Grace is strange. On a day when your head seems to be elsewhere (like forgetting to take the offering and moving it later in the service) you get a sermon that you still like. Pure grace.

Grace is just on the border of our experience. That we can recognize it seems to me a strong argument for God. Kinda like that old Police song, there has to be an invisible sun, gives its heat to every one. When the world is nasty, brutish and short, we catch a ray of grace. A glimpse of the divine economy. When the market is down and fear overwhelms and attendance is not where you’d like it, some small piece of grace seems to balance all the scales – no drives them completely out of balance. Like only underserved and unlimited grace can do.

The word cloud for this week is stark. I didn’t change anything in how it came back. Usally I’ll change the color scheme or try and get it to give me a word in a different location. This week the Black and White with Debt at so starkly contrasted to Jesus seemed correct. Out debt is rediculously large and stark, but the answer is Jesus.

In writing the presenting I had two concerns. 1) I did not address 9/11. In the past few years that would have be gross negligence in reading the context of the congregation’s life. When I learned that the twin spotlights were allowed to fade with the morning light on 9/12 this year, I thought that the commemorations had there proper ending. 2) I started in the introduction with monetary debt and relatively quickly transition to moral debt. I feared that I might have brought up uncertainty or fear without addressing it. In that I decided I paralleled the parable. It starts out as just a king settling accounts. It quickly gets to the point where we are not talking about just money or talents. After it makes that transition it doesn’t go back. The temporal points to the eternal. The eternal overshaddows the temporal. If we have eternal peace with God because He has removed those 10,000 talents of sin, then the troubles of today may not disappear, but they are put in the proper context.

Blessings on your week.

This Sunday was our Rally Day, the start of sunday school. We have a small sunday school that is just getting restarted. Some would probably say it isn’t worthwhile, but in general I think based partly on Matt 18 and a lot on other places, that is not an option of a church. The congregation that refuses to instruct its kids is building up some serious debts I’d rather not consider.

In any case, since the order of service was full, this sermon is a good page shorter than normal. The Word Cloud is interesting in that there are a whole bunch of words that end up roughly the same size. It was also interesting to me that Jesus was still on of the largest. While writing and delivering, I felt this sermon was a large amount of law and little gospel. I was concerned about that. If my training had been Reformed instead of Lutheran it would not have been as big a problem. The text for the day provided the outline. Big chunks of it were law (i.e. do this, don’t do that) from Jesus. It is very textual, but almost becuase of that I felt skewed to the law. The word cloud makes me feel better. As long as Jesus is big in the cloud, the gospel should come through louder.

Overall I got the impression that there are some real strong moments, if you tracked with the sermon, but if you didn’t it was probably rather dry. If you didn’t get the law proclamation and feel convicted, then the gospel and how we live together probably didn’t make much sense. I saw some faces that were clearly with me, and some very bored.

This was a fifth Sunday of the month and a holiday weekend, so I knew attendance would be lite. So the sermon was set within a very stripped down service. I had intended to use matins on Sunday Morning, but when I saw the attendance, I switched to the prayer service that was used on Saturday night. There would not have been the voices to sustain the liturgical songs. Lesson learned.

In regards to the sermon. I made one big mistake, I think. I always try to come up with modern and thought provoking examples. Part of the theme of the sermon was the spiritual need to take risks – that we like staying in past success or fading glory. Those risks might lead us through the cross, but they are necessary when following Jesus. As one of 4 examples of people refusing to take risks to their detriment I used a current political example. Sen. Obama gave a great speach in 2004 that even filled this cynical man with hope. And his whole campaign has been an attempt to live in a recreate the Hope of that speach. I still think it is a valid example of our tendency not to take risks to our detriment, but I get the impression that two things happened: 1) many just tuned me out after that and 2) the political reference will be the only thing remembered. I put it in there becuase: 1) I thought it was a compelling current example and 2) it was a risk in line with the theme – a series of risks that included a direct call for the congregation to find the final needed Sunday School teacher for next week. I will try my best to avoid such references in the future. It was an unnecessary risk. Lesson learned.

Given that I still feel good about the sermon, but I know I could write a better one. It might be the cumulative effect of the two lessons above, but this is the first lesson that I’ll look forward too in three years. I’ve got more ideas and thoughts and a clearer understanding of the message. Too bad there are no mulligans in preaching.

The subject of this sermon is the Church and what it means to be church. Those thoughts have come up repeatedly in the last couple of weeks. I knew when I first read the lesson for today, the handing of the keys in Matthew, that the church would be a good topic. The Lord led me to some good experiences in preaching on it.

This sermon is about a page longer than normal, and the thoughts and the paragraphs were deeper and more developed. I think I went a full 20 mins. That said, as I gave it Saturday Night/Sunday Morning I can’t say that I saw heads nodding or getting real impatient. The same faces that don’t really want to be there had the same expressions, but the length did not seem to cause narcolepsy.

There are some portions that I really like (for example the closing paragraph.) There are portions that I like, but afterward think are probably extraneous (the text portion on the wrong answers to who Jesus is.) I still think they are defendable and good, but they belong in a different sermon. I didn’t edit ruthlessly enough at that point.

It is a serious sermon, about a serious topic and one that has much confusion today. You could spend a year on the subject. This is 20 mins. The best thing I can say is that it is textual. The entire structure comes directly from the text. Thw Wordle at the top gives you a very good idea as to what is important. I tried to get the church squarely on top of Jesus in the picture, but it wouldn’t give me that.

Peace be with you and your family.

This text and sermon were very difficult. Truthfully, I was scared to death to give this one. I read this text as instruction in spiritual poverty – a object lesson in the first commandment or the first beatitude. Not a subject that a comfortable american really has standing to talk about, or that is easy to hear or talk about without sounding pedantic. There were also a couple of lines that were very rough and direct. I did not look forward to giving this sermon, but I did from the first practive delivery like it better orally than written. After delivery a couple of thoughts. First the text section strikes the right tone. It made the situation real without dodging the Lord calling someone a dog. That section I like. The application section worked ok and addressed a local issue. If someone was to take this sermon walking, they would most likely have to re-write or attach their own application section. I think the two point outline would work, but the examples, the sins and the grace would have to be modified to the local audience. Overall I like it much better finished than upcoming.

Text: Matt 14:22-33
Exegetical Point: Faith’s focus is Christ who enables that faith to do wonders and to worship
Focus Statement: Christ’s action and presence alone guides and saves the church
Function Statement: That my hearers would put their focus on Christ and his will

The image is linked to the text of the sermon.

This sermon walks really close on a couple of lines. First it walks really close to the allegory line. It took and expository format which means line by line or sense verse by sense verse. After each chunk I discuss a meaning. I have support for each of those meanings, but some are not necessarily immediate. The second line it walks is that of miracles. The miracles are ‘signs & wonders’. They point to who Jesus is. That is their function in the sermon, but the a couple of the modern examples could be dangerous. Someone could take them as if you believe/do this a miracle happens. I’m hoping that I was clear, but one part especially could come off like this.

This is one of those sermons that just a few hours after final delivery, I’m thinking I’m going to regret saying that. I stand behind and have grounds for everything I say, but it might require a little more sophisitcation or nuance than should be expected in a sermon. That said, for the first time, I feel that the strongest section and the most memorable was the Gospel proclamation. Ultimately, that is why I didn’t flinch in delivering. The gospel section was strong.

Two comments. A friend from Seminary, Brandt Hoffmann, pointed me at a site called Wordle. It is a site created by an IBM research employee that creates Word Clouds from any text. A word cloud is like the image above. The bigger the word, the more it is used in the text. This is the word cloud created from this sermon. The word cloud is linked to the full text of the sermon. Second comment is about how that word cloud is a good ‘at a glance’ view of the sermon. The sermon should be about Jesus and God’s work of reconciling sinners to himself. Seeing Jesus, and God and Word and Compassion as ‘big words’ in the cloud is a good sign.

Summary statements
Exegetical Point: Abundance flows from God when the kingdom is proclaimed
Focus Statement: God richly blesses his people with a multitude of graces
Function Statement: That my listeners would begin to realize the abundant grace of God and bring people to Jesus

I’ve been experimenting the past couple of weeks. Last week with telling stories. This week with emphasizing the narrative of the text. I suppose (I know) people might disagree with the narrative reading placed on this section of Matthew, but I also know that it is defendable. Discipleship is a key message within the Gospel. The goal, as stated at the start of the sermon is to connect people with the narrative of the Gospel, to bring it to life. Especially in the middle of the long green season of Pentecost, spending extra time on the story and less on dogmatic points seems appropriate.

My biggest criticism might be the long introduction. I think it was ‘underware’ and should have been left out. It was more my rationale for the format of the sermon than proclamation. I debated that before including, and eventually decided it shows a little of the preacher’s thought process which for a preacher new to the congregation isn’t such a bad thing. Still, it defends what comes next instead of advancing the main point.

Text: Matt 13: 44-52
Exegetical Statement: The hidden Reign of God is a joyful surprise worth decisive, resourceful and risky action.
Focus Statement: God extends his reign in a variety of surprising ways
Function Statement: That my hearers would be open to the joy of God’s reign

I tried something a little different this week. The sermon is largely story telling. The parables of the treasure and the pearl are short and very similar. The differences between a seeking merchant and a yeoman farmer both finding the treasure in the course of their lives seemed important. The immediate juxtaposition also seemed important. The sermon mirrors those portions juxtaposing two stories, C. S. Lewis from Surprised by Joy and a creative writing amalgamation. I did break the pure story by adding an ‘explainer-man’ paragraph at the ends of each major section.

I have less ability to judge the quality of this type. It is just not as direct. It depends on people either listening long enough to get to the explanations (not-likely if they don’t like the story), or being interested enough in the stories and getting the point by impression. I wasn’t lynched after it, and it seems people were paying attention, but that could just be becuase the format was indecipherable.

One other note worth mentioning. This sermon largely takes the ‘traditional’ interpretation of the pearl/treasure – finding the salvation offered through Jesus Christ is the only thing of true worth, worth all you possess. My professor, Dr. Gibbs, has a much different interpretation here. He flips the person and the pearl. Jesus is the person who gives up all for the pearl of the church. He is a very smart man who has spent an entire lifetime studying Matthew (i.e. he is probably right.) Why did I diverge other than ingratitude? The progression of the parables in Chapter 13. Chapter 13 starts with the parable of the Sower which I took to be about the power of the word. It progresses through the wheat and the weeds which grow together which focuses more upon the mixed state of people in this inaugurated eschaton. It ends with the interesting description of the instructed scribe as a householder able to bring out new and old. In Matthew, the householder is always God, except in this verse. The parables have progressed from hard soil through growth, recognizing the pearl, to being able to instruct others. While Dr. Gibbs’ interpretation definitely works, I think it misses that progression. I’m sure that could be demolished in about 30 seconds.

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Text: Romans 8:18-27
Exegetical Point: The glory of God is revealed in his time and by his plan both universal scale and in the individual.
Focus Statement: God works through creation and us, even when we don’t understand.
Function Statement: That my hearers would trust that the will of God is for their good.

Comments
I used Long’s four pages of the preacher as a general structure. The general direction of the passage and of the sermon takes us from looking at the entire creation to looking at our lives with the Holy Spirit at intercessor. The law sections can be rough, but I did not think they were out of balance with the Gospel. I also felt that there were enough playful moments interspersed with serious parts to keep balance. I also felt that the Gospel sections were multiple (thus partly breaking Long’s structure) and specific. The day after delivery, I still like this sermon. Usually I dread thinking about them because you then know what could be improved.

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