Good morning, preachers!!
It’s Week Two of the Gospel of John Great Bread Marathon, with manna in the wilderness as a back-up.
Or you have “one faith, one Lord, one baptism” in the epistle.
Or if you’re ready for an exploration of guilt, check out the way Nathan gets to David!
Or, what the heck, don’t be a lectionary preacher at all! Tell us what you’ll be talking about, and help us change the subject from Bread, Glorious Bread.
Hold on, I’m making toast. Be right back.
…
…
Okay, here we go. Cinnamon toast, surely what they meant by bread from heaven!
Well-provisioned, let us encourage each other and try not to fall too deeply into a carbohydrate coma along the way. Let us know in the comments what you’re up to today!
RevGalBlogPals 
Good morning everyone – there's not a skerrig of decent [or indecent] food in my flat, so I'm off to forage shortly at the wee cafe by the harbour. This morning it's a full Scottish fry-up breakfast, I suspect – can I tempt you to haggis, black pudding and square sausage? [no, it is nice, honest!!!] There will be lashings of tea and tons of toast, but not much manna. My attempt at bread over at the blog. Time to sort the prayers and all-age address.Have an inspirational day 🙂
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Hey there, Nik! I'm not sure we want to eat manna anyway. Wouldn't we prefer the fleshpots? ;-)I'm up, making coffee, looking at the notes I made before going on vacation, and hoping it comes together quickly this morning. It's a beautiful day, and I want to enjoy some of it after this rainy, rainy summer.
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Food glorious food…..I'm going to talk about junk food in my sermon…how it makes us feel good while we are eating it and satisfies our hunger it only lasts for so long…whereas if we eat healthier foods they are more sustaining and in the long run good for us.To inspire myself I'm going to try baking some bread today. If it turns out I'll be sure to share it with you all!
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Just finished, but it is 10pm here. Looking at Nathan and David, and mentioning Ephesians. Who do we allow to speak the truth into our lives. Do we only listen to people who agree with us and don't challenge us. And when are we called to be like Nathan and speak God's word into the commuity. When does the Church speak with a prophetic voice. and praying Psalm 51 together after sermon as the act of caonfession. Time for Camomile tea and bed!
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Mmm, bread! Hope it turns out, g_g!!Anonymous, that sounds like a great service. Sleep well!I started writing, but what's coming out is not what I had planned at all. We'll see where it goes.
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I have a busy day today including a baby shower this afternoon. I'm still on vacation, but that went out the window when my car came back to the driveway…I'm making muffins with apples and craisins and carrots in them, and will happily share when they come out of the oven. Coffee is brewed and there is enough for all.Praching? Um, well, David and Nathan is about as far as I have gotten. I like the idea of adding in the Eph. reading – thanks for the brainstorm Anon!
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i wandered far afield with the gospel… on how relationships nourish us… meeting the jesus in one another feeds us….mmmm… searching for the conclusion i left it somewhere…oh yeah never had one.time to drink heavily (coffee that is) and food? who needs it?! then i'll be in the attic sorting thru stuff… anybody need a spare christmas tree? old basin and pitcher? fall wreaths? it's like a giant garage sale up there!
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kp, those sound good, too!hot cup, no thank you on the attic treasures…Can I pour anyone a fresh cup of coffee?(I have 831 words. This is really early for me. Is it possible I'll have the afternoon free?)
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Good morning all. I'm not preaching tomorrow – – on vacation after a week at Synod School (family camp). Heading off to swim at my mom's hotel with the kids. Will check in later!
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I'll share some home-grown watermelon (no seeds).Sermon Title: The Wisdom of the Heart.Pulpit supply at a small (which ones are not) church. Initial glimmers of connecting our ability to "see and hear" in David's situation and "seeing and hearing" in the gospel.
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Nothing on "paper" yet, but the mental plan for the gospel is to consider the inner things we hunger for and ways we attempt to assuage that hunger. Will have bread baking during worship to help with the pavlovian response! Then, we'll look more closely at what we're doing when we gather around Christ's table.
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Inspired by Songbird's breakfast, I made my spouse a surprise of cinnamon toast, his favorite. A surprise indeed, because he had already made and eaten some, himself. Can there BE too much cinnamon toast?My day consists of searching for "that which must be found," so I hope not to be distracted over here too often. Blessings, y'all…
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I actually had a peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast, hoping the protein would inspire. So far, so good.
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Hey you cinnamon toast lovers, have you ever tried toastbutterpeanut butterbrown sugarcinnamon????Heavvvven. But I gave it up back in my WW days and, like a sober alcoholic, cant ever go back. Even one piece would have me eating the whole loaf. Ok, totally OFF TOPIC, but all this breakfast talk has my mouth watering 🙂 Nik, when I was student in Stirling for a semester what I actually loved best for breakfast was oatmeal. You Scots really do make the best in the world :)SO MUCH RICHNESS in the lectionary today, but we have communion AND a baptism, so it will have to be the world's shortest sermon. I'm focussing on the Epistle and the never-gets-old "we are called to love each other even when we dont like each other" message. Beer Summit comes to mind as an illustration, but that might be more of a rabbit hole than I can go down in the 5 minutes (literally) I'm allowing myself for the sermon.Sherev, have a great vacay day.Have a great day, all – I'm off and running but will check in when I can.
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Hello lovelies…A thoroughly wet & grey & ininspiring afternoon here. Have baptised 3 children (2 services) and feel about ready to drop right now,which is a bit sad given that there are 3 (count them…1,2,3) sermons needed for tomorrow. Numbers 1&2 can be standard & All Age versions of the same thing, and need to focus on bread & Eucharist (in the light of the current suspension of the common cup in the C of E due to swine flu)…number 3 is for Evensong and will focus on Paul at the Areopagus. And that's as far as I have got.Maybe I need a coffee…Can I make one for anyone else? Or liquorice tea is good for sermon writing, sometimes…
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we are doing the junk food vs. good food thing over here too. i'm not preaching this week, but I always love to come over here and try to find children's sermon inspiration. I'm thinking there might be snickers bars involved in that tomorrow. and, umm, apples or something. ha! I wonder if we'd ever have any children again if I had candy and fruit but kept the candy for myself and gave them fruit as a take-away?I'm doing the "You are the man!" story next week, as I wasn't willing to let it go and next week's texts didn't inspire me when we planned worship two months ago. I look forward to seeing what y'all do with those! So far all I know is that it will have to do with hard things we need to hear and the service will lead up to confession rather than having confession at the beginning. we'll see how that goes…
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You know those times your sermon bites you in the butt?This is one of those for me. Darn it.
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oh see SB… *rummaging in attic* there! here's a spare cushion from a long ago rocking chair you can borrow to soothe your sermon-bitten tooshie…a conclusion is still eluding me… but i napped. i walked the dog. now can of coke in hand… i'm armed for concluding.
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Muffins are ready (and only 2 pts each!)! I have the text on the page and not much else. Wonder if I can crank this out in 2 hours, or if I am dreaming.
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I'm trying to build a metaphoric reflection on the idea of comfort food as a sign of love and then develop that into what is real love…the ingredients include a bit from Nathan and David, a dash of the Gospel, and whole lot of Ephesians….the draft that managed to "kneed" itself out of me is here.
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Nik, I'd love to have tea in a cafe by the harbour – would be the heat of this dry desert!Juniper – I have had it! Delicious!!Now, to scrounge up something here…alas I think my cupboard is mostly bare….
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Anyone want a smoothie? I've got banana, mandarin orange and papaya with 0% fat greek yogurt fresh out of the blender. A little on the bland side but refreshing!
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ok, all you This American Life fans who are preaching the David reading this week, I call your attention to This American Life episode 354 "Mistakes were Made". In the intro, there is a good retelling of the David and Bathsheba story in the context of a "non-apology apology". It is just the first 6 minutes, and you can listen herefor free.Who me, procrastinate? Never!
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Thanks for the cushion, hot cup.I went out to the Farmer's Market, where I thought about it all some more. It's never an attractive comparison when you see yourself in the grumbling Israelites. Just sayin'.For now, I'm thinking lunch. How about a tomato sandwich?
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it's concluded! yippee… now the attic summons me again… lunch now or later? maybe later… sweet corn, bbq chicken, sun tea… *sigh* ah summer!happy writing to all!
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Oh Songbird – at least you noticed as you wrote. For me, it's far too often an experience of hearing myself talking and thinking"Duh…How did you miss THAT one?" which can rather unnerve me in the pulpit.I'm recyling the thing on bread I wrote for our Ordinary Time book, with a few adaptations to the day…I so bless the work we put in then (back in the day when there seemed to be time to be creative, at least sometimes…)Need to go food shopping shortly – any requests?
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I was *very* grateful for that work a few weeks ago, Kathryn. Very!
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SB and kathryn – any chance of doing another book??? I found the first 2 wonderful!
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OMG! I think I have a whole rough draft of a sermon done. and it's still early afternoon. wow, I can goof off tonight.I have some errands to run and when I'm done I'll look at the sermon to see if it truly preachable. I'm amaze becuase usually my first draft isn't done til 8:00 pm or so.
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Just sitting down….am half into my sermon which doesn't have a point but a great story about celebrating communion at the nursing home…hey, I had cinnamin toast for breakfast!!Sounds like everyone one is buzzing around–SB hope that cushion helped your tooshie, and G_G, how is that bread?
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I have a terrific bread sermon from this passage … of course, I preached it on the first communion Sunday here in 2005. The stories from that sermon keep coming back to me but I really think I need to preach about needing more than the immediate gratification of bread to sustain our souls. I guess kinda like WW "new" concept of filling foods.Or maybe like Blaise Pascal said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ."
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Vicar, I think you just gave me what I need.
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very rough draft of sermon is posted here. please feel free to comment.
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kp, the second book in particular was a major effort that really did not bring much of a return in terms of sales, and the board decided not to do any further books unless someone wanted to see if an actual publisher would be interested. Meanwhile we expanded to well over 300 blogs in the ring, so it might be hard to decide who would be published in a future volume. I wouldn't say it would never happen again, but someone in the ring would *really* need to feel called to it!
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Vicar…that's the direction I am going in, too. The quote, thank you. I might use that!
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SB, do you still have copies of the first ones?
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For the sake of clarity, I've heard and used the "God shaped vacuum" many times (and I'll probably use it this week, too) but further research shows that to be a paraphrase of this edited passage:"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. . . . And yet, after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look. . . . A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly convince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. . . . he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been serviceable in taking His place; . . . And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the whole course of nature." (Pensees 6.425)
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It looks like you can still buy Ordinary Time from Lulu. Doesn't look like the Advent book exists anymore. One of the problems we had with Lulu was copies of one of our books going out with our cover over some sort of Victorian erotica. (I kid you not.)
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Well, that's okay, Vicar. If I didn't say it my own way, I probably wouldn't be happy with the whole thing.
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sb – wow, I'm intrigued about the cover/book mismatch! And forgot that the ring was much smaller then. I'm not feeling called to do it, but am glad they exist!wow! I need to leave in a hour for the baby shower and have not showered yet myself. I'm on a writing roll, which is good! I have it baout 1/2 done, which for me on a saturday at this point is unheard of!I'll bring back cake and goodies.
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I'm just now, at 1:22 local time, sitting down to begin. I slept blessedly late (8:40), then Man Child came over and the three of us had pancakes together, then I went out to get supplies for the Great Bathroom Transformation of Ought-Nine. (Those of you who know me by my spacehook persona can look for pictures later today!)It's really just new paint, rug, towels, shower curtain, blinds, and window treatment. No major remodeling. But since that bathroom has been a variation on fluorescent green for three years, I was excited to change it to a more re-sale friendly scheme. Taupe, black and white it shall be by the end of the day!Doing part two of the David mini-series begun last week. Rough start so far!
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Well, my draft is done. Time to go to Trader Joes–anybody want anything? I love their white bean basil hummous, so I will definitely get that for a snack for later…
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Good afternoon (or whatever phase of day it happens to be for you) preachers! I'm starting to crave a nap after getting up early for Saturday VBS Part Three. Which went MUCH better than Part Two, blessedly.I'm going in the same homiletical direction many of you are going, about "filling our bellies" vs. being truly satisfied and sustained. Love the junk food/health food comparison–and the insight into which relationships nourish us. Which relationships are "junk food" relationships and which ones have the power to truly sustain us?I'm supposed to be at a parishioner's home for dinner tonight, so I may do some work and then grab a quick nap. We'll see…
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I'm handing out fresh blueberry pancakes. The Harpist has three friends over who are (still) watching the LOTR videos, and emerge occasionally to eat more food. This is their last hurrah together before they all head their separate ways to college…Today I am working a paper on the women of the 1800s who were preachers and evangelists IN SPITE OF THE FACT that women didn't "do" public preaching. Deal with it. They did.And I am enjoying this all the more because the woman I am studying is my 3xgreat grandmother Ellen Stewart. Evangelist. Preacher. Prophet. Healer.COOL.DebP.S. Hurry up and grab pancakes. The girls are an hour away from finishing and comign back to eat again… LOL
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Vicar – great Pascal quote. And, as ever, makes me go back to the other love of my life Augustine and his words:'our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you'Loving, as usual, the brilliant and diverse thoughts coming from all the grappling with the word going on in diff. time zones 🙂
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Hi all! I'm back after a few weeks off…And I am (gulp) going off-lectionary for the rest of the year! I sat down with my "boss" (well, temporally, in a way; my superior in the church hierarchy) to talk about re-awakening teh church here, as part of their decision to remain open. One of her suggestions, which I think is spot-on, is to go back to Christianity 101. So I'm off the lectionary, using what fits. My plan is to go through all the basics, a different topic each week–faith, grace, salvation, worship, the trinity, etc. This is the first week, so it's a sort of overview/preview. I'm using Ephesians 2 (Christ the cornerstone) and John 1 (in the beginning was the word). I'm excited about it, but having a hard getting going. I did manage to get myself organized for most of the fall, and my laundry from the trip done, so I've been productive, just not of a sermon.Hmmm. maybe some tea will help.
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Off lectionary for the rest of the year…now THAT's a challenge, RP!I finished writing my introduction and it's 554 words…almost half the sermon. But now it's time to prepare for dinner at parishioner's house, and hopefully finish sermon not long afterwards. I'll be back tonight!
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Great ideas all around. I'm applying Eph 4 to VBS. Yes, thanks to Feasting on the Word, I decided to play with equipping being more of an alignment. It does re-align (ha) my old thoughts on Ch. ED. I wrote some introductory thoughts at my blog and posted the whole sermon at the wordpress site I rarely use.I still have plenty to do but once the sermon is done it is a relief. Wish I had caught the trip to trader joes, revkj, i want some Greek yogurt since i missed Nik's scottish fry breakfast. ah well, the family wants hamburger helper (ugh) for supper so I'll have some good fish.
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distractions so far:laundry, playdate, dog walk, dishes, still trying to beat my brother at scrabble and still failing after 40 years you'd think I'd give upwords written so far: 0
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It's August, which means it's Associate Minister Preaching Intensive. I'm on for the next three Sundays, and having to remind myself that I used to do this twice a week.Fortunately, I have a fairly complete outline done, and am just filling in the blanks. I'm preaching about Nathan and David, the nature of truth, and how we hear and speak truth with love. Not an easy thing when our tendency is to avoid hearing truth about ourselves, and either get angry or look aside when we should speak truth to others.Kind of sad I missed out on the full Scottish breakfast, Nik. Scotland has been calling my name lately.
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