Tag: sermon

This coming Sunday, July 26, 2009, I’m planning to preach on 2 Samuel 11.1-5. The working sermon title is: Peculiar Treasures: King David—When Good People Do Bad Things. The following week, August 2, 2009, I plan to preach on 2 Samuel 11.26-12.13a. The working sermon title is: Peculiar Treasures: The Prophet Nathan—How Christians Respond When Powerful People Do Bad Things.

This coming Sunday, June 7,  2009 I’ll be preaching on a sermon on the practical implications of the Trinity. I’ve been reading John Wesley’s sermon on the subject (titled: “On the Trinity”) and I’m been happy to learn that he shared my view that it is very difficult to explain the Trinity without falling into heresy.

Wesley wrote:

One of the best tracts which that great man, Dean Swift, ever wrote, was his sermon upon the Trinity. Herein he shows, that all who have endeavoured to explain it at all, have utterly lost their way: have, above all others persons, hurt the cause, whey they intended to promote … I insist upon no explication at all.”

As you may have guessed from the above. I won’t be trying to explain the Trinity in any metaphorical or philosophical manner.

Jenny and I are taking off this coming weekend. We’ll attend a conference for young (and younger) clergy on Friday and Saturday and then head to Council Grove to see my parents and attend worship at my home church. Rev. Jack Gregory of Independence First United Methodist will be filling the pulpit, ably assisted by Mike Mason in the 8:10 service and Carmen Winston in the 10:50 service. Jack will be preaching from John 9 with a sermon titled “I Am the Light of the World.”

This coming Sunday, May 10, 2009, I’ll be preaching on Acts 8.26-40. The sermon will be another in our peculiar treasures series, this time focusing on the Ehiopian eunuch. An interesting side note that probably won’t make it into the sermon: in Acts 8.28-30 we learn that the Ethiopian was sitting in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah and Philip heard him. According to one of the commentaries I consulted for the sermon “it was customary to read aloud rather than silently” until the time of Augustine (354-430 A.D.)

This supports my belief that because the scriptures were written primarily with a hearing audience in mind, reading good sized portions of scripture aloud in worship is essential. In the time of the early church you read aloud (and thus heard the scripture) even when you were alone.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with reading silently. Indeed, the commentary I cited earlier notes that reading silently may have developed as part of the early monastic movement. The fact that the Ethiopian was reading aloud when he had his life-changing enounter, and that his reading aloud helped make the encounter possible simply underscores the importance of not only reading, but hearing the word of God (the Bible).

*The commentary was Karen Baker-Fletcher’s commentary on Acts 8.26-40 in Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2.