I preached my sermon on Sunday (slightly modified from the draft I posted here), and it went well. It's always a little hard to gauge how a sermon affects the congregation, but I received positive comments, and no one stormed out in the middle, so I'll count it as a success.
Now I'm looking ahead to the next time I'll be preaching: September 5. The readings for that day are Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 1, Philemon 1-21, and Luke 14:25-33. You can check out the readings here.
The Gospel text is about giving up possessions in order to follow Jesus. Jesus makes analogies to preparing for a building project or a battle, concluding, "So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."
I am pulled a bit towards Philemon, because I think that would be a fun text on which to preach. The message there is about Christian community and the radical re-ordering of hierarchy (honor/shame) in Christ.
On the other hand, the congregation is thinking about stewardship right now, and the Luke text could preach to that subject very well.
So I'll have to make up my mind about which text I want to use. Any suggestions?
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2 comments:
What about combining the themes of a couple of them? Philemon and Luke might work really well together for this week...Jesus essentially says give up your possessions and redefine your family, and Paul tells Philemon to do the same in a very concrete way. Give up your slave and make him as your brother.
That's a really interesting idea, Sarah! We know a certain preaching professor would object... but it might really work.
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