I decided that I was ambulatory enough to return to preaching at St. John’s Larcom Street, the neighbouring parish to mine. The Vicar was happy to oblige, so I preached a sermon for the First Sunday of Advent. The readings were: First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5; Ps. 121; Epistle: Romans 13:11-14; Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44.
Instead of printing the sermon here, however, I would be proud to direct you to The Rev’d Jonathan Hagger’s site, St. Laika’s, where he has graciously printed the sermon and praised it.
Interestingly enough, when I wrote it I was not impressed with it, and nearly scrapped it to write something else. But, I decided that I didn’t have time to do that, so I felt I would have to offer it to the congregation and hope that I didn’t lose their interest in the first few minutes.
However, I think that praying for guidance, as I do before writing any sermon, helped a lot. The congregation was interested and listened through to the end. A preacher can tell when s/he’s gone on too long or too boringly, as the congregation begins to fidget, look around, close its collective eyes, and wait for the end. This congregation looked me straight in the eye and did not waver for the entire 7 or 8 minutes I was speaking. Afterwards, I got compliments from the other members of the sanctuary party and from the congregation, who even remembered what I said.
Now this is not to blow my own horn. It’s to say that whatever gifts we have, however, meagre, should be shared out in our communities. And that I, especially, need to always think that my sermons can be improved as complacency would make me a crap preacher.
Wait, the Mayans were South American? 😉