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.

Reflections on World AIDS Day

John Hassell and Glenn Clark

December 1, 2024

First Sunday of Advent

John Hassell

Good morning.  Please pray or sing with me:

Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine,

Heir of salvation, purchase of God

Born of God’s goodness, washed in God’s love.

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my savior, all the day long

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my savior, all the day long.

Today is World AIDS Day.

In 1988, a group of AIDS activists established World AIDS Day when they went to the World Health Organization to make the day official in order to raise awareness about HIV and to remember the millions who had already died from HIV related illnesses. 

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Telling the Deeper Truth – The Reign of Christ

Mary Mehala

November 24, 2024

Reign of Christ

I breathed and finally surrendered to the longing to write something that could speak to my heart, which I hope will speak to yours, too. I pray these words are a light to those who long to see and oil to those who long to find hope.

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Telling the deeper truth: “The Reign of Christ.” What story will I share with you this morning? Shall I tell my story, my history? Or shall I borrow a history as I imagine it to be, a story from long ago, of an America once billowing with green trees, brown hays, soft winds, and sweet fruit from the land not yet soiled by blood, the blood of those who cherished, ate, loved, belonged, hoped, and spirited? Dispersed yet confined, their cry and spirits filled the air, saying to their God, as I imagine the prophet Habakkuk said unto his, “The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted,” and they ask for how long shall we stay hemmed in, and who is this Christ, that Reigns? Tell us this deeper truth, for the sight of pain and sorrow stains our hearts like a cloudy dew resting heavily upon our eyes, rendering all unable to see.

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After the Wrestling Comes the Blessing

Erica Lloyd

November 17, 2024

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

I often start my sermons off with some kind of disclaimer, and this one is no different: when I agreed to preach a few weeks ago, my focus was entirely on how to frame our discussion, and it somehow did not occur to me that this would also be in the aftermath of the election. I feel profoundly ill-equipped to be preaching in this context.

But maybe today’s lectionary is of help. Jesus talks of power, of wars. These were, I imagine, topics that provoked some anxiety among the disciples. “When will this happen?” They ask, as if a timeline might make it all less scary, less unknown, less apocalyptic.

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Three Widows and a Post Election

Margreta Silverstone

November 10, 2024

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

On this post-election Sunday, with preliminary results in and candidates already conceding the race, I intend to give us all time to hear each other. We have been doing that already, some of us, via the emails that have been sent out on the Seekers email communication channel. I have been appreciative of the ping of new mail from another Seeker with a poem or prayer or recording, but it is not the same as being in person together.

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For All the Saints

Marjory Zoet Bankson

November 3, 2024

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Text: John 11:32-44

Today we celebrate all the saints who have gone before us – people who have shown us the way to live God’s intention for human life.

Although we may have grown up with a definition of what it means to be saintly as being exceptionally pious or bearing burdens without complaint, today we can broaden our definition of sainthood to include people who exemplified wholeness or completeness. In the class that John Morris and I led recently, we recognized that the root word for salvation is the Latin word salvus, which means wholeness or completeness. In other words, Saints are people who show us the way to new life. They are juicy! Compassionate! Connected to God’s evolving design for creation! As Howard Thurman says, they are people who are fully alive!

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