to survive and thrive. The first certainty is God’s gift of grace. The second is the reality of white privilege that has benefitted me my whole life.
“Freedom is a Constant Struggle/Praying for Justice” by Patricia Nemore and Sandra Miller
The 6th Sunday of Easter
May 14, 2023
FREEDOM IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE by Patricia Nemore
David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil.
Raise your hand if you know who these people are.
I did not until about two months ago and, I’m sorry to say, I might not remember who they are if you say the names back to me a month from now. But I will remember what they did.
These men are the Greensboro Four, four freshmen at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, now North Carolina A&T State University, who, on February 1, 1960, sat down at a segregated lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in Greensboro and launched the sit-in movement.
These men are some of the many heroes of the Civil Rights era whose names do not trip off the tongue like those of MLK, Jr. or Rosa Parks or John Lewis and whom we learned about on the Montgomery County Civil Rights Education Freedom Experience that Sandra and I participated in from March 24 – April 1.
“Rock-Solid Resurrection People” by Jeanne Marcus
The 5th Sunday of Easter
May 7, 2023
When we listen to and read the Lectionary’s resurrection stories during Easter season, we often focus on what happened to Jesus: He is raised up from the dead, he appears suddenly without warning to the disciples, and later he sits at the right hand of the Father. Jesus’ message to his people after the Resurrection is that no matter what happens to the disciples then, and to us now, the Father will not let defeat and death be the final word. God will raise us up just as he raised up Jesus from defeat to victory.
It’s at least as essential that we look at the effects of the Resurrection on Jesus’ disciples. We want to see its immediately powerful effects on the understandings and actions of Jesus’ disciples. Luke presents the outward expressions of this power in a narrative form in the Acts of the Apostles, beginning with Jesus’ being lifted out of their sight, and, a few days later, the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
“Trusting the Good Shepherd, the Guardian of Our Souls” by Brenda Seat
The 4th Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2023
This is the fourth Sunday in Easter-tide. For the last three Sundays we have heard the vivid personal encounters of the disciples with the risen Christ. But today and in the following Sundays until Pentecost we move from those personal encounters to passages using metaphors, parables, or recalling episodes in Jesus’ ministry that help make sense of the events of Easter and Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Making sense of Jesus and his ministry and the events of Easter became one of the ongoing missions of the disciples and followers of Jesus. We have to remember that the Gospels were written for this very purpose, to make sense of things, not necessarily as a chronology of Jesus’ life. In fact, John’s Gospel expressly states that its purpose is “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
A Service of Prayer and Meditation
The 3rd Sunday of Easter
April 23, 2023
Instead of a sermon, this morning Elizabeth invited the congregation into prayerful contemplation of the painting Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), which was painted around 1617-1618 and now may be seen at the National Gallery of Ireland.
