Sometimes inspiration is as much how you say it as what you say.

I’m sitting thinking about a sermon for Sunday.  It’s Pentecost, one of those Sundays which is hugely important to the church.  It’s also one of those festivals which comes around every year and has had every angle of it preached on over the years.

I want to say the right things… but I also want people to be inspired.

So, in my usual Monday practice I went looking for inspiration in my usual places.

I found it on Roddy Hamilton’s site:

When those who trust love no longer wait for someone else to fix the problem of the church,

when faith is too important to hand it over to leaders to sort out,

when justice leaves behind those who think she is but a subset of the church’s work rather than the whole thing,

when followers give up on those who procrastinate about inclusion,

when diversity becomes an invite to a table of bread broken safely among people wearing their hidden truths across their foreheads,

when communion is a feast served by non-ordained women, children and men who know heaven won’t implode in doing so,

when the doctrine makers use marker pens to write ‘sorry’ over half their words,

when creeds are written in questions rather than in statements,

when dandelions become the plant of choice breaking out just where the ground has been cleansed against it,

then it is Pentecost.

Hope, justice, equality… but sometimes how you say it is just as important.

Thanks for inspiring me Roddy.

I find that those weeks are the ones where I haven’t had the time to read enough, to talk enough or to think and pray enough.  Most weeks there are places I go looking for inspiration.  Places where I know I might find that one line, one thought, one fragment of something which will ignite my imagination.

People create worship in lots of different ways.  I like to begin at the beginning and at the end.  I think a Call to Worship and a Benediction set a tone and a context that help me to fill in the part in the middle.  But before I put pen to paper or press a key I visit some places…

Abbotsford

Roddy posts a ‘Chocolate Teapot’ most weeks.  These are his first reactions to the text for the week.  A thought, or at least the start of one…  He also frequently posts fantastic prayers which I find help me with those beginnings and endings

Laughing Bird

A great lectionary resource.  I head straight for the commission and benediction section.  Again, just a few words can crystalise a theme.

Disclosing New Worlds

Lawrence Moore’s great commentary blog.  Unfortunately, but understandably, it is difficult to keep up this kind of in-depth stuff each week but check the archive for some brilliant stuff.

Lectionary Liturgies

Great liturgies based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

The Text This Week

The one stop shop for all your worship needs.  Loads of links to all kinds of places.

So, where do you go for inspiration?

Let me know what you think…

As usual, your thoughts, comments and suggestions (constructive please).

The first is Shane Claiborne’s ‘Jesus for President’ stuff where he talks about the revolutionary kingdom.  The subversion of the Gospel of the Caesars and Mark’s mocking of Caesar in the way he depicts the Crucifixion as a coronation.

The video I posted of Rob Bell sharing his thoughts on the Good News echo these thoughts.

So that’s where Sunday’s sermon is going.  The kingdom of God is a subversive revolution.

I remember the fuss about this picture of Jesus depicted as Che Guevara, the revolutionary who was a key player in the Cuban revolution.  People were genuinely outraged.  I hope it was because they wouldn’t associate Jesus with violent revolution but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that people just don’t see Jesus in the revolutionary role.

So, what do you think?  was Jesus ‘meek and mild’?  Or is there more to this Gospel than that?  Is the Gospel political?  Is it a call to subversive living?

The story about the monastery comes from alt.spirit at metro.m3: Alternative Urban Spirituality which is well worth getting your hands on!

Let me know what you think!  Please!!!

I was at Lanark Greyfriars and the readings were John 20: 19-31, 1 John 1:1 – 2:2 and Acts 4: 32-35

As always, your comments, suggestions and most of all questions are very welcome.

I often feel that Holy Week is one of the most overlooked parts of the Christian year.  That’s all the more strange because it is at the very heart of our faith.  Today is the day when we remember that Jesus gathered  with his closest friends in an upper room to celebrate the Feast of the Passover.  During the meal Jesus broke bread and shared a cup of wine and in doing so gave the church the sacrament of communion.  Remember me.  Sad that in Holy Week, of all times, we forget.

I have to say that I don’t think preaching is done yet, but then you might expect someone who stands at the front of a church most Sundays to say that.

My biggest complaint about lots of preaching is that it is mostly average at best.  I know it’s hard to hit the heights every week but it seems to me that most of the complaints I hear about preaching are really about quality.  Most of us enjoy listening to a captivating speaker for much longer than 10 or 15 minutes.  I regularly listen to Rob Bell talk on his podcast for an hour and I’m disappointed when it’s over.  And that has no visual aids.

So, here’s my plea to anyone who gets to stand up in front of any group of people to speak.  Look on that 15 minute slot as the most important 15 minute presentation of your life, without the associated stress obviously. Would that change how you approach it? Should you expect people to disagree with what you said? What would you like them to go home thinking about?

In Jonny’s article he say:

Mike Riddell suggests that ‘The purpose of the sermon is to unleash the power of scripture in a way that leads to personal and corporate encounter with God.’ (p119 God’s Home Page).  I like that.  I’d add that it should open up the possibility of transformation which maybe is implicit in his definition.  One other goal of preaching/teaching is education – enabling people to learn.

Is that what you get on a Sunday?  Is that what you set out to do on a Sunday?  What do you think about preaching?