Mindful Leader

Text is from 2 Kings and Josiah's finding of the scripture.  Most of the "exegesis" (reading out) is during the reading itself.  Sermon contains elements of restatements from July ("Why") and earlier in November (David moving Ark to the center of political authority).  

Using suggested scriptures from Luther Seminary -- Narrative Lectionary.  

Thanksgiving week and the Narrative Lectionary gave me Isaiah 5: 1-7 and Isaiah 11: 1-9.  I think the key to this reflection is the Henri Nouwen in the middle.  It is the bridge ... but it is also the fact that this is week 52 of the church year (as it relates to the calendar).  This is Christ the King Sunday.  

The title comes from how I open the sermon -- a scene of death and brokenness and devastation and then we have to preach on Thanksgiving?  Huh?  

But to return to the Nouwen ... we are who we are as a result of the lives we have lived.  We need to get away from this idea of selecting this and rejecting that.  All of it is makes us who we are ... 

The Northern Kingdom has been conquered.  But God continues to act in the role of loving parent and shows love even for the child who has spurned him.  This has some elements of personal reflection on my time at Central UMC in Arlington, VA.  Finding my voice and all of that ... but as much as anything it is a hopeful gesture that says that the God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of Love, Forgiveness and Mercy ... 

The Narrative Lectionary presents one good chance during the year to speak about David.  Where do you go?  I focused here on both 1 Samuel 16 where David is picked out by Samuel and here where it is the end of the Civil War.  No Civil War is particularly Civil but there is a lot going on here.  My big idea was to focus a little on how all of us are invited to move God to the center of our lives and accept God's anointment.  And frankly, set aside the civil wars of the past.