Sing!
There is no judgment.
Do not fear!
I will bring you home.
(Zephaniah 3:14-20)
Trust!
God is your strength.
Shout!
God is in your midst.
(Isaiah 12:2-6)
Do not flee!
Dig deep into your roots and bear fruit.
Be baptized!
Let the Holy Fire burn away chaff from your life & spirit.
(Luke 3:7-18)
Rejoice!
The LORD is near.
Do not worry!
There is peace beyond understanding.
(Philippians 4:4-7)
The good news in the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this coming Sunday (Advent 3) is abundant with joyful exhortation. Abundant may be an understatement: the good news for this Sunday is ecstatic and unequivocal! It is worthy of exclamation points! The texts clamor at us like noisy church bells, saying “Rejoice and respond!”
So how will you preach this exclamatory gospel? How will you give witness & word to the holy Resounding Joy in a world that is hurting and longing for renewal?
Share your sermon drafts, questions and ideas in the comments; find support, brainstorms, and conversation with your colleagues here.
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I love these exhortations so much that even though I’m doing something different, I want to use them!! Thank you. (Great title!)
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“Rejoice and respond”–good words to begin a week with Guadalupe and Juan Diego and the point where worlds collide. Thank you, Rachel.
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David Lose in working preacher 2012, writes of the people who have forgotten the rules of the playground – ‘Reduced to everyday language, these are the rules of the playground: share, be fair, don’t bully.’
I am thinking of including the story from Robert Fulghum ‘Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten’
not sure where the sermon will go,
In a record for me, the liturgy is finished and sent to the person who puts the PowerPoint together. tomorrow i have 2 appointments tomorrow then meetings all day Friday and Saturday morning and all of them 90 minutes or more away, so staying in Sydney for 2 nights to save on travelling.
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Congrats on the the finished liturgy! Blessings for the busy days ahead, and prayers as the sermon germinates.
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I preached on this very thing, including Robert Fulghum, in 2009…so I’m thinkng the David Lose article must have been then. (I can only remember this so vividly because three years ago I preached on the Newtown shootings.) I love the themes here.
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Thank you, Rachel. I’m heading in a, perhaps, parallel direction. We hear the exhortations and continue to have unrealistic expectations about just what God will do and how God will do it… Here are my early sermon musings… https://rachaelkeefe.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/not-what-i-expected/
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Several years ago, I wrote a sermon for Advent III on Isaiah 35:1-10 which I’m now re-workibg for another go-round. (By the way, I think it would work just as well paired with the appointed reading for Year C from Zephaniah.) It isn’t as hard-hitting as these last few shocking weeks here in the US might demand, and I want to sharpen it, but the central idea will be the same: the joyous song of God’s people is the only chance we have against the powers of the world, so sing! Here’s the original sermon. If I get the ‘new’ one done in a timely way, I’ll come back and post it too.
http://sicutlocutusest.com/2013/12/10/third-advent-sing-isaiah-351-10/
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