The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
PREACHING
Preaching has brought me closer to the Bible than I had imagined possible. I have been told by Benedictine friends that they find Christ to be sacramentally present in the whole of scripture, just as he is in the Eucharist... For me, preaching is not about teaching. It is not about something I know well enough to pass on, but a means of suggesting and pointing to possibilities I have discovered in a text as it interacts with life itself... Sermons point to a relationship with a God who has promised to be present when two or three are gathered in his name. This is Jesus, whom Christians refer to as the Word incarnate, the Word made flesh. And as people come to church to renew and sanctify their lives, only a living word will do.
I found it interesting that this chapter on preaching was one of the longest ones in Norris' book thus far. This morning, Friday, is my day to put the Sunday sermon together. If it is a good morning, I will have something pretty much in hand by lunchtime. That doesn't mean it doesn't get reworked. By the time I leave the house early Sunday morning, I may have deleted or moved or rewritten a number of pieces. Even on Sunday morning, it is not odd for me to go to worship with side note written into my "typed" pages. Not only that. I record the sermon at home for our website prior to leaving the house...so that must be about 6a.m. on Sunday. It never fails...but that recording is always shorter than the sermons in front of the congregation....always. Norris writes about the congregation as it it thrown into the mix of the sermon. The faces, the lives the preacher knows, the visitors, the events of the last week...they all come into the preaching event. Sometime It would be interesting to record what I say in the pulpit verses what is written verses what was recorded for the website. It would be interesting to see what goes on and what is transformed.
Connection: Our lives are like preaching events. What is the Word that is being presented through your living this day? What actions and words and silence team up to bring a message into your living space?
Inspiring God, we await your touch and long for you Word to bring us a bit of fresh air that we might breathe deeply and be renewed for another race around our world that is before us this day. Praise be to you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment