Mindful Leader

Who Picked This Scripture ? God Did!

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 ... 

Hosea: God has not given up on us ...

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 ... 

David puts God at the Center

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.  

Elijah confronts Ahab

An extended passage out of 1st Kings 18 where Elijah dukes it out with the Baal Priests.  I only read the second half on the podcast with the first half being read by the liturgist of the day and not included here.   

I think the question is obviously associated with the idea of false gods and if we give them power.  Too often I would think we do.  Jesus observes in Matthew 6: 24 that we cannot serve two masters.  

I do tie back to Hilltop and where we are trying to go in 2016 and what God we are trying to serve.  

This is from the 9:00 service.  

Ruth -- God's Loving Kindness within Displacement

While the reading is from Ruth 1, the sermon is as much all of Ruth as it is Ruth 1. 

 Ruth is the outsider, the one of dubious origins (Moab) but she is the one who shows what God's chesed looks like. We explore the idea of displacement in many ways. 

This is from the 10:30 service.

Deuteronomy 5 -- Covenant Relationship

Moses reading of the Decalogue the second time, this time before entering the Promised Land brackets the Wilderness narrative.  There are hints of the "ancient future" idea I find so resonant.  The ancient words apply to us in this future time.  But at the key this is about relationship -- God initiates, we are invited to respond.  God loves us ... it would be so easy to see Grace as conditional, but it isn't.  

(Note:  we split the reading and I pick up the reading on the podcast about 5:17.  Had read 5:1-16 or so earlier.)

This is from October 11, 2015 @ 9:00.  The 10:30 version was not useable.  

Exodus 3: 1-15 -- Called by God

This is a little from both 9 and 10:30.  The scripture reading and introduction is from 9 and the actual sermon is from 10:30.  Moses is called by God.  He key is the issue of "po" (here) and "hineni" (here I am but with a spiritual commitment.)  Probably need to listen close to the sermon but when getting ready to exit a USAF aircraft, while still in flight, the commitment is made by a statement of "All OK".  In.  100% in and ready.  

Genesis 32: 22-30 -- Jacob Wrestles with God

I love this passage.  I really should preach four or five times on this come next summer.  But if Sara/Abraham are us, Jacob is really us.  A trickster who fools himself for a while but then his ways meet someone better at it than he is ... and God calls Jacob back to face his brother.  We all wrestle with God and I would hope and pray are marked by that struggle, but then I love this passage.  

Genesis 18 and 21 -- "All things are possible: Laughing in Despair and Joy"

This is the 9:00 Service at Hilltop and in my vanity, I had believed the 10:30 was "better" but I didn't record it.  Ugh.  This one is a smidgen longer and different:  not a lot, but some.  I for example used the Monsters, Inc at 9 and not at 10:30.  Oh well. 

But what I really play with is the idea of do we really believe all things are possible with God?  Brueggemann says if we say "no" then we are saying there is no God, but if we say "yes" then the implications of that are incredible.  I have been saying during worship "Bonhoeffer" a lot for the last three years -- I think it is time for "Brueggemann" to be uttered.  

These are better in my opinion, when I go into the sanctuary on Saturday and deliver them to an empty room.   

Genesis 1 -- "In the Beginning" (September 13, 2015)

This is from Genesis 1 and 2.  My initial foray into the "Narrative Lectionary."  I type this at the two week mark, and so far, I find it to be an excellent way of "teaching" the bible during worship.  

This week the 10:30 service was when I remembered to record myself.  On September 20th, it would be at the 9:00 service.  I hate it when I do that.  But ...