Preaching is Weird.

Preaching, or wait, maybe God, is weird. Or to use the Minnesota phrase, "its interesting..."

I preached again last Sunday. When I got to the 3rd paragraph, the part where I transitioned from my fun story about life at the beginning, I realized or became unsure that my points hung together and started wondering if I had actually explained what I meant by "power", which was a central theme in my sermon. Even if I did, something seems off here. Shoot, this isn't going to make any sense. Oh no batman, this could be bad!

I was trying to talk about how God's power, the power that was shown through Christ's life, death, and resurrection, is our power, through our faith and Christ's resurrection - drawing on the Ephesians 1 text from Sunday. But, that we get all mixed up and try to draw power from the clothes we wear, the jobs we have, by buying into these oppressive systems that allow some people to climb to the "top", but in climing to the top, we trample all over other people. Then, bringing in the Blessed are the poor...woe are the rich.

That's what I was trying to say, but when I started trying to say it, it felt like it wasn't going to make sense. By the time I was done, I was thinking, well that was horrible. As I reflect back, it feels a bit like I was somewhat removed from myself, I can't actually remember the whole preaching experience. Either my brain was racing so fast I was disjointed, or maybe the Holy Spirit was moving in me, or both. Weird.

Here's the really weird / funny / interesting part. My internship committee met last night, this is a group of people who give me feedback, support, etc throughout internship. Well, they said that they thought this sermon was better than my first one. Mostly because I didn't seem to rush through it so much, that I left more time to think. They could actually absorb what I was saying In their opinion, it seemed to be a better sermon. How amazing is that!!

Our preaching professor had said that how we preach is as important as the words we are preaching. That preaching an action, not just words. I guess its true. Its also true that God does amazing things even when we think they are horrible! It really isn't all about us and we are truly not the ones in power here. Thank goodness for that!