Today I was part of the recording of a Podcast, and then quickly having to write a description of the same Podcast because the web folk were working quickly because of the holiday weekend. I wrote up and sent off a proposal for an online Preaching Webinar about tips and techniques for Preaching Online, not sure when that will be released, but soon. And I managed to attend a full day of the Almost Festival of Homiletics!
Virtual, I mean, not almost. The Virtual Festival. Another good day and again I give credit to the planners and organizers. I’m actually writing while the last session is underway. It’s a music group called “The Fleshpots of Egypt” or the “Fleshpots” for short. A group of seminary professors and pastors playing bluegrass gospel songs. You have to see them to believe it. They have a lot of fun. Even in the streamed version, they are enjoying themselves tremendously. Full disclosure, I’m not a big bluegrass fan, but these guys are a lot of fun.
But let me go back to the beginning of the day with the Festival for my reflections. We began with the welcome and blessing of Rev. Antony Bailey hosting us from his home in Toronto Canada and he walked us through the schedule for the day and then had a little devotion for us. Originally from Barbados, Antony is a frequent host at the Festival and brings a gracious spirit with him.
This was more like a “normal” day at the Festival, in that I heard three sermons today, and a lecture and an interview, before the Fleshpots. You just have to keep saying the Fleshpots, it seems to me. It’s not a word I type all that often. Anyway, the first worship experience was led by our musicians and liturgists. Most of whom are invisible. The prayer time, for example, is floating words, inviting us into a spirit of prayer. The voices are prompters and not performers. Sometimes we have landscape pictures to help us in our spiritual imagination. Sometimes the words alone, or a candle flame flickering with our virtual breath in the space we create. The musicians likewise are often obscured by images. Once in a while we get a glimpse of them, a young African American man on the piano and an older African American woman at a microphone. I think their names appear briefly as they begin to sing. I’ll have to pay attention more tomorrow. I’ve been appreciative of their ability to lead us, usually with familiar hymns of the faith. I am grateful for what they add to the worship feel.
The preacher for the first time slot was Dr. Cynthia Hale, Senior Pastor of Ray of Hope Church is Decatur Georgia. I think every church should be named Ray of Hope, don’t you? We should declare what we are doing with our name. Her sermon was titled “Don’t Panic: God is in Control!” With exclamation point. And that’s exactly how she preached. With exclamation points. She was hampered, I am sure, by the lack of response in her call and response style of preaching, but it didn’t slow her down. She leaned on us to trust in the promises. It was a recitation of words that have brought the people of God hope for centuries I have to confess I was looking for something deeper, something surprising. To be honest, based on the title, Don’t Panic, I was also expecting a few Douglas Adams quotes from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but there were none. But maybe we need to be reminded of the eternal truths from time to time. God is still in control. Amen? Amen.
Following Dr. Hale was a lecture titled “‘Is it True? Does it Matter’ Preaching that Saves Lives.” The lecturer was new to me, but I confess to being swept up in her topic quickly. Her name is Rev. Dr. Katie Hays, and she is the Senior Pastor of Galileo Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Fort Worth Texas. She planted that church and has intentionally directed her attention to the marginalized peoples of our society. In their mission statement it states that Galileo Church is “a next church community of belonging that seeks and shelters spiritual refugees, especially LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.”
Her lecture challenged all of us who preach to consider not just truth, but truth that matters. Telling someone something that is true might not save them, might not bring them the hope that they need, might not be meeting them in their brokenness and leading them into deeper and more profound relationships of truth and salvation. What is our preaching trying to do? That was the question she was asking us. Are we preachers giving answers to questions no one is asking, while we ignore the deeper needs, wounds and potential of the people around us, inside and outside the church. It is a message that we need to return to again and again as we examine our preaching.
As I am preparing, for instance, to present a webinar on how to preach online, a part of my content must pay attention to the why of preaching and not just the how. My shelves are full of books on the how, but those who pay attention to the why are more rare. I took another look at my outline as I listened to Dr Hays speak today.
Two sermons followed in quick succession. And they were stand alone sermons, outside of the context, even the almost context of this virtual world. They were just dropped in on us from above. Antony Bailey’s voice introduced them, but that was the only contextualization of these two sermons. It was unsettling to say the least.
But then they were unsettling sermons. Maybe that was part of the intent. Lenny Duncan, who is introduced as “pastor/author/speaker/activist”, preached on Awaiting the God who Answers from Habakkuk. It was a plea to pay attention to who is left out, left out of the recovery efforts, left out of the health care system, left out of our attention. But also what does it mean to say we await a God who answers? Where are the answers? How do we know them, recognize them, listen to them?
William Barber continued that theme in his sermon that followed. Rev. William Barber is a life long advocate for the poor and the head of the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington DC. He, as he often does, astounds us with statistics about the depth of poverty in this the greatest country in the world. And like Lenny Duncan before him, asked us how we can justify doing nothing about the injustice rampant in our nation? How can we call ourselves followers of Christ and yet be content with death on such a scale. Duncan and Barber both reminded us of the national debate when it comes to the reopening of our economy and how often it devolved into a discussion at to which lives are worth saving. Sermons that came out of nowhere and left us breathless and trembling, if we just paid attention. What truths really matter, as Dr. Hays might ask.
We concluded with an interview of Jonathan Wilson-Hargrave, a Spiritual Writer and Public Speaker, according to his bio. He didn’t let us off the hook either. Insisting that spiritual life has to manifest itself in social justice, we were encourage to take words of those like Barber and Duncan to heart as we seek to walk with Jesus. Walking with Jesus cannot be a walk in the garden alone, despite the gospel song. To walk with Jesus is to walk through the truths of the world as it really is, as we are living it out every day, as individuals and as a nation. In fact, I might have to read some of his writing because he said in the interview, that coming from North Carolina, he was aware of just how much the bible says “y’all” and not just you. I believe that I’ve heard that before somewhere.
The Fleshpots have sung themselves off the stage and it’s time to wrap this up. One more day of the Festival and what I hear, I’ll share with you.
Shalom,
Derek
#Homiletics2020
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