Fellow preachers, how is your sermon? If you’re preaching from The Narrative Lectionary, perhaps you’re sharing the promise that God’s spirit will be poured out upon God’s people. If you’re in the Revised Common Lectionary, you may be hearing John the Baptist’s words that the coming Christ will baptize with the spirit. Or perhaps you’re considering the reading from 2 Peter with its charge that we are to be both waiting and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord. Or are you doing some other series or theme for your Advent preaching this year?
Wherever you are in your sermon writing rhythm , this is a place where you can discuss your ideas as they emerge, ask questions, and share links to your sermon drafts. And if you need some prayers or litanies to fill in other parts of the service, please check our weekly Worship Words post or share your own resources. You will find here a supportive group of fellow preachers, all working to bring the Word to the world.
Barbara Bruneau is a retired Lutheran pastor, living in southeastern Minnesota. She is a knitter, a weaver, and a very occasional blogger at An Explosion of Texture and Color.
Photo by Gerd Altman on Pixabay.
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I’m off lectionary but not off subject! Preaching Micah 4:1-4 and musing on the meaning of the promise of peace. In Micah’s time it meant the end of war and occupying armies and foreigners seizing one’s lands and home and crops. In our time, what? We still have neighborhoods in my city where it’s not safe to sit outside under your own vine and your own fig tree. Domestic violence hides behind pretty house facades in “nice” areas. Where is this peace that Christ promises? Still working on the sermon…
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That sounds like a really powerful scripture to explore in your sermon.
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I’ve got a few vaguely related ideas bouncing around in my head. One is about the wilderness being a creative place, not a desolate one. The second comes from a talk I heard Fr. Greg Boyle give a few weeks ago; I’ve read his work and heard him many times (including preaching at our church!), but this had never hit me before. He spoke of people going to the margins of society to help fix people, and discovering when they’re truly vulnerable that they’re the ones who are transformed and healed. I keep thinking about the notion of people going out to see John, definitely a person living on the margins–possibly sort of gawking at the crazy guy–and ending up being the ones who are changed by seeing the One to whom he is pointing. I’m picturing this coming together in a sermon that talks about being in the wilderness and allowing it to be a creative time in which we are transformed, rather than thinking we’re going to rescue anyone else. Or something like that!
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That sounds really intriguing. I would look forward to hearing how it all comes together for you.
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Annnnnd I’m back! Long time Saturday peeps. I’m preaching from the traditional lectionary and just finished the sermon, late for me. The sermon is: We are waiting.
We are waiting
We are waiting in the dark
We are waiting in the holy darkness
We are waiting in the womb of God
Between this Advent and the next
We wait
We are waiting. We are waiting for Christmas. We are waiting for the end of the semester. We are waiting for this calendar year to be over. We are waiting for one heck of a New Year’s Eve party. We are waiting for Jesus. We are waiting for Jesus to come back. And while we wait, we wait with Jesus, in this world that needs him still.
We are a waiting church. In the gospel John is waiting for Jesus and urging the people to wait for the kiss of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah waited. Isaiah waited for the restoration of Israel after the Assyrian invasion and did not live to see it. Waiting time can be anxious time because there is no guarantee that we ourselves will see that for which we yearn…
What the Israelites found on the other side of the desert was that even when you can go home again nothing is the same as it was. You have changed. The world has changed. And that is something we need to face ourselves. We are waiting for the world to get back to normal too. Though neither exile nor captivity, the pandemic has been the cause of great sorrow, grief and pain. And we just want to get back to normal. But we are waiting for a future that will not be what was before.
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“We are waiting for a future that will not be what was before.” I think this will be one of the biggest traumas for many people who are expecting to return to the good old days.
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