Sermons

October 27, 201

All Saints/All Souls/Day of the Dead

For All the Saints…

Today we are celebrating All Saints Day at Seekers, with a Day of the Dead altar, a burial urn on the bulletin, a tile on the Memory Wall for Emily Gilbert, and the Be-attitudes for a text. It’s quite a mash-up to deal with even before we include surrounding events, like the World Series and the latest presidential plundering of our public life. I’ll skip those for now.

I’m preaching as a member of the Living Water Mission Group. We have responsibility for the Memory Wall in the back stairwell, where you will find a new tile installed to remember Emily, who died this year at the age of 96. Emily was a founding member of Seekers Church, and a member of Living Water until she died. You will find the Memory Book open to her page in the Skylight Room after worship. This service is dedicated to Emily, and to all the departed saints who will be coming closer to us this week.

October 20, 2019

Recommitment Sunday for Church of the Saviour Communities

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

I often preach during the recommitment season. As a follower of Jesus Christ and a member of a 12 Step fellowship, I recommit to turn my life and will over to God pretty much every day—indeed, sometimes multiple times every day. But I don’t think as often about my commitment to Seekers Church, so this season is an opportunity to reflect on what I am committing to as a member and a Steward in this community.

This is an important day in the life of this body, so when I signed up to preach today, I had not bothered to look at the readings because I knew it was Recommitment Sunday and that was what mattered. So I nearly laughed out loud when I finally did open the lectionary and discovered that the selections were like a giant wink from God. In the Gospel passage, Jesus tells a story about a person whose faithfulness in her pursuit of justice can be a model for us all. While that is pertinent, if you want to know what I’ve been thinking about the widow and the corrupt judge, you can read today’s Inward/Outward.  This morning at Seekers, I’m going to talk about the Jeremiah passage, which talks about God’s renewed covenant with the Israelites.

October 13, 2019

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

This is the final week before Recommitment Sunday.  I never have any trouble deciding whether to recommit to Seekers.  Seekers is my spiritual home, my extended family, and I think you’d have to look far and wide to find a church that does as much good, with as little nonsense, as Seekers does.  Moreover, I still feel the way I did when I first showed up here: The percentage of people I like at Seekers is amazingly high.  I can only hope they like me too.

Amen.

Well, if that’s all I had to say to you, it wouldn’t be much of a sermon, though it would be short, which is always welcome.

Sorry, though, I do have a few more things to say.

October 6, 2019

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Now that you’ve heard from David Lloyd and Jacqie Wallen during this season of recommitment, you know that Learners & Teachers Mission Group sees the School for Christian Growth as an integral part of the commitment process at Seekers. Next week, you will hear the final offering from our mission group by John Morris. I look forward to hearing his take on recommitment too.

I had not checked the lectionary when I signed up for this week, nor had I checked the calendar when I told Doug Dodge that I would be glad to throw a few pots on my potter’s wheel to attract visitors to the Seekers booth at the Takoma Park Street Fair today. But for me, those things feel pretty normal for life at Seekers, complex and a bit demanding, – and that’s why I’ve been recommitting here, year after year. I want to be moving toward healing and wholeness, and to share my life with others who take Jesus seriously.

September 29, 2019

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost