In the Workshop

A previous post listed a few items on the desk for Lectionary A.  Today, a couple more.

From the Disciple series (from Cokesbury), Jesus In The Gospels and Remember Who You Are (a study of the prophets and of Paul) form a really helpful small library.  A friend has used the Disciple study on Luke-Acts as the base for a Sunday School teaching experience for a long time;  everybody is happy with it.

Why these?  To preach means to be a life-time student.  Just out of seminary, I enthusiastically recommended a just-out book to the senior pastor where I served.  "No, thanks, I don't read new books now.  I'm solid."  Now, that is a real conversation stopper!  I admired many characteristics of the man, but that created a distance instantly.

In the same way, re-furbishing the old "sermons from the well" doesn't work.  When I hear a joke that is dated prior to 1980, I get something of the same feeling.  You know what you mean, and I know what you mean, but the VAST majority of the listeners tend to tune out, from that point forward.  The conversation becomes a monologue.

Leander Keck, who assembled Jesus in the Gospels has a long list of credentials, and is superb at stimulating the feeling that you are having a conversation with the author.  Take a look.

Tomorrow, I'll publish a sermon on The Lord's Prayer, a good way to move through the seasons, and to cover a fifth Sunday in October.

Blessings.

B

The Social Setting

How do you "set" the Good News.  Maybe in the old hymn-question:  "Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help us on to God?"  Well, yes, Advent does get into the "tough" stuff.  Why wasn't the OT enough?  Why did God need to send Jesus?  Why not just SAY the Word?  Why was Immanuel necessary, anyway?

Because the world, this world, our world, is exactly nothing less than sinful.  It is about the powerful overwhelming and "eating up" the poor.  It is about what Texans call "bidness" without ethics.  It is about the cultural view that the greatest sin is in getting caught.  Consider this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/business/16countrywide.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Anyone who can pay a penalty of that size is amazing, somehow.  And millions dream to be just like him.  And are disappointed if you point out that earning that much is impossible for all except a very few.

What kind of world needs to hear the News?  The challenge is to present the News as the GOOD NEWS, for it is.

This week, I've worked on background.  The original background? The Roman world is long gone, but if you re-read the experience of living in it, as portrayed in Revelation 17 and 18, that world rolls on.  I used to think pre-Civil-War plantation mansions were beautiful, until realizing how they got there.  One person consumed the entire life-energy of hundreds, to spend it all selfishly.  There's no way to "spin" that into a glorious conclusion.  I don't look at the mansions any more.  

Of course, not every one who profits is evil..... not at all........... but there is evil in systems that demolish people as if they were edible.  

Jesus said, "love your neighbor" and that is still magnificently good news everywhere it bears living fruit in this painful world.  It is GOOD NEWS today.

B

Getting Ready with Themes

The theme-package, maybe to be used, maybe not, begins with John 3:16 for Advent I. God initiates the whole thing, and loves the whole world. Not just our part of it, but ALL of it. Not just the part that uses OUR language for God, but God loves even those who don't make ANY effort to find him. And He specially loves those who really do. Even if they call him by the wrong name.

Advent is an adventure, it is finding that God's love is vastly superior to our customs that celebrate that love. And the biggest transition in history has been when people find God and make the big move: from the old "kill the unbeliever" to "persuade the unbeliever in love". You can touch any part of history or human nature from that vantage point.

Advent II, thematic, would be UMHymnal # 387, the full text of Charles Wesley's "Wrestling Jacob", probably ending with Albert Schweitzer's final paragraph from "Quest...": "he comes to us as one unknown..."

Advent III, along the same lines, would take another Wesley hymn-set, UMH # 594 and 595. Jesus is the Word, but finding the Word means much more than reading ink on paper; it also means prayerfully communing with the Holy Spirit who SPEAKS the living word to us. God insists on participating in the moment of hearing.

Advent IV takes Bethlehem as the location, your favorite hymn and text, and the simple blessing: "Bloom Where You Are Planted." Christmas is not a matter of getting the "wow" gift or taking the "wow" trip - - it is a matter of personal transformation which we come to when Emmanuel happens, when God is with us, when the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

Soon, I'll post other Advent patterns. I'll probably use one of them!

Blessings, B

Started Today

Ah, the decisions!

Today, I sketched out four sermons to "Advent" our way to Christmas, using the hymns of Charles Wesley, and a three-Psalm Advent 1 option. I'm playing with the idea of an interactive sermon using responsive reading of Psalm 1, Psalm 150, and one of the passionate response psalms of thanksgiving.

"We never did it that way before" but we might this time.

Also, the plan is to develop four hymn-based sermons, four Gospel sermons, four OT/Psalm sermons, and four Epistle sermons. That starts tomorrow, and will run through October. By November I really have to decide, I suppose.

Comments along the way? Appreciated!

Getting Started

There's a deep well, after doing this for 45 years, but the well is mostly a taken-apart listing, since every sermon is re-written for every new situation. And radically.

So, for this year, I stack the books. Christian Believer (by UMPublishing) is for theme-based theology, the reading guide that accompanies it for anecdotes and historical reference. Oxford Annotated Bible is the basic, a couple of newer translations, and King James for some of the magnificent poetic expressions.

Sounds pretty ordinary, but then preaching has to "seem" ordinary, even when there are subtleties. G. Ray Jordan, another generation's "preacher of note" used to say: "The giraffes can reach what they want, just make sure you feed the sheep. But, make sure, when you get it down there, make sure it is still fodder."

I'm doing Advent this month, and I'll post (or at least intend to post) four reflections per week, on the four lessons. For reference, I'll go to the Vanderbilt Library lectionary pages. Good art work and poetry there, as well.

If you're so motivated, a comment or response might shape the future of these small pages. Illustrations come from life, so there will be some, but you have better ones.

Thanks for looking in.

Bryan