Sermons

March 31, 2019

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable.”  My dad began most of his sermons asking God for strength and guidance.  In using those words this morning, I’m also asking for God’s support, and additionally asking for acceptance, or at least understanding, from you Seekers, my faith community.

Few of you have ever heard me preach because I have not preached since Seekers made the move to Carroll Street.  And I speak today with some reluctance and apprehension.  What got me out of my chair and up here is the Seekers theme for Lent – Citizens of the Empire of God. 

March 24, 2019

The Third Sunday in Lent

Mike Little, the Director of the Faith and Money Network, reminded us that Jesus spoke about money and economic conditions more than any other subject. Mike cautioned us not to become assimilated to the consumer culture around us and offered three practices to help us in that task. By becoming accountable in authentic relationships, befriending people who are unlike us, and spending time every day in prayer, we can maintain our distinctiveness as followers of Jesus.

More about Mike’s work at the Faith and Money Network is available at http://www.faithandmoneynetwork.org/.

The text of this sermon is not available.

March 17, 2019

The Second Sunday in Lent

Good morning. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve started a sermon with, “when I signed up to preach, I thought I was going to talk about [whatever it was] but it turns out that now I’m going to talk about this.” Today is another one of those times. I actually signed up to preach later in Lent, when I figured that my calendar would be a little less full. However, the person who had been signed up for today discovered a couple of weeks ago that they had to travel for work, so I offered to switch. Either way, I thought, since it was Lent, I would give a little history about the origins of the season and how it began as a way for the more seasoned members of the church to be in solidarity with the soon-to-be new Christians who were fasting, praying, and studying the basics of the faith as they prepared to be baptized during the pre-dawn service on Easter Sunday. I figured I could show you some pictures of 6^th century baptismal fonts, and struggle to make that somehow fit with this morning’s difficult lectionary texts that seem to celebrate predestination, animal cruelty, invasion, conquest, land theft, and authoritarianism – and that’s just the Genesis reading!

March 10, 2019

The First Sunday in Lent

March 3, 2019

Transfiguration Sunday

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, so my questions to you are, first, “Are you sleepy from keeping the vigil last night?” and second, “Did you bring the grapes or other fruit?”  The Feast of the Transfiguration has been celebrated in the Western Catholic Church since the 9^th century, Common Era.  The date was set as August 6 in the Julian calendar, which is now August 19 in the Gregorian calendar that we follow.  In the Eastern Orthodox churches, this Feast is marked by an all-night vigil the night before and by the bringing of grapes to be blessed after the liturgy is over.  If grapes aren’t available, apples or other fruit may be brought to be blessed.