Bill’s blog

Well, I thought it was high time that I started actually using this blog, so here goes...

A week from Monday (July 20), I go on a badly-needed vacation and, while the vacation isn't any great shakes--just a two week stay with my father and a few day trips--I'll take it gladly.  Meanwhile, there are still two weeks of sermon prep that have to happen between now and then.  Lately, my sermons haven't been taking shape until the morning before they're due for delivery.  Some clergy might find that rather hum-drum, but I spend a great deal of time actually trying to discern a message, so waiting this long makes me feel panicky.

The thing is that the readings deal almost exclusively with the theme of "give it a rest," and for my purposes they're all about a week too early!  The first reading comes from 2 Samuel and it relates how David, fresh off of his recent victories over all his neighbors, now wants to build a fine house for God.  God, as usual, seems to have other ideas.  He seems to want David to just concentrate on being king and forget about a fine temple.  God's communication is rather indirect, too.  Rather than speak his/her peace directly to David, God speaks through the nearest court prophet, Nathan.  You have to understand that court prophets weren't like the regular prophets.  These guys had the job of saying good things to the king. Nathan actually gets the chance to speak truth to power and I can't help but compare him to the medieval court jesters.  They somehow had the ability to say to the monarch what none of the other courtiers dared to say, and they got away with it.

Now, we've traditionally believed that David couldn't build the temple because he'd been a bad boy, but I'm not so sure.  The overall sense here is that God is saying, "Oh, give it a rest, will you?"  It's almost as if to say, "you're on the right track, but your train isn't going quite that far... the next engineer will get to drive it home.  Your job now is to rest and to rule.  Do you think you can do that?"

As to the Gospel... well, I thought I had that one figured out years ago.  The joke was on me!  You see, the Gospel reading literally straddles the famous "feeding of the multitude," a text I've preached over the last nine years ad nauseam.  But the message around the "miracle" says different things that I hadn't considered before.  In the overall context, the feeding is almost a distraction; the reading without it speaks to the need for refreshment, retreat and compassion for self and for others.  In other words, it screams VACATION.  Therein is my dilemma... I am a firm believer in tying my message to something going on in the here and now; my vacation doesn't begin for another week! 

Perhaps I'll preach on that anyway.  After all, just because I'm not on vacation for another week doesn't mean that others are on my schedule! 

On another note, it appears that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has decided to press forward with progress and endorse full equality for all baptized members to all ministries of the church.  BRAVO!  It's long overdue.  Nothing hurts a person's ministry in the church like not feeling comfortable enough to be authentic and believe me, I know first-hand!