Some mighty fine preachin'

In case you ever need it, here's a site where all my Sunday sermons are archived. You can listen to last Sunday's sermon, or a sermon from three years ago.

http://www.sermonshare.com/LakebayCC

There are some musical nuggets in there, as well.

Feel free to pass that along to all your friends and relations.

When Words are Worthless

Like just about every pastor on this planet, I'm pondering the coming weekend. Tomorrow we celebrate Maundy Thursday, then on through Good Friday to Easter Morning. This is the highest point of celebration for those who are called the Sons and Daughters of God, revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, conqueror of evil, defeater of death, Hope and Life for all who believe.

If there is ever a weekend for which we need to choose our words carefully, this is it.

But we live in a world in which words have lost their power and punch. Words, which used to represent Ideas and Meanings, are now just one more tool in the hands of lesser people known as advertisers. Words have been co-opted to mean much less than they used to mean.

Take the word "epic." What should "epic" mean? Epic once meant Heroic, Grandeur, Historic, Grandly-Sweeping-Across-The-Land. Epic would describe Hercules, Epic would describe a few hundred soldiers fighting back tens of thousands of their enemies. Epic might describe Neil Armstrong stepping upon the plains of the moon.

Epic has been co-opted by the Outdoor Adventure Crowd. Now, "epic" means a nice bike ride down the side of a mountain, or a freefall before the parachute opens, or even a bungee jump. I get it - people who do these things do so because they want more than the mundane office-and-SUV life, and living these adventures helps them feel like part of something so much more alive, so much bigger than 'normal life.' But still. . ."epic" would once mean once-in-every-ten-generations; today, thousands of men and women are having 'epic' adventures every single weekend of summer.

Even worse are the way words have been twisted and tormented in the hands of copy-writers trying to get you into the mall or the grocery store. Amazing now describes a new pair of shoes, Powerful now describes an mp3 player, and, perhaps most troubling, Miraculous can now describe a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Words meant to describe the mind-bending, the truly out-of-this-world, the particularly rare or great are now attached to the common, the fad, the fleeting, in order to convince the purchaser that they are somehow taking part in something important.

But then, I flail about looking for a word to describe what happened Easter morning. I quickly become disheartened, for if all the BIG WORDS no longer mean BIG THINGS, what will people think when we use those same BIG WORDS to describe the one truly BIG ACT of history? If people translate Miraculous as "chocolate chip cookies," what will they think when I describe the empty tomb as miraculous? If people equate Epic with a bike ride through the woods, what will they think when I describe Christ's life as epic? If Amazing, Awesome, Stupendous all describe cars, stereos, and soup, how can those same words describe the King of the Universe laid dead in a tomb? How can they ever hope to describe a tomb now empty, and Life Everlasting poured out upon the universe?

If our language has been co-opted, twisted, and destroyed. . .what ever is left? What language shall we borrow to describe our dearest Friend? How do we get beyond that false set of assumptions so insidiously implanted by Madison Avenue and Hollywood?

When words have been gutted of their worth. . .what is the Preacher to say?

The Danger of Asking for Input

Back in the day I used to occasionally turn our youth group meetings into Question-And-Answer periods. Rather than preparing a lesson, I would open up the floor and allow the kids to ask whatever they wanted, and I'd attempt to lead the group toward an answer.

In many ways, it was a no-brainer, because the kids always asked two questions. Sure, they asked a lot of questions, but in the end, they were always about the same two things:

1) Sex
2) Other religions

And I knew enough to be able to answer those questions. "How far is too far?" "Why does the church make such a big deal about sex before marriage?" "If my girlfriend and I 'did it,' does that mean we're going to hell?" and, finally, "my friend's a Mormon. Is he going to hell?"

Everything came back to that.

So a few months ago I decided to spend a couple weeks preaching in a Q&A format. We're in between series, so I thought it would be nice to let the congregation set the direction by asking me some questions. I'm not the first pastor to do this, so I can't take credit for any originality here. I just thought it would be a nice change from the normal "Dan decides what to preach on and then he preaches on it" routine. Besides, these things are pretty easy, so I would have extra time to prepare the upcoming series, as well as taking care of some other stuff around here.

Nope.

Not this church.

Nothing easy here.

"Perhaps you could speak to refute Marcionism."
"How can I be completely contented when my loved ones are spending eternity in hell?"
"Who are the 'spirits kept in prison' in 1 Peter 3:19?"
"Is God a Republican?"
"Why do some people live perfectly happy lives, while others go through virtual hell every day?"
"Jesus only suffered for a few hours - how does that compare to those who spend years in excruciating pain and suffering?"

In fact, not one question about sex or other religions. Answering these questions has taken twice as long as my normal sermon preparation.

I guess I should be happy - I serve a thinking church who wrestle with deep issues. But how am I supposed to come across as the "expert" when I can't answer 1/2 of their questions?

I need to go back and preach on stuff I know. It's a lot less complicated.

(note - that last little bit is completely tongue in cheek, in case you didn't get that)

Tough Days to Preach

Sometimes there are just too many strands to be pulled in. Today is Palm Sunday - so preach on the triumphal entry. But the focus of the Mark 11 text is on the cleansing of the temple. So preach on that. But we're entering holy week, and I won't preach again until Easter, so we need to push on toward the cross. Can that fit in? And spring begins this Wednesday (here on the West Coast), and I usually like to preach on something related to creation and God's majesty around springtime. Finally, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and many choose to preach on something related to the life and ministry of St. Patrick.

Then, there's the problem of music. Music about the Triumphal Entry? (Hosanna, Hosanna. . .) The Temple Cleansing? (Derek Webb has a song or two about that, although our hymnbook doesn't seem to include any. . .) The Last Supper? The Cross? Music about creation, in honor of spring? (For the Beauty of the Earth, This is My Father's World. . .)? Or something to do with St. Patrick's Day? (Be Thou My Vision)

We almost need to have four different services today. Otherwise it's just too broad, and I can't focus. . .

The great sermon experiment, Week 5

Texts for Sunday, July 8:
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30

Psalm 30 is one of my favorites, especially this line: weeping may last for a night, but rejoicing comes with the morning.

Both texts deal with a person being taken from despair to joy. They both speak of God stepping into a life and fixing that which was broken. Both deal with despair and hope. And both make clear Who it is that we can rely on for help in trouble.

Some questions to ponder:
1) Where have you seen this in your life? Have you experienced miraculous physical healing? Have you been lifted from the pit, from mourning to joy?
2) Besides being healed, what lessons did Naaman learn from his experience? Was there more to this story than flesh being made clean?
3) What is the important lesson for us to learn from these texts? There are a lot at play - power, glory, miracles, doubt, God's sovereignty. How do these texts speak to you today?
4) If you had to summarize the lesson of these texts in one sentence, what would it be?

The Great Sermon Experiment

I've decided to do an experiment for the summer. I'm going to call it Online-Collaborative-Sermon-Making.

I'm going to preach the lectionary texts over the summer. Somewhere around Tuesday of each week, I'll post the texts for the next Sunday's sermon (the Sunday 1 1/2 weeks out), along with a few comments on said text. I've invited a number of people from our church to join me in reading the texts and my comments, and then responding with their own observations, questions, ideas, illustrations, and the like. I will then take all those pieces into account when I put the sermon together in the next 10 or so days.

I've already asked 5-6 people to be a part, but all who read this blog are welcome to join in the conversation.

I think we'll begin next week. This Sunday is Pentecost, and the next Sunday I'm going to do something dealing with Creation, as Spring is hard upon us and Summer is almost here, so the lectionary texts would begin June 10. Which means I'll post the first texts, with comments, next Tuesday.

I look forward to allowing extra voices in the process. It'll be up to all who are part of Lakebay (i.e. those who actually hear the sermons) to decide whether or not the experiment is a success.