Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain
Last night's service was lovely. There were only twenty of total...including the choir. The Coalition is still trying to get these services on the radar for folk. So, there were more of us than them, but that's okay with me. We brought people down front and got a little casual. One older woman apologized for wearing jeans. I know it happens but I'll never understand it. It baffles me.
The sermon was (mostly) without notes. I needed another day with it. It turned out fine...Thanks to Jorge's comment, I was able to speak to the witness of the LBGT community to us. Redemptive suffering...it's crucifixion suffering, not hit by a bus suffering. That's what I wanted to get to in my last post and some of my notes preparing yesterday. But it didn't really come together until the last minute. And though that works, it is not my preferred mode of sermon preparation.
Today I will work on Sunday's sermon. I have an outline, an old sermon idea that I need to rework for this Sunday. The passage suggested from the lectionary is the Sacrifice of Isaac. Oy, but that's a sticky wicket to preach. But it is essential to do so. Other than the Passion and the Exodus from Egypt, I am not so sure there is a more important, formative, self-descriptive tale in the Bible. It stumps preachers, however. I'm thinking that I cannot preach the tale as history, but as parable instead.
Okay, I'm off to get some grub. Have a good day, friends.
Posted by tripp at June 26, 2008 06:42 AMwhole big theory that isaac actually didn't come down the mountain!
that he was mentally handicapped, the "simple son,"
plus he's the first born of the matriarch, so that makes things complicated...
i love that passage though. so many ways to go there on it
1) You don't understand why people wear jeans to church? You really need to visit me sometime.
2) I'm also preaching on Gen. 22. It might be important to point out that this really isn't the "Sacrifice of Isaac," but the "Binding of Isaac," since he really wasn't sacrificed. And yes, it is sticky (thank God it didn't fall on Father's Day) and one of a handful of "Very Important Stories."
I heard something at my clericus meeting the other day that I found interesting. At that time, child sacrifice was normative for some cultures. This isn't so much about God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as it is about Abraham's UNDERSTANDING of what God expects; and it is ALL ABOUT God's intervention of the act and basically saying, "We don't do that."
For what it's worth.
Posted by: Reverend Ref at June 26, 2008 08:09 AMTodd,
1. I don't know why people apologize for wearing jeans. I do, and I don't.
2. That's one interpretation...indeed. I think it's a way to go with the passage. And from our IM conversation, I think your line is a good one for your congregation.
Posted by: Tripp at June 26, 2008 08:26 AM