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| Come and See |
As our week’s preparation begins (or continues), let us pray [prayer source]:
I have to admit that I found myself in a quandry this week. Not one but TWO of my favourite scripture passages in the same week! Which one to preach on???? Oh but first maybe we should point out that the RCL readings for this week (2nd After Epiphany, Year B) can be found here.
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| Psalm 139 from this great site |
SO we have God’s voice coming to a young child in the dead of the night–and a teacher who is a little slow to figure out what is happening.
OR we have the Psalmist proclaiming the God who knows him intimately. I have to wonder if this is blessing or curse though. If we are honest, aren’t there parts of our lives and selves we would sometimes wish NOBODY knew about?
OR, maybe you want to take on Paul and the Corinthian church. Is it about sexual ethics only or is there an extension to be made here?
OR, do you want to go with the Gospel. Is it a call/response story or an evangelism moment?
Where do you see worship taking you this week? Any ideas for a children’s time on any of the passages (I have to admit that a Children’s Time using the actual words of the Corinthians passage would be interesting to watch)? What are the questions that are driving your sermon forward this week? What hymns do you hear in your head? Any articles/blogs you have read that you want to share? Let us know in the comments.
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| The LATE JEsus Christ? |
oh good, the scheduled post posted this week
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I am with Samuel this week. Call…what the heck does the church mean by this? I'll share part of my call story as a second career pastor. We have one young boy who is pretty good at reading so I'm hoping to have a dialogue reading of the OT story.
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what I love about the OT reading as a story of call is that the call NECESSITATES the participation of the not-called. God doesn't give Samuel the whole story in a tete-a-tete, which he could well have done…Eli gets pulled in, and the second wonderful thing, to me, is that although he's a Complete Disaster as a priest, he knows exactly what to say to Samuel and he faithfully says it…hope for us all, I think.
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I found myself having to choose between Samuel and the Psalm. I chose the latter, including verses 6-12 and 23-24. It is in verses 6-12 that I find that shadow side of the grace of God's eternal immanence. "Where can I go to get away from you?!?!?"Still Psalm 139 has long influenced my prayer life (personal and corporate). And so all teh liturgy pieces for our bulletin this week were written with it open on the desk beside me. You can read them here
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I'm starting a series on engaging with the Bible as a spiritual practice — this week is the intro, and then we have youth Sunday, and then I'm doing four weeks, each focused on a different lectionary category and a different way of understanding the Bible — roadmap, songbook, conversation, and invitation. Most of my college students last semester, when asked what the Bible is, responded with "a book of life lessons," and I think my congregation would say much the same, so I'm hoping to do a bit of perspective broadening.Anyway, this week I am using both Eli and John – listening and seeing — and MLK as as example of what happens when we do listen and see.
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