Salt House - Sermons

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9). We welcome Salt House community member Arlene Smith to the microphone to share about this beloved beatitude.

What does it mean for Jesus to mantle us as ‘blessers'. Storyteller, initiated Elder and fly fisherman Jim Anderson will draw us into Jesus' sermon on the mount and explore moving from ‘container to content' in God's kingdom of love.

Purity in the Bible is such a complicated concept. And we probably have a lot of baggage around this word. So when Jesus blesses "the pure of heart" what does "purity" mean to Jesus? Join us Sunday for another beatitude, where Pastor Ryan will explore this blessing for the "pure of heart."

Sometimes Jesus uses really vivid language to evoke the senses and draw us in. That's what this next blessing is all about--hunger and thirst. It brings out intense, bodily sensations. But who are the hungry and the thirsty? What blessing is unique to them? How might we live this blessing our lives?

We live in a culture that so values the cerebral, the academic, the thinker... but not so much the feeler. And yet Jesus blesses our tender, squishy, messy emotions. Jesus is a feeler and encourages us to feel too. But where is the blessing in that? How can sadness and grief be good? Let's explore how complicated mourning and comfort are this Sunday.

Every preacher's got just one sermon and Jesus isn't an exception to that rule. This week we hear Jesus' big idea about what God is up to and what the meek have to do with it? (What in the world IS a ‘Meek' anyways?!)

What is happiness? What are blessings? What does Jesus have to say about these things? And how does he live them? These are questions we are going to explore this summer in our sermon series on the Beatitudes. Found in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes give us a list of people who are blessed or happy. And this list isn't what you expect. So join us this summer, in this season of sunshine and relaxation, to consider what it means to really be happy and blessed.

It's a complicated thing to think about freedom in 2023. Yes, we celebrate the opportunities afforded to many of us living in the US, and yet we also mourn the systemic injustice and oppression we see around us too. What do we as Jesus followers do with this tension? Believe it or not, this is a classic theological conundrum that many great thinkers have wrestled with. This Sunday, we will give it a go and do our own wrestling with freedom.

At Salt House, one of our core practices is sharing and hearing stories. We believe that stories matters, and that when we share our stories, we see what God is up to in the world and in our own lives. This Sunday, for Pride Sunday (the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots), we are going to hear a Salt House Story from Brenna! Brenna has served on our council, volunteered with our youth, and been part of our Queer group. Don't miss hearing her story!

Salt House is so proud to be an affirming church that practices Radical Welcome. This core practice has been part of Salt House from the beginning, and has been especially important as we find ourselves leading the way on queer affirming ministry in the Eastside. But where does it come from? Why is it so important? What does Jesus (and Demons) have to do with it? Join us Sunday to find out!

Have you ever noticed those lists of people that Paul names in his letters? The Apostle Paul had an amazing practice when communities flourished: he gave shout-outs to the amazing leaders that made those communities happen. This Sunday at Salt House, we are going to do the same thing and celebrate those leaders in our community who dedicate their time, energy, and resources towards ensuring that the community is nurtured.

Body... Blood.... You know that thing that we say every week at communion, but then no one ever really talks about it, and it's really weird and gross, and a little embarrassing... Yeah. That's the thing we're gonna talk about this week. Our Life Together series continues as we talk about the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Our Easter-season conversation of Life Together shifts focus this Sunday when we begin to talk about our sacraments. We'll learn more about the gift of Baptism and welcome new Salt House folks into the life of Jesus through this sacrament! Come and see how baptism informs and defines so much of our life now.

Salt House is amazing! At least we think so and hope you do to. And we want to see Salt House continue to thrive in the coming year. Jesus says, "Where your treasure is, your heart will be also." At Salt House we like to say that we give where we want our hearts to go. Where we invest our money grows our hearts in love toward what we care about. So as we contemplate our next fiscal year and our budget, we are asking y'all to make a commitment in 4 ways:1. Prayerfully consider how you want your heart to grow. Generosity is what we're made for – and it shapes who we are. Where do you want your heart to go?2. Make a pledge/commitment for your giving July 2023 – June 2024 (MAKE A PLEDGE).3. Fulfill (or change) that pledge in the year to come. Make your best estimate for what you can do this year and make a change if needed. Just let us know.4. Grow your giving NOW (before June 30) to reduce the deficit for this year. Help us finish the year strong.Thank you for your time and your generosity!

Certain Sundays are Big Sundays for us as a community - and this Sunday is one of them! We'll reflect back and celebrate the story of God's generosity at Salt House, we'll look to the year ahead for what God is inviting us into, and we'll learn together anew how generosity is the heart of God, even when all seems scarce. Don't miss Pastor Sara's sermon in our Life Together series on: Give.

This Sunday, we consider another aspect of our Life Together as Pastor Zach leads us through thinking about what it means to grow in community. Growth can be hard, scary, messy, even embarrassing. But luckily, we do this work together, and God does this work with us too. Don't miss it... and it won't be the same without YOU!

This Sunday, we put to practice "Life Together," by doing what communities of Jesus have done since the very beginning: listening for God. Pastor Sara will lead us into an experience of Lectio Divina, as we listen for the Divine - in scripture and in each other.

During this season after Easter Salt House is exploring our Life Together. These are the things that mark us as members of a community with one another. We'll look back to the story of Acts in the Bible and that first group of Jesus Followers as we articulate the same questions and desires that they did, like "how do we show up for one another?" But remember, becoming a community takes time. Make an investment this Sunday in our Life Together.

Easter Sunday at Salt House wraps up our series on the 12-steps, “I CAN'T: Steps Toward a More Honest Spirituality.”

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week! This is the holiest part of the Christian calendar, and Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. We are also on the 11th step of our sermon series through the 12 steps. And surprisingly, Jesus models this step in the midst of this Holy Week pageantry. Don't miss the good news of this season as we journey to the cross together!

We will never experience the kind of freedom that we long for, that Jesus invites us to, until we become skillful at making amends when we hurt others. Sounds simple, right? Join us this Sunday for steps 8-9 (and 10) on our path to a more honest spirituality.

I can't. God can. I think I'll let God. This Sunday we continue our Lenten sermon series through the 12 Steps, and we look at Step 6 and 7. These steps help us think about how the "Let God" part of our process... but how do we do that? Especially in our "self-help" "do more" "take action" culture. What does it look like to let God show up and move in our stories?

One of our core practices at Salt House is sharing stories, because our stories matter. Today, Dean Robertson shares his story about addiction, recover, the 12-step program, and what generous grace he's discovered.

It's time to clean house with the 4th and 5th step. What will you do with your past regrets? It's nearly impossible to stay sober and have unresolved remorse, so let's work this step together on our path toward the cross and a more honest spirituality.

Lent, the 40-day on ramp to Easter, is our individual and collective season to listen deeply for God in our lives. Join us Sunday as Pastor Sara begins our journey of surrender into the hard and healing road to the cross - and resurrection on the other side.

Ephesus was once the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was full of grand architecture and a whose-who of the ancient world. In this letter to the Ephesians, we find all kinds of symbols and metaphors. What did these mean to the people who first read this letter? And what do they mean to us? This Sunday, we wrap up our sermon series on Ephesians and explore chapter 6 by looking back at the world of the Ephesus.

We are headed into the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Now Paul is going to get down to the nitty gritty of what all this one-ness really looks like in real life and the glorious mess of community. We're pretty familiar with a unity that looks like forced uniformity and difference as the cause of our many divisions, but Paul has glimpsed something utterly different in Christ and believes it to be the secret sauce of God's dream to heal the world. Let's dig into it together.

We've covered so much ground in Ephesians Already. We've dug into Paul's apocalypse, that God was up to something from the beginning, making heaven and earth one and uniting groups of people who used to be divided. This Sunday, we continue and we ask: How did Paul know this was true? And what did he want us to do about it?

Belonging and salvation are synonyms in Paul's lexicon. In the second installment of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the epic story of estrangement and adoption is revealed - it was there all along! But only now can we see it; what Paul calls "the mystery of the Gospel". We'll uncover it this Sunday as we continue this teaching series on the book of Ephesians.

This Sunday we kick off our sermon series for the Epiphany season - our journey through the entire book of Ephesians! The timing couldn't be better for us. We, who have complicated histories with the Bible and how to read it. We, who are overwhelmed by the divisions in our world. We, who have begun to wonder where God is in all of THIS. For in Ephesians, we'll be drawn back into the larger story of God and Paul's prayer for us: that we would continue to be "epiphanied" into seeing and participating in the story of God bringing all things together into one.

Happy Epiphany! It's the feast of the three kings. But what's the ‘epiphany'? What's the big ‘Aha!' Let's follow the three wise ones and find out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Love is born! Today, Pastor Sara guides us through three embodied practices of being the Incarnation, as we continue to celebrate Christmas, together.

Love is born! Join us Christmas Eve to hear the Christmas story, to sing all the carols, to light candles and welcome in together the arrival of our Immanuel, our God with us! Pastor Sara will lead us through Mary's experience as we celebrate, together.

Matthew's gospel doesn't even say her name. It calls her "Uriah's wife." The story of Bathsheba is filled with trauma and hard to hear. But this story is such an important reflection of how Jesus' birth challenges earthly power. So join us to meet Bathsheba, the final grandmother in our Advent series, and see what truth she has to speak to all of us.

Have you ever met a friend's family and it shed new light on who they are? Well let me introduce you to Ruth, Jesus' Great Grandma. I think you'll be surprised by her story. If there's a gene for loyal-love, she's got it, and probably passed it down to Emmanuel. Let's see what we can learn from Grandma Ruth.

Those family dramas that we all like to keep secret, the Bible brings out into the open. And the characters we pass over are the very ones God chooses to center in the story of salvation. This week on the Real Grandmothers of Jesus - Rahab! Prostitute? Prophet? Foreigner? Freedom fighter? Yes, yes, and more…

This Sunday kicks off the season of Advent. This is a season of waiting: waiting Jesus being born, and also waiting for hope, faith, love, and power that the good news of Jesus brings. So join us this Sunday as we launch into a new sermon series, and kick off all of the joy-filled festivities this season brings at Salt House.

Tis the season for joy. Yet joy isn't really something we can manufacture. But we can cultivate gratitude, which produces joy. However here's the catch: there are three common things that block our gratitude receptors and keep us from the type of thank-filled life God intended for us. Let's dig into it this Sunday as we wrap up our Ways We Come Alive series.

We welcome Arlene Smith (co-leader of our Women's group and Luther Seminary student) to the Salt House microphone to share her Salt House story. Arlene will share her story of trauma and transformation. Life completely changed for Arlene and Camron with the premature birth of their twins, ten weeks early. Arlene will tell us what happened, how she deeply struggled to see God amid crisis, and what God has been doing in her life in the years since the twins' preterm birth.

When so much seems lost, and our hearts break, our memories can be sacred space. This Sunday, we are celebrating All Saints Day, a time in the Church calendar where we remember those we've lost and carry with us in our hearts. And on this All Saint's Day, we will explore how we come alive through MEMORY.

Join us as our fall series through Ways We Come Alive draws us into a mash-up between author Cole Arthur Riley, modern-day unofficial saint and cartoonist Dan Erlander, and the teachings of Martin Luther, as we come alive to Freedom.

Anger is likely the most misunderstood emotion, yet it's essential to the holy task of coming alive. Come discover what divine ‘No!' God has placed in you.

This Sunday we explore how we come alive to our Calling. What is yours to do in this world? With all of the voices we hear and opportunities we have, how do we know which ones to follow? Join us Sunday as Pastor Sara leads us in a time to come alive to our Calling.

At Salt House, we believe that stories matter– our stories, the stories of others, the story of God. This Sunday, we are excited to welcome Shelley Griffiths to the Salt House microphone to share her story. Shelley is a long time friend of Pastor Sara's and part of the Salt House Online Community, joining in from Corvallis, OR. Shelley's faith, wisdom, and love has been a gift to me and so, so many others. As she share's her story, it is an invitation for us to consider how each of us can come alive in our own stories!

Isn't wonder wonderful? To wonder is so sensual, full of delight in the present moment, central to the practice of worship and essential to coming alive. So, how'd we lose it? And how do we gain it back? This week - Wonder!

Jesus came to give and show us a way that leads to life - full, abundant life! Which we're exploring in our Fall Series: Ways We Come Alive. But could this even include FEAR? This Sunday, Pastor Sara explores how FEAR does not prevent goodness and life, but is an expected part of this fullness Jesus invites us into.

How do we come alive? Contrary to popular opinion, we can't do it alone or dislocated. We must be rooted to place and people in order to grow and that takes continued investment. Make a deposit this Sunday!

Pastor Sara launches our new fall sermon series that dares to ask: How do we live a faith that does not silence the body and spirit, but instead allows us to come alive? Through breathing and somatic practices, Holy Communion, prayer, music - all centered around the Jesus story, awaken through our fall series, "Ways We Come Alive."

Pastor Ryan wraps up our sermon series on Parables. We've spent this summer looking at these subversive and challenging stories that provoke our imagination of what it's like to live in God's Kingdom. We'll think about how these stories speak to our lives, and what we do with with them going forward. Join us to imagine together the stories we tell and the ways we envision the Kingdom of God.

In the middle of manic-Summer-fun and impending-Fall-commitments, does anyone else sense some major burn-out on the horizon? Yep, there's a parable for that. This Sunday at Salt House, let's sort through the demands of modern life with the ancient wisdom of Jesus, the master storyteller.

YOU'RE INVITED! Jesus loved to gather people together - to eat, to celebrate, to connect at the table. The table became an image for what the Kingdom of God is like. That, something so good and sacred happens! This Sunday, in our summer series of Jesus' Parables, Pastor Sara leads us into two parables about feasts - where you'll be surprised to see who is invited to the table!Music: "Find Our Way" by VOCES8 and "These Bodies" by The Many, performed by Jason Bendickson and Alissa Brambilla.