conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sermon thinking...

I posted this comment on RevGal this morning. Their eleventh hour preacher party is well under way.

I think I am going to focus on the Mark passage...and to set something up that matches giving thanks with the revelation of God, or as some call it, the end times. LeHaye and other folk like him seem to not get this point...or they have not yet found a way to sell it. I hate bashing folk. And the pulpit is not the place to do that. I do wonder, however, if I can share a pastoral/theological vision of giving thanks as the in-breaking of God. It is our participation, a confession of our recognition of God's full presence in the world.

The last three weeks I have been speaking about dreams...visions and seeing. Now, this weekend, we see the end times, an apocalyptic vision from Jesus in Mark's gospel passage. God's own city will collapse and be destroyed.

Lots of thoughts running through my knoggen right now...thus the chaotic image. Sarah suggested that it is an image of the interior of my brain while I compose a sermon. It's not far from the truth.

So...

What the apocalypse is not:
- planes crashing into the ground
- "In case of rapture, this car will be unoccupied."
- an opportunity for God to be merciless

The reason we see the apocalyptic readings before Advent is the connection between the nativity, the birth of Jesus, and the end times. They are both about the full in-breaking of God into the world...God's full revelation.

We have an icon in the space this week...somehow it connects for me.
- intention and interpretation matter
- spiritual fruit matters
- Christ enthroned...
Music connects for me.
Justice and mercy speak to this for me.
Communion speaks to this for me.

Thanksgiving...
- for what God has done.
- for what God is doing.
- for what God will do.
Thanking God is a discipline...we thank God first in our prayers...this is in part a recognition of the beginning and the end - of God's presence with us now.

There is a lot to flesh out yet. But I think this is good stuff.

Posted by tripp at November 18, 2006 11:51 AM