Dear friends,
Here in the frozen Snow Belt, many churches cancelled worship last Sunday. (Or as one clever elder put it when I called to take a survey of the Session's opinion on this, we merely postponed it a week.)
As misfortune would have it, we were set to begin week one of a series last Sunday, so I will be scrambling this week to figure out how to fit 2 weeks' worth of gospel into a service that will already contain communion. Oy.
The Revised Common Lectionary can be found here. (I love the series of photographs that the Vanderbilt site includes with the lection.) I am surprised to see the T-Fig story revisited this week. How many of you will preach that one?
What else are you contemplating this week. Is anybody else preaching a 2-fer like I am?
I will be doing a 2-fer at some point during Lent to make up for missing last Sunday. I don't think it will be this week, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing an all ages Communion service and working on a message about believing the mother hen versus believing the fox, also tying in Psalm 27 somehow. It sounded good when I was thinking it through earlier, but now I can't seem to get a hold of it.
ReplyDeleteI have a group of kids doing the Communion liturgy with me, so I need to write one.
The Episcopal Church is not using the same lectionary...this week we have Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 (God speaking to Abram in a vision, your decendents will be as many as the stars and I will give them all the land between the river in Egypt and the Euphrates). PSalm 27: 10-18, Harken to my voice, O Lord, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. Phil. 3:17-4;1; and the Gospel is Luke 13: 22-35 "Lord, will only a few be saved." He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door;..."
ReplyDeleteI think I'm preaching on the Psalm, since we are also singing the Taize version, O, Lord hear my prayer, O Lord, hear my prayer. When I call answer me...
Not wanting to waste a powerful sermon, I'm recycling this week. We'll just change the date and somehow work Lent 2 into Lent 3, next week.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I still have to create an order of worship for Lent 2, since I'm leading worship for Landlord Church.
There are some gleams of light vis a vis the congregation...either the end of the tunnel or an oncoming express...
The T-fig option in the RCL most likely reflects the fact that the Roman Catholic lectionary places it on the second Sunday of Lent, contining with the last Ordinary/Epiphany Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI am having house mass this Saturday night-- may be just the family, but this reminds me to get the email invites out and take a more serious look at the readings, including the Transfiguration, which I have never preached. Katie was baptized on Transfiguration Sunday by a UCC friend, at a Lutheran church, in a creative feminist liturgy authored by yours truly--and I was ordained on Aug. 6, the RC feast of the Transfiguration. So it will be interesting to engage the readings from the Lenten perspective in combination with those deep touchstones.
Nice imagery SB! Title: The Fox and the Hen, maybe?
ReplyDeletei have been thinking on this passage for a while.
Last weekend I journeyd with 7 of our youth to the Atlanta Soup Kitchen. We got up early, prepared food, and served a large number of ATL homeless.
Food is doanted from area restaurants and part of the prepartion includes getting bread on all tables. We spent tiem literaly "breaking bread" sticks dotnated by pizza francise.
Anyhow, I was touched by the many adult workers and their commitment. By the volunteers who got up early to volunteer tiem to cut the hair of men who came in for food and the many who took tiem to sort clothign and assist folsk in finding proper clothing.
Most impressed with te kids who were not afraid, shy, or indifferent to the guests. They were polite, compassioante and helpful to each person who came in.
Jesus calls us to a job of discipleship, it is a tough job, not an easy road. In the text, it is obivous that oppositon is rising from a cunning, powerful fox. Doesn't seem much of a match for a hen.
Yet we follow the hen, a mother hen who loves her brood, a hen who calls us o show that same compassion and love to others.
This kind of lvoe, compassion and care is a strong match afterall.
Yes, that is the title!
ReplyDeleteWe are doing Celebrate the Gifts of Women here, and therefore are leaving the lectionary behind for a week. I'm doing Mary and Martha, and tying it in with our theme of abundance--Martha had an abundance of what she (and the culture?) thought she ought to do/have, but Mary spent her time being filled with God's abundance. Only after having been filled to overflowing with God's abundant can we effectively go out and serve. Somehow that will tie in with communion too (not a stretch). all I need is a sermon title...
ReplyDeleteWell, I have tried to do 2fers before and they just don't work for me.
ReplyDeleteI am doing part 2 of our series, this time on the crippled woman healed by Jesus.
Nice mission trip and work 1-4 grace.
I'm procrastinating on sermon research by blogging on my other, neglected blog. It's here, if you would like to hop on the P-train...
ReplyDeleteWe didn't cancel and we were a remnant of the "many are called but few are frozen" type. But it does make it easier to keep plans on a one week level.
ReplyDeleteOf course we are due to get dumped with snow again on Wed/Thurs so i don't know what that might mean for our Wed dramas just yet.
As it is in the 40's and only drizzling in the PacNW, we met, we sang, we prayed, and we were sent forth on Sunday. So this week it's the usual 2C for us! Although I must admit that I would like to go back and use last week's texts. These leave me a bit lukewarm.
ReplyDeleteI'm preaching Part III about the fear of God and what that means. I put a few thots from Part I on my blog--maybe should put a few from part II...this third and last part is the practical stuff. Feeling discombobulated after no church on Sunday. All day I thot it was Monday.
ReplyDeleteI really feel bad for those still in the frozen zones. It was in high 70s here.
ReplyDeleteOwl, I hate it when my dates get mixed up like that!
Terii- for title it woudl be cool to do some word play with abundance/abundantly...
But, my head is not in creative mood tonight. Got termites at church and just discovered them at home. Not what was God thinking when those little buggers got created?
Sounds like we have some creative minds and spirits at work here!
ReplyDeleteI love it!
We are celebrating the gifts of women by actually having a woman (my intern) preach. I couldn't be more thrilled. :-)
ReplyDelete1-4Grace, you live in the termite zone. One of the churches I served in Columbus had termites, costly little things I say. When we were selling our house, they thought we might have them, but when they inspected it, they decided not. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHOpe you all are starting to thawout up north. Can't imagine iteither.