This sermon was a joy to give. One of the saying around the seminary was that the preacher has to read three books: The Bible, The Book of the Congregation and the Book of the Self. A preacher new to a congregation starts out with The Bible and hopefully the self, but never the congregation. The book of the congregation is the length of War and Peace without the cliffs notes. What complicates that as well is that with each new location the book of the self might change. In getting to see this congregation putting on the Beef on Weck, I think I got to read an important chapter in that Book of the Congregation. This was the 14th sermon given at St. Mark’s, and probably the first one that was able to weave in other themes more fairly. I’m always going to be very Biblical, that is part of who this preacher is, but the databank of congregation and the congregation and self interaction is starting to get large enough to actually not return null set.