This
year’s road trip is behind us. It was a good venture with opportunities to be
useful to others in their ministries. Now the time has come for someday jobs.
Having caught up on major yard work neglected for two months, and with the
agenda for the next six months solidified, the long overdue round-to-it project
may no longer be put off – the re-filing of sermon notes.
It
is an ambitious effort. Some have been tucked away under subject headings,
others have been stacked in a box, only a few are easily found. Now, at last,
there they are, heaped together to be arranged and cataloged by title,
subject, and when-and-where delivered.
It
is a formidable project: forty-three years of pastoral preaching book-ended by
other opportunities create quite a stack; but it is well worth the effort in
memories. It is also humbling when I come across sermons which prompt a shaking
of the head and a whispered, “I can’t believe I said that.” Congregations
really do endure a lot, and not just from the new guy in the pulpit. But there
are the good moments. The moments when I realize, with a little retooling, a
message would be well worth dusting off, given some fresh study, and delivering
again someday.
Then,
there is something else. It is the realization that sermons like suppers are
not stored in the memory of those to whom they were served or, for that matter,
of the one who served them. The heart asks, “Have they done any good?” And, the
mind replies: “Who knows?” And God says, “Fret not. My Word accomplishes what I want.”
I always love your sermons and can't wait to hear you speak at Daniel's Road!
ReplyDeleteI am with Kaylyn! You fed us very well. Keep on dusting & resharing for those who haven't joined you for "supper" yet. Glad to have these First Road moments back!!!
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