Between a rock and a hard place
“Between a rock and a hard place”

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man
and drink his blood,
you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)

This has been called the original “hard saying of Jesus.”   F. F. Bruce declared that to be so, anyway, and he wrote the book actually entitled The Hard Sayings of Jesus.  According to Bruce: “The implication is that [the disciples] not only found it difficult to understand, but suspected that, if they did understand it, they would find it unacceptable.”

How are you doing with this one, preachers?
Or are you going with 1 Kings or Joshua or Ephesians . . . or . . . ???
Because I am finishing my current interim ministry at the end of September, I’m all “out there” for a possible next placement.  There is some interest from “a place” (another interim), and they want a DVD of a sermon.  And so it will be this sermon.  No pressure or anything!
There have also been hard sayings all over the news this week.  Really hard sayings.  Shall we go there?  Will you open up and unpack any of that in your sermon this week?
Let’s keep the coffee and conversation flowing freely!  Anyone have bread-like wonders to share?  Fresh produce?  Other gifts of the flesh or spirit?
Welcome to the party, preachers and friends of preachers and not-this-week preachers!  So glad you are here!

138 thoughts on “11th Hour Preacher Party: Hard Sayings All Week Long Edition”

  1. I'm here -mid-afternoon in Beijing and while I might be tempted by a mid-afternoon sandwich, there's not really any easily accessible (or easily bakeable) gluten-free bread for my coeliac digestion… Not sure what the bread of life means in that context! So I'm talking about the scandal of the Gospel – yet we are here: abiding/dwelling. Making a bit of a reference to 1 Kings and Psalm and "to whom shall we go?". As you can tell, it's still too many dot points and squiggly arrows but I'm hoping it will become preachable as the afternoon progresses!I remember administering the chalice in a quiet church to a member's grandson. His indignant shriek of "blood! Nana, did that lady say blood?" always comes back to me when we get to these Johannine passages and the offense of this teaching.

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  2. Oh my, Jemma, I'm gluten free too! I don't like much of the ready-made GF bread, and it's pricey. I usually just go without bread, but this week — thinking so much about bread! — I baked this recipe and it turned out great! It was fairly simple once the GF flour mix was made. And then I had a tuna sandwich with fresh tomatoes. What a treat! Let us know how it's going as your sermon takes shape!

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  3. Thanks Sharon. The kind of ingredients needed for gluten-free bread can be very difficult to find here, but there are lots of other amazing, naturally gluten-free things to eat! But bread is hard to avoid given this series of texts from John. Persisting with the dwelling/abiding themes, and it's slowly taking shape. Home and place are such potent ideas in an expat community. Stopping for some dinner now, hope feeding the flesh will help the spirit along!

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  4. Supply gig this week and I'm up and at 'em with some nice iced toddy coffee (the cold coffee maker thingie was my birthday gift from my wife 🙂 Anyone want some? Or perhaps some nice blood and body?I'm torn b/c I have a nice (easy) sermon focusing on the armor, but I am really wanting to talk about the hard choice in John–"do you wish to go away". So, I may join the two by asking the question–when things get hard do we choose to go away, or do we put on the armor and stay? Of course, my dilemma then is that my sermon will be too long…sigh, that is often my dilemma (I blame it on spending my college years attending a service with an American Baptist pastor! There are definitely some traditions in which my sermons would be considered short!)

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  5. Thanks, Joy! Iced toddy coffee for everyone!Sermon-wise, I'm headed in somewhat that direction. Was thinking of starting off by congratulating everyone for being there, given that they could have given up a long time ago. And there are so many "reasons" to give up on faith covenants and community life. My dilemma: I'm fairly certain that I have been preaching that same sermon (theme) for awhile now! But then again, Jesus seems stuck on it, too!

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  6. Good morning, preachers! I'm preaching Ephesians in a casual service in Fellowship Hall in which we're going with Powerpoint the whole way for the first time. Our very few children are going to play the African instruments they got to practice with during our summer program, and with the title "Sing and Give Thanks" I'm going to try to blend Paul's insistence on in all things and at all times. We've had a great celebratory summer, but this past week our 48yo secretary died of a heart attack, so there's a lot of all things and all times to pack in.

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  7. I have two sermons percolating right now–both Very Important, if you know what I mean. This week I'm working on a sermon about Sabbath (part of the People's Choice series I mentioned in yesterday's Friday Five), using both the commandment (from Exodus AND Deuteronomy) and Luke 13 about the woman healed on the Sabbath. I'm also working on one for next week about the Emmaus Road story, and the importance of sharing our stories and our tables. Or something. But before anything can be written (I wish I had written the first yesterday, but inspiration didn't strike until I was sleepy, and then I decided to mull over it in my dreams instead) I have to go to church and paint a re-purposed Sunday School Classroom with the 9th and 10th graders. We are making them a room out of what used to be the kindergarten classroom. So….I'll be back at dinner time. Perhaps with leftover pizza and donuts in tow!

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  8. Sharon, who was it that said everyone has just one sermon and everything else we preach is variations on the theme? My sermons are just about ALWAYS about community (you should hear me riff on why Leviticus is really about forming community 😉

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  9. Oh, Robin, how sad about your church secretary. That is hard for a congregation, as well as her family and friends. Prayers for all of you.It sounds like a wonderful worship service! Fun for all ages!

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  11. So true! I would love to hear a tirade on Leviticus from you!Mine lately (I think) is: "Don't give up!" On God, Jesus, life, church, things of the spirit, abundant life — all those promises. How obvious is it that I'm preaching in faith what I am also hanging onto? (blush)

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  12. Thanks, everyone, you have my mind going and I haven't even looked at the texts yet. No manuscript for me this week–I'm doing a short (2-3 minute) impromptu sermon at the homeless shelter and I never write for them. I just think about the text and the lives of the people I've talked with this week–a man wanting to draw closer to God but hearing a lot of nonsense, one of our volunteers dying of cancer, someone who has almost saved enough money to buy 7 new tires for her rv, two women who were almost raped, challenges of life on the streets.I heard a wonderful sermon about putting on the whole armor of God. Kathy McAdams, the current director of Common Cathedral in Boston did the sermon 9 years ago in Palo Alto. Unforgettable.Good luck, Sharon, on your auditioning sermon. I imagine hard things are sometimes what a congregation in transition needs to be reminded of.I'm spending the day getting ready for my annual Women's Equality Day party. Since it falls on a Sunday, I'm having the party this afternoon. Red, white and blue cheesy decorations and theme but each woman is bringing the story of a woman who shaped their life. Not sure how many people are coming since this is New Mexico and people don't RSVP. But bring your appetite and the story about a woman who shaped your life. It will be fun to hear from you.ps Next week I'm going to preach love songs from God. Wondering what your favorite love songs are.

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  13. Joy, hope you do raise your question and bring going away and an armored stay together. It's a sermon I need to hear. Be sure to post it. And I agree with Sharon that it would be fun to hear your Leviticus rant.

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  14. Happy Women's Equality Day party! I feel especially festive about that occasion today. RevAlli, you have just inspired me to celebrate annually beginning next year. It's on my calendar. What a great idea!Love songs . . . so many . . . but let me date myself and say that Beatles love songs have a special place in my life. Favorites: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" – "Something" – "In My Life" which feels more like a love song to life and love itself than to a particular love interest. Those crazy Beatles! Back in the day, our parents thought they were the sign of the end times, or at least the end of decency and civilization. Now they are elevator music!

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  16. Woot woot! I'm preaching this week! The sermon series our church is doing is the Matthew version of the Sermon on the Mount. My bit is The Beatitudes. I have to do some more work on it so I'll be back. In the mean time, I put the coffee in a thermos so that it would stay hot. It's free-trade and organic! Help yourself! 🙂

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  17. Got a clear idea – about SOlomon praying for us long before Jesus prayed for us and what it means that we as Gentiles pray to his God and (for those of us who do) towards the temple. Got a good start at the beach and need to finish up. Something happened in the middle and I lost track of time…

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  18. Thanks, Sharon. Looking forward to hearing about your celebration next year!Thanks, too, for the Love Songs. Maybe I'll do a separate list on my blog of the love songs I collect this week.

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  21. Sharon, thanks for linking! There are three RevGal members featured on HuffPo Religion right now. I linked to all our posts at the RevGals Facebook group. If you're reading the Preacher Party and you aren't a member of the FB group, we hope you'll join!I need to wrap my head around a sermon, which is on Ephesians — yes, I know I said I wasn't going to preach another one — but it leans heavily on an old one, so it shouldn't be hard to write. She said hopefully.

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  23. Good morning preachers! Not preaching because I'm still on vacation, but popped in to say congrats to the RevGals who have post up at HuffPo today! Way to go!!!Really loving my vacation which ends in a few days, so off to enjoy some more of it!. See you at our Tuesday lectionary leanings!

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  25. So glad this is your time! Preaching is not my favorite thing about ministry — I like it well enough, but I don't love it — so thanks for splashing some of that excitement on the rest of us.Thanks for the resources, too!

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  26. Preaching for the second time in the Bread series. This week is the last so I'm pondering what Jesus is up to when we have been carbo-loading on all this bread? Then going to what we need the strength to bear personally, as a congregation, as a diocese, in society. I am definitely using Martha's Old Husband's Tales to address the last part. As an RN I feel especially compelled to unpack the myths in a biological and scientific fact way and then talk about the theology of treating women as less than. I am fired up and ready to go – just gotta get it on paper!

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  27. Hello everyone. Some thoughts are coming together for Sunday after reading your comments and remembering the work from earlier in the week…but before I can work on that, I need to spin together a short wedding homily for this afternoon. Ugh. Hard to get moving today.Be back later, I hope.

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  28. I'm working with Solomon's temple and Paul's armor and…the Alberta Tar Sands oil pipeline. Because Solomon and Paul both hint at insufficient containment systems. While people here in New England are worried about a type of oil that defies containment (and could therefore devastate our fisheries and watersheds), these scripture passages both point at a God who defies containment, too. Solomon's temple, in all its glory, cannot contain God. Paul's captors, with all their military training and complex armor, cannot stop the power of the Gospel even though they put apostles in chains. Nobody wants to think about the reality of an oil spill… but I'm hoping the congregation will warm to the thought of an ever-flowing, unquenchable GodSpill all around us. (Now, if I could just get the words to…uh…flow!)

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  29. I dance between texted and extemporaneous, so if this one ends up texted I will most assuredly post it! I actually LIKE Leviticus…it was a bit of a hobby in seminary. It's interesting how rarely Leviticus comes up in the RCL 😉 Sharon, I've been totally bumming about folks bumming about the church "dying"…I'm thinking I would like to hear your sermon! It's challenging to preach a theology of abundance when rumors of our deaths are so wildly abounding.

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  33. Afternoon coffee break time:Fair-trade chocolate (light or dark)Also FT coffee (dark roast, caf or de-caf)And some fresh strawberries.Help yourselves!

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  34. Great ideas all around today. Anyone have a good worship-focus children's message? We have 1-2 children so I try to make it something everyone will appreciate. I'm preaching the alternate psalm 84 along with a quick run to John 6 for one more tap into 'hard words'. We did some worship planning for September this week that gave me hope about leaving the carbs behind. Meanwhile, I need to do the same as I have another 10 days off my foot (surgery). Then need the energy to get back to the gym…

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  36. Thanks Sharon! Well, after my light bit of whining, I turned around and hammered out that wedding homily. WHEW! Maybe I can get something in shape for Sunday now–at least so I'm not starting from scratch when I get home.

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  38. The carbo-loading is esp appropriate this weekend – the Hotter 'n' Hell 100 mile bike race is this weekend where I grew up. It's actually a milder than normal weather weekend, but the race goes on this weekend in August every year no matter what the temperature is.

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  39. Ephesians is the text. We also have Blessing of the Backpacks. I'm working with the notion that the armor are tools of our faith like pencils and paper are tools of education. But pencils and paper alone won't make you smart or increase your knowledge. You have to read and better study habits tend to influence growth in understanding. So for Christians we have to add Spiritual Disciplines like prayer, reading Scripture, acts of Christian service, etc. to grow in our faith. We'll see if I can actually articulate that with any depth.

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  40. Mine is the same sermon with a different title: Solomon’s Theology, Solomon’s Catechism. I'm somewhere between 75-90% done. There are a couple of paragraphs moving around and a couple (?) yet to be written. Thousands of years before Jesus prayed for us, Solomon prayed for us. He was light-years ahead of his time. In a time when most folk wouldn’t marry outside of their tribe or clan – Solomon did, too much so – and perhaps as a result, Solomon had a vision of a God who was bigger than he was, bigger than his family, bigger than his nation, bigger than folk who thought they had a monopoly on God. Or perhaps, having so many people in his family from so many different places opened his eyes to God in the world beyond the world which he knew. Solomon believed in a God who was not his alone, a God who would be the God of people he would never meet. And so Solomon prayed for us alternately standing and kneeling with his arms outstretched towards the temple building.

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  44. I decided to look at the alternate Psalm, Psalm 84, in the context of "this teaching is difficult, who can accept it…do you wish to go away" Through the message, I'm hoping people will allow themselves to grieve the reality that "we are no longer in Zion" while also starting to engage the reality that when we repeatedly "sing" of a time that was or try to confine God to a building or time period, we leave people out. And we limit God. I've actually created the service to feel like a memorial for the church when it held more of a power position in our culture.

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  47. Hello, again! I've been pondering the wisdom of a nap, and thought I would ask for your opinion. Is 4 p.m. too late for then re-gathering oneself to finish writing?And let me crowd-source another question. I'm using brief references to some parables to illustrate the use of simile and metaphor in scripture. What's the first parable that comes to mind for you?

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  49. Ok, my "Moments for the child at heart" will be about favorite places to be…related to Ps 84, the psalmist' favorite place in the temple.any idea of how to wrap it up?or a visual/tangible piece to it? sigh, just not with it today, back to an edit. I think I'm still in "Baptist" mode as Joy said earlier. But its 'legit' (cough, cough) my dad was an American Baptist preacher. (I may never be able to use that word properly again!)

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