WARNING: For those Christians (or others) who are offended by the word “suck” I am advising that you may wish to avoid reading any further so that you do not feel the need to write me a rant about my use of the word below.
Sermon writing last week got off to a slow start. In fact, I chose the lectionary passages we would use last Monday and then did not look at them again until Friday morning. I wrote the sermon on Saturday morning.
On Sunday morning I left early to finish the slides and the outline of the sermon manuscript. Our worship pastor walked in a few minutes after I had sat down at my desk and we talked briefly about worship for the morning. I told Matt that I was certain that the sermon for the morning was probaby one of the worst sermons I have evern written. He said, “I’m glad to see you’re feeling confident this morning.” I said, “I am quite confident – that this sermon is going to suck.”
Turns out it didn’t really suck. Lots of people told me afterward that the message had really challenged them. I focused some on the seasonal challenge of keeping Jesus in Christmas. Turns out people who had been busy for Thanksgiving and had already started shopping and are (much like my family) looking at a month with no free weekends really appreciated the gentle reminder that Christmas is a charade without Jesus.
At any rate, I really can’t take credit. I preached from Colossians 1.9-23. There is a terrific early church hymn stuck in the middle of that passage (Col. 1.15-20). The hymn is amazing.! The more I preach the more I am learning that the Bible is such excellent literature that it can most often speak quite clearly for itself (without much help from me). That’s really what happened yesterday and I am thankful for that.
On tap for this coming Sunday: Matthew 24.36-44. A gentle reminder that Advent is as much about preparation for the second coming of Jesus as it is his first coming . . .
