Arranging Sermons

I do have hard copies of my sermons for the last ten years.  However, they have been put into notebooks by chronological, calendar years.  When it comes to locating a sermon to use as a possible resource,  that is not very helpful.  One encounters biblical text by liturgical year, not calendar year.   Those are Years A, B and C.

For the record, given the opportunity to preach I do always write a new sermon, because writing sermons is my most favorite thing.  But I would definitely use and old one as a resource, a starting place.  There might be helpful resources there.

So as a winter project, last year, I decided that I would try to arrange my sermons in Liturgical order, rather than in order by years.   It was really quite an undertaking and took weeks and weeks.   I spread it all out on the dining room table, which is a good place for a project, because it is not often in use.

This is what it looked like:   (though this is when it was all still in the basement, where books are stored)

Last night I got an email from a clergy colleague whose daughter is having a baby.  She wanted to know about my availability to be her Plan B, even though she does not know the exact date.  That means that I am likely to be notified on short notice that I am needed to fill in for her.

 I can look at the church calendar for the weeks around that time, see what the scripture selection is, and go to my B file box, and find a sermon on that exact text.  Of course, they are not all there.   I limited the sermons I put in the A, B, C boxes to Gospel selections.  I did most often use those, but not always.

So I just checked my system for the dates in question, and Eureka!  There are resource sermons for the exact three weeks in question.

It is so nice when the efforts of a winter project come to fruition!   It is probably 7 or 8 months later, but still......I am so proud of myself for creating a system that works just like it is supposed to!

Now I am ready, even if that baby comes on very short notice!

Big Words

I have a friend with whom I often communicate regarding several mutual areas of interest.   She frequently uses "big words."

 Sometimes, I do not know the meaning of the words she uses.   Often, I might have seen the word in print, but have never actually heard it spoken out loud.

For example, she once asked:  "Why do you eschew the dinners?"   I had never heard anyone use the word in a sentence before!

We are more likely to be communicating by email and often working on various projects together.

In an email last night, she used a word to describe me and I did not know its meaning.  I have heard the word before, but was not sure exactly what it meant.

So I looked up the meaning of the word.

Alacrity--- brisk and cheerful readiness, eagerness.

She said:  "You really do take on projects with such alacrity."

I rather like that word and think that it is an accurate description of me.  I tend to be very very task oriented, willing to take on some big ones, and totally dedicated to carrying them out.

But in the case of this particular friend, our projects together tend to take me into the creative realm where I am always more than willing and eager to venture!

So, yes, I think that is a great word.   I am always eager and cheerful and ready to jump into a creative challenge.   (not true of every challenge)   But a creative challenge just takes me over until I get it finished, usually in a very short turnaround time.

Now that I know exactly what the word means,  I might just try using it myself some time!

Favorite Things of Summer

On Sunday, I was prepared to give a Children's Message, though there were no children there.

I was going to ask them what they liked most about summer.  After they finished answering that, my plan was to tell them what I love most about summer.   Of course, there are many things not included in the children's message---so here are just a couple of examples:  sleeping with the window open and the fan blowing in the cool night air;  playing tennis;  not wearing a coat or sweater or jacket.

But mostly, the thing I love about summer is watching things grow!!   My lovely "prop-hatbox" was filled with examples.

As props, I had an ear of corn and a peach.  Those there are two things that we only eat fresh in the summer---corn on the cob, which Gerry loves, and peaches, which I love. I buy them from the farm stand, but never from the store.

In my box of goodies, I had a vase of hydrangea blue flowers, which are just breathtaking in their beauty.  There was a zucchini,  which grows abundantly in my garden.

But I am also fascinated by the way things grow--- how a bush, which dies off in the winter, knows how to grow bigger this year than it was last year!  It obviously remembers!  And a seed remembers who it is supposed to be.

I read that you could cut off the bottom of a head of lettuce and it would grow again from there!  I tried that, and lo and behold,  it is true.  Put the bottom portion into water, and it knows it is supposed to grow.

All of us are supposed to grow, of course.  Not just physically,  but mentally and spiritually as well.   Mentally by lifelong learning and curiosity.  Spiritually by being kind to one another, and helpful, and building up!

Sharks

I cut the following illustration out of my sermon for tomorrow.  I really like it, but tomorrow's sermon is already full of lots of good stories, an this one did not quite fit in the spot where I had placed it.   So out it came.

The sermon is based on Ephesians 4, and Paul saying "Grow Up".   The general theme of the message is about how each of us is actually a work in progress.  We can and should continue to grow as long as we live, not only physically, but  also mentally by always learning, and spiritually through acts of kindness and service.

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A young man was a deep sea diver whose job it was to catch fish for aquariums.  He said that the favorite fish for an aquarium is actually a shark.  If you confine a small fish in a tank,  its size will be limited to the size of the container.  A tank shark might grow to be six inches long.  But if that same shark is released into the ocean, it will grow to its normal length of eight feet.

The same thing is true of us human beings.  We can remain little six inch sharks, swimming around in a little puddle,  limited by the size of our  ideas, beliefs, dreams.

But if we are willing to let go of  familiar patterns, and notions, and convictions in order to embrace a broader and more inclusive vision, for example,  there is no limit to what we might become or accomplish.  We then see ourselves as part of all of creation, rather than through a narrow lens of place, or nation, or ideology.

The fish tank is small and limiting, and stifles growth.

The ocean is vast and deep and filled with  wonder at every turn!

That is certainly where I had rather be!