Sermons
Sermon Archive
It’s You I Like
John 3:16 is much loved by many & much detested by many others. This Laetare Sunday, Dustin looks beyond verse 16 to find a way to rejoice in it.Dustin WilsorLent, Year WSong of Solomon 4.7-16; Psalm 135.1-16; 1 John...
Seeing Eden Through the Lens of Jesus
We are still in the Garden, beginning to see movement towards the Table. What does this origin story say about gender, and culture, and danger? If we start with Jesus, what do we see about that first curse and the real danger? Join Megan as she discusses the story and...
Setting the Table
Join Pastor Megan in a reflection on the story that begins with dirt in a garden. We've heard it so many times, through so many tellings and retellings. What table was set in that garden by a trickster and a very human Eve?[buzzsprout episode='12396241'...
Garden to Table
Join us as Pastor Megan reflects on our Story's beginnings. Humans and gardens and all good, life giving stories begin in the dirt.Megan M RamerLent 2023, Year W Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25; Mark 16:9-15Image: Photo by Gabriel...
There’s A Place For Us
In this scripture, we come to the “ending credits” of the story of Mary that we have been following for the past several months. Using the musical West Side Story, Dustin urges us to ensure that we give credit to everyone who contributed to the story.[buzzsprout...
Gathered Around A Campfire
Jesus’ ability to choose his baptism matters. Our ability to choose baptism, to choose discipleship, to choose joining the the Jesus movement, to choose walking in the Way, to choose covenant with one another ALSO matters. Despite how it may sound, this is not a...
Heart Treasures & 12-Year-Olds
This sermon is a wondering, a story, a reflection, and - at the last - a blessing. A wondering about the treasures stored in Mary’s heart. A story about an aunt and her nephew ice skating. A reflection about Jesus at 12-years-old, about ALL 12-year-olds, and about...
A Sign Provoking Contention
Join us as Weldon reflects on prophecy and the prophets he has known and worked with in Iraqi Kurdistan. His work with CPT has brought him in contact with prophets, particularly women prophets, who are challenging and provoking the systems of oppression around...
They Spoke Not a Word, but, Got Right to Work
Magi from the East, travel (for two years) guided by a significant astrological event. Along the way (in the opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors) they stop at the home of a poor widow and her son; before finding their way to the chaotic home of Mary, the harried...
Formation and Family
Jesus’ formation began when he was still in utero, when his mama sang the revolutionary songs of her own foremamas, and when Joseph drew a circle of family around a child not his own. Years later when Jesus’ own ministry proclaimed a liberation of systems where...
Blessed Are You Among Women!
Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Who was the blessed woman, and what does it mean to be blessed in the first place? Dustin is an emerging Mariologist, and he walks us through the unfamiliar...
Annunciation and Story
When Mary said yes to Gabriel's invitation to be the bearer of Jesus, she did so as one in the long story of women partnering with God in creation. Each of us, like Mary, may be storytellers of God, helping to birth new things in our own lives and in the world: new...
Mary the Tower
An opening question for our sermonic adventure: Of all the Marys in our gospels, WHICH MARY is the Mary in John 11 and John 12? If you think you know the answer, your answer may be complicated by what you hear here. The biblical world has been shaken by the research...
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 - the enemy of her people…)....
An Ode to Those Who Say NO
Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Ida B. Wells. Before there was Esther, there was Vashti. And after all of them was Brenda Salter McNeil. Those who say “No!” stand on the shoulders of many others who also had the courage to resist before them, making the powers...
I Will Never Leave You
All Saints Sunday was a wonderful chance to eat together and share stories of our saints. We even got to make icons and hear part of the story of Ruth read out loud by four voices. Listen as Dustin reflects on the stories of his saints, his icons, and one of his...
Bible’s Best Boy
As much as we learned otherwise in Sunday school, Boaz is not the romantic lead of a storybook romance. He is, however, one of the best examples we have in the Bible of how to use privilege, power and wealth in a way that offers a place to those who don't have those...
Horns of Every Shape and Size!
The Bible has taught us well to allegorize stories by substituting God for the male figure in a story, and Jerusalem or Humanity for the female figure. However, Hebrew poetry lends itself to double entendres and multiple meanings. With the help of the 1957 Broadway...
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 become an avid reader of romance...
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 pull it off. Have we, could we, might...
Don’t Look Away: The Pain and Protest of Lamentations
It feels bad to feel bad! So often feelings and embodiments of anger and despair are punished or policed - especially in women and people of color. Maybe that's why we so often turn past the book of Lamentations: it leans fully into those shamed expressions of...
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 to enter it from our many and...
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 meaningless? Perhaps. Or...
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 along for this sermonic ride,...
The Prayer that Jesus Taught and Economic Justice
Jesus’s example of how to pray helps us see economic justice in a new way, helps us remember who we are to God and to each other, and helps us see that admitting dependence on God can lead to justice for everyone.Debbie...
Camel or cable? Needle or gate?
Just how easy is it for a camel to get through the eye of a needle? Pastor Debbie takes us through many translations and interpretations around the familiar quip. Did Jesus really mean what he is reported to have said - either literally or metaphorically? Who was this...
Mundane Wickedness Interrupted!
Some of the most beloved words of Scripture - “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God” - are surrounded by some decidedly less beautiful words, to put it mildly. We know the gift of the beautiful and familiar nugget contained in Micah 6.8, but is there...
What do we do about Leviticus?
Leviticus is confusing. It wasn’t written to us or for us and we don’t even know who wrote it! Can we find some guidance for today in this text? Is it even relevant?Debbie BledsoeSummer series, 2022Leviticus 19.9-18,...
Cancel all debt. Period
The law in Deuteronomy is clear: every seven year all debt is to be canceled. But because people are people, it's pretty hard to live it out practically. What the law depends on and encourages is building a community of trust in which we know each other well enough to...
Baptism: Political, Practical, Personal
On this Sunday when we celebrate the baptism of two young adults in our congregation, Pastor Amy explores the way baptism blesses and call us. In Jesus baptism, he was pronounced his allegiance not to the emperors and kings who ruled over his people but to God alone....
This sermon – about a semicolon – is a comma.
We wrap up another Narrative Lectionary year with the lovely close of Paul’s letter to the community at Philippi. These words of encouragement, consolation, and assurance are bedside words: one can just as easily imagine reading them to a beloved child at bedtime, or...
In Full Accord
Philippians Chapter 2 contains what is thought to be the earliest Christian hymn. Paul’s words to his beloveds in Philippi can be likened to a music director’s instructions to a singing group. Seattle Mennonite Church is like a choir with many voices, singing a...
A Postcard from Prison
Paul writes from prison in a tradition repeated since his time by many activists, scholars and prophets of the Gospel. But this letter is less prophetic and more a love letter to a beloved congregation. In the style of Paul's letter to the Christians in Philippi,...
You Are Beloved. Period.
What if taking a break is okay? What if being Beloved is enough?Megan M RamerNarrative Lectionary, Year 4Acts 17:16-34 BibleWorm podcast: Episode 342 – Paul in Athens, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr. “Nonprofit AF...
Singing Before the Miracle
We zoom in on the powerful image of Paul and Silas, political prisoners, behind bars, surrounded by other prisoners listening to them, as they SING HYMNS to God. They are singing before the miracle. They are singing as strategy, as prayer, and as soul-nourishment...
Understanding our Children and our Time
Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley looks at Luke's story of Jesus' parents losing him on a trip to the Temple in Jerusalem. He reflects on the ways that we can find hope in our younger generations. We may not understand them, but, they are evidencing all kinds of changes in our...
Sent to Share Life
Yes, it’s exceedingly unfair that Thomas gets such a bad rap. But that’s a sermon that’s been preached a thousand times, including several times by Pastor Megan. Instead, this week she dives deep into what she’d always previously glossed right over. Jesus says to the...
Mary Stayed
Death may not be the end of the story, but death is in the story. Like many of us, Mary is deeply feeling grief, loss and trauma after the loss of a beloved friend. She goes to the tomb, sad and disoriented and from the midst of those feelings, she encounters God. The...
Wielder of Life
Who is Jesus? Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus makes a series of key “I AM…” claims to various groups of people. I AM… the good shepherd, true vine, gate, living water, light of the world, way-truth-life, bread of life, the resurrection and the life. Additionally,...
The Carceral System Sucks
We are in our third week in a row of Jesus’ trial, and the story is getting increasingly painful to endure. If we stick with it enough to actually take it in, to allow ourselves to feel all we feel, we might notice that - while horrific - it’s not actually all that...
Belonging to a True Word
The scene in Jerusalem during this time of Passover is fraught, and occupying imperial power is tenuous. Crowds travel all across the Judean landscape to convene in Jerusalem for an annual pilgrimage in which they retell a story of their ancestors finding liberation...
Jesus’ trial and Peter’s denial; 1st and 21st Centuries
On our Lenten journey in John's Gospel, Jesus is falsely arrested and accused for embodying truth that exposes the lies of powerful authorities, while Peter struggles with the call and cost of discipleship. That 1st century struggle between truth and lies is reflected...
Holy Disruptions
Jesus was completely unruly at the margins of one of his community's most sacred celebrations. Disruptions to Solemn Ceremony are very unexpected and annoying. But, Pastor Megan invites us to look for the life amongst the disruptions, to find the path of love that...
“Munching Jesus’ Flesh”
To be frank: John is a bit extra. John’s gospel will take anything that Jesus says or does in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and turn the dial all the way up to “whaaaat?!” Following the feeding of way-more-than-5000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 dried fish, Jesus begins his...
Strategic Signage
We're all on the lookout for a sign - the thing that tells us we're on the right track, headed in the right direction - even if we're not superstitious. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is performing miracles, but John calls them signs, and they serve that strategic...
A Jewish Man & Samaritan Woman Walk Into a Bar…
Okay, they don’t precisely “walk into a bar”, but they do meet at their local “watering hole”... the well… literally a hole with water in it. Ha! Do I have your attention yet?! Two people like them are NOT supposed to interact at all, but these two beloved humans...
The Parable of the Wind
Pastor Rachael Weasley of Community of Hope in Bellingham reflects on our church and hers, and gives us a teaching from John. She reflects on how this passage qualifies as a parable and on what it teaches us about where the wind, or Spirit, takes us. She brings us...
Reading John With Care
We are now a few weeks into the mystical, strange, poetic, beautiful, mysterious, harrowing, polemical, and prophetic Gospel of John. Since we’ll be slowly walking through John’s gospel for the next several months, it seems important to address John’s mixed legacy in...
Discipleship is like the Spiderverse?
This passage of John continues the story of the "Word Made Flesh" in John 1 with the story of Jesus' first disciples. There are three things Pastor Amy can talk about in this passage: How the gospel of John is next level (everything in John has multiple meanings),...
A Great Feast
Our final text in the Hebrew Bible, before arriving at the Gospel of John next week, is the beautiful poetry of Isaiah. We hear of God’s shalom vision: a great feast where thirst is sated and hunger no more; where none has need and we are shown that we’ve always had...
The Bonesiest of No Bones Days & The Practice of Hope
Ezekiel is having a “No Bones Day” (check out the links re: Noodle the 13-year-old pug to understand this reference!), and his people are having a whole “No Bones” season. Surrounded by the bleak and very dead pile of dried out bones, Ezekiel has no reason to feel...
The Messy Middle
Advent is all about the messy middle. Smack dab in the middle of exile, destruction, and the crumbling of a people’s sense of identity, Jeremiah pens a letter encouraging his kindred to live now, thrive now. Build homes, grow food, and create families, he writes....
Light is Complicated
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. But light is complicated. It can burn and glare. The familiar and beloved song from the prophet is about military conquest and might, a leader whose rule is absolute. Yet it still reflects God desire for a...
Justice First
The prophets bring us beautiful poetry and powerful challenge. Amos is clear that justice must be established at the city gate, at the entry point, at the first. Everything else flows from that. Without justice at the start, God **can’t even** with our worship…!...
God, You’re Muted
We continue our journey through the Hebrew Bible and hear a story from 1 Kings of God speaking to the prophet Elijah. Listen to our preacher’s reflections on the nature of God, God’s voice, God’s silence, our experience of the pandemic, and how to navigate when God...
Given to Weeping and Laughter
We remember our beloved saints who have passed on by reflecting on Jesus’ blessing, spoken to those who grieve: You shall laugh. And Jesus’ woe, delivered to those who laugh: You shall grieve. We are each one of us both, of course - those who laugh and those who...
Beloved & Gripped by the Spirit
You are beloved and God’s Spirit is with you. Y’all are beloved and God’s Spirit is with y’all. We are beloved and God’s Spirit is with us. Sometimes the sermon is a mantra. With a couple of plump, plucked cherries atop.[buzzsprout episode='9430511'...
Prophetic Youth, Priestly Elders
The story of Samuel and Eli is a study in how to listen and relate not just to God but between generations. It's easy for elders in the church to dismiss those who are young(er) as too inexperienced or idealistic to lead, and for the young to dismiss those who are...
Manna? Manna!
Though we think of manna as the bread that God rained down on the wandering Israelite community in the wilderness, “manna” was first a question. “What is it?!” The Israelites draw near enough to the strange flaky substance on the ground to ask “Manna?” and in so doing...
A Name In Motion
Names can shape identity or character in powerful ways. When Moses asks God’s name, God responds with a verb: “I am becoming who I am becoming.” What does it mean, then and now, to be in relationship with a God who claims a name that is an action, a movement, a verb,...
Tricksters and Power and Blessings, Oh My!
All of my first-born, rule-following instincts are troubled by this story of a younger son employing devious and conniving tactics to “steal” the blessing of his elder brother. But how was this story liberative to the people who remembered, told, recorded, and passed...
Testing… Testing…
The history of testing is troubling and it's been revealed how biased and even harmful tests can be. In the familiar passage of the binding of Isaac, God is giving the test. This story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his child and Abraham proceeding to carry out...
An Ingathering of the Supremely Good
We start our new year with the Narrative Lectionary “In the [very] beginning…” (a very good place to start…). The first creation account, in Genesis chapter one, reveals a Creator God who creates and co-creates, makes and beckons forth life. And God sees all that...
I can talk about gratitude
This one stumped Pastor Megan. We again ask: “Why do we worship?” And this week’s response, taken from our Voices Together hymnal, is: “To praise and give thanks.” Listen as Megan meanders through reflections on gratitude, even as she doesn’t feel very much like...
Favored and Formed
Pastor Amy realizes that God plays favorites! We, God's people, are the ones who God returns to again and again, we're invited to return to God's presence to be formed in worship. In worship we are shaped by the language in song, prayer and preaching. Week after week...
Blessing and Sending: Saying farewell with Melanie and Jonathan Neufeld
Our pastors Melanie and Jonathan Neufeld have been with our congregation for the past 14 years, building a ministry with people experiencing homelessness, expanding the community of people who care about those living outside into a network, and offering companionship...
Welcome Home
As we return to our church building for the first time in more than 17 months, we ponder the question: Why do we worship? Our new hymnal and worship resource, Voices Together, guides us through some of the foundational responses to that question. Firstly, we worship...
Stories Embodying Love and Truth in Action
In solidarity with Water Defenders at Line 3 in Minnesota, Christian Peacemaker Teams called on churches across Turtle Island to a Sunday of prayer and action during Eastertide this past spring - to better understand and support Indigenous-led resistance. Our own...
Resilience Through Difficulty
Jesus told a parable “toward the necessity” that his hearers might be urged to pray persistently and not be discouraged. It was the story of a woman - a widow - who nevertheless persisted in crying for justice from an unjust judge who self-avowedly neither feared God...
Resurrection on Repeat
Jesus is on a resurrection tour! He appears to the disciples not once but time and again - and then again when different ones among them are gathered. His set-list stays the same: Peace! But he changes the way he communicates. Likewise, we will need to communicate...
Blessing Our Differences
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to bless and honor difference, by allowing for bridging and understanding amongst differences. As we navigate the many differences in how we communicate, how we gather, and how we worship, especially in this season of...
Communicating and Consent
Bartimaeus is blind and cries out asking Jesus to have mercy on him. Rather than assuming he knows what Bartimaeus means by ‘having mercy’, Jesus asks him a direct and open-ended question: "What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus creates space for Bartimaeus to have...
Resurrection, not Resuscitation
Looking to the sacred text of John’s gospel, and the sacred text of creation, Pastor Megan ponders resurrection as not only a powerful Way of Life, but specifically as we emerge from the worst of the pandemic and begin our journey of return to incarnational community...
Gathered & Sent – A Communal Sermon
The Holy Spirit comes to a community in the Pentecost story. And so we hear Scriptural reflections from our community. Pastor Megan shares what our Spiritual Leadership Team noticed and wondered about together as we dwelt in this story during Saturday’s meeting (in...
Family Fruit
Paul insists to the Galatians that all who follow Jesus are adoptees into the family of God and thus we receive our inheritance...not gold or property but Spiritual riches. As all adoptees know, family is the people who take care of you and who you take care of. ...
A Community in Transition
All of Acts is a story about a community / communities in transition; a story about finding a way together through much sorting and discerning; a story about claiming and releasing and improv; a story of a community’s long journey of becoming. All in the service of...
The Faith of an Ethiopian Eunuch
At first blush, Philip seems to be the hero of this remarkable story in Acts, being willing to expand the circle of the Jesus-following community. Philip offered baptism to the Ethiopian eunuch, a gender-variant foreigner from a racial minority. But Pastor Joanna...
Holy Spirit, Come with Power!
We had a 15 minute service of worship and prayer today followed by continuation of our Congregational Meeting from last week. Holy Work! Land Acknowledgement: Real Rent Duwamish Prayers of the People Adapted from Peter...
A Dispute Arose
Acts tells us that as the community of disciples grew in number, “a dispute arose…” Not shocking for any of us who have ever been part of any human community: As numbers grow, disputes are surely to arise! This story of the early Jesus-following community trying to...
The DNA of Discipleship
The disciples on the road to Emmaus didn't recognize Jesus while he was walking with them. But like a flower that knows in its cells how to bloom, they knew in their bodies that to be disciples was to offer hospitality. They had been at hundreds of tables with Jesus...
Easter Celebration
We gather to celebrate the risen Christ with music, song and story. Children and their families bring their joy and creativity to the Easter story in a mini video-pageant and we conclude our worship with our tradition of belting out the Hallelujah Chorus (well, we...
Saved by Belonging
Jesus is always surprising the crowds around him with his attentions; sometimes offending with his attentions. To whom is Jesus drawn? How often Jesus walks his body to the edge of the crowd and speaks directly to the marginalized or stigmatized one; calling them by...
Gatekeepers and the Scramble for Crumbs
Jesus keeps on telling stories about wealth and money. Pastor Amy preaches on the rich man and Lazarus and the way, like the rich man in the parable, we are gatekeepers with wealth and resources. Unlike the rich man, we still have the opportunity to open the gate...
Bad at Math; Good at Parties
Jesus’ parables contain an “excess of meaning” which makes preaching three of them on a single morning quite the challenge. What is one to do with the excess upon excess upon excess?? Instead of choosing just one sermon of the hundred variations a preacher might...
Truth, Lament, and Healing
Jesus tells the truth about the violence his people were both experiencing and perpetrating. That truth-telling leads to lament: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were...
Plans & Unplans
I make plans. I create checklists. Checking boxes on those checklists is one of my greatest joys. And I’m TOAST without my calendar and its checklists. But Luke’s gospel gives us two very familiar stories in a row (Jesus at the home of Martha & Mary, and the...
Pursuing God’s Will Together
A group has been meeting weekly for the past couple of months, going chapter-by-chapter through "Pursuing God's Will Together" by Ruth Haley Barton, a foundational text for the spiritual discerning we have done as church the past 7+ years. Jennifer Delanty was...
A Jesus Who Troubles
We’ve got ourselves a BADnews - GOODnews situation with the pair of stories from Luke 7. Jesus is moved by a widow’s suffering to bring healing and a restoration of her wholeness in the community. Yet Jesus also brings healing to the “treasured” slave of a Roman...
Sabbath Fences, Sabbath Gates
We worship with Jesus in the field and in the synagogue. Jesus debates with his fellow Jewish leaders about God's gift of the Sabbath. The Pharisees and legal experts were trying to fence up the law, protecting it and their community. Jesus argued that the gift of...
How brave it is to follow
Today's Scripture reflections feature Jesus, a heap of fish, and pondering the BRAVERY of following. That leads directly into Brenda Salter McNeil's powerful storytelling of clergy in Ferguson in 2014 being asked by the young generation of leaders who'd witnessed a...
A Hope-Filled Crowd
Crowds. They can be riotous, violent, insurrectionist mobs, afraid of losing power and hellbent on throwing a prophet off a cliff. Or they can be boisterous, hope-filled, sleeves-rolled-up masses resolved to build a movement for liberation. We meet both kinds in...
Raging & Weeping
My words are stuck GodDo I rage or do I weep?Wrap me in your grace“Haiku prayers” posted by John Stevens in Narrative Lectionary facebook group--This week's images of white supremacy storming and occupying our Capitol have caused many of us to rage and weep. In short,...
The Freedom of Youth
Sarah Augustine preached on the story of the boy Jesus in the temple. We connected deeply with Mary, dealing with a shamelessly unapologetic pre-teen son. And then - firmly identifying with his parents - Sarah invited us to see the freedom and unencumbered way of...
Wait, Look, Receive
The Holy Spirit is on the move! The prophets Anna and Simeon are channeled by our own resident prophet Rita Kowats, this first Sunday of Christmas. The elders of Jerusalem wait, looking for the Spirit, ready to receive the infant Jesus and to declare the salvation of...
Christmas Pageant
This week in worship we continue to explore the rich and fertile darkness of Advent, hearing with Mary the invitation to partner with God in offering a home for God-with-us in her own body. And we experience a pageant like we've never done it before! Our families...
Oaks of Righteousness
Seeds are germinated and nurtured in the deep dark black of soil. A newly liberated people draws on this rich metaphor in understanding how God's jubilee vision grows in them: from tender shoots of justice and praise, into oaks of righteousness. The prophet Isaiah...
Seeing (differently) in the Dark
Anyone who has gone hiking or walking in the nighttime knows that darkness doesn't lead to not seeing; darkness leads to seeing differently. The prophet Joel writes that God's mothering, raven Spirit will be poured out on all flesh; causing children to prophesy,...
In the Den with the Lions
In this worship we begin exploring in the dark. So much of the time language and culture teaches that all that is good and right an beautiful is full of light and all that is evil and terrible is dark. And thus that dark is something to fear and avoid. As we enter...
Scrolls of the heart
The prophet Jeremiah records in a scroll God's words for God's people. The King, cozied up to a warming fire in his winter apartment, takes a penknife to the scrolls, excising and then burning God's words for God's people. But God's words have already been read in the...
Musical Composition of a Fantastical Vision
As I've lived with Isaiah's bizarre, fantastical, and awe-some / terrifying vision, I began to experience it as a musical composition: Introduction - In the year that King Uzziah died... Movement 1 - The Skirts of God Movement 2 - Frankenstein Movement 3 - Hineni Coda...
Pouty Jonah & Spreading the Faith
Jonah is dramatically, laughably angry about God's mercy for the Ninevites, and carries on a stompy, pouty tantrum. Often I laugh at his expense; this week I relate. We also recall that God's mercy for Nineveh follows sincere repentance and reparation of harm on the...
Just Enough for Today
We may be able to identify with the widow of Zarephath who, in a time of a devastating, nation-wide crisis feels ready to die. In the midst of this certainty that she will not make it through, God provides a companion and the hope that each day she and her household...
A Housing-Resistant God
From the womb of wild nature, Pastor Jonathan reflects on King David, new to kingship and in love with his royal residence. God too should have a divine place to dwell, David thinks! But God reminds David that the Divine has always dwelt with the people, roamed in...
Hannah’s prayers
Both in her "wretched" distress and joyous confidence, Hannah prays. She brings her "hot, holy mess" to her God, and she also prophetically sings of God's joyous and just Jubilee vision before it is visible to her or realized in the world. Perhaps her witness can...
When Love IS Anger
God is angry at the Hebrew people over their casting of a golden calf for false worship, mere months after God has liberated them from slavery. God is angry. SO angry, in fact, that God seems ready to destroy them all... again. God ultimately relents from punishment...
Celebrating MCC’s Centennial
The Mennonite congregations across Washington State worked together to create a celebration video in honor of Mennonite Central Committee turning 100 years old. Normally we would have gathered this weekend for the annual Mennonite Country Auction, but this year we had...
What Becomes of Dreamers
As a powerful Egyptian ruler, Joseph welcomes his family back into relationship and care saying, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good." Though many people interpret this to mean that terror or trauma experienced by people or creation...
Peacemaking IS Accompaniment
We joined with Mennonite World Conference congregations around the globe in celebrating Peace Sunday. According to 1 Corinthians, when one of us suffers all of us suffer, and when one of us rejoices all of us rejoice. This, we as global Mennonites were urged to...
Creation: Relationship & Fracture
We are back to the Narrative Lectionary, and we kick off this year's journey through the biblical text with a Genesis creation account. In it, humans are created from the earth, for the plants, intrinsically connected to one another, and intimately sculpted and...
Common Life & Common Space
We spend one final summer week with commentator Willie James Jennings, the Book of Acts, Paul imprisoned (yet again...), and the Holy Spirit calling Jesus-followers into common life and common space with one another. [sermon begins at 20:38] [buzzsprout...
Listening & Learning: Jerrell Williams
In this last Sunday of hearing from in our summer series: Jerrell Williams, pastor of Salem Mennonite Church, a fellow Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference congregation. Jerrell takes us on a journey with Hagar into the wilderness, a journey in which she encounters...
Citizen Discipleship
"Disciples of Jesus should be desperate citizens. The desperate citizen will press their citizenship as far as possible for the sake of thwarting death and its agents." Pastor Amy explores the work of theologian Willie James Jennings and discusses the way our...
Listening & Learning: Shannon Dycus
We continue our summer worship series in which we listen to and learn from Black preachers. Today: Shannon Dycus, former pastor of First Mennonite Church in Indianapolis IN, and current Dean of Students at Eastern Mennonite University. We listened to Shannon’s 2016...
Listening & Learning: Austin Channing Brown
We continue our summer worship series in which we listen to and learn from Black preachers. Today: Austin Channing Brown, author of best-selling book, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, and a powerful preacher. We listened to Austin's sermon,...
Easy Yokes & Light Burdens??
Nothing about the yoke of intractable racism feels easy. Nothing about the burden of a runaway pandemic feels light. Is there any good news at all in these supposedly comforting words of Jesus? And what's the deal with all those words of judgment that *precede* the...
Listening & Learning: Glen Guyton
We continue our summer worship series in which we listen to and learn from Black preachers. Today: Glen Guyton, the Executive Director of our denomination, Mennonite Church USA. He loves pie and is funny (though his wife may disagree). And he preaches a good word:...
Listening & Learning: Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III
We begin our summer worship series in which we listen and learn from Black preachers. We start with Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. With him we cry in lament for Ahmaud Arbery and so many other Black lives lost to the...
Jailer, Jailed, Judge, Jury: None are free until all are free
In our annual Interdependence Day worship - on the Sunday nearest the 4th - we again expose the lie of supposed independence, and instead claim the joy of justly-ordered mutual dependence and collective liberation! Willie James Jennings's fiery, faithful commentary is...
Circling Back to Gratitude
With our sibling congregations from around Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference, we lament not being gathered together for our annual assembly and we celebrate with the prompt, "Thanks be to God". Though, like the Psalmist in Psalms 9-10 we are experiencing the...
“The Common” – zoom church
In the drama of Acts, the Holy Spirit is the main character and the plot is The Common. What IS "The Common"? In short, it's the spectacular joining of God's people which enables collective boldness, criminal discipleship, and shared life. Pastor Megan reflects on...
Do Not Lose Heart: Blessings for Graduates
Blessings for graduates abound! Today's homily by Pastor Megan (starts at 19:00) is a pastoral blessing for high school graduates and ALL. About not losing heart... until we inevitably do... and then what?? Also: pudgie pies & inherited tradition, but you're going...
I’m sorry. I’m listening. I’m learning.
Today, we tented with some Black Anabaptist kindred: Osheta Moore, Jerrell Williams, and Glen Guyton. Sister Osheta called her "Dear White Peacemakers" following to show up for anti-racism in better ways than we are. Pastor Megan follows her lead: I'm sorry. I'm...
Burn and Breathe – Zoom Church
In the days of protest, riot and rage over police violence against black people and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade and many others, we gather for Pentecost. We call on the Holy Spirit to come with power. We call on the Holy Spirit to burn...
Bodies Matter to God
Death swallowed up in life? That might be a little hard to swallow, considering the mounting statistics or loss of beloved ones in our lives. But when it comes down to it, what Paul is trying to communicate to the Corinthian church is how important our bodies are to...
The Loooooove Chapter
What can be said of 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter," that you haven't already heard at one hundred weddings? How might we refuse to dismiss it as just another smarmy love song, and instead live every more fully, beautifully, heartachingly into its sacred siren...
It’s not about you AND it’s all about you – Zoom Church
The early community of Jesus-followers in Corinth struggled with factionalism - over-identifying with particular leaders. Just as Paul urged his friends to re-center Jesus, we too seek to center our collective call to discern how to walk the Jesus Way together in the...
Turning the World Upside Down – Zoom Church
Paul arrives in Thessalonica and turns the world of the Jewish community there upside down – just as Jesus intended as he calls us to see justice and love.
A Gaze That Heals and Sparks Joy – Zoom Church
Joy infuses our worship and singing together; longing ignites our prayers. Pastor Megan's homily explores how biblical stories that seem to equate healing with miraculous physical cures, at best confound the deeper and more beautiful complexity of what we know about...
Anything but normal – Zoom Church
This week, we jump from the gospel of Mark into Luke's distinctly different world and voice, as experienced in the book of Acts. Jesus is kidnapped by a cloud (!!!), and the disciples are left, jaws dropped, gawking at the sky. They are looking in the wrong direction,...
The Final Word – Easter Zoom Church
Easter comes whether we're ready or not. Thanks be to God! We gather to hear Mark's (short! sweet! scandalous!) resurrection account, to sing a couple of our favorite Easter chestnuts, to create a joyous cacophony of Hallelujahs, and to pray for and with one another....
Good Friday – Passion According to Mark
We gathered for a Good Friday service via zoom, to hear Mark's Passion Narrative, to sing, and to pray together. Narrative Lectionary - Year 2 Mark 15.16-39 — None Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained...
More Than One Kind of Good News – Zoom Church (4/3/20)
We celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with Jesus and shouts of Hosanna ("Save us!") and waving our branches. Then Pastor Amy reflects on the good news of love poured out. Jesus silences the haters who would shame a woman for her loving gift and affirms...
It’s only the apocalypse – Zoom Church (3/29/20)
Sermon-in-a-sentence this week: "Keep alert and don't worry; its only the apocalypse." Tune in to hear Pastor Megan's brief reflection on reading the apocalyptic text of Mark 13 during a global pandemic, and to join our prayers and singing and sharing Christ's peace...
The rest is commentary – Zoom Church (3/22/20)
Our new rhythm of gathering for zoom church from our respective homes each Sunday morning prompts Pastor Megan to claim with more regular intention her occasional practice of sharing a "sermon-in-a-sentence." This week's scriptural reflection can be distilled to this:...
Zoom Church (3/15/20)
There were 69 households participating in worship this past Sunday! Listen along to the prayers and sharing, music and reflection on scripture. Use the links below to find some of the resources named in the recording. Episode artwork: photo by Vija Merrill[buzzsprout...
Zoom Church (3/8/20)
Our first experience of gathering as church via Zoom. While absolutely nothing can replace being in the same space with our whole body-spirit selves, given the circumstances, this was a delight. 39 households, many of whom included multiple people, logged in for...
Jesus made me do it
Not going to lie: this is a TOUGH message about the laughable impossibility of wealth in God's kindom and the dispiriting reality of growing homelessness on the West Coast and specifically on our front doorstep. But it's also about Jesus' love for we who have much,...
A Markan Fulcrum & Evocative Transfiguring
Smack dab in the middle of Mark's gospel and SOMEone finally knows how to answer the persistent question: Who is Jesus? Peter responds, "You are the Christ." At this fulcrum, we've now tipped over to the second half of the gospel in which Jesus sets out to teach...
Heads Will Roll
The story of an insane, self-important, opportunistic, incestuous, tyrannical (but pretty small-time) political family is dropped into the Gospel of Mark just as Jesus' ministry is taking off. Herod and company are quite the soap opera. He thinks he can stop the...
An Audacious Reach
A woman audaciously reaches for her own belonging and healing. There's not much left for Jesus to do... except to stop, seek her out, and quietly create the conditions for her to speak her whole truth in the presence of the community that has amplified rather than...
Movement & Trouble
We are just starting our journey with Jesus through Mark's gospel, and already there's a pattern to his movement: margins --> centers of power --> get into / cause trouble --> retreat to margins for prayer and rest (then around & around again...). This...
The Call to Discipleship
Using poetry from Lifting Hearts off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry, by Lyla June Johnston & Joy De Vito, Pastor Melanie reflects on the beginning of Jesus' ministry and on what Jesus' followers are called to - both in scripture and today. ...
Reflections on South Africa and the U.S.
After a brief introduction by Dan, Kathryn Smith Derksen shares reflections on 4 years of life in (complicated and diverse, awe-inspiring and pain-filled) South Africa. And then she beautifully brings the message home with gracious truth-telling about colonialism in...
Longing for Liberation
An Advent sermon about longing and liberation, scrooge-y Zechariah and prophetic singing, despair and hope. Pastor Megan tosses out her written manuscript and dives deeper into why Advent is her truest spiritual home, and why she can't do faith solo. [buzzsprout...
Waiting for God’s Justice (& NOT waiting to be part of it!)
Jeremiah writes as his nation crumbles around him - from a prison in occupied Jerusalem, on the brink of the mass deportation of his people. Which makes his words of promise for justice and hope that God is making things right throughout the land surprising and...
High Priest Hilkiah & The Temple of Doom
Okay, so Hilkiah isn't *actually* Indiana Jones, but a whole epic adventure begins when he is sent on a mission into the under-construction temple and (re-)discovers the lost book of the law. Hearers of the lost-and-found-again scroll, including King Josiah and ALL...
Re-Wilding & A Stubborn God
In startling twists: 1) cockroaches will apparently NOT be the last ones standing in a global apocalypse, 2) like a screeching record, a love ballad delivers lyrics of divine judgment, and 3) despite our best (read: worst) efforts, God's hope in us refused to be...
Love at the pointy end of betrayal
If you've ever found yourself on the pointy end of betrayal, I bet you'd tell a story of someone you loved. Or love still. So it is with God and God's people - at the time of the prophet Hosea and now. How can we ever come back from the ways in which we have betrayed...
Saints and Troublemakers
Pastor Amy recites the tale of Elijah's encounter with King Ahab and the dramatic showdown on Mount Carmel. Elijah was accused by the king of being a troublemaker. He absolutely was. In the way he challenged courageously, engaged humor and sarcasm (he had a potty...
Needing More Beauty
A woman anoints Jesus' head with precious perfume. She offers this extravagant - even wasteful - gift under the angry eyes of the disapproving disciples. Yet Jesus says of that "what she has done will be told in memory of her." Sheldon Burkhalter explores the joy,...
David Is Not Jesus
King David is unmatched in the Hebrew Bible in stature and name recognition. How can this flawed and fallible person be THE ONE that is so lauded and admired? Pastor Amy tries to cut through the "himpathy" and propaganda to see David with the eyes of Jesus. Which...
Journey Stories
This sermon by Pete Lagerwey didn't get recorded, but Pete gracious shared his manuscript for anyone who would like to read or revisit his exploration of the journey that Naomi and Ruth embarked on and the journey we each take over the course of our lives as followers...
Hello My Name Is…
God goes by many names. Maybe that's why when Moses asked a burning bush for it's name, God side stepped the question with the vaguest and most specific of answers: I AM. The God of our ancestors is big enough and intimate enough to answer to all names. [buzzsprout...
God Wrestler
Tim Kuepfer, Pastor at Chinatown Peace Church, Vancouver BC Narrative Lectionary, Year 2 Genesis 32:9-13, 22-30 Photo above provided by Tim: wrestling with his three sons.
Laughter, Longing and the Confounding Mystery of God
We welcomed back to the pulpit our former intern Christie Dahlin to reflect on the ways we laugh - from discomfort or to keep from grief, to the pleasure of shared joy. As Sarah and Abraham have their lives and laughter transformed from bitter and pained to...
Breathed into Life
Compared to the first chapter of Genesis, the story of creation in chapter two is tender and intimate, and speaks of God's caring closeness. God's fingerprints are all over creation and God's breath animates all creatures. When God scoops up some mud and created the...
Hope in Suffering
Long-time SMC member Lenae Nofziger recounts the places in her own life and in scripture where she find hope. She includes her own bout with depression, the story of Mother Teresa, the strength of the prophets, the compassion and empathy of Jesus possible because of...
Conferences and Conventions: Reflections
Listen to sharing about the delegates and youth who participated in our annual gathering of Mennonite kin from our region and our denomination. Jennifer Delanty, Sabrina Lindquist and Madeleine Kelly Kellogg. [buzzsprout...
Coming Home
Rita Kowats leads us in worship and reflects on the gift and rhythm of retreat. The sons of a father are lost - to the distant country of fast living and the distant country rules and jealousy. The woman is lost and isolated by years of unclean bleeding. Through...
A Sabbath COMMAND
Yep, that's ALL-CAPS on the COMMAND. What are we - a people who don't much like to be commanded at all - to do about having been commanded to remember the sabbath and keep it holy? What are we to do about the fact that we - on the regular - DON'T remember the sabbath...
Reorientation: Praise and Trust
AJ Block reflects on worship and praise, hurt and freedom, the rhythms of reorientation, the embodied manifestation of the prophetic in our gathered body, and finding our community's narrative in God's larger story. AJ...
Healing for the Disoriented
After hearing Mike read the gospel from Luke, Anna & Kevin each reflect - thoughtfully, vulnerably, honestly - on the story of Jesus offering healing to all 10 lepers though only one would say thanks, and God's coming to those (like us) most disoriented and lost. ...
The Overwhelming Flood
Pastor Amy amplifies the voice of the Psalmist, who's prayer is angry, depressed and anxious. While these aren't emotions that we think we're supposed to feel in church, God has no problem with them. In fact, that's exactly where we can bring our grossest, most petty...
Faith Action Climate Team – reflections
What a gift to have these contemporary prophets & friends leading us in worship. Listen to inspiring stories and inspired reflections from members of the ecumenical / interfaith "Faith Action Climate Team" here in Seattle: Abby Brockway, Lynn Fitz-Hugh, and Keith...
A Psalm for something as fickle as happiness
We begin a worship series on the Psalms and, with huge credit to Walter Brueggemann, Pastor Megan begins by exploring how folks "on the desperate edge of their lives" cried these prayers and songs destined to last and resonate for thousands of years. And because a...
A whirlwind of God’s Spirit in Romans 8
Listen to reflections from Pastor Megan interspersed with the reading of most of Romans 8 by Pastors Melanie & Jonathan. It's a whirlwind tour, but in the wind of that whirlwind, in the breath that allows words to be heard, and the breath that creates spaces...
Weapons for Justice
Don't be an righteous tool, be a weapon of justice! With the armor of God, you too can do battle against the sin of white supremacy, racism and sexism. Sin's power is strong but new life in Christ and with the grace of God, we are free to shake off that power....
A greeting, some CliffsNotes, & a nugget of good news from Paul’s letter to the Romans
It's all in that (long!) title: Pastor Megan begins her sermon with a greeting, based on Paul's greeting to the gentile Jesus-followers in Rome, then offers some CliffsNotes on Paul and his letter to the Romans, and concludes by sharing a bit of good news from these...
Small and Faltering Steps: Rooting in Remembering
We journeyed along with Paul and Barnabas, as they sought to follow Jesus and end up get mistaken as gods and frantically seeking to redirect! Pastoral Intern Christie explores the invitation and permission to go and do, even with the risk of making mistakes. As we...
A wild and wooly, mad and holy Spirit for ALL
"What God has made clean, you must not call profane." Peter has visions of (forbidden) food while hungry and praying on a rooftop in Joppa, but it turns out to be far more than just a hunger-induced delusion. It turns out to be inspiration for him and his gatekeeping...
Worship. Doubt. Disciple.
Pastor Amy remembers the words of Waziyatawin, who told our congregation: These words do violence. The "Great Commission" in Matthew 28 is used to uphold the Doctrine of Discovery and has given white European colonizers a supposed reason to subdue and subjugate...
Dispatches from the Uprising
The Empire tried to squash the Jesus Way of liberating love by killing him, and failed... miserably. Because life rose up. People, empowered by the Spirit of God, rose up. To proclaim and LIVE liberation and revolution and powerful insurrections of love together. Led...
Palms and Protest
Hosanna! Save Us! The cries carry Jesus from the donkey on the road into the temple, where he answers the call to save by with healing. Children and youth are even now calling out "save us". How may we respond with Christ-like action of action for justice and...
Judgment Day & Jesus’ Fam
Ye olde sheep & goats. Pastor Megan shares how this passage meant so much to her in a time of shifting theologies and a changing faithview. Also making an appearance: Menno Simons, Mother Teresa, chevre, and #notallgoats. [buzzsprout episode='1030864'...
Weeping & Gnashing of Teeth: Grace?
It's our Gifts Discernment Sunday so there's only time for a brief homily, but Pastor Megan dips her toes in yet another "weeping & gnashing of teeth" kin-dom of God parable from Matthew and wonders if what sounds like punishment might, in fact, be grace?? Listen...
I can talk about … forgiveness
Pastor Megan dives into both the thorns and roses of Matthew 18 and dares to say a few things about the fraught and tender topic of forgiveness. Megan M Ramer Narrative Lectionary - Year 1 - Lent Matthew 18.15-35 Jacques...
Oozing With Love
With our foundation rooted in our beloved-ness as children of God, what does it mean to live from that place as we hear Jesus’ teaching? Our pastoral intern, Christie Dahlin, explores this question, ponders the connection with the TV show "The Good Place," and centers...
Weeds, Wheat, & Yeast
"I gotta say: I really hate it when one of Jesus’ stories ends with evildoers getting thrown into fire. Don’t get me wrong, I dislike 'evildoers' as much as the next person, but burning them alive seems a little extreme..." Pastor Megan dives into some challenging...
An episodic exploration of generosity
Pastor Megan took us on a journey in this sermon. It is - to start - an invitation to prayer, then a snapshot, a wondering, a snippet, a slippery word, a preference, a story, a question, a complication, an affirmation, an encouragement, and - at last - a prayer. Come...
Stories of Land and our Ancestors
"We want our forbears to stand on the right side of history...perhaps these cognitive gymnastics are a vain attempt to justify what is actually untenable." Jennifer Delanty talks about her realization as an adult that the way the stories she'd been told as a child...
Power of Ritual
Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. This water ritual does more than simply mark his shift to public ministry; it effects that significant transition. Pastor Megan explores the inherent power in ritual to help effect transition in our lives -...
Refugees & Weeping
Jesus was a refugee. Jesus IS a refugee (and their name is Jakelin Caal Maquin, Felipe Gomez Alonzo). A weeping mother refuses to be consoled. What if the truest thing we can say from this Scripture is that we too ought to be inconsolable in the face of the horrific?...
I Am From
Pastor Amy looks at those first 18 verses of Matthew that we usually skip over to get to the narrative. But that first list of begats tell a story of their own. They tell the story of who Jesus came from, especially the significant and unusual women in his family...
Roots for Windstorms
Here in Seattle, we've experienced an unusually windstormy couple of weeks, which makes an apt metaphor for our lives of gusty national politics, devastating news cycles, and the sturm & drang of December activities, expectations, and negotiations of awkward or...
No Justice, No Peace: Esther’s Courage
Esther was more than just a vapid beauty queen. When her people were in danger she put her life on her line and used her power and privilege to accomplish justice. Esther's risk can teach us something about when and how we can examine our privilege and risk our...
Nevertheless: An Advent Sermon on Lament & Hope
A sermon from the depths of my soul for my favorite season of the year, Advent. On the lovely (accompanied by strings) and dangerous (banned by Nazis) Habakkuk, waiting, and the purest form of faith and hope summed up in a single word: nevertheless. ~Pastor Megan...
Tender & Infinitely Fallible
Like a good spiritual director who knows we are both tender (in need of care) and infinitely fallible (in need of challenge), the prophet Jeremiah attends to a people in despair, and Pastor Megan invites us to receive his care and challenge in our own time and place....
Creative Peacemaking in an Age of Perpetual War
What does it mean to be Christians in an age of perpetual war? Seminary Intern Christie Dahlin, explores this question as we hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah, of swords to garden tools and nation not rising sword against nation; juxtaposed with a story of Assyria...
When you seek a cure, but find healing instead
We hear the story, rich with details and characters, of Naaman seeking a cure for his leprosy. Naaman's dogged pursuit of a cure is transactional and full of all the power plays he's accustomed to utilizing to his advantage, and it turns out he needs to be healed from...
A Jubilee Epistle for All Saints
"To the angel of the Mennonite Church of Seattle..." Our 50-year-anniversary celebration weekend built toward our All Saints worship in which we heard letters of greeting, remembrance, and blessing from many of our former pastors. Pastor Megan shared her own epistle,...
Not of this world?
King Solomon plays a deadly game of chicken, with an infant's life at stake, and for this is he is called wise. Pastor Megan explores the anti-monarchy sentiment buried within this and other stories related to ancient Israel's kings, and considers the...
Bathsheba’s #MeToo
Every woman has a story in which her body was in some way violated by a man. In which her consent was not sought. For Bathsheba her #MeToo moment changed the entire direction of her life. When David summoned and assaulted her she had no recourse. While there's...
Final Words
We continue our journey with the Narrative Lectionary into Joshua. Pastor Megan reflects on Joshua's final oration to his beloved people. You'll have to listen to figure out what on earth Yoda's got to do with it. Megan M...
How Do You Feel About Boundaries?
We welcomed Katherine Jameson Pitts, PNMC Executive Conference Minister, to reflect on covenant and the gift of boundaries that draw us to the center. The ten commandments are often co-opted by institutions and governments as a litmus test for political affiliation. ...
The Bad Guy Needs to Die
Pastor Amy explores why the destruction of Pharaoh's army is so important to the story of the deliverance of the people of Israel and how, when it's used as a recurring chorus of salvation, a people oppressed need a God who is powerful enough to conquer armies. And...
A Can of Worms & Immigration Stories
What a week to hear this story! Listen as Pastor Megan exposes some of the troubling and resonant layers of our Genesis story of Joseph and Potiphar's unnamed wife. And yet heed the call to mark (Just)Peace Sunday with our Mennonite kindred across the...
A Call No One Would Want
Pastor Megan explores the extreme vulnerability Abram & Sarai must have experienced as part of their call to "get up and go" from their land and kindred. Megan M Ramer Narrative Lectionary - Year 1 Genesis...
Wrestled Claims About God
On this first Sunday of our Narrative Lectionary adventure, we start at the very beginning: Genesis. Pastor Megan wrestles with how Creator God becomes Destroyer God in the story of the flood, and the re-covenanting that takes place after. [buzzsprout...
Forgiveness
Pastor Megan reflects on the people we carry around within us, "releasing" and "retaining" the sins of others, and the ongoing practice of forgiveness. Megan Ramer — None Acts 7.55-60 Matthew 5.21-26, 38-48 Judy...
Sustenance
On this Sunday, Pastor Megan shared the words of Jan Richardson, offering them as sustenance: “The Gastronomical Jesus.” Megan Ramer — None Exodus 16.2-4, 9-15 John 6.24-35 Jan Richardson, “The Gastronomical...
Church Meeting Brings … Hope?!!
A large groups of SMCers traveled to Boise this summer and had a great time! Pastor Megan reports on the annual meeting of Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference that took place in Boise ID at the end of June. She shares stories, reflections, business, “fun details,”...
Fire & Brimstone
We welcomed Erica Lea-Simka, pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church in Albuquerque NM, to preach for our Pride Sunday worship. Erica Lea-Simka, Pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church — None — None — None
Seeds Grow
Pastor Megan reflects on the most “boring” of all parables in which nothings happens … or is it EVERYthing happens? Listen for punch lines like: “the smallest of all seeds which, when sown, grows and becomes the greatest of all … shrubs!” and “if there were 7 habits...
Misfits
Reflecting on Mark’s story of Jesus facing accusers very early in his ministry, Pastor Megan explores how “Scribes … they’re just like us!”, has a few words to say about the supposed “unforgiveable sin,” and shares her desire to be among the misfits who get to sit at...
Collage of God
On Trinity-ish / Trinity-PLUS Sunday, Pastor Megan shares snapshots of some of the MANY names for God and images of God that make up her limited yet growing collage of who God is. Megan Ramer — None Various Psalms — None Excerpts from the Psalms, reflecting some of...
I will put my Spirit within you
In this sermon from Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrated baptism and covenant, Pastor Amy preaches the Holy Spirit, who is active and expansive and from whom there is no getting away. God’s promise is to breathe into our dry bones and enliven what feels barren, to...
Goodbyes
All goodbyes are not created equal. Listen as Pastor Megan reflects on a couple of the goodbyes she’s experienced, her semi-obsession with good goodbyes, and what we can learn about all of this from the time Jesus said goodbye for the last time to his closest friends...
Building Social Capital
Pastor Melanie reflects on the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip from the book of Acts, listening for some resonance with our Community Ministries here in the Lake City neighborhood. From something about Jesus that is attractive and transformative … to nothing...
Other Sheep
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, Jesus said. I must bring them also… So there will be one flock, one shepherd. Pastor Megan reflects on those other metaphorical sheep. In the particular. Who are they? Who are WE? Megan Ramer — None — None Photo by...
In Strides Jesus
Pastor Megan reflects on fearful disciples gathered behind locked doors in Jerusalem. Through the locked doors of their fear, in strides Jesus. Speaking a word of peace, in strides Jesus. Megan Ramer Easter John 20:19 Photo by Bogdan Dada on...
Can anything good come out of a trap house?
Pastor Jonathan reflects on when life goes sideways and finding hope amidst the impossible and fearful. Sharing stories of the unexpected uprising of life in our own community, this sermon is not to be missed. Jonathan Neufeld — None — None Photo by Matt Collamer on...
Cross and the Lynching Tree
Jesus' carefully calculated and lampooning political march into Jerusalem helped ensure that he would need to die on the cross, along with many other brave prophets before and after him. Pastor Megan reflects on James Cones' eye-opening theological work in "The Cross...
Glory & Death
Jason Rust preaches for us - reflecting on glory and death and earthiness and bodies and Mary Oliver poetry and unplanted seeds and lassitude and recklessness in love. You'll just have to listen to how these delightful strands are woven into an intricate whole...!...
A Slithering Slew of Venomous Vipers
What to do with the story in Numbers of God sending poisonous snakes to mortally wound the Israelites in the desert? What on earth could this story have to say to us? Listen as Pastor Megan takes a crack at seeking understanding and a word of good news in this...
Small Things Matter
As Christians we've inherited a rather confused message about "The Law." Historically Christians have loved the Ten Commandments, even advocating for their physical presence at our public places (hello ... separation of church and state??), while dismissing the rest...
A Name That is True
Amy explores the way El Shaddai, “The Breasted One,” blesses and calls the old bodies Abraham and Sarah with new names and a new identity and the way we are called to honor the true names and identities of people who identify as trans or gender non-conforming. Names...
Lament & A Rainbow Promise for All
Pastor Megan leads us in lament for victims of gun violence, specifically the 17 precious youth and adults gunned down by a teenager with an assault rifle in Parkland, Florida this past week. And then she reflects on the very first covenant described by the Bible - a...
Joining My Voice
Pastor Megan invites us, like Jesus did when he retreated for prayer in the dark early morning hours, to dwell with the Psalms as we begin to process together having heard a challenging word from our Peace Lecture guests last Sunday, Waziyatawin and John Stoesz. Megan...