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A Note from K
Hello all!
I hope you are well today. I missed being with you last Sunday, and I look forward to being with you this week! Thank you to my dear friend and colleague Rev. Brooke Blake, and to you all for welcoming her so warmly.
This is the last installation where I'm sharing thoughts on each part of the worship service, so that we can consider how our weekly rhythms of worship can help us become who we are called to be in the world.
So far, we've looked at singing, prayer, offering, and passing of the peace, and so today, we are talking about the sermon.
I was talking to a friend this week who isn't particularly religious, and she asked me what I thought about scripture. I shared that there's so much I think about the gift of scripture -- and I consider it the word of God, in conversation with people. When I was in London last fall, I was struck by the experience of standing in front of church buildings that were older than the United States itself. There is power in being part of a lineage of believers who, for thousands of years, have put their lives in conversation with this very book: considering what the Bible tells us about who God is, who we are, and whom we are called to be in the world.
The sermon is the moment each week where we get to dive into that together. As you know, I start every sermon by inviting us to be in conversation with one another. God speaks to all of us, and each of us brings unique perspectives and experiences that can illuminate scripture in many ways. I truly believe that we know God better by being in conversation with one another: I have insights you may not have considered, and you have insights I might not have considered.
The sermon moment allows us to look at a particular passage together, inviting God to speak to us as a whole. It lets us consider how the particular sermon text might have spoken to the original hearers/readers of these words, and what they might have to say to us today. The sermon is a chance for teaching, learning, discerning, meditation, encouragement, inspiration, and challenge.
I don't take lightly that we live in a place where we are free to gather for a sermon. I don't take lightly that you all have trusted me to share with you each week from the pulpit. Sermons should impact us, and so it truly should spark something in each of us. I take that seriously as I prepare, with a willingness to be transformed by the word of God myself, just as I challenge all of us to be transformed by the word of God. In our listening, we trust that our God speaks and invites us to respond.
I'd love for you to tell me about a sermon that changed something in you. What still lingers with you?
Warmly,
K
