Sermons from April 1, 2016 - March 31, 2017
Below are sermons given at Seattle First Baptist Church between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. They are in reverse date order.
Additional sermons are available in Vimeo at the following link: https://vimeo.com/seattlefirstbaptist/videos
Additional sermons are available in Vimeo at the following link: https://vimeo.com/seattlefirstbaptist/videos
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Blind Faith
Pastor Tim Phillips March 26, 2017 What saves this story for me is the blind man himself. I am inspired by his persistence and his refusal to let himself get squeezed into other people’s definitions of his life. “It’s me,” he keeps saying. Just because people have never known me as anything other than that guy who used to “sit and beg;” just because people might have been more comfortable continuing to see me as that blind person; just because people moved on from calling my blindness sin to calling my healing some kind of sin, doesn’t mean that I am willing to give up my identity and my testimony. “It’s me; and all I know is that once I was blind and now I see.” https://vimeo.com/210166708 |
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| blind_faith.pdf |
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In the Spirit of Water
Pastor Tim Phillips March 19, 2017 Truth. Now that’s a concept. Because you know we live in a world of blatant lies and political spin and alternative facts and charges of fake news. And I find myself this morning asking the question that Pontius Pilate asked Jesus at the end of the Gospel of John. “So what is truth?” After witnessing the alternative facts of his own times, Pilot throws up his hands, and then he tries to wash them of any responsibility there might be for the corruption and violence that is all around him. God help us this morning. https://vimeo.com/209121412 |
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Reflection
Imam Jamal Rahman - guest preacher March 12, 2017 Jamal Rahman is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary, and adjunct faculty at Seattle University. Along with his Interfaith Amigos, he travels the country sharing a message of inclusivity. Jamal is the author and co-author of several books on Islam and Interfaith relations. His books include: Sacred Laughter of the Sufis, Spiritual Gems of Islam, The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam and with Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Rev. Don Mackenzie, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith, and Religion Gone Astray. https://vimeo.com/208064982 A manuscript for this sermon is not available. |
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Tempted to Go It Alone
Pastor Tim Phillips March 5, 2017 You know, I’ve never thought of this before but I wonder if part of the temptation here was for Jesus to go it alone – to do his work in grand dramatic displays that would convince everyone that he alone could save the world. ... Out there, alone in the wilderness, Jesus is tempted by a voice that says: “Look, if you are really God’s beloved one, prove it; go to the holy city and throw yourself from a pinnacle of the temple so that angels can demonstrate that there is nothing anyone can do to you.” Be that invincible super-hero the people will want you to be; the one who – alone – can take on the Romans and save the people. But Jesus resists the temptation to go it alone. https://vimeo.com/207025444
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With Bright Shiny Faces
Pastor Tim Phillips Feb. 26, 2017 What is it about bright shiny faces? For Mildred and Patty, it was believing something about children other people didn’t see. In that ancient blessing, it is that we are held by a presence that is greater and more gracious than we can sometimes see. For the disciples, it is seeing Jesus in a light they haven’t seen before. “Bright shiny faces” seems to have something to do with seeing something that might otherwise be missed. Due to technical difficulties, no video is available of this sermon.
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A Call to Resistance
Lydia Flora Barlow, pulpit guest Feb. 19, 2017 As I thought about what to say today I could hear the line of ministers in my family saying “Don’t get fancy Lydia. Go back to the scripture. Talk about what you know. Whats on your heart. The rest will follow. So today I’ll stand with that advice. ... Mother Father God, thank you for Matthew 5.38-48 Telling us, commanding us, how to fight for justice Thank you for souls through generations that have experimented with and left the legacy of fighting in threads reaching out to use through time. In this time, hearing a new call to resistance from this new generation, may we continue to be drawn from complacency to wise action, and may it bring forth to us the beloved community. https://vimeo.com/204815106 No manuscript is available of this sermon. |
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Make It Plain
Pastor Tim Phillips Feb. 12, 2017 I’ve thought a lot about what it must have been like for pastor Jensen, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, to stand up in this pulpit in February (1942) and speak out against the rounding up of Japanese neighbors and sending them off to detention centers. ... And we are at that moment again. The integrity of this pulpit demands that we say “yes” to our Muslim and Mexican and Central American neighbors and “no” to the forces and the executive orders that would send them away. https://vimeo.com/203735720
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Afraid of the Light
Pastor Tim Phillips Feb. 5, 2017 I want to add my prayer to Pastor David’s this morning that this community – this congregation – will not let its light go out. As we have already heard this morning, there is a light here that is shining on racism and exclusion and the devastation of our environment. There’s a light here that shines on what it is that God requires of us: to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with our God. There’s a light here that shines on grace and hope and second chances. https://vimeo.com/202685107
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Three Ingredients of Faithful Living
Theologian in Residence Patricia Hunter Jan. 29, 2017 So, what does it mean to do justice? It means we are expected to do something. It is not enough just to think justice thoughts. It is not enough to wish for a more just society. It is not enough to complain about the lack of justice. God expects us to roll up our sleeves and get busy. We are to work for fairness on behalf of those who are weak and vulnerable. https://vimeo.com/201616720
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Reflection on Baptism
Pastor Tim Phillips Jan. 22. 2017 So our Baptist ancestors believed that baptism was a commitment someone was making to receive that message for themselves. For our ancestors, it was an extension of that “soul liberty” we talk about – the value that we can understand our faith and the scriptures in our own experience. That, in other words, no one can do your spirituality for you. And baptism is a commitment people make to take responsibility for their own spiritual lives. But we do not do that alone. Because baptism is also a commitment the community makes to support each other. https://vimeo.com/200600973 |
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| reflection_on_baptism.pdf |
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Where Do We Go From Here? Rev. Bruce Chittick, pulpit guest Jan. 15, 2017 As people of faith, how do we authentically live into our calling to be followers of the peasant from Galilee that upended the world and changed the course of history? How do we know when we are doing the right thing? And how do we take care of ourselves and others on the journey? When Jesus first appeared on the scene, those who would become his followers likely had the same questions. https://vimeo.com/199597334 
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Living in the Light
Pastor Tim Phillips Jan. 8, 2017 I’m beginning to believe the only hope we have for whatever dream we dream for ourselves and for our world requires that we refuse to be consoled in the face of injustice; refuse to be pacified by the threat of violence; refuse to be shut up by the forces that would destroy our lives and the lives of our children. There’s that story later in Matthew (15.21-28) about the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus for the healing of her daughter and the disciples say, “Send her away because she keeps shouting at us; she isn’t even one of us.” But the woman keeps it up. She refuses to be consoled. And finally Jesus says to her, “Great is your faith” and heals her daughter. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all point to these women who move the promise of good news forward by refusing to be consoled. https://vimeo.com/198777823 |
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| living_in_the_light.pdf |
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Tim Capsules
Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Jan. 1, 2017 The stories we tell allow us to travel through time. They allow us to celebrate cherished memories, to remember friends and family whom we’ve lost. Ideally, they help us remember the mistakes of the past and prevent us from reliving them. I’ve talked a lot about stories over the years, and this is my final chance to remind you what I’ve said once or twice in the past. In a way, we participate in a sacred act of time travel every Sunday when we gather to remember the stories relayed to us through the Gospel narratives. This morning Aaron read to us from the book of Luke. It’s a story about shepherds. It’s a story about an angel who appears to them; it’s a story about their awe, their joy, their journey – and ultimately a story about the shepherds leaving Bethlehem to tell the story of what they had seen to “all whom they met.” https://vimeo.com/197728020 |
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Joseph: This Is Not What I Planned
Theologian in Residence Patricia L. Hunter Dec. 18, 2016 Now, Joseph had plans for his life. He had selected this really nice girl to marry, and Mary was a teenager. He would marry her and they would have babies, have a great Jewish family, live according to the religious laws and customs, and live happily ever after. Sweet! What’s not to love about that story? We have plans too for our lives, or had plans. We would finish college, travel around the world, have a career, get married, buy a cute little house, run a marathon, have babies, eventually grand babies, and then make our transition into eternity at a ripe old age of 110. The end! Sweet! Those may have been our plans, But then life happens... https://vimeo.com/196214421 |
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| josephthis_is_not_what_i_planned.pdf |
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What Did You Go Out Into the Wilderness to See?
Pastor Tim Phillips Dec. 11, 2016 Go back to the wilderness, Jesus tells him. When that despair for the world grows in you and you fear for your own life and the lives our children, go back to the peace of wild things. Go to the place where you were calling us away from the center of religious and political power and out into the desert where we were free to imagine beginning again. And this time, not with military conquest or a divine scorched-earth policy, but with the simple power of good news. https://vimeo.com/195216259 |
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| what_did_you_go_out_into_the_wilderness_to_see.pdf |
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Begin Again
Pastor Tim Phillips Dec. 4, 2016 So this strange character, John, is calling people away from the seat of religious and political power that had developed in Jerusalem over the last several hundred years, back to the place where it all began. He is inviting the people to commit themselves to begin the promise of the Promised Land all over again – or, as Maya Angelou says, to “give birth again to the dream;” that dream of a place where justice reigns and the wolf can live with the lamb; where a little child will lead us and no one will hurt or destroy – a vision, in fact, for the whole earth in the spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge and reverence and wonder. John was baptizing people in the Jordan as a way of inviting them to begin again. https://vimeo.com/194273670 |
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| begin_again.pdf |
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Room to Breathe
Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Nov. 27, 2016 Breathing isn’t always easy – even though it’s an automatic motion of our muscles and tissues. Yoga teaches us that when our muscles contract and we feel constricted – when there are places we feel tight and achy, the practice we should follow is to breathe into those painful places. Yoga masters don’t tell us to avoid the spots in our body where our muscles are tight, but instead to notice that tightness, to stretch slowly, and to breathe into those places. Fill them with oxygen, pay attention to them, be gentle with them, and never stop giving them air. Shouldn’t we do the same with the uncomfortable places in our lives – in the relationships wound up tightly, the wounds still present in the scar tissue of broken hearts? https://vimeo.com/193279970 |
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| room_to_breathe_final.pdf |
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Reflection for Children and Family Sunday
Megan Walker and Aaron Burkhalter Nov. 20, 2016 We're thinking of this story in the context of today's Bible verse, which talks about being compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. Being tolerant, forgiving. And at least in our family, we try to meet each other where we're at, and honor who that person is. Even if two dog people somehow got a cat person for a kid. The Bible passage for today makes total sense to me in the context of our family. We try to treat each other with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. We bear with each other and forgive each other. We make room for each other to make mistakes. And all of this is possible because of love. And I am thankful beyond words to be part of this family. When we are at our best (which is not always), I can feel the message of Christ to love God and each other dwelling among us. https://vimeo.com/192371173 |
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| youth_and_family_sunday_reflection.pdf |
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The End of the World As We Know It
Pastor Tim Phillips Nov. 13, 2016 Perhaps the best we can do for our souls this morning is be some place where we are invited to imagine. Perhaps the best we can do is to sing together the testimony of a family that lost everything – that lived at the end of the world as they knew it -- and were still able to say, “It is well; it is well with my soul.” Don’t think those were easy words. The Spafford family lost their children and their property and their faith community and somehow they endured. This is the testimony of the truth they have to tell. And the legacy of that family continues to this day in Jerusalem at a social service agency for Jewish and Muslim and Christian children. Perhaps the best we can do is to claim with Leonard Cohen our “cold and broken hallelujahs.” https://vimeo.com/191412506 |
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| the_end_of_the_world_as_we_know_it.pdf |
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Like Angels, We Are Children of the Resurrection
Pastor Tim Phillips Nov. 6, 2016 - All Saints Day People sometimes ask me if I believe in the resurrection and I tell them that I have to, not as a theological theory about what happens in the after-life but as a pastoral reality that has grown up around the experience of sitting with folks who are dealing with dead people who are very much alive. And what I have discovered, is that simply trying to get those dead people to go away doesn’t solve anything. Nor does it help to hold on to them in ways that keep us from living. If we want to be healthy, Thomas Moore says, we have to find a way to grasp the mystery of the divine and the departed. Because, as Jesus says, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living because in God – in the light of that energy that embraces us all -- death is not about being dead. https://vimeo.com/190477394 |
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| like_angels.pdf |
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When Hindsight Isn't Quite 20/20
Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Oct. 30, 2016 What prevents you from seeing Jesus? What distracts your attention? What crowds you in? What stands in your way? What rests in the line of site between you and Jesus? I know some of you might answer: “Well, it’s those cell phones. It’s tablets and iPads and the constant need to bury faces in screens. It’s music constantly blaring in earbuds and the ever-present company of television. It’s full calendars and to-do lists and the to-do lists for our to-do lists…” Maybe that’s true. We live in a culture of distraction, to be sure. Maybe every one of those things is true. But when I ask, “What prevents you from seeing Jesus,” I can’t help but wonder if some of you might answer that it’s the church… https://vimeo.com/189542657 |
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| when_hindsight_isn’t_quite_20.pdf |
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Companis Sunday - guest speakers
Oct. 23, 2016 Lee Campbell: Companis Worker with the Coalition for Refugees from Burma & University District Childcare Center What has Companis brought into my life? It has brought the opportunity to be of service and to use skills that I have developed over the years. But even more it has brought sharing, community and joy. I discovered there was an acute need in the non-profit sector for an ability I had developed in the for-profit world. But, I think I receive much more than I give. I serve in a loving, supportive, inter-generational community. https://vimeo.com/188577076 Peter Jabin: Companis Worker Support Coordinator Over the past 15 years, Seattle First Baptist has never asked anything of me, but you have given me many, many opportunities to contribute, to play a meaningful role in the work that you do. …Oh yeah, and you saved my life. Companis saved my life. https://vimeo.com/188577194 |
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| companis_messages_campbell_and_jabin.pdf |
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Justice and Joy
Oct. 16, 2016 - Pledge Sunday Pastor Tim Phillips Scripture: Luke 18.1-8 But the question is: “When the Human One comes, will there be faith on the earth?” Will the generations to come find something more than dismantled systems of injustice? Will there be any imagination of a table where everyone has a place or hope for a home where everyone belongs? Will there be something more than critiques of the system? Will there be joy? I remembered something this week from a Joan Baez concert. She was telling the story of being in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 to march with Dr. King. She says that she went to church on Sunday morning and a young black preacher gave a sermon called “Singing at Midnight” and the theme was that “white folks will see us – they will see our joy – and what we are doing and they’ll come join us in this movement because they will realize that’s the only place on earth to be right now.” And the next day the jails were filled with people joyously, defiantly singing old gospel songs. https://vimeo.com/187584398 |
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Living With an Attitude of Gratitude
Oct. 9, 2016 Patricia Hunter, Theologian in Residence Scripture: Luke 17.11-19 We all want to be seen and recognized. Even when we are not well, we want someone to know and show compassion. Jesus was able to see the condition of these men with his eyes and his heart. Sometimes we see with our eyes, but our hearts are somewhere else. We see the hundreds of tents in parks and under overpasses. But our hearts are not moved to advocate for affordable housing and adequate social services. We see Black Lives matter signs all over but we do not want to talk about our privilege because it makes us feel uncomfortable. Our eyes see the impact of global warming and environmental pollution and dumping on poor communities and communities of color, but our calendars are too full to do much about it. But living with an attitude of gratitude, is to see the world with open eyes and open hearts. And open eyes and hearts will probably lead us to open checkbooks and open calendars. The great humanitarian and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel who recently passed said, “When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity." A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. https://vimeo.com/186185734
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Come Sit By Me
Oct. 2, 2016 Pastor Tim Phillips Lesson: Luke 17.7-10 Rachel Held Evans says that “Americans are good at feeding people; but dining with people is an entirely different matter” … Dining together, she says, means sitting next to one another and brushing arms, passing the bread and sharing the artichoke dip. It means double-dipping and spilling drinks, laughing together and crying together, exchanging stories, ideas, recipes and dreams. And so we come to this table this morning not just as another reminder that there are hungry people and lonely people and people who think they are worthless who need to be fed some love and compassion and some real food. This table is an invitation to “come sit by me” - to re-imagine the world as one great big banquet table where people are sitting together and sharing their food and their stories and themselves. https://vimeo.com/185243092 |
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Thirsty
Sept. 25, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Scripture: Luke 16.19-31 Jesus said, “I will give living water…” Sometimes that water is actual physical water – hydration; sometimes it’s recognition, validation; sometimes it’s the moment we stand alongside another in need; sometimes it’s empathy … What we learn from Jesus is that these living waters are always offered in love to anyone who is thirsty. Shouldn’t that be what we do? Shouldn’t we practice a little sacred empathy for a world as parched as this one? https://vimeo.com/184259090
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Completely Wet
Sept. 18, 2016 - Beginning of our Stewardship Campaign Darren Hochstedler, our church administrator Scripture: Romans 6.3-5 What would you hold over your heads? What would we hold over our heads if we were to take a long walk, that long walk back through the chancel, through the choir, through the back hallways to emerge in the baptismal font to emerge anew as a child of God. Certainly we might hold our money over our heads. Many of us would hold our calendars over our heads. But like baptism, stewardship is about getting completely wet. Its about looking at ourselves, discovering what it is that we would like to keep dry, and then immersing that in the waters of baptism. Stewardship is about being present with and giving to God. Its about turning our lives over to God, and the one area we desperately want to keep dry is our money. Now here's something that is hard for an administrator to say during a stewardship sermon. God doesn't need your money. We don't offer our money to God because God needs it or God demands it. We offer it because it does something for us in our relationship with God. Click here to access this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/183226318 A manuscript is not available for this sermon. |
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Back Home
Homecoming Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016 Pastor Tim Phillips Scripture: Luke 15.11-32 I know that there is plenty of reason to be cynical about churches who are out looking for people in the name of “evangelism” – trying to convince people of their version of good news. A lot of what I hear of that “good news” sounds like terribly bad news to me. But let’s be clear about this. Let’s not be cynical about the kind of love that goes looking for people. “Back home,” Jesus says, there is a shepherd who is not content to let sheep be lost. There’s a woman who is not content – she cannot afford – to let a coin go missing. There’s a parent who may have had to let a child go, but that parent is out on the road every day looking for that child to come home. “Back home” is the stories we tell about a love that goes looking for us. Click here to access this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/182336900
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All Work and No Play
Sept. 4, 2016 Joint Sermon from Patrick Green and Pastor Tim Phillips Scripture: Isaiah 35.5-6, Isaiah 40.11, Matthew 11.28-29 Patrick Green: It’s not like I’m looking back at the summer realizing I had an amazing time, I was aware of it every day, I knew while it was happening. It felt like being the best me I could be. It felt like playing, but real work got done by and for people that really needed it. I got to spend a summer in that place where my deep gladness met the world’s deep need. But I wasn’t alone. Almost every group at camp has a staff debrief afterward, Camp Goodtimes, Camp Park View, New Horizons all have a sharing circle. And they talk and cry and share about how this session of camp changed them. I got to see them all and witness what an amazing place Camp Burton is... Click here to access this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/181417400 |
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Pastor Tim Phillips:
It occurred to me, after the fog of surgery wore off, that play is about experiencing the sheer joy of being alive. It’s being lost in the wonder of the world around us. I started noticing how the light played on the leaves of the trees and on the waves of the water and I realized that we aren’t alone in play. The world is playing all around us. Marilyn Gustin says “we can revel in God in the midst of our play.” The light dancing on the leaves or the water is a reminder that God can be found in the middle of our own playfulness – in the joy of just being alive celebrating the great gifts of the world around us. Life isn’t just about what we can accomplish – or think we should accomplish. It’s also about play. It’s about being immersed in the joy of celebrating the gifts all around us. Click here to access this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/181417359 |
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Humility and Honor
Aug. 28, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Scripture: Luke 14.1, 7-14 In this passage today, Jesus calls us to act in humility. It’s not a passage about proper dinner etiquette or even simple table manners (sorry, Tired of Standing in Seattle). It’s a passage about practicing humility and honor. And despite what you see playing out on the news, humility is not – I repeat is not: humiliation. Humility is not about being humiliated, or about humiliating – shaming – another. If Christians are called to be countercultural – to call out the problematic norms of our day – which is what Jesus suggests in this passage about honor… then to be counter-cultural means opting out of the shame-game. Amen? Jesus calls us to honor each other. As I’ve described, when talking about honor, we tend to talk about honor and its converse: shame. But I want to talk about honor and its partner: humility. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/180518824 |
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A Good Day for Healing
Aug. 21, 2016 Pastor Patricia Hunter Scripture: Luke 13.10-17 Sometimes we get stuck in what happened yesterday that we can’t move forward and claim our healing today. We can be so stuck in the pain of what happened 10 years ago, that we cannot receive today’s blessings. Here is a newsflash my sisters and brothers, we are not going to receive an apology from that man or woman, or parent or child, who treated us like crap 10 or 20 years ago. It is not going to happen. So, somethings we have to just let go. That was yesterday’s drama/ trauma. God wants us to be free of that which weighs us down, so that we can receive today’s blessings. Sometimes un-forgiveness stands in the way of our healing. I was taken aback last year when so many family members of those killed during the prayer meeting at Mother Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, SC forgave the white supremacist who took the lives of their loved ones. I thought to myself, it is too soon to forgive. How can you forgive when so many of us are filled with rage? There has been no justice. But, soon I realized that sometimes there is no justice. There is no appropriate justice for those who murder children in school, or murder God loving people at prayer meeting, or murder LGBTQ folks at a nightclub. And, there may never be an apology. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, he who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/179677999 |
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| a_good_day_for_healing.pdf |
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True Contentment Comes from God
Aug. 14, 2016 Rev. Victoria Carr, pulpit guest Scripture: Philippians 4.10-14 ...Indeed too many of us have fallen prey to the insidious advertising that has tripped us into discontentment. Everyday folks like you and I are running to the surgeon apparently to get themselves perfectly shaped and precisely sculpted. That's because if we are 100% honest with ourselves, if I'm honest with myself, we sometimes find ourselves buying into the myth of beauty and to the false idea that success equates to how much we have and how much it cost to get it. Yet somehow with all these things that we have that we have acquired by any means necessary we sometimes find ourselves dissatisfied... No manuscript is available for this week... Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/178833629 |
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Kingdom Anxiety
Aug. 7, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Scripture: Luke 12.32-40 I think at some point along the way we Christians started suffering from a certain condition that has changed the way we understand exactly what Jesus meant for the Kingdom to be. It’s a condition that makes us believe we have to act in a certain way because there will be penalties for us as individuals – instead of acting in a certain way because it will make the whole world a better place. It’s a condition that can make us more concerned about the future of things, instead of the present reality of things. It’s a condition that can make us focus on Jesus exclusively as the only way to God, instead of focusing on our neighbors as the very representations of Jesus in our midst. I think it’s a condition we might call “Kingdom Anxiety.” I don’t say that to be flip; I say it as someone plagued by anxiety – as someone who knows the pervasive nature of anxiety quite intimately. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/177948637 |
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| kingdom_anxiety.pdf |
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When More is Too Much
July 31, 2016 Pastor Patricia Hunter Scripture: Luke 12.13-21 God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others—not so that we can sit and count all the kernels of our overflow. If you have computer expertise and learn things easily, you have to teach others. If God has been forgiving and compassionate to you, you have to show forgiveness and compassion to others. If you have the gift of art, music, and dance, you can’t sit on those gifts and just do the movements in your head. Either you use them or you loose them. If we have more than enough money, food, clothes, or time, we have to give away that which we can’t use so someone else can be blessed. The old folks used to say, to whom much is given, much is required. And, if we are honest, God blesses us not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are. God blesses us because God can--not because we are all that great. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/176961329 |
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| when_more_is_too_much.pdf |
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What I Believe Now
July 24, 2016 William Malcomson, past Theologian in Residence Scripture: I Corinthians 2 When you get a little older, you tend to come to terms with what is really important to you. What are your core convictions? What is transformative for you? What really makes you tick? What do you really believe in? Well if we are honest, it comes down to not too many things as one gets older. I've discarded a lot of stuff over the years, and now I've come to what I really believe I belove. No manuscript is available for this week's sermon. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/176072722 |
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What Now?
July 17, 2016 Kelly Wadsworth, Guest Preacher Scripture: Luke 10:38-42 Now as they went on their way Jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away with her." (No sermon manuscript available) Click here to watch this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/175298053 |
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Here Again for the First Time
July 10, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker Scripture: Luke 10:25-37 "The Good Samaritan" Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/174157727 |
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| here_again_for_the_first_time.pdf |
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Feeding Body and Soul
July 3, 2016 Pastor Patricia Hunter Scripture: John 6.1-14 Jesus initiated this miracle of having plenty in the midst of scarcity. Jesus also works in areas that are daunting to us—homelessness, gun control, hate, cancers, dementia, poverty, global warming, and the school to prison pipeline. Conventional solutions won’t solve unconventional problems. We can’t raise enough money to stop hate. The Spirit of love has to change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. When all were finished eating and were satisfied, Jesus directed the disciples to gather up all the fragments. When they did, there was enough food to fill 12 baskets. When we give God the fragments of our lives, there will be more than enough love, … hope,… homes to get people off the street. When we give God the fragments of our lives, there will be more than enough healthy food to fight disease and malnutrition. We will have more than enough energy to manage the work of justice and hope. When we give God the fragments of our broken lives, we will have more than enough wisdom and courage to live every day for God. We may only have a little to offer for the healing of our land and the healing of our lives, but in the hands of the miracle worker, it will be more than enough. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/173291968 |
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| feeding_body_and_soul.pdf |
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Love Is Our Song
June 26, 2016 - Pride Sunday Jim Ginn, longtime member at leader at SFBC Love of the stranger can often be difficult. It pushes our buttons. We get scared. According to Christian blogger, Misty Irons, “some … Christians speak of love somewhat cynically and even disparagingly, as if love is the mushy watchword of those who have no interest in doctrine and objective truth. What it boils down to is that they are afraid to obey God’s command to love fully because they fear it may open the door to discrediting God’s word.” Okay. But didn’t Jesus say love is the most important thing we can do? The judgmental saying, “love the sinner, but hate the sin” shows a dangerous lack of understanding, and it robs people of their dignity. That is not an opinion, it’s a fact. Silence in the face of injustice also falls short. We don’t always know where unconditional love is going to lead. But as we mature in our ability to love, we can begin to accept uncertainty and incomplete knowledge, and can refine our beliefs as new evidence emerges. Open observation enables us to learn and grow. The Love of God ~ traditional, arr. M. Horsley Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/172344520
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Give Light to My Eyes
June 19, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker The passage from Galatians reminds us we are all one in Christ Jesus. “Each one of you…a child of God. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek… no slave or free… no male or female… All are one in Christ Jesus.” This passage from today’s lectionary is also a rallying cry for LGBTQ Christians, as the conversation about full inclusion continues at both the denominational and local church level. If we all uphold this oneness – if we look to Jesus as the example – perhaps we can sit down and show the world how to have compassionate conversations in the midst of utter chaos. If we uphold this oneness, perhaps we can rebuke the dark forces that desire, crave, and finally rejoice in our opposition and infighting. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/171332558
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Listen Closely
June 12, 2016 - Music Sunday Pastor Ned Allyn Parker We live our lives in hope, in love, in joy, in thanksgiving, in doubt – and all of these are expressed through the sacred music we share – through postludes, preludes, anthems and hymns. The hymns rest on our hearts when we are most jubilant and most distressed even when we don’t recognize that our mouths sound their words, and our feet tap their rhythms. Listening closely to hymns doesn’t only mean appreciating them for appreciation’s sake. It means understanding why we respond to them the way we do; it means learning to ask questions about God and our neighbor as a result of singing these lyrics; it means coming to terms with – or sometimes questioning – words that make us uncomfortable. As we learn to listen closely to hymns, we might develop the capacity to listen to, and engage with the world in new and more compassionate ways. And… if we listen still deeper, we will encounter the boundless churning hum of a greater hymn – the living hymn of all creation. Life is an ode to joy, a hallelujah chorus; it’s full of amazing grace and blessed assurance. Click here to view this sermon on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/170405469 |
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| listen_closely_final.pdf |
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Ramadan - A Month of Fasting, Spiritual Elevation, and God-Consciousness
June 5, 2016 Alaa Badr, from the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, was our pulpit guest. He spoke about Ramadan, which began on Sunday, June 5. He also talked about Islam and its relationship to Judaism and Christianity. A manuscript of this sermon is not available. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/169622822 |
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Worthy of Healing
May 29, 2016 Pastor Tim Phillips Now this is a great story. In a lot of ways it is good news about the inclusive love of God reaching out beyond the boundaries of our human expectations. But I have to tell you that this story makes me sad. It breaks my heart that it gets healing caught up in the question of worthiness. The people say to Jesus that this military officer is “worthy” of this healing because he loves our people and built us a synagogue. And the soldier himself is supposed to get extra credit, I guess, for saying, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; only say the word and my beloved one will be healed.” Some of the most heart-wrenching stories I know are about people who get healing all mixed up with worthiness. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/168576434 |
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| worthy_of_healing.pdf |
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Sermon on May 22, 2016
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, pulpit guest Blessed are you the breathing spirit of the world who keeps us alive who fills us with life who lifts us up and carries us to this very moment. ... We have the whole world in our hands. We have our children and their children in our hands. We have the whole world in our hands. ... Think about the Hebrew scriptures as the spiritual explorations of farmers and shepherds living close connected with a land, what we would now call an indigenous people. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/167654948 A manuscript of this sermon is not available. |
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Inheriting the Wind
May 15, 2016 Pastor Tim Phillips When Nicodemus, the great religious leader of his time, comes to Jesus by night for a conversation, he says: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.” Let’s talk about what we know. And Jesus says: “It’s like this, Nicodemus, the wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; and that’s what the children born of the Spirit are like.” What if the spiritual life has something to do with how we deal with the unknown? Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/166738021 |
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| inheriting_the_wind.pdf |
Reflections on Mother's Day
May 8, 2016
We had three reflections for this Sunday:
May 8, 2016
We had three reflections for this Sunday:
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Bruce Chittick
Recently, Spencer won the coveted Maple Medal at his elementary school. The Maple Medal is given to a student each week who best exemplifies the ideals set forth by the school. As part of winning, the student gets to fill out a large poster telling his classmates about himself. In the section in which he was to draw a picture of his family, Spencer drew a Dad, a mom, and two kids, a boy and a girl. When we asked him why he chose to draw that, he said, he wanted to be cool. Spencer attends an urban school with all kinds of family diversity and where all families are treated alike. He lives in a city like that and attends this church, which also has that message, yet somehow, the image of the ideal 1950s family still rears its way into his perception of reality, even though that is the norm for less than 30% of families in the United States. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/165963493 |
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Megan Walker
Mother’s day is complicated for me. Too many times it is used to celebrate not actual mothers, but the myth of motherhood that our culture has created. Myth Mother always loves her children and says the exact thing they need to hear. Myth Mother sacrifices her entire self for her children. Myth Mother cooks and cleans and nurtures and loves and shuttles children to their activities and now often works as well. I don’t actually know anyone who has that mother. Most people I know have complicated relationships with their mothers, because they and their mothers are complicated people. Most mothers I know are doing the best they can, but they make mistakes. They lose their tempers sometimes, they forget soccer practice once in awhile, they have to work late and need someone else to get the kids from school. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/165963611 |
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Pastor Tim Phillips
I have a question for you this morning. Do you think loving is something that just comes naturally to us or is it something we have to learn? Perhaps even if love is like a seed that is planted in the human heart, it seems to me that, it is something that has to be cultivated and nurtured and tended. I think we can be pretty clear that, at the very least, love is not something to be taken for granted. Pastor Ned was talking last week about the importance of loving yourself – looking in the mirror and loving that person staring back at you. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/165963387
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Carrying the Mantel of Brokenness
Sunday, May 1, 2016 Pastor Ned Allyn Parker So this morning I wonder: Is there power in weakness? When we’ve hiked to the mountaintop, only to trip and stumble back down the trail… When we stand up and dust ourselves off and ascend yet again, this time to hold the hand of a friend, and to allow our own hand to be held… Is there power in weakness? When we move through the process of healing and look in the mirror and finally see a loveable and loving and lovely individual looking back… Is there power in weakness? I think the nature of compassion tells us yes. I hear the song as a reminder that despite – and sometimes even because of our own brokenness – we’re always loved, always loveable, always capable of giving love. Yes, Jesus Loves me! Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/165076187 |
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| carrying_the_mantel_of_brokenness.pdf |
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Garden Spirituality
Earth Sunday, April 24 Pastor Tim Phillips If there is anything to do now, it is to imagine a new world – one that rises out of this one. It makes sense that Earth Day falls in this Easter season because this vision is a resurrection story on a global scale – a new world rising out of the ashes of a world that has passed away. It is that wisdom attributed to Martin Luther 500 years ago -- facing the destruction of his own world -- “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” “I cannot do everything,” our anthem says, “but still I can do something … I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” And so, what we are going to do today – or some of us are going to do on behalf of all of us – is to plant a garden. Maybe, in the face of over-consumption and climate change that doesn’t sound like very much. But still, it is something. And I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/164025696 |
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| garden_spirituality.pdf |
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Good Shepherd Sunday, April 17, 2016 Pastor Patricia Hunter Our text says that those who know Jesus hear his voice and they follow him. So there appears to be two steps here if one professes to be a real follower of Jesus. First, we have to hear God’s voice or recognize God’s presence. Second, we have to follow God’s call and do what God asks of us. Each week, Pastor Tim says, and today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts. I believe God speaks to us all the time. During our prayer time, while mowing the lawn, while in the company of dear friends, while taking a walk on the beach, while grilling burgers, while playing an instrument. God speaks all the time. Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/163179945
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If You Love Me...
Sunday, April 10, 2016 Pastor Tim Phillips If Jesus were to show up among us and put this question to us, I think we might be like Golde, “What do you mean, ‘Do you love me?’ For almost a hundred and fifty years we have been feeding your sheep.” And perhaps Jesus would say to us: “That’s not what I asked. Do you love me?” We are quick to say that the great commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But if we are pushed to say what that means, I think we are likely to say: Well, we offer an array of spiritual activities and we do our best to feed the hungry and advocate for justice. And that’s great. Although I would remind you that the famous love chapter in I Corinthians 13 begins: “If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels … If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains … If I give away all my possessions, and I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Click here to view this video on Vimeo.com: https://vimeo.com/162291190 |
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| if_you_love_me.pdf |
Death and Resurrection in the Arboretum, April 3, 2016
Resurrection Stories
Sunday, April 3 - Eastertide
By Jim Segaar
Words have power. They can build or destroy. They can comfort or make miserable. And few words have more power than “resurrection.” But just what kind of power does it have?
Resurrection isn’t a topic that is often discussed at polite dinner parties. The word rarely comes up while standing in line for lattes at Starbucks. We don’t even talk about it all that much at church. Even here it has the power to elicit strong emotions, even retorts. Unlikely. Impossible. Incomprehensible. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.
When I try to understand what a word means, I still like to start in an old-fashioned place - the dictionary. According the Merriam-Webster, in Christianity, resurrection refers to “ the event told about in the Bible in which Jesus Christ returned to life after his death.” A secondary meaning may seem a little more accessible: “the act of causing something that had ended or been forgotten or lost to exist again, to be used again, etc.”
When the dictionary doesn’t satisfy my desire for meaning (as it didn’t in this case), my next step is Google. That’s how I found this quote from Canon Giles Fraser of St. Mary Newington Parish in South London: “The resurrection isn’t an argument. It’s the Christian word for defiance. Arson, heroin needles, mass brawls – my parish church sees it all. But the Easter story is who we are, and allows us to push back against the darkness.”
In his Easter sermon last week, Pastor Tim Phillips gave us another definition to consider: “…resurrection is not resuscitation. It’s not bringing something back to life. It’s not going back to a time before there was brokenness or to a place we imagine that was safe and comfortable and familiar. It’s not trying to recapture that Hallelujah Chorus of our childhood. Resurrection is what happens when we stand together in our brokenness and imagine a new life and a new world.”
Perhaps the best way to develop an understanding of a word like resurrection is through stories. We can start with the ones about Jesus of Nazareth as told in the Gospels. The settings are familiar to many of us. An empty tomb. A closed room. Along a road. One thing strikes me about all of them. They weren’t in public. We have no stories of Jesus popping into the temple and giving the religious leaders a fright. No one tells us that Jesus buzzed Pilot’s palace or even the Senate in Rome to put some literal fear of God into the Empire. Jesus arose among his followers, his friends and family, people who had sat with him and listened to him and even dared hope for a better future with him. Jesus arose in his community.
During our service today two members of our community, Gary Davis and Pastor Patricia Hunter, shared their personal resurrection stories. They were nervous at the prospect. Gary said that when asked to share his story, “I cringed.” Patricia told us “I was not sure quite what to say.” But share they did, stories of brokenness, pain, heartache, failure, anger, and resurrection. Their stories were highly personal and collectively it was decided not to submit them to the zillions of eyes of the Internet. In this one case, you had to be there.
But Patricia and Gary aren’t the only people in our community with resurrection stories. Do you know someone with one? Do you have one? I think that one reason we talk so little about resurrection is that we are so bad at spotting it when it happens, seeing and acknowledging it for what it is, even when it occurs right before our eyes.
Yesterday, a beautiful Saturday in Seattle, I went for a walk in the Washington Park Arboretum to see what thoughts I might unearth about resurrection. Well I didn’t find anything all that mystical, but I saw resurrection all around me. I saw new trees growing up from the remnants of fallen ancestors. I saw dead snags nearly choked out of sight by the raucous new growth of spring. I saw branch tips becoming buds becoming blossoms becoming leaves. I saw flowers blooming where last week there was only mud. I saw what is happening all the time all around us, a wondrous cycle of life and death and new life. Resurrection.
So how about your own resurrection story? Does the thought of sharing it confuse you, or challenge you, or maybe even make you cringe? Well perhaps it isn’t something you want to post on Facebook, but it might be worth sharing in community, with friends and family, with people who are close to you. According to Gary, telling his story helps him find personal freedom, love and family. Perhaps those who love you are ready to listen too. And what better time for such stories than now, in the Spring? It is Eastertide, after all.
Christ is risen! And we are rising too!!
References:
Merriam-Webster online:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resurrection
Canon Giles Fraser: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/mar/31/the-resurrection-isnt-an-argument-its-the-christian-word-for-defiance?CMP=share_btn_fb
Sunday, April 3 - Eastertide
By Jim Segaar
Words have power. They can build or destroy. They can comfort or make miserable. And few words have more power than “resurrection.” But just what kind of power does it have?
Resurrection isn’t a topic that is often discussed at polite dinner parties. The word rarely comes up while standing in line for lattes at Starbucks. We don’t even talk about it all that much at church. Even here it has the power to elicit strong emotions, even retorts. Unlikely. Impossible. Incomprehensible. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.
When I try to understand what a word means, I still like to start in an old-fashioned place - the dictionary. According the Merriam-Webster, in Christianity, resurrection refers to “ the event told about in the Bible in which Jesus Christ returned to life after his death.” A secondary meaning may seem a little more accessible: “the act of causing something that had ended or been forgotten or lost to exist again, to be used again, etc.”
When the dictionary doesn’t satisfy my desire for meaning (as it didn’t in this case), my next step is Google. That’s how I found this quote from Canon Giles Fraser of St. Mary Newington Parish in South London: “The resurrection isn’t an argument. It’s the Christian word for defiance. Arson, heroin needles, mass brawls – my parish church sees it all. But the Easter story is who we are, and allows us to push back against the darkness.”
In his Easter sermon last week, Pastor Tim Phillips gave us another definition to consider: “…resurrection is not resuscitation. It’s not bringing something back to life. It’s not going back to a time before there was brokenness or to a place we imagine that was safe and comfortable and familiar. It’s not trying to recapture that Hallelujah Chorus of our childhood. Resurrection is what happens when we stand together in our brokenness and imagine a new life and a new world.”
Perhaps the best way to develop an understanding of a word like resurrection is through stories. We can start with the ones about Jesus of Nazareth as told in the Gospels. The settings are familiar to many of us. An empty tomb. A closed room. Along a road. One thing strikes me about all of them. They weren’t in public. We have no stories of Jesus popping into the temple and giving the religious leaders a fright. No one tells us that Jesus buzzed Pilot’s palace or even the Senate in Rome to put some literal fear of God into the Empire. Jesus arose among his followers, his friends and family, people who had sat with him and listened to him and even dared hope for a better future with him. Jesus arose in his community.
During our service today two members of our community, Gary Davis and Pastor Patricia Hunter, shared their personal resurrection stories. They were nervous at the prospect. Gary said that when asked to share his story, “I cringed.” Patricia told us “I was not sure quite what to say.” But share they did, stories of brokenness, pain, heartache, failure, anger, and resurrection. Their stories were highly personal and collectively it was decided not to submit them to the zillions of eyes of the Internet. In this one case, you had to be there.
But Patricia and Gary aren’t the only people in our community with resurrection stories. Do you know someone with one? Do you have one? I think that one reason we talk so little about resurrection is that we are so bad at spotting it when it happens, seeing and acknowledging it for what it is, even when it occurs right before our eyes.
Yesterday, a beautiful Saturday in Seattle, I went for a walk in the Washington Park Arboretum to see what thoughts I might unearth about resurrection. Well I didn’t find anything all that mystical, but I saw resurrection all around me. I saw new trees growing up from the remnants of fallen ancestors. I saw dead snags nearly choked out of sight by the raucous new growth of spring. I saw branch tips becoming buds becoming blossoms becoming leaves. I saw flowers blooming where last week there was only mud. I saw what is happening all the time all around us, a wondrous cycle of life and death and new life. Resurrection.
So how about your own resurrection story? Does the thought of sharing it confuse you, or challenge you, or maybe even make you cringe? Well perhaps it isn’t something you want to post on Facebook, but it might be worth sharing in community, with friends and family, with people who are close to you. According to Gary, telling his story helps him find personal freedom, love and family. Perhaps those who love you are ready to listen too. And what better time for such stories than now, in the Spring? It is Eastertide, after all.
Christ is risen! And we are rising too!!
References:
Merriam-Webster online:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resurrection
Canon Giles Fraser: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/mar/31/the-resurrection-isnt-an-argument-its-the-christian-word-for-defiance?CMP=share_btn_fb