Is is just me, or is this Easter season flying by? Following a long, seemingly endless winter in the USA, a Lenten season that dragged on, I thought Easter would never arrive. But it did, and now this season is racing by, Easter Day a vague memory. For those of us preaching from the New Revised Common Lectionary, the Easter season offers up the same series of readings each year, with little variance. Over the last three years I have used the season of Easter to offer a sermon series on worship – what we do and why we do it – a kind of “Reflected” or “Instructed” Eucharist in five parts. It’s well received, but it also means we don’t reflect on the post-Easter readings. When I have preached on the post-Easter readings I found myself telling the story of the early church through the Acts of the Apostles readings. This, of course, is what led to the reflected Eucharist series – why not just tell our story of what we do and why? An Acts influenced idea.
Perhaps you are thinking about church formation and Acts as well? Or perhaps you are pondering sheep and shepherds? Or maybe you are following the Narrative Lectionary and pondering Paul and Silas, the spirit, and that which frees us or confines us?
For more RevGal reflections on the Narrative Lectionary go here and for more on the Revised Common Lectionary go here.
This is the Preacher Party, and we are here to share ideas – to support one another as we work through that which confines our imagination, our thoughts, our energy – as we strive to break open the word. I have plenty of fresh brewed coffee, the kettle is on for tea, and fresh fruit to share. Pull up a chair, grab a mug, and let’s party.
RevGalBlogPals 
I can’t seem to get the link for the RCL to work. Is it me?
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Thanks for the heads up – it’s fixed now!
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I am here on Friday night–amazing! I don’t have a sermon yet, but I have 1.5 pages of notes….on Acts. I love this passage. My theme (if I have one) is that we’ve been experiencing what Easter means through post resurrection stories in the gospels and now we’re going to look at it from the perspective of the early church in Acts–what does it mean to live in a post resurrection world then and now? What can the 21st century church learn from the 1st century nascent church in Jerusalem? and then flesh it out with prayer, fellowship, breaking bread and sharing resources to care for others. (and I hope it is more exciting that this summary sounds!)
This is an important sermon for me b/c i have a search committee visiting….. so I want to do it well. Fingers crossed and praying hard.
Tomorrow morning I am running in a 5k, too. Busy weekend. And my first half marathon is in (gulp!) two weeks!
Now I am going to bed…I’ll be back after my race tomorrow.
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Good luck with the race this morning. And many prayers for the sermon and the visitation. I hope it goes well! I think you are taking the sermon in a good direction!
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Hope you post the sermon – it sounds great to me! I love this passage too. Then again, I love a lot from Acts!
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Saturday afternoon, no sermon, but an idea. we are looking at John 10 and thinking about gatekeepers in the positive sense. a bit like crossing guards at school crossings. I remember a small town that we travelled through to get to my grandparents place, a person would ride their pushbike from the railway station to the crossing and close the gates until the train passed, then open them again. there were only a few trains a day, but it would have been dangerous without the gates closed. now it is all electric signals.
but first I need to write a few pages for a training seminar I am participating on from Sunday afternoon for 5 days; pack; go to the Gym – and probably other things I haven’t thought of yet.
I am keeping Acts for next Sunday and our congregation annual meeting – looking forward to lots of good ideas, as for once i will be preaching after everyone else 🙂
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Pearl, I like the illustration for gates….a useful metaphor. Prayers for your day, your training seminar, your travels.
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I’m miles away from the lectionary,working on Pharaoh’s daughter’s rescue of the infant Moses. Linking across to a social-action type camp that some of our youth participated in last week. I need to come up with a snappy and memorable ending this morning, before my parents-in-law come back from the shops !
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Allison – I hope that ending comes to you….this is a really great story and sounds like a good link to recent experiences for the youth members of your congregation. Alas, I am not so good with snappy and memorable endings, especially when I feel I really need one! (too much pressure?)…
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I know what you mean about pressure, and I drew a blank this morning. But after lunch I had a nap and after my nap, there was the ending ! (I’m ending with the idea that, like Pharaoh’s daugher we live in a world of injustice, but if we keep our eyes and ears open, sometimes we can do more than we think – closing with Matt 24:40 and “the least of these little ones” as that text was read last Sunday in the context of a special service of intercession for the Central African Republic). My daughter has made chocolate and raspberry brownies are there are lots to share !
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YAY!!!! and, yum (brownies….). Now, enjoy your company!
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9 pm Saturday, i ahve a poem with images . earlier in teh service i ahve another short activity – now how much sermon do i really need?? 🙂
and i ahve yet to pack to go away tomorrow afternoon.
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Good morning, RevGals! We have a blessing of the animals service this morning, and I am excited about meeting new four-legged friends. I am also preaching from Acts – how the Spirit shows up with ‘signs and wonders’ when we devote ourselves together. It has been a tough week for the congregation – we lost one of our most beloved members unexpectedly.
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Good morning, Lea. I know how difficult it is to lose a beloved member, we had several die in the last couple of months. Blessings on you animal blessings, may that be a joyful time
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I am preaching on “Kairos Time,” using Acts and, thanks to Teri Pilarski, I Corinthians, to urge the congregation to recognize this as an opportune time, and one for which they have the gifts already in place. I am trying to end on a high note, as I am to be away on vacation for the next two Sundays (although so many things are wrong with this vacation, including the now impending death of one of my husband’s cousins, that we would give up if we hadn’t already spent so much money on it). I am hoping (faintly) to inspire my folks to ponder a bit while I’m gone and talk to me when I get back about where they’ve been and where they hope to go.
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My hearty sympathies on the vacation troubles. Always happens with us, it seems.
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Robin, I think you mean Teri Peterson, re her fabulous sermon last week! I hope the vacation time is not complicated by life stuff…if it is, I get that, all of mine have been since I arrived her three years ago. Every time I go away someone dies, or this last time, two members ended up in the hospital, one with a heart attack while at church and the other for chronic heart issues. So I really hope your time away is not complicated….and also that your sermon leaves them thinking!
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I am so confused. Didn’t you say something about I Corinthians? I was sure that you did, because I had looked it up and saved it to use this week. Maybe you said it in response to Teri’s (yes, fabulous) sermon? Maybe I merged them because I was thinking about quoting Teri later this summer? Maybe you didn’t say anything at all? Ah, the dangers of all this conversation! Thank you both, though!
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I very well may have said something about 1 Corinthians awhile ago….back when I was dealing with some conflict and doing a lot of work with 1 Cor as a guide for living in community….also, Ephesians 4.
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Gatekeepers is posted, very short, but some other activities happening.
good night, hope the sermons flow easily.
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We’re Good Shepherd Church so I pretty much have to do the Good Shepherd. Thinking about how the text says the shepherd leads the sheep OUT, not IN. Going out to pasture means leaving the safety of the sheepfold, and the only way to stay safe is to stay close to Jesus and follow where he leads. Also playing around with something I saw on the way home from church on Easter, a line of sheep ambling down a driveway in my semi-rural area, with no human in sight. I don’t know much about sheep, but I knew that wasn’t right.
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Free range sheep? What are the challenges of being leaderless?
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I am increasingly resentful of the sacralization of Mother’s Day. Here are some things for you to consider as you prepare to preach: http://www.wilgafney.com/2014/05/09/when-mother-is-the-hardest-word/
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Hi Wil, While I am not resentful, I do tend to walk gently through this day – as a child of an unhealthy mother who was the child of an unhealthy mother – I have journeyed the path to change the family dynamic. That said, I do appreciate it when my family acknowledges that I have done a lot of hard work, self work and family work, to be the mom in my household. In church I tend to only say, “Let us give thanks for the mothers among us, the mothers who gave us life, and those who, through out our lives, have loved us like a mother.” No flowers, no special anything else in church. No ignored, but not given too much space either. I have never served a church that did make a big deal out of the day. That’s a good thing, I think.
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I’m preaching tomorrow (and for the next 6 weeks) for the first time in several months. Rusty doesn’t begin to describe it. John 10, thinking about how we listen for and hear God’s voice among the others.
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Welcome back! It is a little tough to get one’s feet under them after a long hiatus from preaching. But you’ll get your groove back! I like your theme, it’s a good one, much needed today.
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Hi, all. I have a feeling it will be one of those days when I’m back here late tonight. sigh. dealt with an ant problem in the kitchen and still have a few piles to replace. Wrote my notes for next week’s outdoor worship, and now I”m back to my very limited notes for tomorrow. We are celebrating families as part of celebrate month. (Last week- friends, next week creation, memorial day-peace). I wouldn’t call it a sermon series, but it’s different than lectionary. I’m using the Matt version of Jesus’ family coming to visit and he saying to those who follow him, “YOU are my bros, sis, mother…” Hope it will be a challenge to us NOT to sacralize our families, or even our church family above discipleship. But we have my son’s girlfriends reading in DC for grads of this year’s Creative Writing MFA degree. My daughter is coming to spend the night so we can go to the Art Museum after worship tomorrow. All good things, but not enough time..
see you later, undoubtedly.
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Oh Nancy, what a great idea for your sermon series, a great way to lead into Memorial Day weekend and honor the many celebrations and transitions of this time of year. I will need to consider this for next year, or maybe a month later in the year!
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I am using the psalm and the John passage…. focus on the psalm though. But that’s all I got! I’ve procrastinated all day (it’s 4pm now) and still have nothing. It’s been an extraordinary few weeks, from the wedding on Easter Sunday, to Sandy dying five days later and the funeral on Monday. I am totally exhausted. Sleeping soundly, but not long. Now Sandy’s granddaughter – the bride is her mother- has asked me if she can be baptised. Such a delight, but complicated by the fact that she is not resident in our village and her mum isn’t a church member. She’s 10 so old enough to choose, and in this case the pastoral outweighs the church legalities. But it still adds another dimension!
As for the sermon, I know what I want to say… I just don’t have the start….
Once I work it out I’m sure it’ll come….
Promises and purpose keep rolling round my mind…
Time to get off the internet and start writing!!
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Goodness, Julie…yes, the pastoral is definitely more important than the legal church requirements. And for a ten year old to yearn for baptism, definitely a need to respond! Life and death and new life…makes for a complicated season!
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Just finished mine: still in Instructed Eucharist sermon series – tomorrow is what we believe about bread/wine which works well with Acts, with nod also to Mother’s Day and this being my last sermon to preach in this church. June 1 is my last official day there. It is just time to go. They are well into the process of calling a new rector – not quite taking names yet, but very close. I do not yet know where I will land yet but I am surprisingly non-anxious about it. As Sarah Miller helped me to articulate, I suck at being an associate 🙂
Prayers for all of us preaching and negotiating the minefield of Mother’s Day weekend in whichever way is best in our own spaces.
Nancy – Thanks for the Celebration Series idea – I stuck it in my file!
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Prayers for your leave taking. It is difficult to be an associate, no doubt. Although, now as I face the last decade (or less) of my time, there are days when I’d love to have someone else be in charge….many blessings for you, Amy. I am sure God is preparing a place for you…now if only the humans can hear God’s desire…
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Associate ministry is tough, really tough. Six years was enough for me. May the blessing of non-anxious stay with you!
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The series idea came because I was using a sustainable sermon last week and knew I’d be pushed for time and a few other complications became a “Sermon Series” as a solution.. I guess it’s a ‘god works in mysterious ways’ thing.. for which I am grateful!
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Nice! Creative response to circumstances…
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Hugs, Amy. That’s a lot of content for a final sermon. Prayers as you listen for the guidance of the Spirit on what’s next.
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Thanks y’all – the first preaching went well. Second and third are tomorrow.
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Just finished a homily for the blessing of a covenant between two fabulous guys who have shown love and faith and kindness to God and to one another in their long journey to be blessed by the church. Their love is shining here and on the Sandias Now putting together yet another memorial bulletin and homily for another homeless person made invisible and killed by the indifferent violence of a hit and run driver. But what’s staying in my mind today are the words of the hymn “God of the sparrow, God of the whale”–God of the ages/God near at hand/God of the loving heart/How do your children say Joy/How do your children say Home?
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Oh goodness, the tragedy of the invisible, so very sad. Poignant hymn as your earworm honoring this person…
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Your blessing is incredibly beautiful! I shared it with myself. Would you mind if I used some of it? Im hoping virginia moves along and that our congregation keeps moving along and will support me if I support our members who want to get legally married in this state. So lovely!
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Of course you can use some of it. I’m hoping that the US Supreme Court tilts the scales though our Bishop will not let us “marry” people until after General Convention next year.
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I’m on the Narrative Lectionary, so something about Lydia/slave girl/Paul and Silas and jailer and magistrates…but no idea what. The music lends itself toward Freedom themes, which made perfect sense when I planned it, but now I can’t seem to figure out how it’s going to actually begin, or end, or say in the middle.
I do have coffee. Of course, it’s lunchtime here…I stayed up until after 4am reading (what am I, 13??), so slept in this morning and now have only a few hours to write. need inspiration ASAP…
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I stayed up late reading too! I was avoiding thinking about some anxiety-producing things, so picked up the book. Then when I finally put it down (late for me but earlier than you!), the anxiety-producing things were still there. That, and too much caffeine too late in the day…I’m dragging. Where do I think the book is going to go if I save the rest for tomorrow, anyway? Joining you in your 13-ness. At least I wasn’t reading under the covers with a flashlight!
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I’m preaching on RCL but writing a devotion series based on NL with a colleague. This week’s devotion focuses on the slave girl – she was the object of the selfishness of her owners and Paul. Seriously, why didn’t Paul want her following them around announcing his mission to the world? She was telling the truth, apparently it just gave him a headache. So… how do we treat people who speak the truth in our communities but do so in ways that we don’t like?
Not sure if that will help your writing, but thought I’d share 🙂
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Teri, I hope the sermon revealed itself to you….and, I hope you get some sleep tonight, despite staying up so late and sleeping in….
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I kinda just want Nadia Bolz-Weber to show up tomorrow and preach this sermon. Can I get an amen? But, since that is unlikely, I’m going to work on my own. We are voting on a building campaign next week, so I’m aiming toward that with a sermon on What Makes Us Church – working with the Acts passage which I LOVE and totally ignoring the gospel just for this once. Seems like I’m noticing more critiques than usual of mother’s day this year, so I’m trying to find a way to honor those, and also the dedication and love of the lovely church member who brings a bouquet to church for every woman to honor the memory of her mother, who died a while back. Terri, I liked your idea about the middle way, and I’ve prayed a prayer that Gord posted in the past, too. Ok, off now. Sounds like some of you are having difficult days, and you are in my prayers. Love!
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Amen, indeed! Blessings on your voting, discerning, and preaching!
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I’m baaaaaack! As some of you know from FB, I had a good morning–ran in a 5k that is a diocesan fund raiser for at risk kids in our area and came in first amongst clergy women and 2nd for my age group (which does not make me particularly fast, but is still fun!) And now I have to reel my head in from the clouds (where it is much of the time these days thanks to the other good thing in my life right now) and get this sermon written! Before dark is my goal, which gives me 4-5 hours. That should be PLENTY….the last two weeks I’ve struggled and I don’t want to go there this week.
It’s also the first day over 70 we’ve had…hello, about time! Maybe that will be further incentive to get this baby written.
I would love to channel Nadia Bolz Weber tomorrow, but I don’t think that is going to happen either!
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YAY and Congratulations! I hope the goodness of today expands into all good things tomorrow, too!
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Looooong day in the mama hat here. No progress on sermon. Bedtime, come soon!
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oh goodness….hoping for sleep for the little ones and peace for their momma…(and inspiration so the sermon comes easy!)
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I have pages and pages of notes on John 10, but not a clue how to begin. I’m focusing on Jesus as the true gate, but I also need to get in quite a bit about recognizing the shepherd’s voice, and these two themes are wrestling in my brain. How to begin? We bought garden plants this morning, dropped off a devotional book to one of our nursing home residents, and took a loaf of homemade bread to someone who brought me a basket of goodies mid-week (returning the basket), and I think I’m out of procrastination options. It’s always the introduction that makes me stall… once I figure out how to start, the rest will come, Lord willing.
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I often struggle with the intro as well….or the end. I wonder what it would be like to be the sheep some one mentioned above, who had no shepherd and no gate – just wandered?
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I think I have the Mother’s Day section for my prayer: “We thank you for all who do the work of mothering, and pray for comfort for all who find this day painful.” That should cover it, right?
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yup.
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Getting quite a late start this week. Just reread the Gospel lesson and realized it contains one of my favorite lines in all Scripture – Jesus came that we might have abundant life! How did I miss that on the first few read-throughs? Anyway, hoping to start with that, use the model from Acts on a church community living abundantly (as opposed to my congregation, which chooses to live in a mindset of scarcity), and trying to figure out where the good news is for my folks. The good news is that we can give up our fear? Life abundant is waiting for us? In the teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers, Jesus meets us and we have enough? Off to try putting these thoughts into coherent sentences!
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the Nadia Bolz sermon linked about talks about this, what is scarcity?
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On FB a number of colleagues have been talking about prayer for Mothers’ Day; this one is really good, I think.
On this Mother’s Day, we give thanks to God for the divine gift of motherhood in all its diverse forms. Let us pray for all the mothers among us today; for our own mothers, those living and those who have passed away; for the mothers who loved us and for those who fell short of loving us fully; for all who hope to be mothers some day and for those whose hope to have children has been frustrated; for all mothers who have lost children; for all women and men who have mothered others in any way—
those who have been our substitute mothers and we who have done so for those in need; for the earth that bore us and provides our sustenance. We pray this all in the name of God, our great and loving Mother. Amen.
The Rev. Leslie Nipps, Women’s Uncommon Prayers, Morehouse, 2000
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yes, this is a good one – I have used it in worship in the past. Now I just say something to this effect somewhere in the service….
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I needed to write this before I could get to the sermon: http://liz-vicarofdibley.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/life-among-believers.html
We’ve mourned at least 3 deaths a week in this community for the last 6 or 7 weeks so I needed to write some of the grief out of me! Hopefully now I can go back and preach some hope.
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maybe this is what the community needs at this time?
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Thanks, Pearl. I’m sure it is. But I wouldn’t be able to keep my emotions in check reading it. It’s easier to write and get it out there.
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Here is my primary hat-tip to Mother’s Day – singing this hymn at communion time: God of the Women
SLANE 10.10.9.10 (“Be Thou My Vision”)
God of the women who answered your call,
Trusting your promises, giving their all,
Women like Sarah and Hannah and Ruth–
Give us their courage to live in your truth.
God of the women who walked Jesus’ Way,
Giving their resources, learning to pray,
Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and more–
May we give freely as they did before.
God of the women long put to the test,
Left out of stories, forgotten, oppressed,
Quietly asking: “Who smiled at my birth?”–
In Jesus’ dying you show us our worth.
God of the women who ran from the tomb,
Prayed with the others in that upper room,
Then felt your Spirit on Pentecost Day–
May we so gladly proclaim you today.
O God of Phoebe and ministers all,
May we be joyful in answering your call.
Give us the strength of your Spirit so near
That we may share in your ministry here.
Tune: Irish Ballad, “Be Thou My Vision” Text: Copyright © 1998 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved. Copied from Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today’s Worship by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Geneva Press, 2000).
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net New Hymns: http://www.carolynshymns.com
And this is from Carolyn’s notes on the hymn:
This hymn was first published in The Presbyterian Outlook. The Episcopal women’s magazine titled Communiqué distributed the hymn widely and its popularity in the Episcopal Church is evident in that the hymn is included in Voices Found: Women in the Church’s Song, the supplement to the Episcopal Hymnal. The hymn has been translated into Japanese by a Roman Catholic group for publication there. In July 2005, the hymn was sung at the church-wide Triennial Gathering of the Women in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that celebrated the 35th anniversary of the ordination of the first Lutheran woman pastor in North America. In January 2006, the United Methodist Church Office on Worship posted “God of the Women” on their web site to celebrate the 50th anniversary year of the ordination of women in The United Methodist Church (2006).
Many congregations have used it on Mothers’ Day and on Sundays celebrating the gifts of women in the church. The biblical texts that inspired the hymn are Genesis 12-23; 1 Samuel 1-2; Matthew 28; Mark 14:9, 16; Luke 8:1-3, 24; John 20; Acts 1:14, 2:1-21, 9:2; Romans 16:1 Adapted from Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today’s Worship by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (Geneva Press, 2000).
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Love this!
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I am getting ready to preach my second to last sermon and it became a continuation of last weeks on “A Practical God”…this is Part II. So original…I know.
I’ve been packing, trying to give stuff away, trying to sell a little bit via a FB For Sale group where I live. Gads…it is exhausting work.
I have words…will post later.
Homemade pizza up next.
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YAY!!!! Holding you in prayer for this time of transition and good-byeing.
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Crowd sourcing: can you think of examples of things we “assume” are scriptural or doctrinal but really aren’t? The one I have is the notion that God helps those who help themselves but I would love to have more.
Although the draft I have now is already too long and I don’t have a really tight ending yet….argh. Going back to do some pruning!
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cleanliness is next to Godliness
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I said this on facebook: “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Here’s the backstory. I was a lowly CPE student at the state mental hospital. A patient requested a prayer for something I have forgotten, but that made no sense to me. And I responded with “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” And the patient says, “Where is that in the Bible? I’ve always wondered.” I had no idea. Had to go look it up, and realized it wasn’t there. One of *many* things I learned that summer.
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love the backstory–thanks!
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God won’t give you more than you can handle.
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This was in response to the scriptural “truths” that aren’t.
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meh, a sermon of sorts… some days they work, some days…!
Based on Acts – and really came about due to a few conversations on separate visits with parishioners earlier in the week… one of which came with the comment ‘you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.’
Anyhow, here ’tis.
http://apilgrimsprocess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/one-heart-one-love-sermon-for-easter-4a.html
I am currently reduced to drinking gin… happy to share 😀
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Nikki, drinking gin is an elevation!
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I have pruned and pruned.. and it’s still too long (by about 100 words beyond my usual upper limit). Wonder if they will notice? Not a problem I usually have!
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I’ve posted my sermon here. Feedback would be most appreciated!
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Kris, this is a great sermon! Well done. I added some points, which are minor, and an edit idea if you are still looking to shorten it a bit. But really, it’s just fine as it!
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Thanks, Terri! Your comments are very helpful!
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I think getting that other post written helped clear a space for the sermon to take shape. Hope I can sleep now. Thanks for hosting, Terri.
http://somethingtostandon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-gatekeepers.html
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However you are addressing Mother’s Day or not, here’s a prayer for all you who lead worship tomorrow, with my love.
Heavenly Parent,
You are Father and Mother to all Creation.
You planted us and you nourish us.
You exist beyond our comprehension and
transcend the labels we use to describe you.
But we are label-makers,
and category-keepers,
and people-sorters,
and occasion-creators,
and this Sunday we face one
we just can’t get right.
Too much, and it hurts people.
Too little, and it hurts others.
Also, and you know this, we have our own stories.
Our mothers have died
or are still too close
or were never close enough
or never quite meshed
or smacked us too hard
or …
or nurtured us enough
or lived life with panache
or served you with whole hearts
or loved us unconditionally
or…
or all these things, in unequal measure,
over a lifetime.
That’s just to get started.
Some of your servants are mothers,
and some have lost children,
and some wanted them but never did have,
and some never wanted to,
and some had more than they expected,
and some gave theirs to other mothers,
and some feel it goes by too fast,
and some wish it went by faster,
and some worry what their kids think of them
and whether they will remember this awful card holiday
and sort of wish they would
even though it shouldn’t matter.
Bearing all of this in mind and prayer,
we ask, Holy One, with your heart for all people,
give us a measure of grace with one another,
an instinct for the places where some hurt and others chafe.
Give us a measure of mercy and a big dose of patience where our mercy is strained and a sense of humor when people get on our nerves and a heart full of the unconditional love you give so freely to us, ready to share with those who need it most. Amen.
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I said this over on fb, but I am saying again. Thanks so much. So grateful for your wisdom and pastoral presence.
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Thank you, Martha. Praying for you too, in this time of unfolding of the spirit.
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One last re-read through and I’m posting. We are honoring our one graduate tomorrow so need to prepare a prayer for that time. It is pretty informal during the service. He is a fringe worshipper and I told the planning committee to invite him to worship and make the 45 minute coffee fellowship prior to worship optional.
http://fpccozad.blogspot.com/
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Well done! Curious, isn’t it to preach in preparation to leaving….
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I’m calling it quits tonight. My chair re-upholstering and refinishing project is calling me (the things I get myself into when I haven’t been preaching!). Sermon is serviceable. Prayer is sketched out.
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Me too, Esperanza. Calling it a night here. Thanks for partying with me. Holding you all in my prayers. You can keep it going, last one out, get the lights? Peace!
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I’m ready to call it a night. The message is done, it’s more of a ‘conversation’ than sermon. The worship is done, I have a strong worship leader tomorrow and a prayer for the Nigerian girls written by our Moderator. (a good number if not most of the Nigerian families were Church of the Brethren ‘EYGN’) they have been suffering with drive by shootings during church, the murder of one of their pastors and much more. Now this. The COB is distributing the girls names so that 6 churches will get one girl to pray for by name. And no one is stopping at COB families, all are included.
I still don’t have much of a children’s message, but maybe it will evolve in the morning. Best to all the later nighters.
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I do love sermon time conversations. I think that makes for an excellent approach to your theme. I didn’t know that so many of the girls are Brethren? What a tragic and torturous time, especially this! I am not praying for the girls by name, but I am holding them and their families in my prayers.
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Hi – I’m back after a silly but enjoyable tea party and a blessed house blessing – – all part of the work of ministry, I suppose. Now I have about an hour before kidlet gets home to try and wrestle tomorrow into shape. Blessings to all the rest of you late niters.
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Hey Jennifer, welcome back! Silly bu fun is okay!
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I’m still here…with 900 words that so far don’t say much. I mean, I expanded a bit on the characters, and I issued a challenge, but the good news is still missing and there are only 300 words left.
If those 300 words would show up ASAP, that would be amazing…
(in other news, this afternoon I spent an hour reading the last hundred pages of the book than kept me up until 4 last night, so no temptations tonight. LOL.)
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The first thing I do when I get to my computer on Saturday night is find all the notes I’ve written on posts and blogs all week (the ones that still relate to my sermon plan anyway) and put them in one document. I’ve got 1,035. Woo hoo! That’s a lot of sermon material already written!
So, now I need to see how much of it is repetition, what of it can be real sermon words and what of it can help my outline, and how it will all flow into one piece. Nothing big. 🙂
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Wow, Stephanie – that is a great way to keep track of your developing thoughts and have the foundation for a sermon! I hope it fell into shape as easily as it seemed it would.
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It must have been a really good book. I read two on my trip to Chicago last week, mostly while sitting on a train. Both fiction. Haven’t read that much in one siting in a long while. It was nice.
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It was Pillars of the Earth. I finally started reading it (in all its 983 page glory) the weekend after Easter, and finished on Saturday. 🙂 So nice to just get caught up in a story…
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Thank you for the wonderful prayer, Martha.
I can’t say that I’m impressed by my sermon, but it will do. My main achievement today was cleaning out my car for the first time since Christmas. It was on my list for Jan. 2 when I broke my ankle instead. Sort of like excavating Machu Pichu. I am having to accept that the constant pain that accompanies any physical effort at all is exhausting, and that was a lot of effort! Night, all.
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Robin, So sorry for the constant pain – yes! It is definitely exhausting. (But wow, I do love it when I clean out or clean up something that I’ve wanted to get too…so yay!! for that).
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Praying for all of you who are finishing up (or just starting) and rejoicing that the bishop is coming tomorrow and preaching at all three services! So nice to have a Saturday with nary a sermon thought…and she’s an excellent preacher, so I know we all will be fed by her words.
I greatly appreciate reading the various ways and resources that you all have shared for handling Mother’s Day. It’s a tough one.
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Betsy, I don’t know which of the Bishops is assigned to your area, but I’ve hear good things about both of them! YAY for you!
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Hi Late night gals – have a great rest of the party. I’m tiptoeing to bed.
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I’m done but it’s way too long. Trying to decide if I can lose 3-400 words or if I should just talk faster.
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Talk faster through some of the places that just need to be said and slow down for the pieces you really want them to absorb? (I’ve been known to do that from time to time….)
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I ended up doing an almost complete re-write this morning, and it turned out to be just a *little* too long instead of a lot too long, so that’s something…
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Indeed, that is something….I’ve been known to do morning of rewrites….but lately because of using my iPad, and how I format it, I don’t and therefore am stuck with what ever I finish on Sat. Hope that yours went well in the preaching and the hearing!
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I have a sermon. It is way too long… but, it will preach. and it’s time to get dressed and go…
http://julie-acountrygirl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/sermon-11-may-living-with-purpose.html
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It’s a chilly but sunny morning here, heading off soon to preach and preside at two services. Later I hope to walk the dogs, and walk to yoga (two classes today, one of which is called “Restorative” ..and it is!). Blessings on each of you and on your day, however you spend it.
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I just wanted to say in a safe space that I am thankful that there were other options than John 10 this morning to preach from. It is hard to preach that the shepherd will protect and nurture the flock when one is one step out the door to a new appointment. Hopefully the Acts 2 scripture will inspire them so that when the new pastor comes in a few weeks, they are ready to thrive with their new shepherd.
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Amen, Megan. Blessings on this time of transition for you, too.
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Help! Who is the one who posted the juxtaposition of Psalm 23 with the Acts passage? I wanted to use that but now I can’t find it!
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Oooops! Just found it! Thanks!! 🙂
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