right now to come up with a sermon for Sunday evening. We are the sort of church that celebrates not only its patronal festival, but its dedication to boot, and this coming Sunday is the day. The real excitements are in the morning, with solemn procession, guest preacher et al, and I've no idea what to expect at evensong, except that I've got to do something with Luke 19, our old friend Zacchaeus. Somehow I don't think that my rather successful All Age talk which involved a child climbing a stepladder, and alot of discussion about ways that we might make Jesus inaccessible to others , will quite fit the bill. Blowed if I can get past it, though...I do hate the way that sometimes a familiar interpretation effectively blocks the light as I try to read things afresh. And what, in any case, does Zacchaeus have to do with dedications, founding fathers and the like? There it is in the Lectionary, set for just such an occasion...but why?? I've tried prayer, I've even tried the commentaries....but all in vain. This may be the shortest sermon in all our 814 years, which would I suppose be something to celebrate in itself.Hmmnnn
5 comments:
I'd guess that links probably centre around ideas like Zachaeus dedicating his life to Jesus, building on new foundations, that sort of thing. Also, Jesus' mission is here seen as changing people from self-centred to love-in-action, as the church should be doing.
Or, there's Jesus here acting out the subversion of secular and religious authority in both selecting a hated tax collector as his host (not a popular decision with the religious) and changing that tax collector (the emblem of the secular occupying force) into an emblem of His kingdom. Similarly, a new church carries on the business of spreading God's kingdom wider in this world.
Anyhow - let us know how you get on!
pax et bonum
Thanks, all of you...I think the building on new foundations bit might work.Sadly it's not actually our patronal (we're St Mary, which would probably not help us with dear Zac either)...but our dedication of building type celebration,- 814th birthday bash. Anyway, best press on with it, encouraged by your posts. :-)
it's a little known fact that 815 years ago there was a tax office and betting shop on the patch of land that your church is built on.
So the story of Zac is perfect really.
;)
and on another thread almost completely...
kathryn? Kathryn? KATHRYN? you were listening to The Verve? http://bigbulkyanglican.blogspot.com/2004/10/funeral-music-and-verve.html#109672754716014180
and they say Zac was converted....
Its a bit late, but for what its worth; founding fathers normally were there at the beginning, blazing the trail, claiming the land/ territory. in dealing with Zac, JC was blazing a trail and leading by example in the way he expected his followers to behave. It wasn't a shallow or easy existence because it called for behaviour which didn't necessarily fit with social convention. Going against the flow and that takes comitment and dedication. You said you were St Marys? She didn't exactly follow convention with the birth of her son ie unmarried etc etc
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