Once upon a time, a preacher carefully prepared a sermon. When it came time to preach the sermon, she went to print it off and realized that she wasn't able to open the document. That night, she preached what she could. Here is what she intended to share...
Scripture passages: Psalm 139:1-18//Jeremiah 1:4-10//John 8:21-38
Tonight. In this space. I invite you to take a deep breath. Breath in. And breath out. Let the tension from the day subside.
Tonight. In this space. As we breath in. And breath out. We step out of the hustle and bustle of life. We step out of the fear and anxiety of life. We step in to a time of prayer and a time of reflection.
Tonight. In this space. As we breath in. And breath out. God meets us. God fills us.
As we breath in. And breath out. We think of the One who first breathed life into out being--the One who formed our inward parts, who knit us together in the comfort of our mother’s womb. We think of this One who is with us.
This One who searches us. Who Knows us. Who knows when we sit, when we rise up...
This One who goes with us, to the highest heights and the deepest depths. In the light and in the the darkness...
As we breath in. And breath out. We recall that this One who is with us, knows us. In the deepest way.
This One knows...
how we try to flee from our past,
how we try to flee from being that which we were created to be,
how we try to flee from doing that which we were created to do,
how we try to flee like the prophet Jeremiah, saying we unable, unequipped
And this One, God, knows that when we try to flee, we are really bound, we are really slaves to sin...we cannot really flee on our own. God knows. God cares.
And so God the Father, sent the Son into the world. Because of Jesus Christ, we are not dead in our sins. We are not bound by our sins. We no longer need to try to flee on our own.
Rather, we are freed. Freed to be who God created us to be. To do what God created us to do. So that when we, like Jeremiah, hear God telling us to go, we can go. Knowing that the one who formed us, who knit us together is the one who goes with us. Knowing that the one who formed us, who knit us together, enables and equips us.
Tonight. In this space. Let us take a few moments, in silence, to breath in and to breath out. To dwell in the presence of God. To let the Spirit of God fill us. So that we may go...freed to be who God created us to be and to do what God created us to do.
posted by Pastor Emmy
YOIKES!!!! Thanks, now I have another worship nightmare to go along with dropping the chalice. :D
ReplyDeleteSo here's a good example. (I just commented on your 2010 post). This is such the right thing to say and how blessed we are that there are places that distracted, harrowed people can go and make this place in their hearts for God.
ReplyDeleteBut what if someone does live like this all the time, does know this, is aware of it constantly, lives by it in ever-increasing ways, doesn't let the cares of life pull him away? What if it's really true that we are freed? What if because we are freed, we know that and haven't forgotten during that week and need to be reminded? See, in all the wonderful words, an assumption is slipped in, that the listener *isn't* freed, or isn't experiencing it. So is the Lutheran church only for people who will always and forever live out the week harrowed and distracted and need to be reminded of the Gospel on Sunday?
When I ask the pastor this, he *of course* says 'no', but his words say 'yes', again and again.
The model I see churches working with is that the world pulls you away and church brings you back. But knowing that we're freed is the beginning, the prerequisite for what God will do, not itself the goal. If we get that we're freed, we can learn to live in the world in such a way that it doesn't pull us away, learn how God is speaking to us in, say, the database structure or the industry classification system or design issues, just like he spoke to the Jews in His Law, about loving the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself, and the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son. But that breathing, worshiping attitude God has you facilitating has to be worked more and more into the parishioner's whole life. And it can be. The more it is, the more we can arrange our life to encourage it, because the more God can reveal Himself in non-church things.
ReplyDeleteThen church becomes a place where this is shared and brought together instead of trying again just to establish Square One.
Or I have just stumbled into the Sunday Morning versus Midweek Study distinction again? The church I'm at is trying to put in midweek things, but we seem to be running aground on the pastor only being familiar with the Sunday Morning task.
ReplyDeletekmonlift...
ReplyDeletethanks again for your comments. (fyi, this is Pastor Marsha...not Pastor Emmy who wrote this particular post)
One reflect I had on these comments was that, as Lutherans, we do believe that sin has a hold on all of us. That even if we know we are freed - even if we GET that...really get it deep down - sin will still get to us and pull us away from God, or turn us in on ourselves. There's a common Lutheran preaching practice of first talking about how sin is affecting our lives and then talking about how God saves us from all of that. I'm wondering if that pattern (often called Law/Gospel) is part of what bothers you?
Thanks again for the comments.
-Pastor Marsha