Hi friends, I'm back from...well, you know where I was. Many thanks to PCIT for filling in last week. Hopefully she and I will do some sort of weekly trade-off soon, when she's ready. (She's still acclimating to the new church, y'know.)
To be perfectly honest with you, it has been two weeks since I've done much sermon prep, having started Easter 6 before I left for the Festival. My preliminary feelings are that I might go with Acts 1 and that story of the call of Mathias. I'm fascinated by the fact that his call to ministry seemed to come from the voices of the others, as contrasted to the way Jesus seemed to hand-pick the first twelve. What might that mean for the disciples of today?
My own call to ministry started with an encounter with a total stranger. What other kinds of call stories are people experiencing?
What are your homiletical curiosities this week?
Since Sunday's Gospel text is one of the more "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together" Johannine passages;-), I'll tell you just a bit about my own sense of call...maybe a year after I began coming back to church, my pastor was explaining our synod's lay ministry program and said to me, offhand, "You might want to think about that sometime." Well, at that point I was so gun-shy about getting deeply involved in "churchy" things that I just nodded politely while thinking, "Yeah...right." Thereafter, maybe once a year he'd mention this again to me: "You might want to look into the lay ministry program." "Thanks. I'll think about it." Finally, one year I was feeling very spiritually restless and unfed and trying to explore why that was, and started praying the Daily Office; actually, I started just praying the Compline, and found that meaningful, and slowly added the other prayers; and then I had a profound, numinous "aha" experience (which I blogged about early in my blog), after which I called up the pastor: "Hey -- what can you tell me about the lay ministry program?" And here I am.
ReplyDeleteUm, hi? So, I kind of disappeared last December. Just thought I'd pop in and say I updated my blog today. I also changed it back to its origingal name: "sense and nonsense". Peace.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I am preaching on Ephesians 1:15-23 for Ascension Sunday, I am still continue my series on saying goodbye. Hey isn't that what Jesus did said goodbye to them all. Can't remember why I chose it. Oh yeah it is a prayer that Paul had written for the Ephesians, a prayer of blessing. And I want them to know I bless them in my leaving, I pray for them, and ask their prayers. There probably is more to this than what I am saying right now.
ReplyDeletecalling is such an interesting topic. Hope more join in (grin). I'm in process (aren't we all) sure I'm called, and finding out what that means in practice. Prayers always appreciated as it's not always easy.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Canada at the moment on holiday and it's great, though cooler than I expected.
Ascension Day is always a Thursday. I'm wondering if you all: a)Have a special Thursday service b)Do Ascension on the Sunday closest to the Thursday on which it actually takes place c)skip it--it's too wierd anyway.
ReplyDeleteLorna, don't sugar coat it. It is COLD here in Canada! In Montreal anyway.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, welcome back.
Attended noonday Eucharist at the cathedral today. There were 5 other people there. I was the youngest (besides the priest) by 40 years. I always end up doing weird things. What does that mean...that I am called to weirdness!?
I would love to get involved in this conversation but unless you uncover the Biblical signifinance of red, white and blue plastic flowers I am afraid I am at a loss...
ReplyDeleteThis passage has me thinking about discernment and how we approach prayer. Are we petitioning? Perfunctory? How often do we make or seek enough silence to feel sure we are clear about God's leading on a serious question in our lives?
ReplyDeletePCIT, we have the option of doing Ascension on the nearest Sunday, and I preached it last year, but I think once every two or three is probably enough, since it isn't an emphasis for us.
PCIT, we pretty much ignore Ascension...at least the whopping two whole years I've been doing this we have, which I'm not sure constitutes a pattern.
ReplyDelete