Before we get too far away from the event, I want to remember the very good experience I had giving my sermon on Tuesday night. It was strange to go to that class after the Zoom meeting with the president where I learned that my seminary housing is likely to be bulldozed sooner rather than later.
Tuesday night, I gave my second and last sermon for my Foundations of Preaching class. For our first sermon, we had a choice between several of the New Testament lessons that were upcoming in the Revised Common Lectionary. For our second sermon, we had a choice between the Hebrew Bible lessons from the upcoming Revised Common Lectionary. Each possibility allowed for only 4-5 students to choose it.
For the New Testament choices, my top choices had already been taken. In some ways, that was great, because I approached the text without ever having spent much time with it. For this next/last sermon, I felt overwhelmed by the choices; I liked them all similarly. I chose Isaiah 2: 1-5, the passage about beating swords into ploughshares.
I enjoyed the exegetical work, once I knuckled down and did the work. For each sermon, I feel I had a richer sermon, in part because of the exegetical work, in part because we had a strict time limit. For the first sermon, we couldn't go over 7 minutes, and for the second sermon, we had 10 minutes as our max. Having that time limit meant that we focused on what was essential.
I also gave a sermon from a written manuscript, which I wrote about in an earlier post. I had never done that before, and I am willing to admit it makes for a better experience for me as the sermon giver--which probably means it's a better experience for the listener.
Last night, I felt calm and prepared; I volunteered to go first. Note to self: in the future, always volunteer to go first. Because I have no printer and can't seem to master the way we print on this campus (there's an app that I can't get to work), my manuscript was a bit scribbled on, and I did get tripped up in one place. I was happy that I was able to think on my feet and reassemble the sentence into something that made sense. I don't think that anyone listening realized I made a goof.
As I walked back to my seat, my teacher said, "Kristin sounds like a prophet, doesn't she?" I assure you, that comment was a compliment. Later, she said that I had a perfect use of illustration. Perfect! This teacher does not hand out praise as if it's cheap candy. I wrote down her comments, and I'm preserving them here.
At the end of class, our professor talked about what a good job we had all done, how we had set the bar high. Hurrah!
I am so grateful for this class. While I may not have time to do this kind of exegesis for each sermon, I am grateful to have had this experience. Much like a creative writing class, I've learned techniques that will come in handy in a variety of ways. These are techniques that I likely wouldn't have bothered to teach myself.
I am also grateful for the example of my professor who has a wealth of information to share with us, who is so generous--and who demands that we do increasingly better. She takes her obligation seriously, to make better preachers who will continue the important preaching work that she has done her whole life.
I'll be making a recording of the sermon for my home church in South Florida, and I'll post it to my YouTube channel in a week or so.
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