In what ways and in which places are you encountering God this 3rd week in Lent? In places of light? Or lurking in the shadows?
Is the presence of God illuminating life around you just now or confounding you?
Our Lectionary texts, as ever, are a mixed bag that invite us to join in a complicated dance to discern their rhythm and the steps that might be taken to honour them in our lives and to bring a prophetic word in our communities.
Blog posts from earlier in the week – for the Narrative Lectionary and for the RCL may be helpful for helping you along.
Perhaps you are off lectionary for the season of Lent – share your practices and the direction you are being led.
Whatever stage your preparations are at – or whether you’ve already preached this week, please share in the comments so that we can help one another in the enormous task of preaching and of living out the gospel wherever we are.
Rev Liz Crumlish is a Presbyterian minister living on the west coast of Scotland. She is a member of the RevGalBlogPals Board and contributed to There’s a Woman in the Pulpit.
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If I may crash the party – https://heartontheleft.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/what-i-am-not-giving-up-for-lent-3-experience/
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Thanks Tony – for keeping those doors open and holding out faith for others.
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You’re welcome! Peace to you and your ministry!
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Liz, is that photo from Iona? The window of clear glass looking to the sea?
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Kathy, it does look a bit like it – but this cathedral was in Southern France.
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a long week, and a busy day today. it was election day in our State, and the church is a polling place. We sold cakes, plants, craft, books, trash and treasure and sausage sandwiches. People were there from 7 am setting up to pack up time at 1.00 pm.
i was not looking forward to writing this sermon, becasue I find this passage, Matthew 22:1-14, such a difficult parable. It is now finished, though maybe some tweaking in the morning. I was honest and said there is more than one way to look at this parable.Strange Stories: Some Party
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Patty- I like the way you present various interpretations and invite folk to ponder.
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Oh my Goodness!!! I am not long returned from two weeks study leave in the US; and I return to the readings I chose before I left… in the RCL – I can find nothing at all hopeful in the gospel and epistle – and I have no idea why I put those hymns with those readings three weeks ago!
The hymns must stand, but I am very inclined to start over with the readings!
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Julie, hope you’ve had a chance to rediscover the connections – or to invent new ones!
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Funeral this morning, so I wrote the sermons yesterday. Tomorrow is Isaiah and a little Gospel: God’s abundance, with a lot about hope and confidence, since the multitude of disasters in the past couple of weeks make God’s abundance look remote indeed. My Bible study class on Wednesday really wanted to talk about the gospel in terms of: your time is up and judgment comes, but I’ve had enough of that.
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Robin, this is surely a time for bringing an alternative message of hope and confidence – especially when we can’t see the abundance around.
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tomorrow is our stated annual meeting and I have just finished writing the review of the year for that as well as a very short sermon on overcoming an attitude of scarcity and consciously finding Joy in gratitude (mostly based on Brene Brown’s ideas in The Gift of Imperfection) which I hope makes sense as I do not like writing this late in the day (almost 8pm here) – I’m a morning person but the morning was taken up with other things like funeral visits. I am calling it a day and settling down to watch some rubbish TV. Thinking of all of you who are still at work.
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Tanya, my feeds are full of Brené just now – sounding the right notes for our times.
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I’m here again … after a week of tummy virus and unexpected grandbabysitting lands me on Saturday without the underpinnings of preparation that I had hoped. Thankfully the Isaiah passage is a scripture with which I am familiar, but there is still a sermon to be written this evening. I’m also thankful that my husband has decided to watch March Madness in the bedroom down the hall. Praying for inspiration for all of us still working …
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Julie – I hope that inspiration shows up soon
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