Are we in conversation with God? Does God talk to us and we listen, or do we talk to God and God listens? What about the Bible? Are we in conversation with it?
At MBCC, we preach on the premise that it is a conversation. Sometimes this is harder. The questions I posed today were big, sometimes vague, and even hard for me to answer. The joy is that the congregation often (usually...) has better answers than I do anyway.
I find myself in continual conversation with the text, part of the reason that I actually like the preaching process at MBCC. I was not finished with the book of Joel when I finished with my last sermon on it today.
As we discussed the end of the book of Joel, I asked everyone to consider scripture as a mirror, reflecting our identity (an idea borrowed from James Sanders). In that sense, I see the parts of Joel that I am tempted to toss out as enlightening. Joel calls us to arms when the faithful are threatened. In times we are hurt, our first instinct is to fight back, to hurt back. Miss Tiffany, ever insightful, noted that perhaps God is the one who is supposed to stand up for us. I do hope that is true.
If I preached didn't preach effectively to anyone else today, I preached to me. I needed my sermon. I find myself so angry at someone who hurt my family, and all I want to do is hurt back. I call him all kinds of nasty things in my head. I imagine ways to make him mad, frustrated, angry and hurt. Instead, I will do my best to put my hope in God, for some kind of justice in the end... hopefully sooner rather than later.
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2 comments:
Hi, Abby. I just wanted to say that when you're up there and asking a question that no one is answering, it's not because people are tuned out or have nothing to say.
It's usually because they are used to be talked to during a sermon (instead in a conversation with the preacher) and/or they just aren't show how to answer the question... or are just generally shy about speaking out in public (and with the church attendance we've been getting these days, it does feel more like "in public" to be speaking up during service).
Not something that can be helped, of course. But I just wanted to reassure you--it's not you; it's the circumstances, mainly.
Abby - A think Alan is correct. Plus . . . the responsibility for creating a mood/space for the talking is shared between the "preacher" and those to whom the question is asked. We need ask good questions, pull out more and those who are part of the community need to risk responding. I think those who have been around a bit more get used to it after a while. Some Sunday, folks are also just quieter than others.
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