What was the sermon about today?
Nenya
All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
This is intended as a sister thread to "What did you sing at church today?" It's not intended as Bible exposition (that would be Kerygmania) nor a critique of the sermon (that would be Purgatory or, possibly, Epiphanies), just a simple summary of what the sermon was about. Let's start by keeping to three sentences.
If the sermon was based on a Bible passage a link to it would be helpful, using a site such as Bible Gateway .
At Our Place yesterday the passage was Romans 1:18-32 and entitled "Sin and the Wrath of God" - we all know God is nice and loving but he has another side to him because we are all depraved, miserable sinners. It was, almost literally, a case of "Oh, look, a Dead Horse... let's not talk about that." Step over said Horse and carry on.
If the sermon was based on a Bible passage a link to it would be helpful, using a site such as Bible Gateway .
At Our Place yesterday the passage was Romans 1:18-32 and entitled "Sin and the Wrath of God" - we all know God is nice and loving but he has another side to him because we are all depraved, miserable sinners. It was, almost literally, a case of "Oh, look, a Dead Horse... let's not talk about that." Step over said Horse and carry on.
Comments
(should I confess I was the preacher?) I used material from the Bible Society's Navigating Trauma course to talk about how to go about forgiving. Church is great at telling us we must forgive, but rarely talks about what forgiveness is (and is not ie doesn't mean allowing it to happen again/ glossing over pain/ escaping consequences etc) or how to go about the process of forgiving someone/thing.
We had the same subject with a story about Metropolitan Antony which acknowledged that forgiveness, while held up as an ideal for us to aim for, is something we have to be able to forgive ourselves for not always being able to do. Or not do yet. Some mention of Gordon Wilson also in the context of forgiveness as a source of strength and hope for the forgiver.
The sermon drew from Psalm 46 and John 14:18–27. The sermon was about returning from pilgrimage and continuing to live as a pilgrim.
Our new minister (his first service with us) talked about growing up in Zimbabwe, where his mother had a set of crockery reserved for special visitors. But, her children were not special enough to eat from those plates, she made sure he was well fed using the ordinary plates. Most of the plates in our churches are ordinary, but it's those that God uses to feed others, the "special plates" reserved for best are rarely used and don't feed many. Coupled to the widow's oil, it was the ordinary jars of the poor neighbours of the widow that were miraculously filled with oil, a call for God to fill us (ordinary plates) that the people around us may be fed.
Since then, learning from my own mistakes, I have tried to address the question whenever preaching on the theme, yet it is so hard to get it right. Jesus forgiving the perpetrators from the Cross is hardly manipulative, but the context is everything. He was powerless. I suspect. I hope inadvertently, I was still in a position of power when I played that card. It's not the same.
On the other hand, in the NZ Eucharistic liturgies we have the overused quasi-absolution "God forgives you, forgive others, forgive yourself." Does s/he? Can we? Do we? Should we?
I guess it's more a purgatorial theme, but it weighs heavily on my shoulders when I hear of it again and again.
More likely to be Epiphanies, I think.
What was the sermon about at your place this week @Zappa ?
/Hostly Hint
We are all responsible for mission. We need to make the most of opportunities to share the gospel, doing this with salt (which represents wisdom).
God understands and supplies our needs, regardless of how we may perceive them to be different or convince ourselves that 'things would be so much better if only...'
It's salutary to reflect on how many sermons we don't remember...this applies particularly to those of us who have (or once had) a licence to preach...
Offhand, I can recall two or three from the past 60 years or so, but, oddly, three I've heard in the past few months have stuck in my mind - or at least, their general purport has.
One was on the Ascension of Jesus, the next on the Dormition of Mary, and the most recent was at the (Roman Catholic) funeral of my Auntie S...see if you can spot a possible link, the link which is now fixed in my head...
Sounds like Cathscats' sort of wise words, indeed, with much truth in them.
I don't really grasp this nourishment or food analogy at all, unless I was also "fed" by biology lectures at University. And I can't see what advantage that metaphor would have over just saying "learnt".
I've never grasped this "spiritual food" thing. It just doesn't connect with anything in my brain. This may be a me thing.
And as I suspect you meant, I don't think our failure to remember is due to our advancing age.
On afternoons of drowsy calm
We stood in the panelled pew,
Singing one-voiced a Tate-and-Brady psalm
To the tune of "Cambridge New."
We watched the elms, we watched the rooks,
The clouds upon the breeze,
Between the whiles of glancing at our books,
And swaying like the trees.
So mindless were those outpourings! -
Though I am not aware
That I have gained by subtle thought on things
Since we stood psalming there.
(Afternoon Service at Mellstock)
Hardy is clearly referring to the act of worship as a whole, without singling out the sermon, but, as @Arethosemyfeet points out, worship consists of word and sacrament.
They're taking it from the place in John where Jesus tells Peter to "Feed my sheep." Which they take to mean primarily "Preach to them."
Yeah, I get the references and wotnot but I can't make the link to anything I actually see or experience happening day to day or week to week. I'm not sure what it would look like.
The term "Spiritual Food" could be considered as a catch all for anything that strikes us as important and/ or resonates with us. We're all different in this respect and it might be something said in a sermon that really gets us thinking and exploring a concept. Or a story told that perhaps challenges an ingrained attitude. Or perhaps a few words that produce hope where it was lacking. Recognising these things ime requires self reflection and what I call "allowing them to do their work"
I'm sorry if that doesn't mean anything to people. In different places and at different times, it hasn't meant much to me, especially where I have felt alienated from those around me. But this is what the term meansto me now.
Yes, indeed! I mentioned the things I did as this thread is about the sermon but I too find the Eucharist deeply enriching. I'd also add that sometimes the music, the words of the liturgy or even a conversation have all contributed something for me as spiritual food.
I'm honestly in awe of your perseverance in the face of all of this stuff. My one observation based solely on some of the great things you post is that you think really deeply. That thinking is possibly how you connect. So to return to the spiritual food analogy, anything you encounter in a church service that leads you into such rich thinking could be considered as such food. Leaving all that aside, I'm simply grateful that you are here. Thank you
It's funny you should say that about thinking. I feel like I exist in my thoughts, which include my emotions, and my physical presence. I don't feel like there's a third "spiritual" element. I don't know what it would look like if it existed.
That's "look like" in the metaphorical sense, of course.
Perhaps it exists if it does in the emotional part of my thoughts. I was recently moved by a reading of Love Bade me Welcome by George Herbert. But it didn't feel qualitatively different to how I felt at Cropredy when Fairport played to a recording of Sandy Denny singing*
*I hate the phrase, but 'if you know, you know'.
I like "increasing maturity" and am sure that I'll use it at least once before the end of the week.
I too find Love Bade me Welcome deeply moving. I also (I think!) see what you're getting at with the Fairport reference. As regards the third spiritual element, the observation that comes to mind is that perhaps those thoughts are a spiritual thing in themselves?
Maybe, but God as a thing separate from creation seems superfluous for that, if a long dead singer can do the same thing.
Phew, I'm glad I got the right end of the stick re the Fairport thing and didn't embarrass myself publicly!
Father Richard Rohr, true to his Franciscan roots, has said on more than one occasion that God is not separate from creation but rather that creation was God's first act of incarnation. I can spend many happy hours pondering that thought 😍
Do you think this is "joy" as described by C S Lewis?
It's not the word I'd use.
You can get almost invisible ear buds these days.
Me and Mrs LB were responsible for the "pew sheet" (weekly bulletin) at a church many years ago. One particularly slow news week we had a space so just put an empty square there labelled "sermon doodling space". The vicar was only moderately amused.
Probably didn't help that I'd been playing Tubular Bells on the piano shortly before as a dexterity exercise but he mostly knew it as the theme music for The Exorcist