Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

Not a single palm frond or “Hosanna” in this year’s Palm Sunday reading. Luke’s version of Jesus’ procession toward and into Jerusalem instead records people throwing their coats on the ground. Rather than simply reaching for a fallen branch, instead those participating in Jesus’ political street theatre give something of themselves that costs them a little something; the way Pastor Megan’s spontaneously discarded cardigan resulted...

This Lukan fable has a pretty clear message: Wealth creates an impassable crevasse between humans. Wealth is only one of the many things that can create impassable crevasses between people; so too can race and religion and immigration status, to name a few more. But I have to believe the fable is ultimately meant to inspire us to bridge crevasses before it’s too late. This sermon will take you to the midnight bedroom of Ebenezer Sc...

In today’s parable, Death came to the youngest son, in that far-off land, and asked its question. “I see you’ve become destitute,” said Death. “Here you are very far from home, with no money and no friends. Now that even the pigs eat better than you, do you still believe that life is beautiful?”

Perhaps to his own surprise, the son answered Death with a memory of Paradise. “In my father’s house,” said the son, “there were feasts, an...

Jesus desires our ingathering, and we so often are not willing. Jesus goes belly up, like a fierce yet vulnerable mother hen in the presence of a fox, ready to take us under the shelter of her wings. Are we willing? And what might we learn from Jesus about lament?

Sermon begins at minute marker 6:00

​​​​Luke 13.1-8, 31-35

Resources

• BibleWorm podcast: Episode 631 – A Lament Over Jerusalem, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr
• Barb...

One familiar story which contains a familiar parable flows into another familiar story. Is there anything at all new to say about the Samaritan that’s called “good” or the Mary and Martha sisterly tiff? Unclear. But given our deep dive into Luke, and looking for threads, Pastor Megan notices two things: Luke is driving home that 1) we are meant to be moved with compassion, and 2) we are implored to listen to Jesus. Both are imperat...

Fetus John the Baptist knew exactly who Jesus was, according to Luke. Adult John the Baptist sends emissaries to ask Jesus who he is. Jesus does not answer John’s question, but rather instructs the question-askers to simply report what they see and what they hear. It seems that, according to Jesus, his identity must be shown, enacted, embodied for it to be real. Similarly, our Anabaptist faith has a centuries-long history of being ...

Jesus sees a woman and is moved with compassion to respond. But what about all the other women, humans, creatures, who also needed his compassionate response??? And what about the root causes of her suffering - Shouldn’t he have fixed the systems instead??? Jesus sees a woman - really looks at her - and is moved to respond. May we who seek to follow Jesus do the same. May we, out of (legitimate!) concern for scalability and systems...

Sabbath was to be the fountain around which the garden of all public life and policy grew in ancient Israel. On six days the people were to work, tending that garden, ensuring its health and growth and accessibility to all people, and on the seventh day they were to participate in the proper end and fulfillment of all work: reception of the fruits of perfect sanctuary. In rabbinic tradition, it is taught that if the people observe ...

Three major commemorations converged last week: the birth of the Anabaptist movement, the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and the broader movement of which he was part, including our Anabaptist ancestors, Rosemarie and Vincent Harding), and the anniversary of the first national collective action of Mennonite Action. Thanks to the Pastoral Team for Mennonite Action, we notice a thread through these significant commemorations: “the ...

There’s lots going on in this story from Luke, and also in this sermon from Pastor Megan, and also in the story of our Anabaptist roots, and also in the congregational life of Seattle Mennonite Church. It’s all a bit of a mess, to be quite frank. But at the heart of all four stories (the gospel, the sermon, the history, and SMC today) is baptism and the co-creation embedded in a covenant community. Come along for the slightly wild ...

When the writer of Luke’s gospel litters his stories with the names of politicians and references to their political maneuverings, we are meant to pay attention. When the tale of a 12-year-old Jesus choosing to remain in the temple occurs DURING THE PASSOVER… and IN JERUSALEM… we are meant to notice. It is, after all, bookended with the story Luke will tell at what turns out to be the very end of Jesus’ life, also during the Passov...

Since at least the 4th century, Simeon’s prayer has been among the last words spoken by Christians each night before the candles of evening prayer are extinguished. His words are the incense the church has sought to breathe while falling asleep and while lying in sleep for centuries: almost as if to say, how could we ever find rest in this world without clinging to our obscure certainty that even as we sleep God will speak her cons...

As we wait for God’s “Big L” Liberating Love to be fully realized, we are called to BE God’s love of ourselves, for one another, and for all creation. We enter the story of Mary, and then Mary with Elizabeth, to see how this love begets more love and eventually changes the whole world.

Sermon begins at minute marker 5:41.

Luke 1.26-56 

Resources

• BibleWorm podcast: Episode 617 - The Annunciation of Mary...

Advent is a home for our longing that is at once ancient and new every day. We join our longing for the full inbreaking of God’s justice, peace, and liberating love to the longing of our forebears in the faith. Like them, we continue to wait while also being called into embodying our hope. Not because the conditions seem optimistic, but - in the face of any and all circumstances, with broken hearts - we “nevertheless / even now” en...

Jesus equips the disciples with power and authority, and then sends them to their ministries with no bread, no staff, no money, not even an extra shirt - nothing. Why? As we prepare to release Tyler to his ministry as our Pastor of Faith Formation, and as we too are released to our individual and collective ministries in the world, what is the wisdom we might glean from Jesus’ approach with the disciples?

Sermon begins at ...

What does it mean to sing “Holy holy holy is God” NOT to God, but to one another? Might Isaiah’s magnificent and poetic imagery of the seraphim singing their praise of God’s holiness TO one another be received as an invitation to do the same?

Sermon begins at minute marker 4:11
 
Scripture: ​​​​Isaiah 6.1-8 

Resources

• BibleWorm podcast: Episode 612 – Here I Am Send Me!, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.
• “Be...

Jonah sought to protect his own people when God’s compassion and mercy were to extend to the repentant beyond Israel’s borders. Fairness, justice and truth are to be balanced with compassion and mercy by God’s definition and ways rather than our limited vision of who is repentant, when and how. Universal Saving expands when our small actions, reflections and words join together in a chorus of abundant love for all, which is no guar...