Salt House - Sermons

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9). We welcome Salt House community member Arlene Smith to the microphone to share about this beloved beatitude.

What does it mean for Jesus to mantle us as ‘blessers’. Storyteller, initiated Elder and fly fisherman Jim Anderson will draw us into Jesus’ sermon on the mount and explore moving from ‘container to content’ in God’s kingdom of love.

Purity in the Bible is such a complicated concept. And we probably have a lot of baggage around this word. So when Jesus blesses "the pure of heart" what does "purity" mean to Jesus? Join us Sunday for another beatitude, where Pastor Ryan will explore this blessing for the "pure of heart."

Sometimes Jesus uses really vivid language to evoke the senses and draw us in. That's what this next blessing is all about--hunger and thirst. It brings out intense, bodily sensations. But who are the hungry and the thirsty? What blessing is unique to them? How might we live this blessing our lives?

We live in a culture that so values the cerebral, the academic, the thinker... but not so much the feeler. And yet Jesus blesses our tender, squishy, messy emotions. Jesus is a feeler and encourages us to feel too. But where is the blessing in that? How can sadness and grief be good? Let's explore how complicated mourning and comfort are this Sunday.

Every preacher’s got just one sermon and Jesus isn’t an exception to that rule. This week we hear Jesus’ big idea about what God is up to and what the meek have to do with it? (What in the world IS a ‘Meek’ anyways?!)

What is happiness? What are blessings? What does Jesus have to say about these things? And how does he live them? These are questions we are going to explore this summer in our sermon series on the Beatitudes. Found in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes give us a list of people who are blessed or happy. And this list isn't what you expect. So join us this summer, in this season of sunshine and relaxation, to consider what it means to really be happy and blessed.

It's a complicated thing to think about freedom in 2023. Yes, we celebrate the opportunities afforded to many of us living in the US, and yet we also mourn the systemic injustice and oppression we see around us too. What do we as Jesus followers do with this tension? Believe it or not, this is a classic theological conundrum that many great thinkers have wrestled with. This Sunday, we will give it a go and do our own wrestling with freedom.

At Salt House, one of our core practices is sharing and hearing stories. We believe that stories matters, and that when we share our stories, we see what God is up to in the world and in our own lives. This Sunday, for Pride Sunday (the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots), we are going to hear a Salt House Story from Brenna! Brenna has served on our council, volunteered with our youth, and been part of our Queer group. Don't miss hearing her story!

Salt House is so proud to be an affirming church that practices Radical Welcome. This core practice has been part of Salt House from the beginning, and has been especially important as we find ourselves leading the way on queer affirming ministry in the Eastside. But where does it come from? Why is it so important? What does Jesus (and Demons) have to do with it? Join us Sunday to find out!