From now on, I'm going to start this new section in order to show you where the inspiration and theological reasoning from my sermons come from. It's always amazing to me how 70 different people can hear the same sermon and come away with 70 different meanings. This is both a blessing and a curse, or a light that casts a shadow. This is a blessing in that I constantly learn new things from all of you, and I learn more about God from the way you experience God in your lives and in your hearing. The shadow of this light is, of course, bearing one's soul also makes them particularly vulnerable to scorn. When we don't understand something, we are often not content to admit our understanding is darkened. Instead of letting the darkness be just what it is, we often choose to see monsters in the dark. We choose to either run from, or attack these monsters that live in the dark, even though they are our own creations. I speak to you every week with 38 years of experience in trying to be Christian, 11 of those years I have spent with you. I have B.A in religion from TCU and an Masters of Divinity Degree from Lexington Theological Seminary, where I was the only student in my class awarded the award for achievement in biblical languages and New Testament award, because my professors recognized in me a commitment to the scriptures and a quest to understanding the scriptures in a deeper way. Beyond that, I have my everyday experience and my continued quest for understanding. That is what I have to offer you. Every week, I listen for the Spirit and identify where he is speaking, and then I try to tie all the week's spirit speeches into something I think we all need to hear that I can say in 15 or 20 minutes. Perhaps this is an antiquated way of doing things, many churches don't have sermons anymore, because they are a largely ineffective way of communication. I think church would probably be better if we got together, sang some songs, read some scriptures, talked to each other, and took communion. Perhaps church will become this way in the years to come ( I like that idea quite a lot by the way), but I was brought up with sermons and trained in sermons, so sermons is what I do for now. All this is my very long (you see the problem here?) of explaining what I'm about to do in sharing this with you. From now on, I'm going to try and share my weekly inspirations with you, places I heard the spirit speak that contributed to my sermon, even if I didn't mention it directly. Maybe if you didn't get anything out of the sermon, or you were confused about something, this will help connect the dots for you. Perhaps you really liked the sermon or an idea I referenced and you wanted to know more about it and you need to know where to find it. Here it is--the stuff that's been bouncing around in my soul. |
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