Well, the heat is on.
I’m packaged as the best thing since sliced bread.
On the one hand I hope I mostly disappoint people early on and then we can go forward to build a more realistic relationship.
But I would rather that disappointment doesn’t happen around my inaugural sermon as the new minister at First Unitarian.
I have a bit of a grand scheme. I’m doing a two-parter, intending on outlining why people come to a liberal church and what they’ll find. I’m particularly concerned that we give adequate attention to the interior life and to how we respond to each other and the larger world.
So, the first part, this Sunday’s sermon, must do double duty, introduce the thesis and talk about that interior path as we can encounter it as religious liberals in this wonderful, strange stream drawing first upon Unitarian and Universalist sources while not forgetting newer currents that have been added over the ages. And then next week talk about how we act, can, perhaps should…
A lot to say.
And my shadow as a preacher is lapsing into the essay.
And as I look at the page, I’m seeing essay…
Of course, while some pedagogy is important, historical context is important, drawing our attention to our grander vision is important; none of this is what people tend to come to church and listen to a sermon really want…
What I know I want when I’m sitting in the pews is to have my heart touched. After that a little intellectual stimulation wouldn’t hurt. And, if I’m inspired to go back into the world, feeling a little clearer on how and whither, that would be an absolute plus.
The good news is that in the past when I had paragraphs and pages that just don’t work for the sermon, while I’d dutifly file ’em, they would eventually be lost. With my blog, it’s fodder for a day…
But, the pressing thing, the pressing thing is what does our coming into a church, particularly a liberal church, most particularly a Unitarian Universalist church have to do with touching the heart, stimulating the intellect, and inspiring action.
In this particular time and place.
Sigh…
Back to the document…
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