Preaching friends, I’m not in much of a partying frame of mind. I know many of you in the U.S. are watching the weather forecast with concern, and I know that many of the rest of us are stunned by the devastation Hurricane Matthew has wrought in Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, and now in the United States. I also know that the U.S. election is weighing on me, and many of you. I know, too, that there are countless other burdens that we each carry, for ourselves, for others, and for the world. We pray.

img_2660
The power of water. Pedernales River. Photo by Monica Smith, 2016

Sunday morning is still approaching rather quickly, and we need a sermon, however. So let’s sit down together and hammer this out. Revised Common Lectionary preachers: find a discussion about your possibilities here. And a Narrative Lectionary discussion is here. Other folks, feel free to chime in with your series or whatever God has called you to preach about this week. I’d also love to hear a children’s time idea or two.

Peace be with all of you, friends.

Monica Thompson Smith is a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, serving as a pulpit supply preacher in South Central Texas. She is a contributor to There’s a Woman in the Pulpit.

RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.

42 thoughts on “11th Hour Preacher Party: Not Such a Party Edition”

  1. Good morning all!
    It is a calm, mild day here in southern Scotland.
    Tomorrow is our Harvest Festival service and lunch, and for the first time in weeks I am almost entirely set.
    It feels so good!
    However, I am also aware that many are not; and indeed many of my sisters in the US will be waking up to wondering about a total rewrite, or some sort of adjustment because of the weather, and the political storm that is brewing.
    On my stove top this morning is a big pan of pea & ham soup for tomorrow’s lunch – but you can have a wee drop if you’d like!
    I will also have some lovely GF /DF scones ready, hot for the oven to go along with them.

    Looking forward to hearing how the rest of you are doing this day

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Julie. You are very kind. And the soup sounds perfect. I’m glad you’re ready for the big festival and service. Enjoy!

      Like

      Reply

  2. When I preached on these texts (RCL) in 2012 I spoke about having an attitude of gratitude, pulling from the one leper who came back. This year I think we still need to count our blessings, but wow, is life tough every where. So much anxiety. I am not at all sure what I am going to preach about…

    Like

    Reply

        1. Well done! You’re way ahead of where I am. (I actually have been playing with the kids and now am off to run a few errands. This might explain the zero word count).

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  3. Good morning. I couldn’t agree more about the mood. I’m working with the ten lepers and Psalm 66 and the hope of being brought out into a beautiful place. It seems pretty unlikely at the moment.

    The local version of unrest is a visiting dog who tempts our fellow to grab things off the counter. We are headed out to a fall ball tournament with visiting grandma. I hope her dog is coming with us…

    I’ll be back to check in later.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. So sorry for the doggie upheaval at your house.

      I hope you can find time and space to write today. (and that the baseball tournament goes well).

      Like

      Reply

      1. The Boy’s team won both games, so they have a bye today and don’t play until the semi-finals at 3:30, thanks be to God. We can go to church in peace without working out alternate travel arrangements!

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  4. Two churches tomorrow, and two completely different sermons. One is a celebration – 150 years since the founding of the community, and all of the things we have to be thankful for because we are still community. Because the other church is in a different community, I couldn’t use the same sermon, which I often do. So I took an easier route for this one, and wrote a narrative sermon focusing on Luke’s story. They love narrative sermons here, and I try to do them only a couple of times a year. Otherwise, they would stop listening.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. I am not preaching this week. We have a guest preacher, the director of a food/emergency assistance/free clinic that we help support. I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say about the story of the ten lepers. I’m doing the children’s sermon and thinking I’ll talk about thank-you notes. Maybe I’ll give each of the kids a blank one to take and complete and send or give to someone…if I get to the store today.

    It’s still early enough here that there is still the faintest bit of pink left on the horizon from the sunrise. I’m enjoying my second cup of coffee and wondering how my friends in coastal South Carolina are faring, and whether the young man in Haiti for whom we’ve been praying is ok.

    I usually write my sermon on Fridays. Yesterday, since I didn’t have to write, I worked on logistics and details for getting our building project finished. We’re rebuilding after an arson fire and to the point where carpet and paint and furniture have now all been decided and we’re close to being able to set a rededication date. I’m thankful and anxious and hopeful.

    If I were preaching this week, I think I might talk about how we get excited about things and run on ahead without remembering to turn back and say thank you. I’m thankful for this online community of Rev Gals and for the amazing ways God works among us all.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you for joining us this morning! That is a very hopeful story about the rebuilding. I’m glad you are getting a tiny break from preaching.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. I think that the text from Jeremiah is incredibly apposite: ” Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” This is what I’m working with this week with the Sea Scouts, and reminding them about praying for people and for their communities. And shadowing this in the Intercessions, remembering the local mayors by name, then the Mayor of London, then Mrs May and her Cabinet (one MUST pray for one’s leaders, but it’s so difficult not to just say “Oh God, Theresa May!” and leave it at that…..). And in view of the horrendous news from Haiti, we’ll be praying for them, too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. I’m a week behind because I was gone last week. I’m doing last week’s NL text on Passover. I’ve got a lovely Haggadah that came out just a few years ago, and have drawn substantially on its commentary. (Lemony Snicket is one of the commentators, interestingly enough.) They make quite a bit of the “already-but-not-yet” character of the Passover celebration (especially “Next year in Jerusalem” at the end; they say the Jews living in Jerusalem end their celebrations with “Next year in the *rebuilt* Jerusalem”), and the continued longing for a healed world, which calls us to get up from the table and work to end slavery and oppression for all people, because until everyone is free, none of us is totally free. And our Communion celebration originated at a Passover table, so that longing and that assignment are ours as well.

    Like

    Reply

  8. I’m finally sitting down to write for a while. I’m working with the Jeremiah text, and there’s almost too much to say. Trying to find the right sermon to preach for this time.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Life is full of challenges and sometimes all one can do is make the most of a bad situation, go on with life, trying to be faithful and hopeful.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. Struggling to write here. I was drawn by the power of water when I first read these texts (using 2 Kings), and selected music for worship with that theme in mind, but of course with nearly 1000 reported dead in the Caribbean and US from the hurricane, it’s hard to hear “the power of water” as good news.

    And then, every time I check the news headlines for an update or story to use from the hurricane coverage, they are “trumped” by stories about a misogynist who is running for commander-in-chief, which makes me want to throw up or throw in the towel or throw something at somebody.

    And I have nothing for the children’s time, and I know that one of our Sunday School leaders will be talking with them about thankfulness, so was hoping to find a different theme.

    And this morning my husband and I took our 2.5-yr-old nephew to a fire station open house, and he was too scared to go for a ride on a fire truck, but he got behind the wheel of the ladder truck for a photo op, and sat on our laps in a police car and in another fire truck, and he absolutely loved the guy dressed up as a fire station dog, and it was wonderful and he is adorable! So I’d rather just go play with him the rest of the day instead of trying to write this sermon.

    So that’s where I’m at, at 4pm on a Saturday! Thanks for the inspiration and solidarity that you all provide.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I hear you. Struggling here too. Your day with the nephew sounds fun. I’m pondering the way that firefighters use water, how that can bring rescue of a sort…I don’t know…I’ll be here a while yet!

      Like

      Reply

  11. Tomorrow is thanksgiving in Canada. I’ve got my turkey in the oven and pondering about gratitude. I’m using the thanksgiving texts for year c, so I’m glad to help my sisters from the states out in a few weeks. My direction is gratitude and thanksgiving for the past (Deuteronmy text), present (Philippians text) and future (John text).
    Happy thanksgiving, grateful for your support!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Thank you Monica for hosting! Thank you fellow preachers for sharing your ideas and thoughts. I pray you are blessed as you wrap things up and deliver the word. I am putting my sermon away for the next several hours, just in time to watch some college football (Wreck ‘Em Tech!)
    With a bulletin cover that says give thanks, I’m preaching on obedience. The lepers were obedient by following Jesus’ call to go to the priests. It was on the way that they were healed. I think we can find healing by walking faithfully the path of discipleship. I mean healing in the terms of wholeness, completion, acceptance, by the way.
    It’s up at my place if anyone wants to take a look. http://randomrevhd.blogspot.com/2016/10/obedient-thanks.html

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Well, after a memorial service this morning, and a nap this afternoon, I am finally sitting down to write. I am on NL – the golden calf – and I am wrestling with where to go. Seems to me we make our political process and our candidates idols, but maybe that’s a bit too close to home right now. :/ Hoping inspiration will come.

    I have some oreos to share.

    Like

    Reply

  14. Using 2 Kings, I’m talking about the miracle of Naaman’s healing from the angles of life-changing water, powerful slaves, and worthless money & influence. Done with the first two sections and working on the last. Almost 7pm now and hoping to be done soon! Once I have a draft, I can open up BBC and CNN and whatever other news sources I want in order to update the pieces that need it. Thanks for the conversation, colleagues!

    Like

    Reply

  15. The sun is gone which means the computer is on…my blank screen for a sermon on the golden calf awaits. I’ve been thinking about the last line (“and god changed his mind…”) and how uncomfortable that makes people. If we insist that isn’t possible, then how are we different from those who created a nice solid and stable (and stagnant) image of God for themselves?

    But then I also kind of want to be able to say something about the ridiculousness of this week in the news, especially how it often seems that we have made our political parties, or one issue in a platform, our idol…no matter what else happens, we cling to that symbol as if it matters more than life itself. (especially if that life is someone else’s, not our own.) I’m not sure I can do that along with the unchanging-god sermon though, so we’ll have to see. perhaps in the prayers…

    I have no children’s sermon yet either, though I’m a little jealous of the person in the NL Facebook group who made a golden calf piñata….

    I ordered Thai for dinner, so help yourselves to Pad Thai and mango sticky rice.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

        1. The actual making of a pinata takes way too much time. But I think it would be fairly easy to find one that could be modified into a golden calf.

          Like

          Reply

  16. I want to lift up the promise in the epistle, “The Word of the Lord is not chained.” We are anxious about many things; we are held down by so many troubles; we are in bondage to our own political processes; we are terrified of the chaos of the many hurricanes disturbing us; and we have lost confidence in our public leaders and public discourse. Everywhere around us there are wars and conflicts. But the Word of the Lord is not imprisoned. This is the faith of the one who writes from prison (whether Paul or not) to a pastor (whether Timothy or not). I love these words.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  17. Preachers, I’m calling it done. May God’s blessings be yours as you finish your work (though we all know it’s never finished) this evening,and as you preach the word in the morning.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. It’s 10:20 and I just need about 300 more words. If only I had figured out where this was ending up before I started…because right now that’s really not clear and that’s going to make it hard to bring it home!

    Like

    Reply

We hope you'll join the conversation!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.