by Melissa Kelly | Nov 13, 2022 | Fall 2022, Megan Ramer, Sermons
Representation Matters Drama heightens in the exaggerated, fantastical tragi-comedy that is Esther. After a moment of reluctance, Esther rises to the occasion to successfully execute a plan to protect her people (and literally execute – on a 75-foot-high stake...
by Melissa Kelly | Oct 9, 2022 | Fall 2022, Megan Ramer, Sermons
Desire, Bodies, and Sex, OH MY! No bones about it: Song of Songs is steamy. Before this sermon is through, we will acknowledge that people do, in fact, have sex. We will hear about desire and the clandestine rendezvous of lovers. We will learn that Pastor Megan has...
by Melissa Kelly | Oct 2, 2022 | Fall 2022, Megan Ramer, Sermons
A Singular Voice Contains Multitudes When at last the communal voice enters the lamentation, closing out the book of Lamentations, the community finds a way to speak in a singular voice with enough spaciousness to embrace its diversities. It’s almost magical how they...
by Melissa Kelly | Sep 18, 2022 | Fall 2022, Megan Ramer, Sermons
A Time to Hear from One Another We encounter the timeless poetry of Ecclesiastes about the seasons of our lives. Pete Seeger iconically set this poetry to music so poignant and beautiful that it is known to nearly all of us. Like all good poetry, there is spaciousness...
by Melissa Kelly | Sep 11, 2022 | Fall 2022, Megan Ramer, Sermons
Ode to a Vaporous Life If all of life is “vanity” or breath or vapor, as the Teacher of Ecclesiastes repeats, is it then “perfectly pointless”? If life is unfair, inscrutable, beyond our control, and destined for the grave, as the Teacher describes, is it then...
by Melissa Kelly | Jul 31, 2022 | Megan Ramer, Sermons, Summer Series 2022
Some Six-figure Nard… In 2020 Seattle dollars, Mary pours out $100,000 worth of perfume on Jesus’ feet. Why? And when Judas questions her choice, citing how much further those dollars could have gone if given to the poor, doesn’t he have a point? Yep. But come...
