Hello Folks!
My sermon has been swirling at the back of my mind all week, but I don’t have much to 
show on paper, and I have a slight headache. Yet, I feel hopeful and am trying to figure out how to address the “Me Too” movement which was started by this beautiful women Tarana Burke, as I look at the scriptures for tonight
Are you wrestling with Revised Common Lectionary you can look into Money and the questions it raises about what belongs in church, and the offering plate. Extra, bonus points if you are gearing up for stewardship season at the same time!
Or are you looking at Narrative Lectionary then you can explore how God sees us, vs. how we see people. Funny how both scripture are hinting that God may not mean what we think God means
I’m planning on grabbing some tea and let us know where you hear God’s voice in what can seem like a whelming flood of world news.
Katy Stenta is a solo pastor at a tiny church that is bigger on the inside in Albany, NY for use over seven years. When she is not dreaming up projects and ideas, some of which creep into the church, she plays with her three boys-boys or goes and visits her husband at the library, while he works, to read.
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I’m preaching on First Thessalonians. We had our ingathering of pledges last Sunday and our Finance meeting is Monday night, so I’m going to defer more talk of stewardship for now. I need the apostle’s words encouragement. This week, Feasting on the Word was helpful to me: What does it mean for congregations to be bonded to one another in Christ by a spirit of thanksgiving for one another? And from Working Preacher: How are “work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of home” embodied in our faith communities today? Playing with these questions as I begin writing with coffee in hand.
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I’m in the Narrative Lectionary and confess I want to have an extra good sermon because our own Martha Spong will be in the pews tomorrow! Since this is the only David story we get this year in Narrative, I’m having a hard time just preaching this one story. I think a lot will end up on the cutting room floor, or else we’ll be there all day.
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Tomorrow is supposed to be MY BIG STEWARDSHIP sermon…ack (no self-imposed pressure at all)…the ingathering is next week and we have a guest preacher for that… I have decided to dredge up the sermon I preached on these readings three years ago and reuse the illustration while changing the way it connects to our current context. I tried to not use it, to think of something else, but I kept coming back to that one…I’m loosely making reference to Exodus and Matthew
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Good early afternoon from the central time zone. Not a lot of chatter here, I hope that means everyone else is done and prepared for tomorrow! I have a draft up over at my place reflecting on the idea of image.
Praying you all have a blessed Saturday and Sunday!
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We just had a civic election here this week. How could I not preach about politics and taxes? Upon reflection on the Gospel, the topic of hypocrisy has also reared its head…not that religion has ever been used as an excuse to maintain political power…..
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I remember the first time I read a commentary that pointed out that when Jesus asks for the coin, everyone must thinking “oh crap…” because they had one, and he didn’t–marking him as more law abiding than they were, as he didn’t have the graven image in his pocket. Plus there’s the whole part about how they had a coin, aka resources, and he and his followers didn’t, highlighting the economic disparity inherent in the system, which they participated in (also against the Torah). Awesome.
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Hi all,
Just back from suicide prevention walk — beautiful sunny and warm day, bagpipes, lots of wonderful people in high spirits, and my daughter (in charge of our team) raised a lot of money. Now I need a break, but I do recall that my sermon is based on I Thess. and is intended to be encouraging to a congregation that’s finally settling down after several stressful transitions. I might have said something about being critical and negative when we could be helpful and supportive . . . so a little editing may be called for later.
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My sermon is posted One Degree of Difference. Now for a run on the treadmill…
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It’s evening here in Scotland now, and it’s my birthday…not that that changes how I spend Saturday, necessarily (playing ticket to ride on my iPad, cooking and eating, texting with friends, etc)! It’s time to think about the sermon for real. I wrote an opening earlier in the week so now I just have to figure out how to fit Jeremiah 31, the greatest commandment, and between 1-3 women writers of the reformation in to the remaining 1000 words. Ha!
I want it to be good as there’s a good chance people from a search committee are coming to hear me tomorrow, plus of course I want to do justice to both the oft-overlooked reformation women and the text all at the same time.
I have made all my favorite foods today, so there’s plenty to share: mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, my mother’s black beans and olives dish, and there’s ice cream from the local dairy. Enjoy!
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I’ve just returned from doing a favor for a friend–as it turns out, it benefited two friends, so that felt good even though it took a lot of time. I’m preaching on the Gospel and need it to be about stewardship, even though it keeps telling me it’s about idolatry. I preached about idolatry last week, with the golden calf, so we probably don’t need another dose of that quite so soon.
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We’ve been fudging the lectionary so paired the golden calf and the “render unto Caesar” texts together last week…my favorite thing is to quote Walter Brueggemann and say “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, by which he means nothing.” (Because the image of God in us means…etc.)
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Is that WB quote in print somewhere? That’ll work, I think.
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I heard him say it in person at least once, and I think he says it in the Saving Jesus video curriculum as well.
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It’s late on Saturday and I’m still early in sermon writing. After a crummy week and finding out yesterday that I truly am sick (and it’s not just in my head), I’m wrestling with I Samuel and David. Lots of conversation this week about the #metoo movement and David’s failings…. wondering if/how to connect all that in one sermon. Muddy mind trying to make sense of it. Anyway, I’m in it for the long haul tonight.
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wrestling with David, that sounds like a good start…prayers
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Ok, so I managed to fit two of the three women I hoped to talk about into the right number of words, along with some very brief discussion of the text…but now I really need an ending that will bring it back to the text and our own lives and not 500-2500 years ago. I have no idea what this ending will be. But it’s 10:41pm so I’m gonna need it to show up soon!
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RCL Gospel: I’ve spent most of the day (while I’ve been doing other things) trying to find the sermon I had in mind when I wrote my title. “Death and Taxes” I plan to start by reminding people of the cliché that there are only two things that are certain in this world: death and taxes. In this Gospel, Jesus talks about taxes. But I think he talks about death as well. Let’s take a look to see what you think.”
I can pretty easily talk about God’s call to let our sense of self-sufficiency die, along with our sense of scarcity and our self-delusion that what we have is ours. But I feel like they’ve probably heard all of that before, so I’m still looking for something else.
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