I loved the revgal post today for the preacher party and I enjoyed the George Carlin piece. I always really liked him and was bummed to hear of his death. I don't know if I will work him into the sermon at all, but I think that he asks the questions that a lot of us have, and if we aren't asking, maybe we should be.
Today is crazy. I have to juggle: sermon, newsletter article, dishes, packing, and a 3-hour round-trip drive to pick up my nephew from the airport, because we leave for Europe in 24 hours!
I also find myself wrestling with this sermon in a different way. I'm not going to force my nephew to come to church, but he may choose to come and he is an 18-year-old who falls somewhere between atheist and agnostic. If he's there, how I treat these difficult texts could potentially give him food for thought.
I always am hopeful that I'm giving people food for thought, ways to reflect on the text or how the text might relate to their lives and our lives as a Christian Community. But this is a little different, this is much closer to home and personal.
I've got a pet sitter. I've got work clothes in the dryer. I've got things to pack assembled (now they need to make their way into the suitcase). I tried to get some sleep last night and I want to get some sleep tonight. So that means following what Dr. H. had used to talk about and what my sister reminded me of in an earlier email: what is "good enough"? Sure, it'd be ideal to have my boxes all unpacked and things neat and tidy when I leave and to return to. But what is good enough?
It's good enough to: Be packed, to not have dirty dishes smelling up the sink for 11 days while I'm gone, to have a sermon to preach, and to have a newsletter article so the newsletter can be printed. And we need to figure out where nephew will sleep tonight. Oh yeah, and my sister wants me to fill out a healthcare directive thingy )just in case) if at all possible. Anything else that gets done besides that is just extra. My sister's thought was that sleep even ranked over working more on a sermon or article than is needed - basically get something coherent together and run with it.
So... that's the plan. I need to leave in the next hour for the airport drive. We'll see how well the plan works. :)
1 comment:
I know what you mean about having outreach be so close it's in the family! I read my sermon to my husband this afternoon, my seeking but non-believing darling who is brought to a dead halt by theodicy, and I always wonder what will touch him. If I ever find a way to tell these stories that does, well, I can stop then.
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