Advertise on podcast: Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

Paul’s letter to the Philippians ends with words that are inspired, timeless and beneficial to everyone. In this reflection Janet Berg invites us into a journey of literal scripture reading using her own family as an example. Preacher: Janet Berg Philippians 4.1-9 Resources: pdf of Janet's sermonImage: by Tima Miroshnichenko on pexels

A Psalm that is an acrostic poem (each line begins with each of the 22 Hebrew letters, in alphabetical order) was surely written by a poet, a writer, a creative someone engaging in a writing exercise. And therefore: paradox belongs. Poetry is not systematic theology, nor is prayer. So the Psalmist can implore God to remember and to forget in the same breath. And I can assert with Octavia Butler that “God is change” in one breath, and in the next breath sing with Shirley Erena Murray “God always faithful, you do not change.” All of our prayers are welcome to God, including the paradoxical ones! Preacher: Megan Ramer Psalm 25 Resources: Octavia Butler, from Parable of the Sower: “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.”“God of the Bible,” text by Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), © 1996 Hope Publishing Company (420 in our hymnal, Voices Together).  🎶listen to a recording hereimage: https://basicsofthebible.org/projects/psalm25/

Jesus tells a story about day-laborers; a story in which day-laborers all receive a living wage and return home with both dignity and provision for the thriving of their families and communities. And Jesus says this is what God’s kin-dom is like. This is good news.  Matthew 20: 1-16 Series: Fall Sermon: Megan Ramer Resources: “Seattle Hilton workers end strike after ‘tremendous wins’ in contract,” by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Seattle Times, September 11, 2026.“WA ICE arrests reach new high, just-released data shows,” by Nina Shapiro, The Seattle Times, August 27, 2026.image: Photo by Javad Esmaeili on Unsplash

Joseph and his brothers are at an inflection point. Their father has died — maybe their only glue given the immense harm and hurt between them — and now they stand at a threshold, about to cross over into the rest of their lives. There was a “before,” and now begins an “after.” What comes next for them? Most of us have stood at similar monumental thresholds, having experienced harm and brokenness in our families or communities, faced with a similar question in our grief: “Now what?” Joseph’s choices shouldn’t be precisely prescriptive for our own, but the story is powerful and resonant. It is a story to hold in one’s heart as we face the sheer impossibilities of our own lives. Genesis 50: 15-21 image: detail from art created by Dave Huth, in the The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible, Herald Press and Brethren Press (2023), 46-47.

What if everything really comes down to love? What if the only thing we are meant to do is to love, then love again, then love some more? Can it actually be that simple? (Albeit, not necessarily easy!) We aren’t meant to love in the precise way that Dolly or Wendell loved, and it isn’t ours to have the same size or scope or shape of impact of such public giants. But perhaps we could muster the boldness of the Psalmist and exhort God to show us the way(s) that we are meant to love, then love again, then love some more.  Scripture: Psalm 119: 33-40 Resources: Romans 13.8-14 — excerpt: “Don’t be in debt to anyone, except for the obligation to love each other. Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law. The commandments…are all summed up in one word: You must love your neighbor as yourself. Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is what fulfills the Law.”Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and article “How Dolly Parton helped the world - from children's books to supporting Covid vaccine,” by Tiffany Wertheimer, BBC, August 26, 2026.Wendell Berry, and a couple of his most well known and beloved poems: “The Peace of Wild Things” (audio recording of Berry reading his own poem), and “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” (featuring, among other wise and beautiful nuggets, the prophetic imperative to “Plant sequoias.” Which our friend Rachael Weasley turned into this beautiful song.)image: photos of Wendell and Dolly in their younger years!

The kingdom of God - it should first be said - is NOT a kingdom. Jesus makes that pretty clear with his many dozens of “kingdom” parables eschewing crowns and rulers for seeds and bread. It was always a cheeky and politically provocative move for Jesus to use the language of “kingdom.” Some days we might lean into the subversiveness of cheeky kingly language, and some days (like today’s sermon) we decide to make plain that we’re talking about a KIN-dom of God, in which all our relations (all creation!) live in beloved kinship communities of justice, peace, interdependence, flourishing, and liberating love. The KIN-dom of God is like… a library, a quilt, watercolor paints or a drop of red dye, household dust and/or stardust, a jazz ensemble or perhaps more rightly a festival of jazz ensembles. And it is alive and within us now. We must imagine it to create it, and we need ALL the imaginations contributing to the collective collage that can only ever sniff at the wild and wooly and vastly all-encompassing dream of God. Series: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism Scripture: Matthew 13.31-33 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolution“The Kin-dom of Christ,” Melissa Florer-Bixler, Sojourners, November 20, 2018.“Freely Lent,” by Margaret Kearney, The Christian Century, October 20, 2021.“The Quilt We Make Together,” a poem written by Dwight J. Friesen following the 2026 Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) Annual Meeting, published in the PNMC e-Bulletin, July 20, 2026.Images: Quilt photo and Library photo by Megan Ramer; Jazz Ensemble photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash; Stardust photo (detail) by David Babayan on Unsplash.

Jesus uses a parable about wheat and weeds to talk about good, evil, and the coming reign of God. But who is wheat, and who is weed, and how are we to tell the difference? In any case, God seems to be into farming for the long-term. Preacher: Pam Russell Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43 Resources: “Foreward” by David R. Swartz, to Radicals & Reformers: A Survey of Global Anabaptist History, Troy Osborne, Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA, 2024.Image: by Mark Stebnicki on Pexels

Are we the soil, the seed or the sower? Traditional teachings of this parable often cast people as the soil and Christ as the seed. What if we are being called to be sowers? Extravagant sowers who do not need to be concerned with the quality of the soil. Join Beth Miller Kraybill as she reflects on how this parable relates to her calling. Sermon begins at minute marker 3:52 Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 Image by Dr Photographer on pexels

Join us as Tyler, Beth, Melissa, Ken and Deren share what happened at the annual PNMC meeting in Albany, Oregon. There was humor, financial reports, connections between generations and with Mennonites we only see once a year or so. There were workshops and inspiring services, shared meals and service. Scripture:  Luke 6.17-31 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolutionImage: Melissa Kelly

Jesus says we shouldn’t store up earthly treasures. In the same breath, Jesus instructs us to store up heavenly treasures, and some of those heavenly treasures are also defiantly earthly. So go ahead and get yourselves the best treasures that earth and heaven can offer: treasures that may be truly groan-worthy, treasures that redistribute, treasures that are tended well and freely shared. Sermon begins at minute marker 1:42 Scripture: Matthew 6.19-21 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolutionThe House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ KluneStewardship “rust and moth” reflection, by Clara BergImage: Photo by Pastor Megan, church courtyard, May 2026.

Conference Pastor, Eric Massanari, calls us to examine how we define what it means to be human and how that affects our interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. If we are by definition fundamentally fallen and flawed, the call of the Sermon seems impossible. What if we view humanity as potentially redeemed by Christ? That leaves the Sermon as a call for the redeemed, for a chosen portion of humanity. But, who are we humans if we are already the salt and the light of the world as the Sermon actually says?  Sermon begins at minute marker 2:13 Matthew 5.38-45 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolutionImage: City on a Hill by Piotr Arnoldes on pexels

Jesus taught in the Sermon the Mount that God loves completely, and that we ought also love completely. What does that mean in a culture of pervasive and rising Christian Nationalism? Along with our Menno kin across the conference, we have pledged ourselves to “Christian Discipleship” in the midst of Christian Nationalism. We are meant to follow Jesus, to love completely, to cause no harm. We are meant to resist, disrupt, and challenge the culture of violent, harmful, and power-hungry Christian Nationalism all around us. Relying on Mennonite scholar Drew Strait’s work, we lift up the following: 1) break silence, 2) lament, 3) define Christian Nationalism, 4) identify political idolatry, 5) preach the whole life of Jesus, 6) activate congregations. Sermon starts right away  Matthew 5.46-48 Resources: A Call to Christian Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism, a resolution passed by the delegates to Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference (PNMC) in 2025Companion Worship Resource, created by a team from PNMC to accompany the 2025 resolutionDrew Strait, “How to Challenge Christian Nationalism: Building Peace in an Age of Extremism,” sharing insights in Oct 2024 from his book, Strange Worship: Six Steps for Challenging Christian Nationalism (Cascade, 2024). Drew Strait, “Political Idolatry: a group study” a 30-minute version of a longer webinar on political idolatry and White Christian nationalism. Read more on “What is Christian Nationalism” on the AMBS website: https://www.ambs.edu/political-idolatry/Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Commentary on the original source found here.Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Where there’s no name for a problem, you can’t see a problem, and when you can’t see a problem, you pretty much can’t solve it.” More at “Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora Studies” of Tufts University.“God’s Army is Hiring,” Kate Burns, The Stranger, June 4, 2026.Image: cover for Drew Strait’s book, Strange Worship, source material for sermon

…And Paul is the original Brandi Carlile?? Okay, that’s maybe a step too far. Nonetheless, go along for this wild ride in which Pastor Megan explores why specificity matters (to Bad Bunny and to God), and how staying gentle might indeed be the most powerful thing we can do (a la Brandi and, remarkably, Paul). Sermon begins right away. Scripture: Acts 2:1-21; Philippians 4:4-7  Resources: BibleWorm podcast: Episode 742 - The Diversifying Power of the Spirit, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, 2026Stay Gentle, by Brandi CarlileSMC Congregational CovenantImage: “Together we are America”

Paul writes an affectionate letter to the community at Philippi, making clear the strong relational bonds they share. He thanks God every time he thinks of them, and he calls them partners in God’s grace and preaching the gospel. But what on earth does preaching the gospel mean for Jesus, for Paul, and for us 2000 years later?! Jesus’ sense of God’s good news was most certainly shaped by the songs of his mama and aunties as he grew inside Mary’s womb and nursed at her breast. Mary’s revolutionary song inspired his own revolutionary mission statement (from Isaiah, recorded in Luke 4).  Sermon begins right away, and is missing the first minute or so acknowledging the history of slavery in this country. Philippians 1.1-18a  Resources: BibleWorm podcast: Episode 740 - Proclaiming Christ, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.Philippians 1.3, in all English translations on Bible GatewayAnabaptist Community Bible, Introduction to Philippians by Ryan SchellenbergJulia Ward Howe, Mothers’ Day Proclamation (originally known as “Appeal to womanhood throughout the world”), 1870.Christie Dahlin, “Who Holds Us In Our Tenderness: A Mother’s Day Post,” Pastor and the Poet, May 10, 2026. Image: Photo by Val Vesa on Unsplash

A pastor’s reflections on consuming Christian media on airplanes. Sermon begins at minute marker 3:39 Scripture: Acts 17.16-34 Resources: John Shelby Spong. Why Christianity Must Change or Die. Link to print version of sermon HEREImage: Richard Scarry; Busy, Busy World