Sermons – Page 4 – Michael Seiler

Standing Firm

By MichaelSermonsBeloved Community, Community, Eucharist, Love, Unity, Violence

When we make the armor of God about protecting ourselves, and our own minds, we begin to see the world in black and white, we begin to see the world in right and wrong, and we look for justifications to make sure that we are always “in the right.” And when we do that, we surround ourselves with people and with information that feeds upon those self-justifications. This then turns into an Us vs. Them mentality, and when we claim Christ as our mascot, our whole worldview turns into the idea of the Christ who agrees with us as Christ against Culture instead of Christ with Us, or Christ among us.

Who Are You?

By MichaelSermonsApostles, Beloved Community, Community, Disciples, Jesus, Judging, Judgment, Love, Spiritual Family

And they took offence at him. His very presence in the synagogue, “pretending” to be a spiritual leader, incited their wrath, and they were scandalized by his presence there as one who would presume to teach them.

They knew him from when he was but a boy, and here he was taking on more authority than he ought to, more than he was allowed to, given his history, given what they knew about him.

And the result, Mark says, is that he did not do many works of power there. Instead, Jesus marveled at their disbelief.

How Big Is Your Boat?

By MichaelSermonsAction, Chaos, Faith, Faith in Action, Fear, Jesus, Love, Miracles, Self-Examination

They’ve seen this movie before, and so some of them are thinking, “Great! Jesus is here, he’ll calm the storm and all will be well.”

But Jesus doesn’t calm the storm.

He’s just standing there, telling them not to be afraid, in the midst of all this raging chaos.

The Possible Impossible

By MichaelReturn To Sender, SermonsAction, Faith, God, Miracles, Seeking God

I tried to rationalize, I tried to ignore, I tried to bargain, but for some reason, God kept putting this on my heart, and I finally relented. As I gave the money to my local priest to give to the bishop, I was almost in tears, wondering how this could remotely be God’s plan, seeing as how I didn’t have the money to deal with my own bills.

Eating Our Weedies

By MichaelSermonsForgiveness, Justification, Salvation, Sanctification, Self-Examination, Self-Justification, Sin

Lectionary Readings – 7th Sunday after Pentecost Since I grew up in northern Alaska, I have never spent much time farming, nor have I seen much in the way of wheat when it’s young. But from what I’ve been told is that when wheat is young, it looks very much like grass. More to the…

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Home Alone?

By MichaelSermonsEaster, Eternal Life, Feast of the Ascension

Lectionary Readings – 7th Sunday of Easter This past Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. Or at least we thought really hard about celebrating the day because it fell in the middle of work week, and so we thought it might be best to push it off until today. Ascension Day is a…

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Born From Above

By MichaelSermonsLent, Love, Sin

Lectionary Readings – (Second Sunday in Lent) [This sermon used a lot of props, so I’ve included photos of the props, and I’ve left in my “stage notes” to show when and where I used them.] When I read the scripture for today, and realized that the passage was John 3:16, I began to think…

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Taking a Different Route

By MichaelSermonsEpiphany, Wise Men

Lectionary Readings – (The Epiphany) When most people hear the word epiphany, the don’t think of the twelfth day after Christmas, or about the story of the wise men coming from various lands to see the baby Jesus. Instead, when most people think of the word epiphany, they think of an “aha!” moment like when…

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An Eternal Known

By MichaelSermons

Lectionary Readings – (23rd Sunday after Pentecost) One of the first things that jumped out at me in today’s Gospel Reading was not that Jesus was talking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, or the idea of false prophets that will try and deceive the people of God, or even the idea that…

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Finding What is Lost

By MichaelSermons

Lectionary Readings – (14th Sunday After Pentecost) I have a small notebook that I carry around with me almost everywhere I go. In it, I keep ideas for new software applications, new business ideas, my rantings and ravings, sermon ideas, and personal thoughts. Most of what I write in this notebook is very personal to…

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Category: Sermons