Mother Katherine’s sermon preached on Oct. 16, 2022
If today’s parable is about our need to pray always and not to lose heart, it takes a hobbling route to get there. As we just heard, an unjust judge is repeatedly asked by a widow for him to grant her —justice. The word is translated everywhere else in the New Testament as ‘avenge’ or ‘vengeance.’ We like parables to make us work for their meanings, though we tend to prefer someone be readily identified as either hero or villain, or maybe underdog or oppressor. One of them should be God or Jesus, right? Another might be us, or the bad example or the good example. We don’t get that here.
Read MoreMother Katherine’s sermon preached on Oct. 9, 2022
Naaman is transformed in a sense, both before and after his skin disease is healed. Naaman is the commander of King Aram’s army, he was important and had earned the king’s favor. On one of their military raids they’d taken a young girl captive from Israel and she became a servant of Naaman’s wife. Through this young girl he learns of Elisha who might cure him. A change is hinted at by this powerful commander taking seriously the ideas brought to him from a servant girl. We see it again when Naaman arrives with horses and chariots and all his largess — and Elisha doesn’t even come out to see to him! The great man is seeing how little his power and reputation and position really means. He’s enraged and insulted by Elisha’s refusal to come out to him, and more so at the second hand instructions to wash in waters he considers inferior to one of his status. Again, it is nameless servants who lead him away from his self-important refusal, and then help Naaman to humble himself and try what the prophet instructed.
Read MoreLivestream: Sep. 25, 2022
An archival video of the Sunday service streamed live via Vimeo and Facebook Live, on Sep. 25, 2022, at 10:30 AM. Any words or music under copyright are included with permission under ONE LICENSE No. A-706794.
Read MoreFather Peter’s sermon preached on Aug. 28, 2022
The 12th Sunday after Pentecost Aug. 28, 2022 Text forthcoming. © 2022 Peter Strimer. All rights reserved. Posted with permission. Post will be removed at 8:00 AM on Mon., Sep. 30,...
Read MoreMother Cristi’s sermon preached on Aug. 14, 2022
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Aug. 14, 2022 Course Correction Every week, my team and I visit crews who work onboard cargo ships. They are those ships you see docked in the Port of Seattle. That’s what we do at the Mission to Seafarers in Seattle. We welcome and care for seafarers who visit Puget Sound. One of the ways that care happens is through ship visits. Typically, we meet with crew in the ship’s office or the mess hall. Sometimes, we meet in the kitchen or in main engineering. But there’s one place we rarely...
Read MoreTola’s sermon preached on Aug. 7, 2022
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Aug. 7, 2022 Text to be posted soon. Wow! Today’s readings and Gospel offer such a deep vein of precious ore from which to mine a sermon. The nature of faith, the nature of family, materialism, the timing of the rapture… But for me, the thread that runs through both the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Luke relates to worry. Worry is a cousin to doubt. Doubt is a lot more serious, because it can get between us and God. But worry is something that sits with all of us most of the time. Did I lock the door before I left? Is this the sort of parking lot...
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