Swirling Nuggets of Wisdom

          On my last trip to Chuck E Cheese I had the honor of accompanying my newly turned six year old into the ticket blaster machine. After putting on safety glasses, my son and I stepped into this capsule. In a matter of one minute we were bombarded with flying tickets swirling around us and had to grab as many as we could as onlookers stopped to watch this frantic scenario. It was stressful to have so many valuable tickets coming at me and helplessly trying to capture as many as possible. 

          The Festival of Homiletics is like trying to grab as many valuable nuggets as possible swirling around me in a finite amount of time. It's both rewarding and stressful to try to capture all these pieces of wisdom, truth, and advice for the preaching moment. And then there is the challenge of sharing these various nuggets with those who have not had this experience. 

          Tuesday was a twelve hour day of lectures and worship, each one teaching and enriching my personal, pastoral, and preaching life. What a rich and overwhelming diet to feast upon! Here are some nuggets I was able to catch as they were swirling by:

          We feasted upon the first miracle of Jesus at Cana and how even God needed a mom to encourage him at age 30 to fulfill his purpose in this world. Preachers are like parents, offering courage and hope to a congregation hesitant to fulfill their purpose in the world. Mothers and preachers know what their children and congregation are capable of and so nudge and push them saying, "You can do this!" We remind them who God calls them to be and give them the support and courage to be it. 

          Your people will make you into the pastor they need you to be. 

          We preach from our scars but not our wounds.

          Before we can know the Good News about a text, we need to be clear what the bad news is, what is the text convicting me of. Dig deep and be vulnerable and honest. 

          In prophetic preaching, we must first expose and then envision. Exposing without envisioning leaves us in despair. Envisioning without exposing leaves us with no motivation to change. For example, we must first expose our racist society before we can envision the sacred work of reconciliation we are called to do as God's people.

          At some point the community context cries out to be addressed from the pulpit. We cannot ignore the world around us. We cannot ignore the evil in the world. Preaching must address pertinent issues like racism in the face of Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore.

          We were told through Nehemiah 8:1-12 to Lawyer up when we approach the pulpit. Scripture gets people upset and the temptation is to soften it. But if we are not getting run out of town then we probably aren't preaching Jesus. God's Word puts us all on trial. Preach God's uncomfortable Word, not what people want to hear.

          And in the evening, just to put our ego in check, we heard, "Consider your call. Not many of you are wise or powerful or of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. God chose what is low and despised, so that no one might boast. God chose you."

          My husband told me to enjoy my vacation this week. After a long twelve hour day and 7 1/2 pages of single spaced notes, it is anything but a vacation. Rather it's an intense learning, growing, challenging, nourishing experience to mold me into a more faithful messenger of God's Word. Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.