Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

Join Megan as she reflects on Revelation and Deren, Carl, Madeleine, Susan, and Melissa as they reflect on Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference's annual retreat and delegate assembly.

Sermon begins at 2:31

Revelation 5.1–11

Resources

•  PNMC Resolution 2025 
• Image: Sacramentary (of Bishop of Metz), Fol. 5. Ill. MS (fragment)., ca. 850-900. Paris: Lib., Bibliothèque Nationale; lat. 1141., JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/communit...

The title Revelation comes from the Greek word apokálypsi, or ‘apocalypse’, which in Greek means literally, the lifting of the veil. Ordinarily, a veil conceals or obscures that which lies beyond it, and when the veil is lifted, one sees clearly. But in this book the reverse is the case. John, the exiled poet of Patmos lifts a veil, and what we see beyond it is exceedingly less clear than what we expected to see…

Sermon begins at mi...

In our first of a six-week series on “Revelation and Resistance,” we step - with some well earned fear and trembling - into the wild, the wondrous, the terrifying, the evocative world of apocalyptic literature. With so much to UN-learn about the book of Revelation, Pastor Megan invites us to begin again. What IS this ancient genre of literature, why and how was it written, and for whom and what purpose? As a revelation of Jesus the...

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over. During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by t...

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over. During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by t...

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over.   During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by...

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over.   During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by...

Jesus left a legacy of stories, and as Luke ends and we reread Acts and the Epistles, we remember his disciples spread his teachings and established the church by telling his and their stories over and over. During worship this Eastertide season, we have the gift of hearing members of the congregation reflect on the practices that flow from our congregational covenant. Those 11 practices, along with the covenant, were affirmed by t...

Palmer Becker is a Mennonite pastor and writer whose three-part distillation of Anabaptist values has become a common refrain in Mennonite circles: 1) Jesus is the center of our faith. 2) Community is the center of our life. 3) Reconciliation is the center of our work. And according to Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, reconciliation is a gift entrusted to us by God. Guest preacher, Randy Detweiler (from AMBS - Anabaptist Men...

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” sounds like a chastisement. Until we remember that the only reason that ANYone knows that Jesus’ tomb is empty is because a whole crew of faithful women showed up at the place of death, with the intention of attending to the dead. Indeed, it is only by returning again and again to the tombs of today’s Empires that we can be gathered as resurrection communities who follow Jesus’ call to “...

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...