Some of the things I am striving for this year, as interpreted by three of my favorite supporting players. I hope you, too, find something in their words.
I. ACKNOWLEDGING VULNERABILITY
Barbara Brown Taylor: “Being ordained is not about serving God perfectly, but about serving God visibly, allowing other people to learn whatever they can from watching you rise and fall.”
… And there’s certainly plenty of that… the rising, the falling, the rising, the falling….
II. ENDURANCE
Bishop Steven Charleston: “We all bear the soul scars of a wrong done to us… Feel the warm hand of one who was there and loves you all the more for what you have endured.”
… since life doesn’t really get easier….
III. AUTHENTICITY
Howard Thurman (Jesus and the Disinherited) “There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”
IV. HARD WORK
Hymn #541, or as I like to call it “The Norwegian National Anthem”
“Come, labor on!
Who dares stand idle, on the harvest plain
While all around him waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say,
Go work today!”
These themes may be reflected in next Sunday’s sermon which I am attacking with vulnerability, endurance, authenticity, and you know the rest. The lesson is the Wedding at Cana and it is (to use one of Craig Lemming’s favorite words) fabulous (the lesson, not necessarily the sermon but it’s coming along).
See you in church.
Now get back to work…..
Barbara
