Because of work responsibilities I am only getting a partial experience of the Festival in this “almost” experience. But even if I could hang on every spoken word, I would still be getting only a partial experience. One of the elements of the Festival experience is gathering together with colleagues from all over the world into a shared space and hearing the sound of 1,500 voices singing the great hymns of the faith, and leaning into the proclaimed word, caught up in the Spirit that moves through. Sitting up here in the spare room, the “room of requirement” that can become whatever we need it to be, except that it can’t become the cathedral like sanctuary of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, which is where we were supposed to have been.
Still, I don’t want to moan too much. A little moaning is OK, isn’t it? But not too much. And I have to give credit to the organizers, they are trying really hard to capture the moment as best they can. And there have been some good sermons in this unusual setting, some good conversations and some amazing music. And maybe that’s what we need right now. Almost. Something that speaks of what was, what we remember together, and also recognizes that everything has changed.
Day Two began with the Rev. Otis Moss III preaching in his empty sanctuary in Chicago about the Certain Uncertainty. He too, like many of us, is almost done hearing “these uncertain times.” And yet, what better description can there be about the life of the follower of Jesus? Everything is uncertain, except the certainty of the presence of the One we follow. And in the end, that is enough. What we need, Moss declares is to look beyond the frame. To look for the support that stands with us. Here the camera he was using pulled back and revealed his wife sitting in the pew next to him. We lean into the support of the God who calls us, but we feel it in the people around us. Who is supporting you, who is praying you through, who is just out of the frame and on your side? In the certain uncertainty, we need to remember those who brought us to where we are.
I was in and out yesterday and didn’t catch all of anything else. But I heard parts of Dr. Ellen Davis, biblical scholar from Duke University, talking about “Telling the Truth: Ungodly Facts, Real Power, and Holy Fear.” Dr. Davis’s thesis was reminding us of the Exodus event, and how Moses was called to speak truth to power, even at the risk of his life, and the fear that his own people had when he chose to do that. Sometimes, slavery seems safer than the risk of resistance. Sometimes, the destruction of the world is safer than the risk of changing a way of life so that life may continue.
I caught most of Dr. Joy Moore’s sermon titled “Breathless Anticipation.” Her sermon was based on Romans 8, reminding us what a shocking statement Paul made when he said “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed to us.” Which was immediately followed by “Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” The breathless anticipation is because of the great need, the great suffering that all of creation endures, while it hopes for the people of God to finally understanding stewardship of all that is. The glory is not just the someday of the coming new age, the Kingdom, or Kin-dom as many of us are now naming it. But it is in the translation of this world to that one. It is in the rescuing for what the world has been and can be, once we stop our mad dash toward destruction. Creation waits for us to be who God calls us to be.
Dr. Leah Schade was the subject of an interview in the next time slot. I got to hear a part of it before having to go to yet another zoom call. I met Leah at a conference last December, she made a presentation of her major work, “Preaching in the Purple Zone.” The purple zone is trying to walk the middle of our great national divide between the red and the blue, attempting to speak into this polarity and be heard. Or better yet, let the gospel be heard.
I came back in time to hear Grace Kelly sing and play us out. Grace has been a part of the Festival before, and I remember being amazed at her talent and heart. She is a jazz saxophonist and singer of blues and jazz. And she’s Asian American. Sometimes it’s like I am looking at Maddie sing the blues. It seems incongruous on the one hand, but oh so amazing on the other. Grace sings and plays of a spirit that connects, that teaches love, risks loving. It was a beautiful ending to day two.
Day three was even more sketchy than the previous. We had an all staff meeting a Discipleship Ministries in the morning and then an all programming staff meeting in the afternoon. So, I missed a lot today. I did, however, hear a sermon for Olu Brown, a pastor from Atlanta who planted a church near the airport and somehow managed to grow it into a multi site church and now online church with a reach in the multiple thousands. Oddly enough, tomorrow the Worship Team is recording a podcast with Olu about the use of technology in worship.
His sermon was titled Imagine, based on the end of the book of Revelation, Olu was asking us to not let our imagination sit on the sidelines as we work toward what Christ as promised for all of creation. To not settle for what is but continue to long for what can be, what might be, what God intends for each person. Too often we are apt to say, that’s just the way things are. And have stopped asking why are they this way? And why are we content with this? Whether we’re talking about our own lives, our human community or the condition of the planet as a whole, we need to imagine a better reality, a more God-breathed reality. Don’t stop imagining.
Then I was able to hear most of Karoline Lewis’s lecture on leading with the sermon. Preaching, she argues, as do many others (I’ve even been know to talk about this when I teach) that the sermon is not just a Sunday morning moment of uplift or inspiration, but a way of shepherding the flock into becoming the body of Christ. Much of what she shared I knew, and yet it was good to hear it outlined the way she did. My only problem was that she started by saying she had 8 elements of the sermon as leadership, but I only got 7. So now I’ll have to wait until the recording is publish in a few weeks to find number 8.
Then I was caught up in office stuff, and managed to come back in time to catch most of the closing music and worship experience led by a group called “The Many.” I was amazed at what they were doing, able to do in this disconnected medium. They sang and they prayed and they even shared in a few minutes a meditation that took my breath away in its simplicity and grace. I hope to learn more about The Many, and I’ll let you know.
Shalom,
Derek
#Homiletics2020
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