Photo of mmopriests dog Ruby wondering why her "brother" thinks he's so special just because he can balance a ball on his nose...This parable in Luke is perhaps one of the best known or all texts. It is also controversial and confusing. Why would the father welcome back THAT son? And, for all intents and purposes IGNORE the other son, the one who has been good all these years?
It's a story all too familiar with anyone who has siblings...the, "Mom/Dad always loved you best" paradigm. Which was particularly hurtful if you were not the one best loved.
On the other hand....we want to think of God as One who does not have "favorites" in the same way our human parents/family/friends do. We want a God who loves all equally. And we can almost believe this...until we come to scripture readings like this. And then. Well. And then we have to wrestle with the text. Or let the text wrestle with us. Until we understand it at a deeper level...
What? you mean it may not really be about MY brother? It may be about the church that has gone astray from God's desire? A church that is more invested in its own money, resources, building, spending....than it is concerned about doing God's mission in the world?
Well. I am not preaching on Sunday. But I have preached on this text many times over the years. And I love find the layers of subtext within the text. Like all of Jesus' parables, this one is rich in depth.
So, where are you going with the reading? Are you focusing on the Gospel or are you drawn to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians? Or to the reading in Joshua? Or maybe the Psalm? What ever text is calling to you, share your thoughts here. Struggling? Share your concerns here. Post a draft and we'll read it and offer comments, if you like. We're here to help, support, and party on toward Sunday. Pull up a chair, would you like coffee or tea?
the Luke reading for me this week, and how the story seems wrong. the son who bought shame on the family is welcomed back, the son who has stayed doesn't recognise his place as son. God's grace reaches us all. Also mentioning the idea of the church being the father. Also a baptism.
ReplyDeleteThinking of having a PowerPoint with song and images for reflection time after the sermon - a reflective/slowish version of Amazing Grace. Or we could just sing Amazing Grace.
And i am rostered on for children's talk this week. I am using the story of the lost sheep available electronically from http://www.lostsheep.com.au/store.
happy preparation. for me it is time for a cuppa and bed.
This story is highly personal for me. I didn't realize until this week that my own kids could be the two sons. So I'm going to have to be careful not to bleed on my congregation.
ReplyDeleteI'm going with the father, how way out of character he behaves.
But first, off to the Salvation Army to make and serve lunch and then to Best Buy to get a new hard drive put into my laptop so I can stop using my netbook for everything.
Have just this minute read Barbara Brown Taylor's
ReplyDeletesermon on the prodigal.... She is, as ever, brilliant.
Good morning, Everyone! It's raining here in Chicago - which for me, is delightful! And I am still coming down from a two day high being with Diana Butler Bass...
ReplyDeletePatty - you have a lot going on! I do like the powerpoint idea...
Margaret - prayers for you as you prepare this sermon. May your own family inform what you say but not be what you say...
Nik - yes, BBT does a good job with the text, as usual.
Me. I have a reflection to write for Tuesday. I'll be on interview and will offer Evening prayer with a reflection as part of the process for a potential new call. Prayers welcome!
Good morning preachers! I am preaching the Gospel: balancing the loving father of the parable with scriptural images of God the loving mother. Bonus illustration: the church has a picture of Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal, where--as Henri Nouwen points out--the father has a strong masculine hand and a graceful feminine hand. Also emphasizing that God, like all loving parents (friends, partners, etc) welcomes the honest expression of pain and anger like the older son's in our own prayer....Because as an abuse survivor I find the frequent shaming of the son for his feelings in preaching deeply painful. And as a spiritual director I worry about the way it discourages people from lament, a powerful and neglected form of prayer, and thus short circuits a healthy and honest relationship with God.
ReplyDeleteDaughter Ladybug and I made banana nut bread with low sugar and white whole wheat flour and there's plenty to share.
Prayers for sure, Mompriest! Did they give you a text or can you choose?
ReplyDeleteSophia, I've used that illustration in a sermon on this text - and shared a similar perspective...it's powerful. I can't remember for certain but it may also be the same sermon where I used an image from Picasso?...I hope the preaching goes well for you tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteNo they did not give me a text. I am using the readings from the daily office...and as it so happens it is Paul's Letter to the Corinthians discussing the Eucharist and the body of Christ.and Jesus feeding the 5000 in Mark...Coincidence?....
ReplyDeleteNot a coincidence at all, I think!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about the Picasso if you can remember it....Art is always such a great way to teach and preach scripture stories.
I am new in this small town, insular church and am preaching the epistle. Seeing others through God's eyes and being ambassadors in whom others can see God.
ReplyDeleteNow, if I can just get Steven Curtis Chapman "for who he really is" out of my head, I can progress on the sermon...
Good Morning, I have fairtrade coffee from trader joes... but haven't made anything else.
ReplyDeleteI love these ideas for Luke. Makes we wonder about my choice of 2 Corinthians but it's the highlighted text on our bulletin cover.
So I'm dialoguing with the congregation from the center aisle. I begin with easy questions in the hope of getting them to respond and move to preaching a bit between questions. It could be a small group with the heavy rain and DST. I am not sure if I'm taking an easy way out or making things harder. We shall see how the "ministry of reconciliation" flies tomorrow.
Meanwhile, can I just say I HATE Daylight Savings Time?
Good morning preachers and friends,
ReplyDeleteI love the many layers of the prodigal text, and especially Nouwen's take on it and the painting. Alas, I am not preaching today (I usually preach on Saturdays). I took the weekend off so I could pick up my husband from the airport after his 8 days in Argentina. We were going to have a great family night out with bowling and dinner. BUT he missed the last flight of his journey and so now I am feeling at loose ends. Plenty to do here, but not what I wanted to be doing. Need to rally and get my poor girls excited about something so we can all have some fun today anyway. Sigh. Blessings to all as you prepare.
Thanks for the link to BBT's sermon, Nik. As usual it's masterful.
ReplyDeleteSo I've been thinking--when we hear the word "prodigal" do we really understand what it means? I think for many it's become a synonym for "returning home" or for "one who leaves home and returns"--in fact I just read a sermon on line with that understanding of the term as its basis. But in fact, prodigal means one who is extravagant, reckless, or perhaps wasteful. Maybe in this parable it's the father who is actually prodigal. As BBT so wonderfully pointed out, the father not only is "prodigal" with his resources--giving his son his inheritance, then throwing a huge banquet later--but also with his honor--freely abandoning it to be reconciled with his sons--both of them.
Just my random thoughts at the moment, and not sure they will make their way into my sermon--we'll see.
I also hate DST. But I did manage to get 9 hours of sleep last night so maybe that will help.
It's a rainy gloomy day here...the power has been off once already--hope that is not going to be a pattern for today!
Welcome Althea and Nancy...you each have some serious tasks before you - I hope the rain does not keep folks from church, your ideas sound great, Nancy...and I hope althea that the small insularness of the community can learn how to break open just a bit..and then over time maybe more.
ReplyDeleteSophia, I think I used Guernica from Picasso, which is why I am not sure I used it with this text...
Mumpastor - so hard to switch directions and recreate a fun idea when the best laid plans have to abandoned...sigh...
ReplyDeleteRevDrMom - that is a good direction, the prodigalness of the text...I think I once preached on how each person in the text, even the missing women who probably went out of their way to cook a feast, brought forth a kind of prodigalness
Oh, Mumpastor, so sorry to hear that....Hope you can find a way to enjoy the day and that he gets home safely and soon.
ReplyDeleteClipping along with intro on Laetare and Mothering Sunday, the three lost and found parables in Luke 15, and the Rembrandt picture. Including this lovely quote from Nouwen which I was happy to find on the web, since I don't own the book:
"As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is , indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present. That gentle and caressing right hand echoes for me the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the chile she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."
(More at http://www.bridges-across.org/ba/nouwen.htm if anyone is interested).
Now I have to transition to Mary--whom the Anglo-Catholic rector insisted I include for Mothering Sunday(!)--and the point I want to make about the father accepting the older son's feelings and God accepting ours. I think I can connect them by pointing out that Mary and Jesus didn't have the perfect Hallmark relationship, they had some real conflict at times, but were able to work through it and reconnect--the mark of a healthy and loving relationship.
Soph, welcome to Anglo-Catholicism that is more Roman than Rome!
ReplyDeleteI am doing something on the meaning of Prodigal too. It comes from the root that we get the word Prodigious from.
I want to use the word LOST and tap into the feelings of lostness that everyone gets into when they are on the journey of faith. I want to touch a bit on what happens when a community of faith gets lost and perhaps a town, state, Church or nation gets lost in its prodigiousness.
Oh Sophia...that is a lot to blend...sigh.
ReplyDeleteMuthah - welcome! Will be curious to see how you develop this interesting take on the readings.
My little homily for the evening prayer reflection is in draft form..a covenant of thanksgiving I'd love some feedback if you have time...since I don't preach often anymore and this is a biggy...
You're so right, Muthah! Though the Anglo-Catholic part has upsides too. He is comfortable and experienced with sacramental confession, which makes this Catholic girl happy. And the apparently the adoration of the cross is going to happen on Good Friday, which I have never seen at a TEC place--and I get to do the related Gregorian chant, as well as the Exsultet the next day (all in English, of course!).
ReplyDeleteSophia, I first experienced veneration of the cross on Good Friday in the chapel of my (Episcopal) seminary. I've experienced it since then in a couple of different TEC parishes...some do it more elaborately than others, but it seems to be something that is spreading as more and more parishes really live into full observance of the Triduum.
ReplyDeleteI have lovely rose vestments to wear tomorrow--interesting, in that my parish is not particularly Anglo-Catholic. Not sure the themes of Mothering Sunday/Refreshment Sunday will get into the sermon, but I'll talk about them at announcement time so people will know why I'm not wearing purple!
That's cool, RevDrMom. It does take time for the good stuff "on the books" to make its way into practice--so how great of your sem to expose you all to it and thus help it spread to the parishes you serve. The spread of Taize may help with that also--many TEC and mainline churches I have been to have the option of lighting a candle before the cross in that context which some people find more comfortable than touching or kissing it.
ReplyDeleteMy least favorite Good Friday service, which I was able to ditch as I wasn't singing in the choir that year, was a "seven last words" that didn't even have the usual communion from the Reserved Sacrament--just bible readings and songs and seven, count them, sermons! I could do that if the preaching lineup were something like Hildegard, John Donne, Florence Li-Tim Oi, Desmond Tutu, etc....but that's the only way!
Any ideas for children's story for The Prodigal?????
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I'll be a visiting preacher and the passage I am preaching on Jesus walking on water from Matthew.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's appropriate, I always wonder if it will connect with where they are at.
I'm re-purposing a sermon on the Prodigal, on the theme that the emphasis is really on the loving parent who is prodigal in showing love. My more recent sermons are a lot less explain-y than my older ones were, and I'm having an interesting meeting with a younger version of myself as I look at the material. But I remember it being a well-liked sermon in a previous congregation, so I guess it's okay to follow in John Wesley's footsteps. And frankly, I feel the same way about the Prodigal I did last time: grateful to be loved so completely by God, no matter where I am on the spectrum of relationship, from obedient to rebellious, from happy to sad, from appreciative to resentful. That's very good news.
ReplyDeleteSomeone, maybe Richard Ward from Ilif called it the "Forgiving Father" since the story is really more about the Father than the son.
ReplyDeleteDraft complete! Phew. I will need to polish it, and maybe cut some to keep it to the 8 to 10 minute length I have been given. (The rector doesn't limit himself to that, but thinks he does! So since I am very grateful for the chance to preach, and hope it will come again, I will follow directions to the letter).
ReplyDeleteComments welcome here. NB: I use God/dess on blog as my little Christian feminist manifesto--but the preached version, needless to say, will just say God with neutral pronouns!
Time for a break to take my son out for our weekly "date," then get my haircut so I don't look shaggy in the pulpit!
Prayers for those still writing.
There are several children's books that could work with this Gospel. Mama Do You Love Me? and Love you Forever come to mind.
AS this is the Sunday closest to St Pat's I am thinking of telling the story of ST. Patrick for Children's Time
ReplyDeleteSermon will start with a Robert Fulghum story about playing hide and seek and then move into discussion of being lost intentionally but that the seeker won't give up....
I preached on jesus walking on water a couple of week ago but from John and was hoping to just to a quick modify and get on with it. But the Peter element of Matthew is throwing up questions, which I haven't address/thought of previously even when preaching on Peter.
ReplyDelete1. Peter was in the water becuase he asked to be, not because Jesus wanted him to be.
2. What would have happened if all the discples got out of the boat?
3. Jesus questions doubt not fear, but what particular part of doubt, Jesus, Peter, nature?
Anyway, I think this may take a bit longer than previously though.
Kettles on taking orders for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, bonox etc
Well, I'm not on lectionary so I just came for the party! Laundry is in various states of transition so I am obviously in full procrastination mode. We'll see when I settle in enough to make progress on the already begun but not finished sermon.
ReplyDeleteI've finished with the laundry procrastination and won't let myself move on to the brownie making procrastination until I get at least half a sermon down on paper.
ReplyDeleteGoing with prodigal story and doing a first person monologue from the perspective of the father, who loves both sons and welcomes them both home.
In terms of children's sermons, how about the book The Runaway Bunny.
Off lectionary for Lent, although I do like the Luke text.
ReplyDeleteI am in Mark, with Jesus asleep in the boat. Yesterday, during time with my spiritual director, it dawned on me, Jesus screwed up...he woke up too soon...that there is validity in staying in the storm. The church during Mark's time was under great stress of Roman occupation and how perhaps, this parable, was used to signify for the church to stay the course...get to the other side...and continue to preach Jesus' message.
Finally the sun is out...yeah!!!
Hello friends,
ReplyDeleteStopping to peek in at the preacher party. Feeling lost and lonely today and missing preparing a sermon...still wondering what the future holds for me...been a year since I've been a pastor.
I did read the BBT sermon, however, and I am going to continue posting my little Lent series on my blog.
I do have caramel apple salad to share. Made it for a small group later. And I also have a Bible Study to prepare for. Sigh....I think the days of clouds and fog are getting to me!
Praying for preachers today.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThinking of you, prayers for you. The inbetween and wondering is a hard place sometimes. Lots of hugs.
ReplyDeleteI did more re-writing than I planned on originally, but I am happy with the result, which is posted here: Lost and Found.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make pizza, anybody hungry?
My knitting time is limited as the kids should be waking up from naps soon, so I have caught up the reading yet. I will later tonight.
ReplyDeleteI'm off lectionary and doing the OTHER big Luke parable - - Good Samaritan. Not sure what I'm doing with it other than my theme is compassion, and I'm showing the Charter for Compassion video.
Uh oh. One kid just woke up. Must knit. Will be back later!
She Rev: yeah for using the Charter of Compassion video.
ReplyDeleteThe guest preacher we had for this week is injured and can't come, so I wrote a sermon for tomorrow...but...
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to go with a more conversational approach--or, rather, I'm going to have two places within my sermon where I invite conversation. I've never done that before, so we'll see how it works.
Because of that AND because I'm running a little experiment, I'm not posting my sermon until late late late tonight. It's on 2 Corinthians 5, is all about reconciliation, and I'm hopeful it will tie up the theme we've been exploring for four weeks. I'm also hopeful that it won't completely suck....I had one hour to put it on paper. Good thing I've been thinking about this theme for months....
I'm off to a church dinner party. If I can sneak some dessert out, I'll bring it back for you late night folk!
No sermon for me tomorrow. Seminary student is preaching. And, here is the really bad part. I have had some stomach crudy virus all weekend, so I have not been able to have fun at all.
ReplyDeleteI have mde plans to not be at church tomorrow, but may feel better and can go hear student preach.
We will see. Right now my tummy is still making odd noises and usually followed by a dash to the bathroom.
Sorry. TMI?
So, I am now on sofa watching ACC tournament. Thinking going back to bed will be good. Not the way I wanted to loose those extra pounds.
Good luck with preaching. I did a nice little skit with the Prodigal Son, but did not finish it before I got sick. Maybe another year?
I finished my sock! I love it! now all I want to do is start the match for it. Not good.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's ironic or merely coincidental that I'm having trouble working on a sermon with "eyes" as the theme because my vision is blurry.
ReplyDeleteOh, 1-4, sorry you are feeling icky--get well soon.
ReplyDeleteMy hair is cut and so are a couple of minutes of extra sermon so I think I am in good shape. Thank goodness for the party!
Steamed veggies with cheese to share here, and nutella sandwiches for dessert.
Virtual hugs to everyone soldiering on.
Lovely Amish-canned peaches for dessert here!
ReplyDeleteI have dodged the sermon bullet, but just got done with our Prayers of the Church, where I've tried to incorporate the themes of release from both shame and resentment and reconiliation with God and with others into the petitions.
I've been gone for most of the afternoon - a variety of errands to prepare for my trip out of town...sigh...
ReplyDeleteLooks like the party has continued in good stead, though. Prayers for those who are feeling under the weather, from viruses or otherwise. I'll be around in a bit to read the sermon drafts...but first, dinner.
I"m not as happy with the final sermon as I was when I thought I had it done last night. It's conversational (go for it Teri, the people will like it when they get used to it) so I'm hoping I can adjust as needed.
ReplyDeleteNow to spend the last few hours with my daughter who is recovering from the infection that kept here in town 2x as long as expected.
Mompriest, prayers for you!
ReplyDeletePrayers for all who have requested them.
Sermon's up...
http://magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-brother-myself-sermon-on-luke-151-3.html
Hello everyone...glad to see so many who are finishing up. I am just getting going here after a day away at a hunger gathering (I was one of the workshop presenters in the afternoon).
ReplyDeleteSomething LutheranChik said on Tuesday really sparked some ideas for me about honor and shame, so now I'm pondering that. Still sticking with the blanket theme, and this week the blanket can become the robe that signifies honor and acceptance back into the family.
So much to say about this text, which is why it's hard to get it down and not try to say it all! Could be a long night. Hope not.
First: Gord, THANK YOU! I'm not preaching tomorrow, but I am doing my first children's message in my internship church, and St. Patrick's story works so well as an echo of the Gospel lesson! He really was a bit like the Runaway Bunny...
ReplyDeleteSecond: I'm asking for prayers for my brother, who just called from across the country to say, basically, that his beloved wife has just gone all prodigal. Please pray for him, his family, and their circle of kith and kin. Thank you!
Ahhh...the last sermon before vacation and daylight savings time Do. Not. Mix. I already have no motivation which means I'll have a SLOW writing process. Now they're taking an hour of my night away. Who are "they" anyway and why do "they" think messing with the clock is a good idea?
ReplyDeleteSo, kids are in bed. Sock #1 is done. Sock #2 has been cast on. It's in the other room so hopefully I can ignore it the rest of the night. I'm eating a BIG bowl of ice cream, and then I need to get an outline going. It's time.
Thanks Gord - that will work!
ReplyDelete1-4 grace - oh noes!!! Feel better soon!
Just for the record:
ReplyDeleteYou can NOT save daylight!!!!
ANd I am so glad to live in a place where we are more sensible than to pretend that you can. (Although that will change in a few months -- more info to follow)
Hello preachers! I am sitting down to prepare my prayer for tomorrow and thought I'd pop in. I'm not preaching tomorrow (dh is up), but I did preach a funeral today. We had 4 people who were going to offer some remembrances of the deceased, including a family member. I told each of them they had roughly 3 minutes to speak. I knew that no one would really abide by that. But I thought if I said 3-5 minutes, they would take more like 7-10, and if I just said 3 it might be closer to 5. It was, for 3 of the people. But one person spoke for *17 minutes*!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to share that with people who could empathize.
Man, I feel worn out from the whole funeral business and can't believe it's Saturday night instead of Sunday night. And that we get an hour less sleep. Bah!
Happy preaching, y'all!
17 minutes!!!!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow. Do you do your remembrances before or after a sermon/homily? I just imagine myself sitting in my seat listening to Mr or Mrs 17 minutes while scratching out most of my sermon!
Been there Earthchick! Had one where we sstarted at 1:30, and by the time the eulogies finished it was 2:30 (and all that was before them was some scripture sentences, words of welcome, opening prayer and a hymn). Of course it didn't help that two of the speakers were politicians!
ReplyDeleteShe Rev, I feel your pain at being ripped away from Sock #2!
ReplyDeleteIs it not serendipitous that I would have just purchased the Social-Science Commentary on the synoptics? Which is all about honor and shame in Middle Eastern society? SWEET.
Now...if I could only just find a way in...
SheRev,
ReplyDeleteI always put eulogies early in the service. For 2 reasons:
1) as some memories are spoken of then others are brought to mind in the hearers and so they can hold those memories for the rest of the service
2) it allows the person(s) giving the eulogy to get it over with and done and be more present for the rest of the service.
I just remembered...my mom had a DREAM about the Prodigal Son story a month ago that was HILARIOUS! So that's become my way in. Whew.
ReplyDeleteI am so tired my eyes hurt...long day...
ReplyDeleteI always have the eulogies first thing in the service... before the opening prayers and scripture...first thing - and keep their thoughts to five minutes of less. Then the service begins and I offer a homily relevant in length to the service itself.
also...prayers for all preaching tomorrow. and thanks for those who stopped by and gave me feedback and hope!
Night all...last one up, get the lights?
Gord,
ReplyDeleteSadly it was our former president who stated that we were changing Daylight Savings time in order to give farmers more time to grow their crops.
Serioulsy!
She Rev, we do them before, towards the very beginning. That way we can move from simply remembrance to words of hope and resurrection. I obviously offer words of remembrance during my homily as well, it's just that I have a different focus than those who are simply eulogizing.
ReplyDeleteI knew that this guy (the elderly brother of the deceased) was not going to stick to the time limit I gave him (his response to me when I told him: "Not a chance!"), but I had no idea he would actually talk longer than *I* would! Thankfully, he spoke mostly about their childhood, and I didn't have to scratch anything out.
I do them early, too, Gord for those same reasons, and others.
ReplyDeleteTheologically, liturgically - I like the reassurance of the word of faith, the Word of God, to be the final word to the memories.
Practically - when the "unknown" is up front in the service, I have time to adjust my "known" on the backside. This could be new memories, impressions of the person I hadn't yet heard (a LOT of my funerals are for people I don't know well so I'm always still digging for info from family and friends even up to the last minute) or, like earthchick had, time issues to contend with!
Been working for a while now and have about 400 words on the page. I'm looking for about 1500 this time since I have the Charter for Compassion video to show. I decided to work VERY backward and try to write my set-up for that first, so I know how I will get into it, then go back to fill in my mostly vague sermon idea. In planning that set-up I have found Karen Armstrong's "acceptance speech" for the award that led to this charter. I'd MUCH rather just play her speech than write my own sermon! I am LOVING what I am hearing, and find myself gathering quote after quote after quote. Not good, but really, would MUCH rather just play her 21 minute talk than anything I might write tonight.
Oh well. I'll keep plugging away. Almost ready to go back to the start and write this thing. It's all happening very out of order.
I think I'm going to work for 40 more minutes and then head to bed at 11:00 p.m./midnight with the time change. Then I can wake up at my usual 4:00-4:30ish and pull the rest of this together.
I think.
Sermon is done & printing. Prayers are also printing. I need to change the rest of the clocks in the house now. (I changed the bedroom about 6 pm just to be sure I remembered.)
ReplyDeleteI also need to throw some stuff in a bag for an overnight trip. Which also means I need to update the GPS with appropriate caches :)
Since that is on the computer I'll be around for a little bit
I'm back to do some editing (I'm still a little nervous about the whole congregational-participation sermon) but not too much...after a FAB.U.LOUS dinner party I'm way tired, and the stupid clock changing thing isn't helping. I did bring back cannolli (is that how you spell it?) and little chocolate cups filled with chocolate mousse....enjoy!
ReplyDeletehave a great sunday, all...
Ugh. 364 words. Somehow I thought I had quite a few more than that.
ReplyDeleteBig ugh, semfem. I'm pulling for you. I've got several different pieces going here (a "way in", the set up to the video that turned into the middle piece, so then the REAL set up to the video, a portion that deals with the actual text...) that I just PRAY actually fit together. I'm going to try to back out of it a little to see how they will all fit then hit the hay. I got distracted with a FB chat. Turned that part of the internet OFF now!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to bed now. Hope your sermons come together without too much struggle.
ReplyDeleteblessings on your Sunday
So, I didn't make my deadline to be in bed by the "new" midnight. Oh well. I do have more than enough here for my sermon even if it is all in no particular order. Hmpf.
ReplyDeleteI think, though, that I will hit "save" and go to bed and do the reorganizing in the morning. I think there's enough to do that.
(LAST SERMON 'TIL VACATION!!!!)
OK. Still not in bed. It ended up seeming easier to just finish the thing than try to reorganize in the morning. I think I'm about done.
ReplyDeleteChildren's time. Hmmmmm.... it's my day.
Done - going to catch my 4 quick hours of sleep. Totally winging children's time with a St. Patrick's sort of theme. The guy was stolen into slavery and later went back to ministry in the place where he was a slave - - connecting that to my theme of compassion like the Samaritan who reached out to his cultural/religious/ethnic enemy. Sort of a stretch, but it's what I've got.
ReplyDeletePeace!
Fell asleep in the recliner with 612 words. Off to try and finish this thing and maaaaaaaybe grab a little bit more sleep.
ReplyDeleteGlad everyone else is finished!
1440 words and I have a completed sermon, but it's about 400 words too long! Ack!
ReplyDelete1357 words, and I'm done just in the nick of time!
ReplyDeleteBlessings on all pondering, preaching, and proclamation today, and may we all have lovely naps this afternoon.
Teri - I live so close, wish I were coming to hear your sermon this morning! But instead I am going to help my friend, M2. She is preaching and has a search committee visiting, I'll help her with the girls!
ReplyDeleteIn my house we all had a restless night last night. Hope others rested well.