Saturday Sermon Scuttle: I'm Stuck!

Pulpit supply. That is what we call it when you fill in for another preacher. And that is what I am doing tomorrow. I am not in the habit of preaching since Wind of Peace is not to the point of regular worship services. So I am supplying the pulpit (actually, I am just supplying the sermon; I trust they already have the pulpit) for a friend and colleague.

Preaching can be a life-giving spiritual practice. And as such, regular preaching and sermon preparation provides rhythm to your week and to your life. But let me tell you, when you preach only sporadically (and when you worship with a different congregation every Sunday), sermon preparation can be an excruciatingly laborious process.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate. But here I am, Saturday afternoon, no sermon in my hand, and my mind is cluttered with so many thoughts I have wanted to say in so many sermons I didn't get to write, and somehow I have to distill all of this into 12-15 minutes of cohesive thought (not to mention inspiring and challenging words). Where do I start?

The theme I am working with is really cool. The Lenten series my friend's church has embarked upon explores various practices of the Christian faith. The sermon title I have been given is "Keeping the Fast", examining the practice of fasting, but with a twist - not so much about abstaining from food as much as re-imagining our eating in terms of our faith. As a certified, card-carrying hippie*, this topic grooves with me. I mean, I am a vege-preferian** because I feel that eating a primarily vegetarian diet is a way for me to participate better in the care of our planet (i.e. God's creation). And like a good lefty, I prefer to eat locally grown produce and, as much as possible, to abstain from all foods that are not "fairly traded", meaning that no one was abused or exploited in any stage of the process that brought the food to my table. So I am jazzed about preaching on vegetarianism, organic farming, sustainable development, world hunger due to terrible food distribution and unjust availablility of resources, etc. But I cannot synthesize all of this into a sermon. Of course, I can write a blog entry (with footnotes!!), but I cannot write a sermon.

I have been sitting with, wrestling with, and, yes, cursing, the text (Isaiah 58:1-12) for a week now, but to no avail. The sermon is stuck inside me. And I am seriously stuck. Oh, and now a little jittery from the caffiene I have ingested.

I am not so much hoping for inspiration as much as a clue as to how to consolidate all of the inspired ideas I have in a way that makes sense, that calls people to reflect and then to act, and that also fits within a nice, neat 12-15 minutes. Really, is that too much to ask?

Oh well, enough rambling. At some point, I just have to write and trust that what I bring is enough. I guess I can do that.


* My certification as a hippie comes from my fellow co-oper, Scott, who informs me that while I may resist the title of "hippie", it still applies to me as one who "who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society". I have yet to get my card, however.

** Vege-preferian: one who prefers a vegetarian diet, but will eat meat on occasion. So termed by my fellow church planter, Liz, pastor of Hope Church in Boston. Personally, I will eat meat only when I am a guest in another's home and when receiving the hospitality of another is the higher value.