DSCN4075This is the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, the Reign of Christ in the RCL, with the text about “the least of these”. The blog post from earlier in the week can be found here.
Or, in the NL, Jeremiah is cautioning the exiles to make themselves at home, seeking the prosperity of those with whom they dwell. The NL blog post can be found here.

Are these the texts you’ll be preaching this week? Or are you doing something else, perhaps already anticipating Advent.
How has your preparation for preaching been this week? Do you have something to share or would you like some assistance pulling your thoughts together?

Please share your thoughts and requests in the comments as , together with God, we find good news for our communities this week.

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

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24 thoughts on “11th Hour Preachers Party: Community matters”

  1. Like many of you, I’ve preached Christ the King Sunday sermons so many times I’m digging to find something new to say. This year I looked at the Ezekiel passage and read the whole chapter. That’s what our seminary professors told us to do, right? If you go beyond the lectionary verses and read the whole chapter, you’ll find a very different perspective from the excerpts. As I read it, God is pretty disgusted with shepherds who look after themselves first and don’t take care of the sheep. Shepherds? Kings? Leaders? Maybe even priests? God is so disgusted with them that God says, in effect, I’m going to kick out the human shepherds and I myself will be the shepherd of the sheep. Kings, move over. I’ll do this. I’m taking over.

    I am preaching in a congregation that is willing to hear that some leaders are corrupt and take from the people they are supposed to be serving, even today, in order to line their own pockets. The U.S. headlines can fill in all the details on that one. We need a leader who will take care of the sheep. Who will be that leader? We need God. We need Jesus. We need a good shepherd.

    Not sure how to tie this in with the Matthew passage, if at all…working on that one.

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  2. We are doing the entire year in one worship service. Each part of the liturgy is a liturgical year so our call to worship is Advent themed etc. Makes Easter as the sermon and the title is Resurrection Moments. It is also a communion Sunday so sermon will need to be a bit shorter which is just fine with me.

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    2. I have done something similar before, it worked well, and helped people see the church year cycle. Iona resources also has the bible in an hour, which was fun.

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  3. Preaching on Matthew….The “Community matters” title of this entry hit me smack on the forehead. I just finished writing a reflection paper on communion for my history and polity class (DOC) where I talked about community at and beyond the table. Hmmm….me thinks I can turn that into a sermon on this text AND help teach/remind my congregation of what it means to be Disciples beyond the Table.

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  4. preaching on Jeremiah, thinking of the part towards the end of the reading: I will bless you with a future filled with hope. You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you and accept your worship.
    i love the part about seeking the welfare of the community, so that may get in there as well.
    and including From Spill the Beans: I Never Wanted to Live Here.
    Tomorrow morning is a combined service, so both morning groups will be together. i am thinking of taking the opportunity to make a statement about our 2 years together, but as it is already 8.30 pm on Saturday, i am not sure if i can do it well.

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  5. I also added more of Ezekiel 34, so I could have the bits about the bad kings at the beginning, and the middle part about “was it not enough for you to enjoy the pasture/water, you also had to ruin it for everyone else?” And I’m not entirely sure how it’s all going to tie together yet…even though I had all day yesterday to do nothing but write, I ended up reading a lot of articles and commentary and taking lots of notes that don’t all add up to a sermon. Or at least not one, relatively brief, communion-Sunday sermon! LOL.

    I’m thinking I might try starting with some history of Christ the King Sunday and seeing if that will lead me the right way.

    My sermon title, chosen mid-week, is “Flock Together”—so I’ve obviously been thinking I’ll end up in some sort of community theme as well!

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  6. I have a baptism tomorrow, so I am preaching on the baptismal covenant in the Episcopal Church: the three renunciations and three affirmations, and what we promise to do with God’s help. No mention this year of the Reign of Christ (although I could add that since it is a baptism), reusing an old sermon on this very topic, which says exactly what I want to say again.

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  9. So I wrote two sermon drafts this week because we drove to North Carolina from Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving Holiday. It took 17 hours on the way down, and yesterday, we drove back but it *only* took 15 hours. (We thought it would be fun to take the dogs. So much NOT SO MUCH). So, this morning I thought I would just edit one or combine them, easy peasy but now as I look at both with my bleary eyes, I wonder if I should start all over…yikes!

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  10. So… it occurred to me to look into scapegoats, and here’s where I’m going. There was all this conversation at bible study this week about goats, and how great they are– smart, funny, affectionate… people really just stuck up for the goats as we finished reading this passage. The scapegoat was chosen by lot, and the Hebrew literally means, “goat of departure.” I am wondering whether Jesus is saying, “In your life, you have scapegoated the hungry, the sick, the immigrant. Here’s how that feels. Depart.” In other words, it is their actions of scapegoating others, that causes Jesus to place them in this category.

    I’ve had a lot of caffeine. But I can offer some lovely virtual Cranberry Orange Bread left over from Thanksgiving (US), if we are sharing.

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  11. Struggling. Usually done and only doing minor edits by now. I’m way down the road of Christ the King using Ephesians 1 but so far I have a collection of paragraphs that don’t hang together well. If this were a cooking competition, we might say I need the sauce. Suffering from lack of sleep taking care of husband recovering from knee replacement surgery, and having had the in-laws in town for the holidays. Loved all the togetherness, but didn’t get the usual study time this week. Trusting that the Holy Spirit will help me bring this all together somehow – hopefully not in the middle of the night. If I were a teacher, this would be the class in which we watch a movie instead. Sigh. No, I’ll get there. Thanks for listening.

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  12. I anticipated that I would not want to write a sermon this week, so last week I wisely put together (er, pieced together from posts of various smart friends) a “year in review” for Christ the King Sunday. I’m putting it all in at the sermon time, which may be too much. I did not anticipate that I would catch a cold over Thanksgiving and not feel at all energized about anything. Blech. Thankfully, my sweetie has brought me some caffeine, so I can go over and revise the plan.

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  13. I woke up with the missing piece of the sermon, so now I’m rushing through the rest of the morning routine (blah blah blow drying etc…). I hope everyone else has inspirational (or healing) sleeps too!

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