How are the texts and the events of the week feeding into your preaching this week? The connections are easy to make. Do you feel the freedom in your situation to allow the texts to speak into local and global events?

Whether you’re in the midst of Election Fever, crying out for migrants to be treated as human beings, praying for all of our war torn world or scandadscn0555lised by Wonder Woman, how can these texts help us find a way to live out faith today?

Discussion on the Narrative Lectionary can be found here, while discussion on the RCL texts is here.

Are you using one of the Lectionaries or are you in the midst of a sermon series or Stewardship?

Whatever it is you struggle with this week – the sermon, all age talk, take home ideas – or whatever insight you have, please share and we can help each other through the mire of speaking God’s truth into all the world, spreading the light of God’s love in action.

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Liz Crumlish is a Church of Scotland Minister currently working on a National Renewal Project in Scotland.  A Board Member of RevGalBlogPals, instigator of Spill the Beans and contributor to There’s a Woman in the Pulpit, Liz blogs at journalling

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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.

41 thoughts on “11th Hour Preachers’ Party: How shall we pray edition.”

  1. I am back in the preaching part of ministry. I started an interim a week ago today and preached last Sunday. The first couple of weeks the texts are neither lectionary or narrative…

    This week my quartz singing bowl will be introduced. The last church I served, we used it at the beginning of the service for a time of centering and stillness. At this church there is already an accomplished choir with an introit, a prayer for the day, and a stellar organist. They also have a time for silent reflection after the sermon and that’s where the bowl will be used. I’ll use it to begin and end that time of silence.

    I am preaching the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night story. Into that I am weaving Gerald May’s concept of the Y/S root. The ‘yod’ and ‘shin’ root of the Hebrew language which when put together means space and freedom.

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  2. My spouse and I had a conversation this week in which we discussed *not* leaving sermon writing till Saturday. It’s our only day to be together as a family, and we’ve both been ruining it by writing sermons! So, he’s finished. I’m about one third of the way finished. Baby steps.

    Instead of heading with him to his church’s fall festival, I’m home with one daughter recovering from strep, another hoping to avoid the germs, my own scratchy (not strep-y) throat, and a mountain of laundry to stop the germs in their tracks.

    I’m preaching on the Luke passage from the RCL. Nothing earth shaking so far. Tomorrow’s is kind of a candidating sermon, but it’s at a place where I’ve preached many times before.

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    2. Monica, I hope, once the germs are gone, you can manage writing ahead of Saturday. Good luck with the “sort of candidating” tomorrow. May there be Fall festival goodies to help you on your way when your spouse returns!

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      1. Yes, that was part of our appeasement to the sick kid–Daddy will bring home something fun. And sorry to be vague on “sort of candidating”–it’s complicated, and any attempt to spell out details would ruin any shred of confidentiality that we’re hanging on to!

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        1. No need to apologise! We get that places, especially new places are complex. I’m just glad you get to do what needs done in a place that you’re at least familiar with.

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  4. Preaching 2 Sam 7 too. David like the Donald? I hadn’t thought of that but I see it. Last week I preached completely without notes, mostly on the sexism of the current political arena and how the echoes of it in a 3000 year old text weighed me down. More than that but it was a very feminist sermon. A few weeks ago, I was too tired to write anything coherent but I did have an outline of thoughts and that went pretty well. Today, I am so tired from working on packing up my dad’s place 2.5 hours away, winding through estate papers, my hobbled together collection of ministry jobs, and now the death of the oldest member of the congregation yesterday. Our congregation is dying. It has been but it seems that only recently have been people been willing to admit it. A funeral for a patriarch in late September. A funeral for a matriarch in late October. The congregational meeting next Sunday to pass a budget that may close the church sometime next year (but may be to last one more calendar year). All of this makes me feel like we need to be on hospice care. So, preaching about not needing a building seems to be an apt text. I think the direction I will go, and maybe again just speaking from an outline, is that maybe we are not the ones to build to God’s glory. Maybe we make sure our legacy builds up the opportunity for the next generation. (I wonder how much my own grief and feeling trapped – need to stay put for son to finish high school – colors my vision at the moment.)

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    1. Lynn – as ever, the texts speak a little too uncomfortably into our own situations, don’t they? Praying for you with all that palliative care that’s around. And I love the way you’re drawing out the message – that maybe we’re not the ones for the next stage but our faithfulness is important…

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  5. Good morning! Back about 2 weeks out for surgery; still tired, but it will be fine. Joined some youth and parents for a fundraising race this morning, which meant they raced and I sat. It was very cold.

    I am using Paul’s epistle to ask What Will Your Legacy Be? and using the other texts to suggest parameters in terms of worship, justice, and the gift of faith. It might be too much, but I like it. I have learned that the Wednesday morning Bible Study, which is a lectionary group, eagerly awaits the sermon titles on Sunday. I am not good at the catchy title sort of thing, but I find that now I am always thinking of them and wondering what connections they will see between what we talked about and what gets preached.

    Trying to get out for a drive today to see leaves, and the sun just came out, so maybe that will happen!

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    1. Robin, I hope the drive through fall colours energises you. Sounds great that folk are enthused by the Lectionary and eagerly await the sermon titles! Legacies and the gift of faith now, with worship and justice sounds like really connecting the past, the present and the future.

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  6. I have no idea where this day has gone – though I did have fun this morning playing violin in a BBC Symphony Orchestra workshop.
    We’re about to have dinner here and then I must draw together the threads I’ve been weaving all week for a sermon on Roman’s 4 – preaching for a friend who’s on holiday – and, a few weeks ago, when I had lots of time, I assured him it would be a nice challenge for me to continue his sermon series while he was gone. I would dispense with the whole of Romans in one sermon – Love not law – done and dusted!
    Still, I’m hoping, that after dinner, it will come together quickly. We’ll see.

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  7. It’s Stewardship time for us, and this is Pledge Sunday! I’m going with the lectionary reading from Joel. It’ll be something about how God gifts us with vision, dreams, and prophecy even in times of scarcity/uncertainty, when we might not feel ready to be stewards of visions, dreams, and prophecy.

    I’m trying to connect that thought to how we are stewards of our time, talents, and money. I’m not quite there yet. I think our church is struggling with volunteer fatigue, so I guess I want to invite people to step up and share the dreams that God has given them for our church, instead of just plugging in as a warm body. I’m also aware that one or two people have recently acted on their dreams for the church, and to all appearances their efforts haven’t “worked.” So I want to be sensitive to that, too.

    It’s cold and cloudy and autumnal here today. I’ve got Earl Grey tea to share, if anyone needs warming up.

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  8. LauraKW, I am trying to tie Stewardship of Talents, Time and Money into Joel and Luke and I apreciate your insight above. I know I want to do this week focusing on God’s provision but I hadn’t thought of tying it into giving of dreams and visions so thank you.
    I am in the middle of a run of funerals of church members as well as High School Assemblies and other extraneous calls on my time. I have also lost my notes for the wedding this week (rehearsal is monday!) and cannot find them anywhere which is stressing me rather a lot when I should be preparing for tomorrow morning!
    It is 6:30pm here and I have thoughts but nothing on paper (or screen ) yet. This is very late for me. Off to try to focus!

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    1. Tanya, glad you’ve found some inspiration at the Party – hope it comes together.
      As for the wedding, you can fill in the gaps at the rehearsal maybe.

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    2. I’m glad it was helpful! Praying that you find your notes and find in the busyness some good head and heart space for writing.

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  9. I’m excited to be preaching at a friend’s installation tomorrow, and I want to do well both for her and by her. I’m preaching on the passage from Romans including the verse about not being conformed to this world. I had a funeral this morning, so I’m really just now getting to write what I’ve been thinking about all week.
    In other news, I hurt my foot yesterday, and my throat is scratchy, so I am hoping and praying that foot and voice will hold up through the installation!

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  10. Thanks to you all for the weekly inspiration! I’m preaching on the Luke passage, talking about owning our own brokenness, and comparing the Pharisee’s prayer and piety to the email chain letters some people of faith like to forward (“The atheists are taking prayer out of school! The gays are destroying the sanctity of marriage! The secularists are waging a war on Christmas! Thank God we’re not like THEM!”). Almost done with the sermon, which puts me about fourteen hours ahead of schedule, but wondering if it’s too snarky….

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  11. I have a sustainable primarily on Luke that, amazingly, seems to tie into current events (not sure if that is good news or depressing!). As it was written in an interim time, it ties into vision and dreams as well as into legacy. I think I can tweak it to speak to the path this congregation is on and how our hopes and dreams can inform and give shape to a shared vision. Guess I’d better get busy.

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  12. We are preaching through John until Advent 1. Finished my sermonating on John 9-10. Grateful for two books that informed my meditation and preparation. Karoline Lewis’ commentary on John, and my Greek professor’s father’s commentary (Cullen IK Story). Interestingly, it was my prescription sunglasses breaking that gave my best illustration. One lens stayed in, and one did not. I was both blind and seeing. LOL. Thanks, Lord. I needed that.

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  13. It’s almost Sunday here in Scotland, so I’m going to leave you to it – I’m sure there will be some late night revellers. I look forward to hearing how things turned out on the Sunday thread on RevGals Facebook Group.
    Be blessed!

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  14. We’re still wrangling texts here. This morning’s funeral left me pretty flat, so it took a while to get back to work. It’s not like I saved it all for today, yet here I am.

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  17. Hi-ho! I am here, too, still staring at my screen trying to make the right words. I sat here all day yesterday writing a funeral sermon, then did the funeral last night, then sat back down at the computer this morning and have been here ever since. Even so, I am only maybe a quarter done with the sermon, at best. UGH.

    I’m preaching the parable in Luke and had my framework completely reset by Amy-Jill Levine’s writing on it (she pushes back against the typical Christian negative view of Pharisees as ill-informed and out-of-joint with the perspective Jesus’ hearers would have had, and she also argues for translating “para” as “alongside” instead of “rather than” in v. 14a). Anyway, I’m having that fun and terrifying experience I often have when I try to preach a parable, when I realize that as much as I/we want to tie things up so tidily, the nature of the parable is to defy that neatness, to provoke resistance, and to leave things more loose and disturbing than I/we want.

    My sermon title was “Othering, Undone,” but who knows if my actual sermon is going to connect with what I thought I meant to be talking about….

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