Dear Friends,
Early Sunday morning I will be leaving to go to a six day Synod-wide training event out on the prairie, thus my Parish Associate will be preaching. The lectionary texts for this coming Sunday can be found here.
I look forward to seeing what y'all come up with. I will be looking ahead one week, since although I am gone Sunday-Friday, I have to preach when I get back!
But for today, I am spending several hours with the confirmation class, out on a boat on nearby Pretentious Lake, watching confirmands ski, tube, jet ski, and generally act like kids. I'll be the one in street clothes begging kids to put sunscreen on!
What? Didn't we do this lectionary thing just last week?
ReplyDeletelol will smama.
ReplyDeleteAnd cheesehead have fun. Taking the confirmation class on waterskies. What a terrible job (grin)Hope you had the pedicure first :)
Yeah, and it's an easier text this week.
ReplyDeleteBUT for the next time the beheading of John comes about, I had a few thought -- I had a last supper plaque shipped to me -- the head of Judas was broken off and Chaos said something like, "Look, he's been beheaded." As I was gluing the plaque together, I put the bits and pieces of the head and the head itself on a saucer, so Judas had his head on his own little platter.
I wonder if Jesus was as saddened by Judas' death -- why is that death so easy for us to accept and John's seems so random?
So, off to the races, y'all. This text seems much easier.
Reading the gospel lection, I felt so badly for Jesus and the disciples, exhausted and trying to get away and recharge only to have the crowd meet them on the other side!
ReplyDeleteMy theme for this week is finding the wide open spaces, spiritually speaking, and I'm primarily using the 2 Samuel reading, although I may weave in the gospel before I am through.
Well, having survived/thrived in my one-time sermonizing last week, I have a renewed compassion for those of you who do it week in, week out. At least these are easier texts this week! Blessings to you all.
ReplyDeleteOut on the lake, eh. And no swimsuit on, Uh, is that an invitation or what for some of the teens to throw her in? Who wants to bet against me. Boy she is going to have Sunday's sermon ready with this time on the lake, what an illustration. I wrote that sermon before, and had everyone in the congregation sit quietly for a minute, just a minute. The senior pastor thought I was ahem, stupid. But believe it or not I had more people come up and thank me, and said it reminded them how pleasent it was to be still and quiet. Even the kids were able to do it. So there SP.
ReplyDeleteBut I am struggling with these Ephesians series I promised them, whether to just follow the lectionary totally, or add in the other passages, and thus make it a full Ephesians series. Any thoughts?
For Will Smama and me it is the perpetual return of the sabbath.
And while you are at place your bets on our dear cheesehead getting thrown in. The winner gets er uh well we'll see.
My current work in Hispanic ministry makes the Ephesians choice a no-brainer. We live in a climate of "us" and "them." Only through Christ can the two be joined into a "we." I will confess that my original plan was to rework my sermon on this passage from 6 years ago, but in those hazy pre-sleep moments last night I had some new ideas. The question remains whether there will be much to those ideas once I flesh them out in the light of day. I'll let you know!
ReplyDeleteI am with revabi. I bet cheesehead goes swimming. I also agree with the "What, I have to preach again!" as I usually start my thoughts for the next Sunday on Sunday afternoon/evening. I suspect it is what actors in TV series feel like once they have taped an episode--time to start again.
ReplyDeleteANyway, I am continuing to wallow in Paul. BUt at least this week I like the passage. I am using Paul's discussion of unity in Christ to raise up our General Council meeting next month and how we as a denomination need to learn how to agree to disagree and still be able to pray and sing together anyhow.
--Gord
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ReplyDeleteI am doing the children's sermon this Sunday. I'm not sure what the pastor is doing but I think I will be talking about God's House. Unless someone has another idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm skipping this week and running a week ahead because of our Hymn Sing next Sunday. Still stewing over the 5 Loaves and 2 Fish. I did find 12 baskets to grace the communion table and be a visual reminder to everyone about all the left-overs there were; enough and more than enough from one small, humble offering.
ReplyDeletedon't forget your sunscreen either!
so i'm using the gospel this week and I was writing away but I just hit a road block. I'm trying to talk about finding time away for prayer and spiritual deveolpment. This is only one my second sermon... I have a feeling i'll be back on saturday night for the 11th hour preacher party
ReplyDeleteI too have compassion with those who have to preach every week. I'm gald it;s still a few years away for me.
I'm going with Ephesians and zeroing in on the 'one new humanity' phrase in particular. I'll observe how hard it is to wrap our minds around this phrase with so much more crap happening in Israel/Lebanon, N. Korea, Iraq, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm pulling from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Captain Nemo's desire to break himself off from the rest of humanity, and I may use something from Rob Bell about the cross breaking down our estrangement from one another.
I'm not preaching this week but wanted to comment on the gospel passage.
ReplyDeleteWhen I taught Mark to the youth in the church I of my internship, I liked pointing out how Jesus was welcomed in Gennesaret. Those same people who had begged Jesus to leave in chapter 5; they are now recognizing him. And why? Because the demon-possessed man that Jesus healed has been telling everyone in the Decapolis.
The youth loved seeing how the stories worked together. Even in all of Mark's "throw out a story here and there" I think that it is important to let congregations see the cause and effect of these passages. They never registered as related in my mind until I read them in seminary.
Well you have convinced me, I am going with the lectionary Ephesians passage.
ReplyDeleteYou know getting into the lake doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all. It is miserably hot outside. Found out from the church's trustee, the air conditioner is not working. Oh goodie.
I was already doing a sermon series on selected Psalms (can you tell I like alliteration?), and had planned Psalm 23 for this week. Lo, and behold, it's the alternate Psalm! And Sunday is the 23rd. It's all coming together. My topic: Seeking Comfort in the Familiar. I plan to open with a somewhat UNfamiliar hymn to be able to use it as an object lesson later. I also have some interesting rewrites of the 23rd Psalm that will probably make folks a little uncomfortable, too. This one is shaping up well, and it's only Tuesday. I'll probably completely change my focus by Saturday!
ReplyDeleteHmm...
ReplyDeleteI alluded to the 2 Sam passage just a couple of days ago. So, I won't play in those waters again. I like the idea of using the Ephesians passage for the immigration issue. And the Mark passage is how I feel...and how many of the congregation feels at this time of year. "Why won't they leave us alone?"
Maybe that is where I will go. Hmm.
A Lin - what a great observation. I haven't noticed that before!
ReplyDeleteStill not preaching (do I sound frustrated? I am!) but I will teach Bible study for four mornings the week after next. Only haven't been given the text yet ... still a lot of ideas mulling around.
in between reading that is (grin)