hmmm
I can’t recall the last time I had anything even remotely theological to say. However, I will be blogging a bit about the transition stuff happening. It has been an interesting couple of weeks and I probably need to write some of this stuff down to help me get my brain around it.
A slightly different note, my sermon from yesterday just got SLAMMED on a theological basis. Apparently, someone disliked the fact that I held to Christ the King Sunday as a feast and asserted Jesus Lordship. Here is the funny thing: I love being in a parish where my parishioners feel comfortable enough to question my sermons. The person who did this is a thoughtful soul, and I appreciate feedback on sermons, positive or negative.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I held to Christ the King Sunday as a feast and asserted Jesus Lordship.
Jedi - I don’t understand. Is he against the idea of feast days? That would be understandable but what’s with the Lordship stuff?
This is a serious question (I allow myself one a week).
The issue was not with the notion of feast days, we celebrate those with regularity here. The issue was that this person does not believe that Jesus is divine and gets upset when I say otherwise from the pulpit. Any assertion that Jesus was more than a prophet does not sit well.
I am not sure if I answered your question or not…
Well then, this particular person would not have liked the sermon here yesterday either, especially in the light of the text from Revelation for our second lesson.
One phrase of the gospel text that warranted fleshing out was “My kingdom is not from this world.” In a world where we have seen less and less attention paid to the Sabbath, (read Lord’s day) and more to scheduling secular activities on Sunday it bears to mind that Jesus’ kingdom is most certainly not of this world.
The mind wobbles! Your parishioner would have been exposed to the idea of Jesus as Lord in most any Christian service on Christ the King Sunday, no?
What a crazy idea: Jesus is Lord! That’s sarcasm btw):
Any plans to post your sermon?
I’ve never posted one of my sermons before, so I probably won’t post this one either. I feel funny about posting them, if that makes any sense.
I understand the hesitency to post your sermon. I have often felt the same way. There is something about the conversation between preacher and congregation (and hopefully the Holy Spirit), that cannot be recreated in the printed word.
Does this parishoner also object to the creeds? I have had similar members in congregations, and they always confuse me. I understand their perspective and respect it … but just can’t fathom how membership in an orthodox Christian church jives with what they say about Jesus.
PDH - I think that may be it. I don’t object to people posting their sermons, especially when looking for feedback on ideas they have and such. But I am always really hesitant to give out my manuscripts in any form. I write out the entire sermon each time, but I preach it differently depending on the service at which it is delivered. And truth be told, I only seldom refer to it. It is more like a safety blanket in that way, there for times when I lose my train of thought.
My style of preaching tends to be “conversational”, and the manuscript itself is not alive in the same way the sermon is.
Again, sorry if this is as clear as mud.
And yes, this person objects to the creeds. We have a handful of those folks. I’ll keep preaching and teaching the historic faith and hope they absorb it.
Do they know they are in a Lutheran church?
Seriously 
Ditto, ruthre. Did they say that they believed when they joined or did they change after that? Why do they attend? There must be something that draws them there. Rhetorical questions, obviously, but pastoral questions, I’d assume. I can understand people not completely agreeing with a pastor or with a doctrine, but to make an issue of it after several times and perhaps even assenting to it with membership is strange to me.
shame on you for saying something christian, then
On the posting of sermons, I do it, but with a certain hesitation each time, because, as you’ve said, the printed sermon is not at all the same as the word spoken and heard. I have found that, since I know that certain friends and family members read my sermons online (and Lord knows who else), it adds a level of accountability for me. It will also, I hope, help keep me from being too repetitious and stale in my preaching - which is already a challenge in my first year of weekly preaching.
Sometimes the heretics and agnostics in our midst keep us on our toes and sharpen our theological thinking. I would rather have someone openly question what I preach than take it for granted and then ignore it. Maybe someone who questions the Kingship of Christ can help us discern what that Kingship means in our world and in our lives today.
As Luther says, the Church is a mundhaus, not a federhaus. How do you say “keyboard-house” in German?
I posted a sermon ONCE. As an untrained flunky preacher wannabe, I’m sure it paled in comparison to the least of your efforts but I thought it was a good idea at the time time. I then immediatley began to feel weird about it. As has been pointed out, there is an immeasuable difference in a prepared manuscript and a delivered message…
Andy: ‘Schreibmaschinehaus’ maybe?
Yeah, like I said, I don’t mind being questioned. I feel like there is something to be said for people feeling the ability to question me on some things. In this particular case, I just wish it weren’t the divinity of Christ. However, like the person I posted about a few months back, this person is a good and gentle soul who keeps coming back to the church. As my wife said last night, the fact that she questions me and keeps coming shows that she is still asking her own questions about these things she claims to disagree with, so it is a good thing.
Concerining the divinity of Christ, St. Augustine once said that before a person could accept Christ’s divinity, they must first truly accept Christ’s humanity. I simply pray that this is what is happening in the heart of this parisioner.
I’m sure there are heresies of one kind or another floating around almost ever parishioner’s head. But to slam a preacher because he’s not a heretic? That’s a new one for me.
slammed… sounds like you were the vessel and the Holy Spirit is doing it’s thing inside this person’s heart - maybe urging them to grow in new ways! stinks to be slammed but rest assured it is bizzare testiment to you being open and allowing the Spirit to work through you. kudos