It’s that time again….time to write a sermon!
Or, for some of us, time to get ready for holiday club, or to figure out how to incorporate the past week of children’s programming/vacation bible school into a Sunday service, not knowing how many might appear.
Or perhaps it’s time to confront the powers of the world, with a parable like Nathan’s? Or to sing “one lord, one faith…” with gusto! Or to bake some bread, for added effect in the midst of weeks of John 6. Or maybe you’re pondering Ruth’s situation with Boaz.
Or are you in the midst of a summer series? Ours is about people’s favourite hymns, and this week it’s all creation hymns, so I am preaching on both creation stories…though I haven’t quite worked out how yet.
This is the place for you, whether you’ve figured it out and just need to sit down and put words together, or whether you haven’t got a clue yet. This is where we look for beauty together, in the midst of the ordinary, and then share that with the world in need of good news. Share your plans, ideas, half-formed thoughts, inspirational quotes, and virtual snacks!
I’ve got enough chocolate to keep us all going all weekend, so pull up a chair and join the party!
Teri Peterson is a minister in the Church of Scotland, in a congregation where the Holiday Club starts on Monday and includes mornings for kids, afternoons for adults, and evenings for teens….for five consecutive days. She spends her free time (of which this week will have none) reading, petting the kitties, and amassing an ever larger collection of rain gear. And, of course, taking pictures of the view from her manse window!
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I am doing a four week series on the Four Freedoms (as in the paintings that Norman Rockwell did based on FDR’s speech during WWII because this is the 75th anniversary celebration year and he painted them here in Arlington, Vermont using local models). This week is Freedom of Speech and I’m using Acts 5:21-32 & Luke 19:29-40 as well as some illustrations from the Civil Rights movement. Have any of you preached on the concept of Freedom of Speech and the responsibility to speak up even if your voice shakes and you face vocal or even potentially violent opposition?
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Kathleen what a great idea for a four week series. I’ll have to check out the Norman Rockwell paintings on the Four Freedoms as I have not heard of them.
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I’m pretty sure we had them hanging in an elementary school classroom. What a great idea for a sermon series.
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Those are evocative paintings; what a neat idea for a series!
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Cool!
I haven’t preached on that exactly but I’m intrigued for sure!
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First Sunday after 2 weeks annual leave, then study leave. Looking at the book of Ruth, all in one sermon. I have some ideas, hopefully they fit together.
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9.30 pm , and on;y 327 words written. it is communion tomorrow, so a little shorter than usual is OK, but this needs and end, and maybe a middle 🙂
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finished, The book of Ruth
i wonder if i will get any responses to the decision of our national meeting a few weeks go – The Assembly decided that Ministers can decide if they will preside at Same gender marriages and Church Councils can decide if Same Gender marriages will occur on church property. i have been told by others that a few people have said they will leave if a SGM are allowed on church property. but given it was when i first went on holidays almost 3 weeks ago, maybe the angst will have subsided.
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Well, I had UMCers of 60 years tell me they were leaving if the church voted against — so I guess the debate continues. Sigh.
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I’m on a candidate weekend (performance interview/audition) with a church and am focusing on Ephesians 4:1-16 with the idea that God’s grace and the things that we share in common bring unity to our diversity. In response to God’s grace, our God-given gifts when used together can change our communities. After I lead worship at 2 services this evening and tomorrow morning, the congregation will vote about whether or not to call me as their next pastor. Some moments of anxiety in the midst of this.
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Prayers for you as you prepare to preach to this community, and as they consider inviting you to be a leader among them. I understand the anxiety! And I hope the Spirit is present with and to you during this time of possibility.
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That’s definitely anxiety producing! Prayers that you feel the Spirit at work.
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Thinking of you! May the Spirit’s voice be clear, for all of you!
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Good morning! Back from 65th birthday celebratory week in Toronto, which was great. I’m preaching on Ephesians: body of Christ and unity in diversity, part of my continuing effort to promote gratitude for the church’s abundance. I’ve had a 5-mile walk and I have an outline, and I’m now back to Gradye Parsons’ (former national PC(USA) officer) book on the connectional church to look for illustrations.
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I’m the one baking bread for tomorrow… on a hot and humid summer day. Not looking forward to turning the oven on this afternoon, but at least it is rising well with this heat!
Children’s time tomorrow is looking at “give us this day, our daily bread” (with emphasis on the plural pronouns); tying in to the sermon and the both/and of a God who wants to see us fed physically and spiritually. And then I will have a lovely loaf of bread to enjoy for lunch (unless I end up giving it away after the 2nd service).
My father and stepmother are arriving this afternoon and tomorrow will be the first time they have heard me preach (they are non-church people).
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Yum!
I’m baking tonight for an evening communion tomorrow. But it is decidedly not hot here, so…. 😉
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Almost two weeks ago, the bit in the gospel about the people only seeing that they got enough to eat and not the signs leapt out at me (no, I don’t start planning that far in advance, but as I was checking that the gospel book was set for that Sunday, I glanced ahead to this one!). I’ve been mulling that over, and then earlier this week I had a dream about preaching tomorrow’s sermon. In it, I compared simply experiencing the bread as an isolated moment of satisfaction to being like a dot on a page, with things like a healing or other miracles as other dots (and I was illustrating this on a white board). In seeing Jesus as a prophet, people were beginning to connect the dots…at which point I connected them into a star. But what they–and we–were missing was that it isn’t about the individual dots or even the lines connecting them, but the space they define…God’s kingdom, God’s light, God’s abundance, God’s eternal life, God’s provision. That dream was just as clear as could be to me, and I’m not going to ignore the Spirit giving me sermon ideas in a dream!
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Brilliant!
I love when inspiration and sleep can happen at the same time!
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Betsy Hooper I love your image of the star! I am preaching on Jesus urging us to look beyond the baskets of bread and fish to The Bread of Life. Still working on fleshing this out (no pun intended)…if need be, can I use your image?
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Definitely! The star was the shape in the dream, so I’m going with that and I do think it works well, but any outlined design would work.
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Thank you! Not sure if I will use an image or not, but in any case your dream has inspired me and moved me beyond my block.
Gota love this preachers’ party!
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I’ve had a day with the holiday club team, helping set up and hanging around and chatting and encouraging and whatnot…now I’m home and I think a root beer float might be in order before I can reasonably be expected to do any further work (aka start the sermon). Lol! Can I get anyone anything?
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Root beer floats make pretty much anything better in my book! Your schedule for the week sounds utterly exhausting, so better rest up now 🙂
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