Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

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 the congregation 10 years ago. We invite you to listen deeply to these reflections, and to engage with what you both read and hear. Are these practices still a good fit for SMC in 2025? Do these practices ground our collective sense of mission in the world? Today we hear from Rex on Spiritual Journeys, and David on Giving and Receiving Counsel.Pastoral Reflection begins at minute marker 2:31. Stories begin at minute marker 16:38.Luke 24.36-53ResourcesSMC Congregational Covenant and Practices, written and affirmed by the congregation in 2015, and re-affirmed in our annual covenanting service every Pentecost.Image by Zayceva Tatiana on pexelsHymn: VT 366 - Although the Lord Has Left Us Text: Fred Kaan (England), © 1972, 1997 Hope Publishing Co. Music: Melchior Vulpius (present-day Germany), Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch, 1609 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929, #77600.  All rights reserved.

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 the congregation 10 years ago. We invite you to listen deeply to these reflections, and to engage with what you both read and hear. Are these practices still a good fit for SMC in 2025? Do these practices ground our collective sense of mission in the world? Today we hear from Janet on worship, Jennifer on discernment, and Pete on hospitality.Sermon begins at minute marker 3:05Scripture: ​​​Luke 24.13-35ResourcesSMC Congregational Covenant and Practices, written and affirmed by the congregation in 2015, and re-affirmed in our annual covenanting service every Pentecost.Image: Photo by George Becker on pexels hands holding candleHymn 459 Let the Hungry Come to Me Text: stanzas 1–3 Delores Dufner, OSB (USA), © 1985 Sisters of St. Benedict; stanzas 4–5 “Adoro te devote,” attr. Thomas Aquinas (present-day Italy), 13th c., trans. Omer Westendorf (USA), © World Library Publications. Music: plainsong, 13th c., Processionale (present-day France), 1697. Streaming permission from One License #40476.

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 Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart IN), reflects on reconciliation as the God-given center of our collective work / ministry. Sermon begins at minute marker 4:322 Cor 5.14-21Photo by Anna Shvets on pexels

“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 “storm the gates of Hades” which shall never prevail against us. May we keep seeking (and finding!) the living (and life!) among the dead (and places of death!). May we do so until every gate to hell is crumbled and ALL are free.Sermon begins at minute marker 2:12Luke 24.1-12Resources:BibleWorm podcast: Episode 638 – Remember What He Told You, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.“Not the story we wanted: An Easter and arrest story,” an emailed letter from Chris Hoke, Underground Ministries, April 18, 2025.Learn more about La Resistencia - “No estan solos; You are not alone.”Learn more about Community of Hope Mennonite Church in Bellingham WA - with gratitude for Pastor Rachael Weasley's words, shared from a letter.Image: table turning at the Northwest Detention Center; Mennonite Action “God's Love Knows No Borders” sign visible, April 2025

Join Rita Kowats as she explores the stories of Jesus healing the blind man and seeing Zaccheus.  What lessons can we learn from (literally) blind faith and a spiritual curiosity that leads to climbing trees?Luke 18.31—19.10Resources:Link to sermon text.BibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrImage: Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

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 in a very cold experience of worship. Thank you to the child-prophets in the church who spontaneously responded by bringing their sweaters to throw into the center of our worship circle as well. We experientially learned just how potent this action was as the crowds moved with Jesus toward his confrontation with the powers of the Empire. In our current heartbreak, may we follow the footsteps of Love Incarnate--Jesus--the Human One, who goes before us in this holy and harrowing week, and who laments with us.Luke 19.29-44 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 635 - What Makes For Peace, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“Kindness,” Naomi Shihab Nye, Everything Comes Next: Collected & New Poems, 222.credit to Eric Massanari, Executive Conference Minister of Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference, and Amy Epp, Pastor of Evergreen Mennonite Church, for some of their words taken from letters written to their respective communities.More info about Mennonite Action can be found here: https://www.mennoniteaction.org/ Learn more and get involved with La Resistencia here: https://laresistencianw.org/ Lament hymn: Ya hamala Allah, sung in Arabic (trans: O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us your peace, grant us your peace, grant us your peace)Image: discarded coats in the church courtyard, Megan Ramer Hymns: # 312, Jesus is Coming; music: Bret Hesla (USA) text: Bret Hesla (USA). Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.# 321 Ya hamala Allah; music: Yusuf Khill, Palestine/Israel text: Arabic; from Latin liturgy, "Agnus Dei" (Rome), ca. 7th c., based on John 1:29, Yusuf Khill (Palestine/Israel) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 Scrooge, to the summit of Mt. Rainier (aka “mama Tahoma”), to a jail cell in Durham NC, and to an Executive Board decision of some uncharacteristically speedy Mennonites. Buckle up and come along for the ride; we need one another more than ever. And please remember: I do not answer questions. I do not answer questions. I do not answer questions. We keep each other safe, beloveds.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:22Luke 16.19-31ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 633 - The Rich Man and Lazarus, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr'Crevice' and 'Crevasse': A Gap in Meaning, Merriam-Webster.Anabaptist Community BibleNew release: “MC USA and more than two dozen Christian and Jewish denominations and associations sue to protect religious freedoms,” February 11, 2025.Isaac Samuel Villegas, Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice (Eerdmans, 2025), 6-8.Front Light podcast, by Mennonite Action, “From ‘quiet in the land' to suing the US Government, reflections on Mennonite advocacy with Iris de León-Hartshorn,” Season 1, Episode 4 (2025). Mennonite Action: “God's Love Knows No Borders” actions, 2025.Know Your Rights with ICE, by WAISN (Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network)Rebecca Solnit, A piece for all hard times. Excerpt: “They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.  You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.”Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843.Image: Ladder bridging crevasse on Mt. Rainier; G310ScottS, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymn 149 - Forgive, Forgive Us, Holy God. Text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa/New Zealand)  Music: Barbara Hamm (USA), © 1996 & © 2016 Hope Publishing Company. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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, and friends, and fields. There was music, and dancing, and jewelry, and fine clothing.” And as he answered, something which had been dead in him began coming back to life. He started to feel again that life was indeed beautiful: and all this because of a memory.Sermon starts at minute marker 8:10 ​​​​Luke 15.1-32ResourcesText of SermonAlves, Rubem. The Poet, The Warrior and the Prophet.Alves, Rubem. Transparencies. This sermon is, in large part, a conversation with the final chapters of the Alves texts.Oliver, Mary. “A Voice From I Don't Know Where.”Image: Praise the Lord! By Randy Horst (posted on page below) Hymn 300 - Far, Far Away / I Will Arise. Text: based on Luke 15:1-24; vers. anon., “The Prodigal Son,” Gospel Songs (USA), 1874 Music: American traditional (USA), Southern Harmony, 1835; harm. Charles H. Webb (USA) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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, 31-35ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 631 – A Lament Over Jerusalem, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrBarbara Brown Taylor, “As a Hen Gathers her Brood,” The Christian Century.Jewish Voices for Peace action: call your reps to demand the release of student activist and U.S. permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil, abducted by the DHS on March 8, 2025.Image: “Christ the Mother Hen,” Kelly Latimore iconsHymn 298 - What Is the World Like. Text: Adam M. L. Tice (USA), 2009, © 2011 GIA Publications, Inc. Music:  Sally Ann Morris (USA).  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 imperative in Luke's gospel, and in Luke's understanding of what it means to walk the Way of Jesus, with faces turned toward Jerusalem. Taken together, Megan wonders if there's a thematic thread of urgency. There's false urgencies that cause us to sidestep one in need (rooted in white supremacy culture), and real urgency to prepare for and engage resistance to empire (rooted in our call to collective liberation). Somehow we are invited to discern well between the Big Urgency and the little urgencies so that we can be sustained on this discipleship path taking us on a collision course with the corrupt powers of the world.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:53​​​​ Luke 10.25-42ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 630 – Two Sisters and a Good Samaritan, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrUrgency, a characteristic of white supremacy culturePeople's Institute for Survival and BeyondImage: this is a detail of a larger piece by artist, Dona Park, from the Anabaptist Community BibleHymn 527 - Bless the Arms That Comfort. Text: Mary Louise Bringle (USA), © 2001 The Hymn Society (admin. Hope Publishing Co.) Music: Gustav Holst (England), 1906. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Visiting guest preacher Rachael Weasley shares about what her queer church plant is up to these days, and explores today's passage in a queer way.Sermon begins at minute marker 3:43.Scripture: ​​​​Luke 7:36-50ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jrhttps://bcmonline.org/https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Image: by Prafull Kawate on Pexels.

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 done, enacted, embodied. Our faith is a lived faith and has traditionally been proclaimed more in deed than in word. This is why the decision of our denomination to be the named plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Dept. of Homeland Security (Mennonite Church USA et al. v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al.) is completely in line with our 500-year history of following Jesus. Because our faith IS caring for our neighbor. So when the U.S. Government tries to prevent us from doing that, the free exercise of our religion is compromised and we must resist.Sermon begins at minute marker 6:18Luke 7:18-35ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 626 – Are You Really the One?, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrIris de León-Hartshorn, “Our Anabaptist Witness as Mennonites,” (theological basis for legal action taken by Mennonite Church USA - see link below) February 12, 2025.“MC USA and more than two dozen Christian and Jewish denominations and associations sue to protect religious freedoms,” February 11, 2025.Mary H. Schertz, Luke, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Herald Press, 2023), 166.“Orthopraxy,” wikipedia article.Image: A valentine to Mennonite Church USA: “Roses are red | Violets are blue | You sued the President | I think I love you!”VT Hymn 428 Praise with Joy the World's Creator. Text: Iona Community (Scotland), 1985, alt., © 1987 WGRG, Iona Community (admin. GIA Publications, Inc.) Music: John Goss (England), The Supplemental Hymn and Tune Book, 1869. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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, never overthink our way to paralysis when given the opportunity and impulse to respond with compassion. Goodness knows, our country and our world need all the compassion that each one of us can muster.Sermon begins at minute marker 6:02Luke 7:1-17ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 625 – A Centurion's Slave and a Widow's Son, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“A Jesus Who Troubles,” sermon on this text by Pastor Megan Ramer (sermon begins at minute 15:35), 2021."Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." (Rabbi Tarfon, from the Pirkei Avot, 2:16)“Blessing in the Chaos,” by Jan Richardson; also appears in her book The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief (79), 2016.Kate Bowler quote, from an instagram reel, February 2025.Vivek Murthy quote, taken from the Kate Bowler reel linked above.VT Hymn 647, There Is A Balm in Gilead. Text & Music: African American Spiritual. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 Sabbath completely and perfectly even once, the Messiah will come. The world where the sanctuary of Sabbath is truly established is the Promised Land.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:07 ​​​​Luke 6:1–16ResourcesHeschel, Abraham Joshua. “The Sabbath”.Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam": Speech at Riverside Church Meeting, New York, N.Y., April 4, 1967. In Clayborne Carson et al., eds., Eyes on the Prize: A Reader and Guide (New York: Penguin, 1987), 201-04.BibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrImage by Ilya SchorHymn 556 I Bind My Heart This Tide. Text: Lauchlan M. Watt (Scotland), The Tryst: A Book of the Soul, 1907, alt. Music: J. Randall Zercher (USA), 1965, The Mennonite Hymnal, 1969, © 1965 J. Randall Zercher. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 willingness of ordinary people to take actions that simultaneously speak a no and a yes.” Another story for today: fisherfolk in Luke's gospel who leave everything (including a mountain of fish, representing a mountain of wealth) to follow Jesus. God, grant us wisdom and courage as we join these many ancestors of ours in walking a path that says NO to security and status quo and YES to the risky, uncertain, and liberating Way of Jesus.Sermon begins at 6:14Scripture: ​​​​Luke 5:1–11ResourcesThis sermon was taken whole cloth (with some of my own riffs added) from “Prayers for a significant week” from the Mennonite Action Pastoral Team, January 20, 2025.Anabaptist Community BibleEpiscopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde imploring President Trump to “have mercy” on immigrants and LGBTQ people targeted by his policies, at the end of her inaugural prayer service sermon in the National Cathedral, Washington D.C.: video clip linked here.The Movement Makes Us Human: An Interview with Dr. Vincent Harding on Mennonites, Vietnam, and MLK, Joanna Shenk, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, with Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Duke University Press, 2015.BibleWorm podcast: Episode 623 - The Call of Simon, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jrothers?Image: covers of the two Harding books noted aboveHymn 57 Holy Spirit, Come with Power. Text: Anne Neufeld Rupp (USA), © 1970 Anne Neufeld Rupp, trans. Barbara Mink (USA), © 1988 Music: attr. B. F. White (USA), The Sacred Harp, 1844; harm. Joan Fyock Norris (USA), © 1989 Joan Fyock Norris. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 ride!Sermon begins at minute marker 6:22Luke 3.1-22ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 621 – John the Baptist and the Baptism of Jesus, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“The Most Radical Reformers,” Valerie G. Rempel, Anabaptist World, Vol. 6 No. 1, January 2025.InterPlay practice of “I could talk about” - read a brief description here: https://atlantainterplay.blogspot.com/2014/03/i-could-talk-about.html Image: detail from the cover of Anabaptist World, Vol. 6 No. 1, January 2025 - “Fugitive congregation at worship, Amsterdam, 1569, by Jan Luyken.”Hymn 212 Comfort, Comfort O my People. Text: based on Isaiah 40:1-5; Johannes Olearius (Germany), “Tröstet, tröstet, meine Lieben,” Geistliche Singe-Kunst, 1671; trans. Catherine Winkworth (England), Chorale Book for England, 1863, alt. Music: Louis Bourgeois (France), Genevan Psalter, Octante Trois Pseaumes de David, 1551; harm. adapt. from Claude Goudimel (France), 150 Pseaumes de David, 1564  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 Passover and also in Jerusalem. What occurs in both occasions is a potent confluence of religion and politics. And, in Jesus' very first independent decision in recorded history, he opts to stay at that confluence. Jesus chose to remain where faith was potent, consequential, and in direct conversation with the politics of his day. Perhaps we who follow in his Way are invited to do the same.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:50Luke 2.41-52ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 620 – The Boy Jesus in the Temple, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrMany online resources tell a version of the events that took place in Zürich on January 21, 1525. An account from the GAMEO article on Zürich. An article from the Anabaptist World in 2015, by Valerie G. Rempel: “The Birth of Anabaptism.” Much can, has, and must be said to complicate often over-simplified stories of a monogenesis of Anabaptism, and over-emphasis on this story, as well!Wikipedia article on Josephus.Image: William Holman Hunt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (LINK TO IMAGE)Hymn 223 Bless'd Be the God of Israel. Text: based on Luke 1:68-79; Michael A. Perry (England), Psalm Praise, 1973, © 1973 Hope Publishing Co. Music: George J. Webb (USA), 1830; The Odeon, 1837. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 consoling word into all places? This sermon explores our shared longing with Simeon, and offers a reflection on the magic of candles (specifically, birthday candles). Sermon begins at minute marker 7:40​​​​Luke 2.21-38ResourcesAlves, Rubem. "Candles." The Best Chronicles of Rubem Alves. New London Librarium, 2016, 60-64.“A Song for Simeon.” T.S. Elliot.Image: Ivan MurauyouHymn 251 - There Were Angels Hovering Round. Music & Text: American traditional, 19c.  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 617 - The Annunciation of Mary, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“Continue” by Maya AngelouImage: Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859-1937) The Annunciation Hymn 221 - The Angel Gabriel Called Mary Blessed:  text: Sarah Kathleen Johnson (Canada), © 2019; inspired by Basque carol “Birjina gaztetto bat zegoen,” paraphr. Sabine Baring-Gould (England), “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came,” University Carol Book, 1923. Music: Basque traditional; harm. attr. C. Edgar Pettman (England), University Carol Book, 1923. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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” enact our collective hope in the world around us.Sermon begins at minute marker 3:58Scripture: ​​​​Joel 2.12-13, 28-29ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 615 – Rend Your Hearts, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrImage: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Hymn 216 - Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. Text: stanzas 1–2 anon., “Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen,” (present-day Germany), 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng, 1599; trans. Theodore Baker (USA), 1894; stanza 3 Friedrich Layritz (Germany), Liederschatz, 1832; trans. Harriet K. Spaeth (USA), The Hymnal, 1940, alt. Music: German traditional, 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng, 1599; harm. Michael Praetorius (Germany), Musae Sionae VI, 1609. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 minute marker 4:40Luke 9.1-6Image: Milada Vigerova on UnsplashHymn: VT 386 One Is the Body. Text & Music: based on Ephesians 4:4-13, John L. Bell (Scotland). Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 612 – Here I Am Send Me!, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.“Before I Was a Gazan,” Naomi Shihab Nye, from Everything Comes Next: Collected & New Poems (2020), 100.“A Few Rules For Predicting the Future,” Octavia E. Butler (2000), 7-15.“Schrödinger's Seraphim,” Vija Merrill.Releasing friend of SMC met through the One Parish One Prisoner program of Underground Ministries.Image: Seraphim in Hagia Sofia, in Istanbul Türkiye, photo by Pastor Megan Ramer.Hymn: Voices Together 156 - There's a Wideness in God's Mercy. Text: Frederick W. Faber (England), Hymns, 1861. Music: Lizzie S. Tourjee (USA), Hymnal of the Methodist Church with Tunes, 1878. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

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 guarantee of outcome. Sermon starts at minute marker 5:34Scripture: ​​​​Jonah 3.1-10ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 611 Jonah and the Compassion of God, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrImage by Adam Krypel on pexelsHymn: Voices Together 283 - Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore. Text:  Spanish; Cesáreo Gabarain (Spain); trans. composite Gertrude C. Suppe (USA), George Lockwood IV (USA), Raquel Gutiérrez-Achon (USA), Willard F. Jabusch (USA), alt.  Music: Cesáreo Gabarain, 1979, Dios con nosotros. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

What happens when a raven and a prophet form a little community of care? How about a Hebrew man and Phoenician widow - across religious and political divides? According to our storyteller, the needs of all are met, and the storyteller calls this God's provision. Might this tale of unlikely dependencies be just the sort of good news we need in these tense and teetering days?Sermon begins at minute marker 3:20​​​​1 Kings 17.1-16ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 610 – Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrConsider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible, Debbie Blue (Abingdon Press), 2013.“If you think you can hold a grudge, consider the crow,” Thomas Fuller, NYT, October 28, 2024.Beef, by Lee Sung JinThe Birds, by Alfred HitchcockHeckling, by an opinionated SMC birder

Solomon sets out to build a house for God, as people across time and place have done over and over again. But even in the dedication prayer, Solomon acknowledges that God cannot be contained by a building, regardless of size or grandness or even how delicious it smells. Just as Pastor Megan's delicious-smelling cedar chest could never contain her bounty of beautiful quilts, so too Solomon's cedar temple could never contain the enormity of God. Houses for God have never been about or for God, so much as they are for a people, seeking to create sacred spaces for living in relationship with one another and God; a people seeking to recharge their spiritual batteries.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:421 Kings 5.1-5, and 8.27-30, 41-43ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 609 – Dedicating the Temple, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrRainer Maria Rilke, “Ich bin, du Ängtlicher. Hörst do mich nicht,” from Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, 66.Image: rendering of quilts stacked at SMC during our Jubilee celebration, 2018.Voices Together Hymn 647 There is a Balm in Gilead. Text & Music: African American Spiritual (USA) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Whether in tents or temples, God is present and abiding with the Israelites and their descendants. God's living promise is a loving extensive, generational commitment/covenant among, between and with us just as we are: the only tabernacle God needs. Sermon begins at minute marker 4:47.2 Samuel 7:1-17ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 608: I'll Build You a House, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrImage: Comet traversing twilight sky Hymn 748 Take, O Take Me As I Am Text: John L. Bell (Scotland)  Music: John L. Bell Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Hannah's Song, often referred to as The Magnificat of the First Testament, is a collection of Hannah's utopian dreams. She sings of a world where the bows of the warriors are broken and where God lifts the poor from the ash heap and sits them with princes. This sermon explores Hannah's life and story, from which her dreams grew, and it follows the flow of Hannah's dreamsong as it cascaded down through the centuries, inspiring Mary of Nazareth and inspiring us. “Hannah's Dreamsong” was delivered by Tyler Merrill, who is currently in candidacy for Seattle Mennonite Church's Pastor of Faith Formation position. It also serves in part as Tyler's self-introduction to the congregation.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:371 Samuel 1.9-11, 19-20, and 2.1-10ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrThe Poet, The Warrior, The Prophet. Collection of essays in theopoetics delivered by Rubem A Alves at the University of Birmingham in 1990.Image: Mary: Love Forever Being Born Icon by Kelly Latimore, used with permission. kellylatimoreicons.com

The Hebrew people grow weary of their supposed leader leaving them behind, and - in Moses' absence - they ask for a symbol to represent God? Replace God? Hold them together as a community in a very destabilized time? Unclear, but even as we seek to empathize with a people who long for SOMEthing to keep them together, God and Moses are nonetheless displeased. And set about bickering over whose people they are. In the midst of this squabble, Moses appeals to God's reputation: “What will the Egyptians say about you if you choose destruction?!” Preparing ourselves to participate in another sacred symbol on this World Communion Sunday - bread and cup with all who seek to walk in the Way of Jesus - we wonder how our public actions and presence (or lack thereof) contribute to God's reputation in the world.Sermon begins at minute marker 7:09Exodus 32.1-14 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 605 – The Golden Calf, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“End Game,” lyrics by Taylor Swift.Mennonite Action - A movement of Mennonites taking action, explicitly AS MENNONITE-CHRISTIANS, to stop war and end the occupation of Palestine.Song: A Recitation of Psalm 40, in IsiNdebele (a language of Zimbabwe), sung by Bongiwe Ncube.Image: Small statue of the Golden Calf, Louvre museum (Paris, France), Wikimedia Commons.Hymn 717 - Renew Your Church. Text: K. L. Cober (USA), 1960, alt., © 1960 K. L. Cober, renewed 1985 Judson Press Music: American traditional (USA), 1842; adapt. Sacred Harp, 1844. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

A sermon about a 25 chapter novella, in three parts: 1) Joseph actually had an amazing technicolor princess dress, and isn't that both telling and fabulous?! 2) Love unevenly distributed produces division, resentment, and - in this story - the hate-filled action of a band of brothers who traffic their beloved brother into slavery, and it's that terrible?! 3) If (or when) you go through hell, don't come out empty-handed, and isn't it tricky to say anything at all about suffering and the good we sometimes wrest from it?!Sermon begins at minute marker 8:03Genesis 37.3-8, 17b-22, 26-34; 50.15-21ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 603 – Evil Made Good, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“Don't Come Out Empty Handed,” Kate Bowler's podcast, Everything Happens, interview with Rabbi Steve Leder.“Good Grief,” Kate Bowler's podcast, Everything Happens, interview with Thomas Lynch.Image: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Tulane Public Relations, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.Hymn 205 - Light Dawns on a Weary World. Text: Mary Louise Bringle (USA), 2001, © GIA Publications, Inc. Music: William P. Rowan (USA), © 2000 William P. Rowan (admin. GIA Publications, Inc.) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Abram longs for a child that he believes God has denied him. God meets Abram in that specific need, but then leads him to a more expansive - even cosmic - view. This is a story that might be easier for aunties like me to understand: I absolutely don't have one or two or three children. I either have zero children, or I have children that number the stars. I choose the latter, and in this story God seems to agree. As a church, we claim all our children as belonging to all of us. And we explicitly bless those who devote their time and their energy to the education, mentoring, care, and love of our kids when we gather together on Sunday mornings.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:24Genesis 15.1-6ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 602 – Trusting the Promise, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr“Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton.Image: Photo by note thanun on UnsplashHymn: Voices Together, 175, Planets Humming as They Wander. Text: Heather Josselyn-Cranson (USA), alt., © 2010 Heather Josselyn-Cranson Music: Sally Ann Morris (USA), 2009, © 2016 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

We start a new Narrative Lectionary year at a very good place to start: In the beginning… We begin with the genesis of all things, and it doesn't take long for everything to devolve into deception, messing up, shame, hiding from God, and scapegoating. If our ancient Hebrew forebears in the faith told this story because they - like us - knew their overwhelming capacity to screw up royally, then I think it's telling to back up a few steps and see how they START that story. Despite what some may have you believe, their story (and ours) does not originate with sin, but with the tender shaping of soil, the intimate breathing of life, and holy belovedness.Sermon begins at minute marker 6:22​​​​Genesis 2.4b-7, 15-17; 3.1-8ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 601 – The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, JrWikipedia article on the doctrine of “Original Sin” and Augustine's shaping of it.“Beloved Is Where We Begin,” blessing by Jan Richardson, also published in her book, Circle of Grace.Image: Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash Hymn: 531 Holy Presence, Holy Teacher. Text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), alt., © 2008 Hope Publishing Co. Music: C. Hubert H. Parry (England), 1897. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Join Keyan, Eden and Rita as they share stories of discernment in the last of our series. This summer we asked congregation members if they would be willing to share stories from their lives about moments of discernment. Sermon begins at minute marker 3:46Job 12:7-10ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Rita's written textImage: Photo by Bakr Magrabi on pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/compass-on-hand-3203659/Hymn: Voices Together, 537  Lord, You Sometimes Speak. Text: Christopher Idle (England), 1966, Youth Praise 2, 1969 Music: Christopher Johnson (England), 1987, New Songs of Praise 4, 1988  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Join us to hear personal stories of discernment from Ken and Beth Miller Kraybill. They share about times of transition and decision in their lives.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:00Matthew 4:18-22ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Image: Photo by Neslihan A. on pexels.com https://www.pexels.com/photo/stairs-in-tunnel-16817922/Hymn: Voices Together, 283 Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore Text: Spanish; Cesáreo Gabarain (Spain); trans. composite Gertrude C. Suppe (USA), George Lockwood IV (USA), Raquel Gutiérrez-Achon (USA), Willard F. Jabusch (USA), alt. Music: Cesáreo Gabarain, 1979, Dios con nosotros. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Join us as Charlene Epp and Lauren Good share stories about times of discernment in their lives. This is the first part of a series. Each Sunday for a few weeks at least two people will share stories from their lives highlighting the ways they have discerned paths and truth.Talks begin at 5:541 Corinthians 12:12-27Image by Khanh Nguyen on pexelsHymn: Voices Together 568, Christ Has No Body Here but Ours Text:  based on a prayer attr. Teresa of Ávila (present-day Spain), 16th c.; paraphr. Brian McLaren (USA) Music: Brian McLaren; acc. Benjamin Bergey, 2019 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

When we think we need to be in control of everything, we become anxious about our capacity to control.  Letting our sense of control go and trusting in God and the provision that God has offered seems so terribly hard. What happens when we lose track of the fact that we're part of the magnificently interconnected system, and we begin to imagine that we can, or even that we must function on our own?Sermon begins at minute marker Leviticus 26:3-22, 34-35, 40-45ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Blessing: Adapted by Liz from RCA Prayer for Godspeed and FarewellImage by Felix Mittermeier on pexels Voices Together Hymn: 145, Touch the Earth Lightly Text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), © 1992 Hope Publishing Co.  Music: Swee Hong Lim (Canada); arr. Tamryn Parker-Carver (USA), © 2005 Hope Publishing Co. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

God delights in God's playground - all of creation is meant to be enjoyed and to participate in the purpose of the rest of creation.  This sermon is a celebration of all that God has created, called good, and invited us to participate in.Sermon begins at minute marker 7:22Psalm 104ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Image: El Rio de Luz (The River of Light) 1877Voices Together, Hymn 539, God Speaks to Us in Bird and Song. Text:  Joseph Johnson (England), 1888, alt. Music: Pax Ressler (USA), © 2016 Pax Ressler.  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Brisa Peacock from Camp CAMREC shared a sermon as part of our series on Creation Care, offering a glimpse into how SMC's and WMF's relationship with CAMREC continues to contribute to the region's stewardship of land and waterways. She also reflected on how CAMREC's programs and hospitality efforts are propelling our neighbors, other Churches and faith groups, and schools not only to contribute to CAMREC's stewardship efforts but also to pursue Creation Care efforts when they return home.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:45Psalm 65Resources:BibleWorm podcast Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/silhouette-of-man-standing-on-snow-covered-ground-during-sunset-3Ltuw4phQGE Voices Together Hymn 145: Touch the Earth Lightly Text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), © 1992 Hope Publishing Co. Music: Swee Hong Lim (Canada); arr. Tamryn Parker-Carver (USA), © 2005 Hope Publishing Co. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Creation itself, the morning stars and divine beings and whatnot – they were celebrating the foundations of the world itself before humans were even a thing.  God and nature itself celebrated and called things good before human beings were even here.  There's a bigger picture here that requires removing ourselves from the center of our small, individual universes, and calls us to listen.  So this sermon is about the work, challenge, and delight of listening to creation and to one another and ourselves as part of creation.Sermon begins at minute marker 6:41Job 38:4-38ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Image: Janik Butz on pexelsHymn: Voices Together, 595, When the Storms of Life are Raging. Text: Charles A.Tindley (USA), ca. 1906 Music: Charles A. Tindley, ca 1906; arr. William Farley Smith (USA), The United Methodist Hymnal, © 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House (admin. Music Services) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Cultures and traditions - including religions - all have multiple creation stories.  Today we hear one from our scriptures told in Genesis, and our sermon shares another one - in the form of the children's book “Big Momma Makes the World” by Phyllis Root.Sermon begins at minute marker 8:32Genesis 1:1-2:4aResourcesImage: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/big-momma-makes-the-world_phyllis-root/780964/#edition=3554170&idiq=4077937 Big Momma Makes the World by Phyllis RootHymn: Voices Together 120, For the Beauty of the Earth. Text: Folliott S. Pierpoint (England), Lyra Eucharistica, 1864, alt. Music: Conrad Kocher (Germany), Stimmen aus dem Reiche Gottes, 1838; adapt. William H. Monk (England), Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Paul binds the physical body with resurrection, a holistic change from life as we have structured and understood it to that which is eternal as Jesus' life, death and resurrection gifted us. Our faith is intricately tied to a belief in the unbelievable while living and loving as Jesus did, attending to the needs of bodies in the here and now. Bodies matter now and in a future we can not know or understand - for now. Sermon begins at minute marker 6:03I Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57ResourcesBelievers Church Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians, By: Dan NighswanderBibleWorm podcast Episode 540 The Resurrection of the Body Working Preacher's Narrative Lectionary 584 - Death Swallowed in LifeImage:   Align Towards Spine on UnsplashHymn: Voices Together, 433, I Believe in God Almighty. Text:  based on Apostles' Creed (Mediterranean), ca. 4th c.; Sylvia G. Dunstan (Canada), In Search of Hope and Grace, © 1991 GIA Publications. Music: American traditional (USA), Christian Lyre, 1831; harm. Ralph Vaughan Williams, The English Hymnal, 1906. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

There is one church for every prisoner in Washington State. Chris Hoke from One Parish One Prisoner brings reflections on the challenges and blessings of working with churches and prisoners.Sermon begins at minute marker 4:16John 11:33-44ResourcesOne Parish One PrisonerImage: Christ standing on the gates of hellHymn: Voices Together, 348 Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain, Text: John of Damascus, "First Ode of Canon for the Sunday after Easter," 8th c.; trans. John Mason Neale (England), Christian Remembrancer, 1859, alt. Music: Johann Horn (present-day Czech Republic), Ein Gesangbuch der Bruder in Behemen und Merherm (present-day Germany), 1544; rev. Catholicum Hymnologium Germanicum, 1584 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Relationships are a primary nourishment and fuel for a transformed community.  Paul wrote letters only AFTER he engaged in relationship making.  His work was able to flourish because he seeded intentional relationships with people that developed trust.  How might we choose to nourish relationships in our lives, with our neighbors, with our community? How might we use Paul as an example to develop good trust in our relationships?Sermon begins at minute marker 4:28Acts 18:1-8Image: by John-Mark Smith on pexelsHymn: Voices Together, 87, O Praise the Gracious Power. Text: Thomas H. Troeger (USA), 1984, New Hymns for the Lectionary, 1986. Music: Carol Doran (USA), 1984, New Hymns for the Lectionary, 1986. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved. 

Just as the Jewish community at Thessalonica was disrupted by the arrival and teachings of Paul and Silas, so, too, are we disrupted by things we often don't feel prepared for.  What does it mean to look disruption in the eye and experience it as an opening for Jesus to enter our lives anew?Sermon begins at 5:03Acts 17:1-9Hymn: Voices Together, 553, How Many Times We Start Again. Text: Thomas H. Troeger (USA), © 2009 Oxford University Press. Music: Scottish traditional, The Scottish Minstrel, 1822; arr. Bradley Kauffman (USA), © 2020 Bradley Kauffman. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

The crippled man and the disciples both experience surprise and interruption in the norms of what they think might happen for them this day.  The man expected the same - people offering him coins or ignoring him.  It has been the same day in and day out for years.  Peter and John expected to continue in their grieving and confusion at the loss of their mentor and friend Jesus, and planned to go to the temple for a routine prayer service.  Neither expectation happens, and they - and we! - are all better for it.  What might it take for us to open our senses differently to the wonder of welcoming interruption and - perhaps - finding a miracle of healing within ourselves or those around us?!Sermon begins at minute marker 3:06Acts 3.1-10ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Image: Photo by Yanko Argirov on Unsplash  Hymn: Voices Together 834 Thuma Mina. Text:  Zulu; anon. (South Africa); trans. anon Music: South African traditional; arr. © 1984 Peace of Music Publishing AB (admin. Walton Music Corp., a division of GIA Publications, Inc.) Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

In the aftermath of Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus offers comfort and presence to his disciples. He continues to remind them he has not come to establish a nation state, rather that the disciples would be the ones to carry forward Jesus' mission. Requirements for this include more waiting, receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. Devotion to prayer may be what will prepare them for what's next. But that isn't here yet. They must prepare themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. Sermon begins at minute marker 4:58Acts 1.1-14ResourcesBibleWorm podcast Episode 535 Waiting for the Spirit She Reads Truth podcast Episode 96 Acts Week 1 with Christine Caine Working Preacher Narrative Lectionary podcast 579: You Shall Be My Witnesses Believers Church Bible Commentary: Acts, by Chalmer E. Faw The Women's Bible Commentary, Carol A Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe editors Image: by Eran Menashri on UnsplashHymn: Voices Together 366 Although Our Lord Has Left Us. Text: Fred Kaan (England), © 1972, 1997 Hope Publishing Co. Music: Melchior Vulpius (present-day Germany), Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch, 1609. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus lives an increasingly life of truth-telling to civic and religious authorities. All the while he enfolds the marginalized and oppressed into a just and merciful embrace of care and love, calling disciples to do the same. Up to his impending death disciples cannot grasp what this will cost him. A woman enacting honor and love provides Jesus' followers, then and now, with an example of unbridled recognition of who Jesus is. What is imprinted on our being? How can we break alabaster jars to display open and prepared hearts?Sermon begins at minute marker 5:09Mark 12.13-17, 14.3-9ResourcesBibleWorm podcasts: 528 The Parable of the Tenants, and 531 The Triumphal Entry and the Anointing at Bethany  Image by vicky_photographies from PixabayBelievers Church Bible Commentary: Mark, by Timothy J Gaddert, editors Elmer A Martens and Willard M Swartley; Herald Press, Scottdale PA 2001 Women's Bible Commentary, Third Edition: Revised and Updated, editors by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, Jacqueline E. Lapsley; Westminster John Knox, 2012  Hymn: Voices Together 320, My Song is Love Unknown. Music: John N. Ireland (England), Songs of Praise, 1925 Text: Samuel Crossman (England), The Young Man's Meditations, or some few Sacred Poems..., 1664; rev. Hymns for Today's Church.  Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

News of wars, natural disaster, and human suffering greets us every evening, withoutfail. Where is God in this? Does God not see? Jesus warns his disciples of the temple'sdestruction, and worse, yet to come. Indeed, God in Christ does see what humanbeings are doing to one another. It is we who cannot stand to look, listen, or respond tothe fires, the famines, the faces of suffering around us. And yet, and yet. Jesus comesamong us to announce God is near at hand, God's gracious will is carrying forth, God'sreign unfolds in our very midst. God is with us in the midst of earthquake, flood,homelessness and hopelessness. As the fig tree comes into blossom, so the ministry offellow believers serves as sign of new life to us. The coming of God's reign isn't going tolook like yesterday. We wait with prayer and expectation. Christ is coming soon.Preacher: Pam RussellSermon begins at minute marker 5:38 Mark 13.1-8, 24-37Image: Photo by Federica Gioia on pexels.Voices Together 319, Stay With Me the Night Has Come. Music: Welsh traditional. Text: David Bjorlin (USA), © 2016 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Struck by Mark's mention that Jesus sits across from the treasury box in the Temple, observing HOW each person gives their money, Pastor Megan ponders what Jesus might observe in how SHE lives with her own money (and for this Way walked together, how WE live with ours). Would Jesus be glad that the widow gives her last mite and has nothing to live on, or might Jesus be praising the widow for revealing - by her courageous and some might even say confrontational act - the baked-in injustice of the system that leaves a widow with only a mite in the first place? And what does love of God, self, and neighbor have to do with it all?Sermon begins at minute marker 6:38Mark 12.28-44ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 529 – Loving God and Neighbor, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Melissa KellyVT 552 "As a deer…"  #10783 Words: Psalm 42  Music: Louis Bourgeois, Genevan Psalter. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is a deliberate act of political confrontation with the Roman Empire's powers-that-be. After casing the mostly deserted late evening Temple, he makes plans to return the next day to make a royal mess of things; to disrupt business as usual. The Way Jesus walks, the Way that Jesus calls us to walk (together!), is a Way lined with palms that leads to confrontation with Empire.Sermon begins at minute marker 5:03Mark 11.1-19ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 531 – The Triumphal Entry, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Ched Myers, “Palm Sunday As Subversive Street Theatre,” posted on Radical Discipleship, 2021.Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: A Day-to-Day Account of Jesus' Final Week (Harper, 2007).Image: Melissa KellyVT 146 Lord Jesus, Come and Overturn #99565 words: David Gambrell music: Klug's Geistliche Lieder ©2015 GIA Publications, Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

The cries of the suffering are not always polite. When we are suffering, can we let loose and trust our community to hold us? When our neighbors are suffering, can we build our resilience in the face of their screams for justice, for relief, for healing, for mercy?Sermon begins at 6:41ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 527 – The Healing of Bartimaeus, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Image: Melissa KellyVT 610 Precious Lord, Take My Hand #73682 Words: Thomas Dorsey, Music: George Allen ©1938,1966 Hal Leonard Corporation. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

Jesus' guide for discipleship invites us to rethink our expectations of what discipleship means and who disciples are. Embedded in the invitation is a deep look meeting the soul of our being with enduring love and perpetual hospitality  to embrace the next steps of faith-filled following the Jesus Way. Sermon begins at minute marker 5:37Mark 10:17-31 ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: ⦁ Episode 526 – The Eye of the Needle, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Mark: Believers Church Bible Commentary, Timothy J Geddert; Herald Press, 2001.Narrative Language Lectionary: 570 First Last and Last FirstTricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto; New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022Richard Rohr, “The Need for Mysticism”, Daily Meditations, August 2, 2020. Image: Nagara Oyodo on unsplashHymn VT 758 Who Will Speak a Word of Warning text: Richard Leach, © 2000 Selah Publishing Co., Inc. music: Alfred V. Fedak, 1988, © 1989 Selah Publishing Co., Inc. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.