I have been a bit tardy about publishing this sermon. The reason is that I didn’t put enough thought into it. St. John’s is a traditionalist parish, having passed Resolutions A and B (which state that the parish will not accept a female incumbent nor allow a female priest to celebrate the Eucharist). The last few paragraphs equate the “crowd” outside the house in which Jesus was staying with traditionalists and obstructionists. My intention was to equate the “crowd” with people who keep us from a close relationship with God, but I ended up equating them with traditionalists. This was bad.
Have any of you who have preached or spoken publicly realised halfway through a sermon or a speech that you actually have said the wrong thing for the congregation or audience in front of which you are speaking? I couldn’t think of how to extricate myself without simply stopping in the middle, so I careened on, over the cliff.
My next assignment is March 22nd, Mothering Sunday here in the UK (=US Mothers Day). The readings are for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Gaudete Sunday. I suppose I can bring the rose-coloured vestments into it somehow. It will also be my 50th sermon since I moved to the United Kingdom.
Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 10 am. Readings: Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25; Ps. 40; II Cor. 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12
+In the name of God, the one, the Undivided Trinity. AMEN.
Have you ever noticed that many jokes start out with a group of three people?
Bro. Chris,
It was well done. I wouldn’t have been so compassionate or subtle.
Or employed at the end;)
Raised Episcopalian, with a strong love of conservatism, I have been
Far left politically, radically so theologically, and in constant conflict.
The conflicts reflected in your blog have made me more radical than
Ever, even though I’m jealous of the ladies who have found a living
I never attained.
Good work.
Steve Brettell
Maryland, USA
Well, luckily I’m a layperson, so they can only disinvite me from preaching, which I don’t think they’ll do.
They are not hard-line anti-woman priest conservatives; most of the congregation are probably fairly pro-woman priests now but a hard-core person in authority (not the priest) is still pushing the anti-woman-priest agenda.
Thanks for the kind words.