11th Hour Preacher Party: Mission Possible Edition



 "Your mission, should you choose to accept it ..."

Remember the classic TV show "Mission: Impossible"?  The team always took the impossible mission and somehow made it possible. 

Today's mission: SERMON COMPLETION

If we choose to accept this mission, here are the lectionary texts of the week: 
We are given the (so called) "Great Commission" by Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20 and there is so much about Jesus' expectation that seems impossible, or at least implausible. Even that first word "Go ..." seems uber-challenging at times.

So, what did God have in mind (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) when dream became urge became labor became creation?  What was possible for God to set in motion has become impossible for humans to sustain. Or has it? 

Psalm 8 affirms that human beings were created to be a little lower than God?  How low will we go?  Is it possible to find the place where we belong?

Paul's final word to the energetic and contentions Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 13:11-13) was to "put things in order." Is it indeed possible for the word of a preacher to inspire change?

Which of these texts hold possibilities for your sermon?  And ... Trinity Sunday or Great Commission? Or something else entirely?

Welcome to the 11th Hour Preacher Party where it is totally possible for your sermon-to-be to become sermon-ready-to-go!  Ask for help, work out whatever loose threads are hanging and share ideas for themes, illustrations, children's time, and anything else you have to offer of a liturgical or non-liturgical nature. Lurkers and non-preaching cheerleaders are urged to join in!

May snacks and humor abound! 

"Good luck, friends!"

Lectionary Leanings -- Creating the Three-in-One Edition

 We Pray:
God of delight,
you Wisdom sings your Word
at the crossroads where humanity and divinity meet.
Invite us into your joyful being
where you know and are known
in each beginning,
in all sustenance,
in every redemption,
that we may manifest your unity
in the diverse ministries you entrust to us,
truly reflecting your triune majesty
in the faith that acts,
in the hope that does not disappoint,
and in the love that endures. Amen.

I once read about a man who wasn't crazy about getting to church on Easter but never missed Trinity Sunday.  His reason?  He knew that the church folks could come up with an explanation for Easter.  But he always wanted to see if the preacher could explain the unexplainable Trinity.

The Lectionary texts for Trinity Sunday this year are here.  In year A we get the hymn of Creation (seriously, it is so hymnic--does anybody have it set to music?), a blessing from Paul to the folks in Corinth, and the Matthean Commission to baptize in the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost.

So how do you explain the unexplainable?   What do you do with Children?  Anybody copying St. Patrick and bringing in a shamrock?  Or are you from a lower Church tradition where you have more flexibility to ignore the Trinity Sunday designation?  How would you preach the Creation Hymn without getting into the Creation-Evolution/Faith-Science debate?  This site has some great icons to go with the Genesis reading.

Let us know in the comments where you are heading, or at least where you think you are heading, this early in the week.

Prayer from here
Stained Glass Window from here (the text with it is kind of different though)
Shield graphic is from here