Lectionary Leanings & Sermon Seeds
Right now I can see my sermon going a couple directions. At first I wanted to do something with Noah because the reading is seriously chopped up and leaves out the *covenant*, hello?! So thought of maybe some sort of retelling/teaching/first person narrative thing. Not try to repeat the Bill Cosby thing, but maybe reflect on what it was like to be one of those people who got to get on the boat... or what of all the ones who didn't... what did they see?
Our lectionary discussion group also talked a lot about where do you build your house, how easily sandcastles wash away and houses built on cliffs in california wash away in mudslides. What it takes to build a good house with solid foundation versus contractors who cut corners.
Lastly, my sister has a good friend who just found out this week she has stage 4 lung cancer and doctors estimate it's progressing so fast and is so far along that she may have a week to live. I can't imagine getting this news so suddenly or being the spouse. So that has me thinking about the unpredictableness of life, that storms will come, potentially deadly and devastating storms. Having built our dwelling on a strong foundation, having told the story and written all these things on doorposts and in our heart we may ultimately "be still and know that I am God." Sure in our day to day lives we are called to be still and know, that's part of how we build the house on rock. But as we lay dying, as we all will, we may rest in God, and truly know that God is God, who cared for flowers and birds last week, the God of covenant.
Wow... where'd all that come from? I had to paste this comment from the RevGal site as it ended up longer than I planned, and maybe more of a starting place than I thought I had for this week.
1 comment:
I posted this on the revgalpal blog but since it was a direct reply to your post, I wanted to get it to you more directly. Here's what I wrote:
Your comments about dying reminded me of a piece from Annie Dillard in "Tickets for a Prayer Wheel"
I think that the dying
pray at the last
not "please"
but "thank you"
as a guest thanks his host at the door.
Falling from mountains
the people are crying
thank you,
thank you,
all down the air;
and the cold carriages
draw up for them on the rocks.
I found this quotation in a book by John Shea. He also quotes Huston Smith reflecting on his daughter's 8 and one half month battle with cancer:
"But I want to spell out how she and her immediate family rose to the showdown. . . Even when her condition had her at the breaking point, her farewells to us, her parents, in our last two visits were "I have no complaints" and "I am at peace." her last words to her husband and children wre "I see the sea. I smell the sea. It is because it is so near." She always loved the sea. I think it symbolized life for her." from The Way Things Are
These are great examples of dying with our firm foundations.
Blessings on your weekend. I'm still early in my process so I don't have any idea where I'll go w/ my sermon. I'm giving a talk at 2pm tomorrow at a Buddhist conference so it really impacts my creative focus for Sunday.
Post a Comment