Sunday Sermon Report: Weeds and Seeds

A week ago, I gathered seeds and things that might make a sprout.  I put them in a shallow pan:

Then I covered them with potting soil.  I had hopes that I'd have a pan of seedlings by Sunday, a visual to go along with my sermon about wheat and weeds.

During the week, the pan was saturated with rain water, so much rain water that I thought they wouldn't sprout.  But we poured off the water and waited to see what would happen.  Happily, by yesterday, we had a pan of sprouts.  I put the pan on a small table in the front of the sanctuary:

I delivered two sermons that I thought were strong, both on the idea of seeds and weeds.  I asked questions about how we distinguish between seeds and weeds--how do we know what is worthwhile?  The answer:  we may never know, particularly if we working on cosmic time, God's timeline, not ours.  We keep doing the work and the results shouldn't matter.

I also talked about our judgmental tendencies, particularly of ourselves.  This part near the end came to me as I walked up to the chapel on Saturday,  I prayed, asking God to let me know what the congregation needed to hear.  This paragraph sprang fully formed into my head:

"Like Mary Magdalene, we may be tormented by demons, the voices in our heads and outside of our heads, over and in and through society, voices that tell us that we will never be enough: good enough, rich enough, accomplished enough, nice enough, attractive enough, loved enough. Rest assured, when we hear those voices, we are not hearing the voice of God. When we are convinced that we are weeds, destined for the fire, that’s some other voice. It’s not the voice of God."

My preaching professor would say that it's a message that most people have never heard, and a message that is so important. I agree. 

I ended the adult sermon this way:  

"Even here, in the middle of Summer, The Easter message comes to cast out these demons again and again. Christ reminds us that he’s here, always waiting, always watching, always ready for us. Even if we don’t recognize him, Jesus will not cast us away. It is the voice of Jesus that can silence all of our demons and help us to be at peace. Jesus came to declare, to emphasize the Genesis message—God creates us and claims us and declares us good and very good. Let us hear that declaration today and every day."

I knew that I was taking risks with the sermon.  I subtly (was it subtle?) undercut the judgment imagery of weeds being cast into the fire; I focused on the message of putting judgment aside to let God sort it out, but I also claim that God will not throw us into the fire.  I wasn't sure how it would go over.

I got more positive feedback yesterday than I have so far--most days, I get no feedback at all, aside from smiles and interested looks.

Next week is the set of parables that includes yeast.  I will be baking bread for communion and doing interesting yeast experiments with the children's sermon.  I am so grateful for these sermon opportunities which include inspirations for visual elements and some participatory elements.

And one parishioner told me about a bread baking project in his old church, as he heard me ask if it would be OK if I brought homemade bread for communion next week.  His face lit up at the thought of homemade bread as part of the service.

I have always thought that homemade bread was part of my mission field, and it has been, in so many ways.  I am feeling deeply nourished this morning.