Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

The crippled man and the disciples both experience surprise and interruption in the norms of what they think might happen for them this day.  The man expected the same - people offering him coins or ignoring him.  It has been the same day in and day out for years.  Peter and John expected to continue in their grieving and confusion at the loss of their mentor and friend Jesus, and planned to go to the temple for a routine prayer service.  Neither expectation happens, and they - and we! - are all better for it.  What might it take for us to open our senses differently to the wonder of welcoming interruption and - perhaps - finding a miracle of healing within ourselves or those around us?!Sermon begins at minute marker 3:06Acts 3.1-10ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Image: Photo by Yanko Argirov on Unsplash  Hymn: Voices Together 834 Thuma Mina. Text:  Zulu; anon. (South Africa); trans. anon Music: South African traditional; arr. © 1984 Peace of Music Publishing AB (admin. Walton Music Corp., a division of GIA Publications, Inc.) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

In the aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus offers comfort and presence to his disciples. He continues to remind them he has not come to establish a nation state, rather that the disciples would be the ones to carry forward Jesus’ mission. Requirements for this include more waiting, receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. Devotion to prayer may be what will prepare them for what’s next. But that isn’t here yet. They must prepare themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. Sermon begins at minute marker 4:58Acts 1.1-14ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Episode 535 Waiting for the Spirit She Reads Truth podcast Episode 96 Acts Week 1 with Christine Caine Working Preacher Narrative Lectionary podcast 579: You Shall Be My Witnesses Believers Church Bible Commentary: Acts, by Chalmer E. Faw The Women’s Bible Commentary, Carol A Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe editors Image: by Eran Menashri on UnsplashHymn: Voices Together 366 Although Our Lord Has Left Us. Text: Fred Kaan (England), © 1972, 1997 Hope Publishing Co. Music: Melchior Vulpius (present-day Germany), Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch, 1609. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus lives an increasingly life of truth-telling to civic and religious authorities. All the while he enfolds the marginalized and oppressed into a just and merciful embrace of care and love, calling disciples to do the same. Up to his impending death disciples cannot grasp what this will cost him. A woman enacting honor and love provides Jesus’ followers, then and now, with an example of unbridled recognition of who Jesus is. What is imprinted on our being? How can we break alabaster jars to display open and prepared hearts?Sermon begins at minute marker 5:09Mark 12.13-17, 14.3-9ResourcesBibleWorm podcasts: 528 The Parable of the Tenants, and 531 The Triumphal Entry and the Anointing at Bethany  Image by vicky_photographies from PixabayBelievers Church Bible Commentary: Mark, by Timothy J Gaddert, editors Elmer A Martens and Willard M Swartley; Herald Press, Scottdale PA 2001 Women's Bible Commentary, Third Edition: Revised and Updated, editors by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, Jacqueline E. Lapsley; Westminster John Knox, 2012  Hymn: Voices Together 320, My Song is Love Unknown. Music: John N. Ireland (England), Songs of Praise, 1925 Text: Samuel Crossman (England), The Young Man’s Meditations, or some few Sacred Poems..., 1664; rev. Hymns for Today’s Church.  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

News of wars, natural disaster, and human suffering greets us every evening, withoutfail. Where is God in this? Does God not see? Jesus warns his disciples of the temple’sdestruction, and worse, yet to come. Indeed, God in Christ does see what humanbeings are doing to one another. It is we who cannot stand to look, listen, or respond tothe fires, the famines, the faces of suffering around us. And yet, and yet. Jesus comesamong us to announce God is near at hand, God’s gracious will is carrying forth, God’sreign unfolds in our very midst. God is with us in the midst of earthquake, flood,homelessness and hopelessness. As the fig tree comes into blossom, so the ministry offellow believers serves as sign of new life to us. The coming of God’s reign isn’t going tolook like yesterday. We wait with prayer and expectation. Christ is coming soon.Preacher: Pam RussellSermon begins at minute marker 5:38 Mark 13.1-8, 24-37Image: Photo by Federica Gioia on pexels.Voices Together 319, Stay With Me the Night Has Come. Music: Welsh traditional. Text: David Bjorlin (USA), © 2016 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Struck by Mark’s mention that Jesus sits across from the treasury box in the Temple, observing HOW each person gives their money, Pastor Megan ponders what Jesus might observe in how SHE lives with her own money (and for this Way walked together, how WE live with ours). Would Jesus be glad that the widow gives her last mite and has nothing to live on, or might Jesus be praising the widow for revealing - by her courageous and some might even say confrontational act - the baked-in injustice of the system that leaves a widow with only a mite in the first place? And what does love of God, self, and neighbor have to do with it all?Sermon begins at minute marker 6:38Mark 12.28-44ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Melissa KellyVT 552 "As a deer…"  #10783 Words: Psalm 42  Music: Louis Bourgeois, Genevan Psalter. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is a deliberate act of political confrontation with the Roman Empire’s powers-that-be. After casing the mostly deserted late evening Temple, he makes plans to return the next day to make a royal mess of things; to disrupt business as usual. The Way Jesus walks, the Way that Jesus calls us to walk (together!), is a Way lined with palms that leads to confrontation with Empire.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:03Mark 11.1-19ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 531 – The Triumphal Entry, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Ched Myers, “Palm Sunday As Subversive Street Theatre,” posted on Radical Discipleship, 2021.Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: A Day-to-Day Account of Jesus’ Final Week (Harper, 2007).Image: Melissa KellyVT 146 Lord Jesus, Come and Overturn #99565 words: David Gambrell music: Klug’s Geistliche Lieder ©2015 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

The cries of the suffering are not always polite. When we are suffering, can we let loose and trust our community to hold us? When our neighbors are suffering, can we build our resilience in the face of their screams for justice, for relief, for healing, for mercy?Sermon begins at 6:41ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 527 – The Healing of Bartimaeus, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Melissa KellyVT 610 Precious Lord, Take My Hand #73682 Words: Thomas Dorsey, Music: George Allen ©1938,1966 Hal Leonard Corporation. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus’ guide for discipleship invites us to rethink our expectations of what discipleship means and who disciples are. Embedded in the invitation is a deep look meeting the soul of our being with enduring love and perpetual hospitality  to embrace the next steps of faith-filled following the Jesus Way. Sermon begins at minute marker 5:37Mark 10:17-31 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: ⦁ Episode 526 – The Eye of the Needle, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Mark: Believers Church Bible Commentary, Timothy J Geddert; Herald Press, 2001.Narrative Language Lectionary: 570 First Last and Last FirstTricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto; New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022Richard Rohr, “The Need for Mysticism”, Daily Meditations, August 2, 2020. Image: Nagara Oyodo on unsplashHymn VT 758 Who Will Speak a Word of Warning text: Richard Leach, © 2000 Selah Publishing Co., Inc. music: Alfred V. Fedak, 1988, © 1989 Selah Publishing Co., Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

I can talk about a woman who experiences a minimum of three healings in one healing story. The first is busting through all sorts of internal and external barriers to step out her door and into a crowd. The second is reaching for the hem of Jesus’ cloak to seize a cure for her illness. And the third is - with one word - being restored as family, reclaimed as belonging. I can talk about Jesus making a powerful one wait in order to give his full attention and presence to a marginalized one. And I can talk about - especially in a moment of big transition or uncertainty - never underestimating the power of food.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:06Narrative Lectionary, Year 3ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 522 – Healing Interrupted, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Photo by William Farlow on UnsplashHymn VT 519: God, Give Me Faith Like A Child. Text - Adam M. L. Tice, 2012, © 2013, GIA Publications, Inc Music - Sally Ann Morris, b.1952, © 2013, GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Tempted to avert our gaze from the mention of “evil spirit” or “demon”, instead Pastor Megan chooses to hold this story’s gaze and look for what may be true… then and now. What is true? What binds humans is indeed legion. What liberates humans is indeed Jesus. Who liberates humans is indeed us. Whew. Buckle up as we explore what makes demons tremble.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:05Mark 5.1-20ResourcesIntersectionality: In the sermon, I credit the origin of intersectionality to the women of the Combahee River Collective. In fact, Kimberlé Crenshaw should be credited with the origination of the term, in a pair of essays from 1989 and 1991. The work of the Combahee River Collective, particularly their work on ‘simultaneity’ in the 1970s, laid a foundation for Crenshaw’s development of the concept of ‘intersectionality’. But credit for coining the term and more fully developing the concept of ‘intersectionality’ belongs to Crenshaw!BibleWorm podcast: Episode 521 – Making the Demons Tremble, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Frank Peretti wrote a series of fiction books depicting demons, angels, and ‘spiritual warfare’ for a largely Pentecostal and more conservative evangelical Christian audience through the 1980s and beyond. I’m still recovering from the images his terrifying books emblazoned on my young impressionable brain.Ruth C. Duck hymn text published in Voices Together 642, “Healing River of the Spirit” verse 3: “Living stream that heals the nations, make us channels of your power. All the world is torn by conflict; wars are raging at this hour. Saving Spirit, move among us; guide our winding human course, till we find our way together, flower homeward to our Source.”Image: Photo by Tony Rojas on UnsplashHymn: VT 285 - Cast out, O Christ. Text: Mary Louise Bringle (USA), 2002, © 2006 GIA Publications, Inc. Music: William Tans’ur (England), Harmony of Zion 1734 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus' parables meet us in story form about ordinary livelihood understandings. Throwing these stories alongside life experiences of these livelihoods can provide spirit openings to fuller understanding of what it means to be kindom people. With these parables Jesus invites followers to be and embody kindom messaging without expectation and with generosity.Sermon begins at the 9:06 minute markerScripture: Mark 4.1-34Photo by Şahin Sezer Dinçer on pexelsHymn VT 519 God, Give Me Faith Like A Child: Text - Adam M. L. Tice, 2012, © 2013, GIA Publications, Inc Music - Sally Ann Morris, b.1952, © 2013, GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Christine Sine teaches us about where Jesus was most likely born, how the Inn we traditionally invoke probably wasn't what we consider an Inn at all. She reminds us of the Mennonite tradition of radical hospitality and encourages us into Chalking our doors as a blessing for all who enter our homes and to consider who we might be excluding from those homes and blessings.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:42Matthew 2: 1-12ResourcesBlessing, instructions and image of door chalking Image by Alexander Grey on pexelsHymn: Hymn 274 See Whose Glory Fills the Skies Text: adapt. from Charles Wesley (England), Music: George D. Elderkin (USA), 1890; arr. Evelyn Simpson-Curenton (USA), © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved. 

Rita and Janet lead us through reflections for the Christmas season on angels and being angels.Sermon begins at minute marker 7:05Mark 1.1-20ResourcesImage: Photo by Julia Kadel on UnsplashHymn:  266 Where is this Stupendous Stranger.  Text: Christopher Smart Hymns and Spiritual Songs ..., 1765, alt. Music: © 1989 Joan Fyock Norris. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Pastor Megan contemplates modern day child prophets and the purposefulness of God coming embodied as a lowly infant. She shares the story of young girls from our community acting on their convictions and their callings. Sermon begins at minute marker 6:12 Luke 1.5-25, 57-80Image: by Anastasia Shuraeva on pexels Hymn: Hymn 223 - Bless’d Be the God of Israel. Text: based on Luke 1:68-79; Michael A. Perry (England), © 1973 Hope Publishing Co. Music: George J. Webb (USA), 1830; The Odeon, 1837. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

 “All of the people shouted with praise to God because the foundation of God’s house had been laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and heads of families, who had seen the first house, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this house, although many others shouted loudly with joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, because the people rejoiced very loudly. The sound was heard at a great distance.” Old and young, joy and sorrow, praise and weeping co-mingle in our church, in our communities, and - often - in our bodies. We sing our refrain of God’s steadfastness through it all; showing up with our whole selves and honoring the whole selves who sit next to us.Sermon begins at minute marker 3:55 Ezra 1.1-4; 3.1-4, 10-13 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 515 – Rebuilding from the Ruins, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Photo by Papaioannou Kostas on Unsplash 

Jeremiah pens some of the most beautiful words of hope to his community. But those hope-filled words are smack in the middle of horrors. Pan back even just a few verses, and one can see that Jeremiah is writing from prison, where his people are under siege by the Babylonian Empire, their towns and cities are ravaged, homes and even palaces are in rubble, and the streets are filled with corpses. sigh. What does hope even mean in the context of such devastation and sorrow in Jeremiah’s world and in ours? If hope is as puny as mere optimism, it might not mean much. But hope is a fierce practice that only makes sense in the face of the hopeless. As we engage both the expectant Advent of our communal church life, and the joyous cultural festival of Christmas in the wider community, how might we stoke and nurture our practice of hope in a broken and beautiful world?Sermon begins at minute marker 5:00Jeremiah 33.10-18ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 513 – Hope Against Hope, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.“Why Christmas Is Canceled In Bethlehem,” analysis by Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post, November 29, 2023.Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies. “Advent, a season where we make space for grief, longing, sacred darkness, and silence…” Inhale: The world feels dim. Exhale: But we dream in the dark.Jan Richardson, “That Wild Advent Hope,” sent by email November 30, 2023.Image: First Sunday of Advent at SMC 2023, photo by Pastor MeganHymn: VT 236, Creator of the Stars of Night. Words: Conditor alme siderum, 9th c.; trans. John Mason Neale (England), 1851, rev. The Hymnal, 1940, alt., © 1985 Church Pension Fund. Music: Sarum plainsong (England), ca. 9th c. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

When the Very Good King Josiah is informed that a long lost scroll has been found in the dusty corner of a closet, he rends his garments in mourning for himself and for his people. Despite his commitment to just labor practices, and the narrator’s assurance that he did what was right in God’s eyes, the rediscovered scroll of Deuteronomy makes clear that he and his people had been called to an even more radical life of justice-seeking. How might this story speak into our own desire to walk (together) in the liberating Way of Jesus? And what might it reveal to us about the difference between being driven by the promise of a particular outcome versus a renewable commitment to faithfulness?Sermon begins at minute marker 8:242 Kings 22.1-20; 23.1-3ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 512 – Finding the Torah, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Learn more about Underground Ministries’ One Parish One Prisoner program.Dozens of Doughnuts, by Carrie Finison.Image: Photo by Pastor Megan, at the Federal Building in Seattle, November 2023Hymn: VT 406, Because the Words We Wait to Hear. Text: Jane Manton Marshall. Music:: © 2003, Wayne Leupold Editions. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

The prophet Isaiah writes poetry: to express deep love between God and God’s beloveds, to convey heartache, to cleverly and poignantly pierce through word play, to evoke hope and catalyze action, to faithfully proclaim the truest nature of God. If poetry is good enough for Isaiah, pastor Megan suggests, it might just be good enough for us. We hear of sacred love, heartbreak, longing, and conviction from poets Jane Kenyon, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marwan Makhoul, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Lucille Clifton. Come along for the ride!sermon begins at minute marker 4:41 Isaiah 5.1-7; 11.1-5ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 510– The Song of the Vineyard and the Stump of Jesse, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Jane Kenyon, “Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks,” Collected Poems, 2005.Naomi Shihab Nye, “Kindness,” Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, 1995.Maxine Hong Kingston, The Fifth Book of Peace, 2003.Lucille Clifton, "spring song," The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1987.After sharing this sermon in poetry, someone in the congregation reminded me of this gorgeous and piercing musical rendition of Isaiah’s poetry, by the inimitable Sinead O’Connor, may she rest in peace: “If You Had a Vineyard” Image: Marwan Makhoul, trans. Zeina Hashem Beck, via Gaza Poets Society, https://www.instagram.com/p/CO3URKVgw7M/Hymn: Hymn: VT 161 I Sought The Lord. Text: Holy Songs, Carols, and Sacred Ballads (USA), 1880 Music: J. Harold Moyer (USA), 1965, The Mennonite Hymnal, © 1969 Faith & Life Press/Mennonite Publishing House (admin. MennoMedia) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929 and #57595. All rights reserved.

Tom Sine encourages us to create neighborhood empowerment projects that young generations could join in, without requiring church attendance or membership. He talks about the value of examining Pew Research profiles of generations in order to predict action areas of common interest. His challenge to us is to think about the future like city planners.Sermon begins at minute marker 3:42Matthew 13:31-32ResourcesImage: Photo by Mike Von on UnsplashHymn: 573, Strong, Peaceful Man of Gallilee. Text: Harry W. Farrington (USA), 1921, The Hymnal for Boys and Girls, 1935, alt. Music: John B. Dykes (England), Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861. Public domain. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Much could be said of the exaggerated and hyperbolic showmanship of this contest Elijah sets up between himself and the prophets of Baal. But step back from the spectacle, and I want to know why the people remembered this story, told it over and over, and eventually wrote it down? Might it have to do with the quiet way that Elijah calls the people to remember who (and whose) they are. “Come closer," he says. Then, in their near presence, he silently rebuilds an altar, lays 12 stones for 12 tribes, and with simple, quiet action reminds them that they are indeed God's own. They cannot worship both God and Baal. Despite the prevailing cultural norm that they don't need to choose amongst gods, Elijah seeks to convey that they must indeed choose. And that choice is consequential. Might our central and centering practice of communion similarly help us remember who we are as God's beloveds and followers of Jesus in a world where false gods vie for our ultimate loyalties?Sermon begins at minute marker 7:151 Kings 18.17-39ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 509 – Elijah and the Prophets of Baal, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: members of Seattle Mennonite Church call for a ceasefire in Gaza at an interfaith action coordinated by Jewish Voice for Peace, at the Federal Building in Seattle, November 2023Hymn: 196, Come and Seek the Ways of Wisdom. Lyrics: Ruth Duck (USA), 1993, © 1996 The Pilgrim Press. Music: Donna Kasbohm (USA), 1995, © 1997 The Pilgrim Press.  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929, #49254 and 05032 All rights reserved.