a new way

You may have noticed that there has not been a sermon text posted here in a couple of weeks. You may even be worried about me. Thank you. You need not worry, however, I have, in fact, preached both of the last two Sundays, but without a full text, only a brief set of notes which I will post here as soon as I find a working scanner.

It all started on Friday, August 22nd as I drove with Cassie to Birmingham for a brief stay in the Pittsburgh of the South. My cell phone rang somewhere in the vicinity of everyone's favorite evangelism tool
and it was TKT asking if I could get a sermon together for Sunday. I said yes, like an idiot, and spent most of Saturday while SHW was in classes trying to find an internet connection. I arrived at Holy Spirit in Gulf Shores as a rent-a-priest with a chicken scratched piece of paper from The Wynfrey Hotel and proceeded to not get so lost that I think a half-way coherent sermon came out of it all. In fact, I was convinced that God could work through me and a sheet of chicken scratch when on Friday while at The Hangout watching the Tip Tops perform some fantastic cover music a woman stopped on her way to the bathroom to tell me that she had visited HSGS on Sunday and it was her first trip to an Episcopal Church and my sermon really touched her.

Well, now, isn't that special.

Since I had fought with three full-text sermons for this Sunday back home in Foley I thought I'd trust the Spirit again and just arrive with notes, and it half worked. 7:30 was far from meaningful or coherent, but I felt very comfortable by the time 10am rolled around.

So if this trend continues I will not be posting full texts of my sermons here anymore. We have a digital audio recorder that, if I remember to use, will come in quite handy as I can post an audio version here, but we'll see how that goes. All that to tell three people I might not be posting sermons here anymore, WOW.

Anyway, I'm preacing again this Sunday and am seriously considering adding verses 21 and 22 to the Gospel text. I don't know how you can read Jesus' advice on discipline without Peter's question on forgiveness. It is all about forgiveness. What else could Jesus mean when he tells us to treat the other "as a sinner and a tax collector"? Jesus treated them pretty well, it seems to me, hung out with them, invited them to parties, healed them and their families. Seems as though Jesus is telling us to forgive, to try for reconciliation, and then to love them as a neighbor and as ourselves. Granted, I don't do this very well, but I imagine it'll preach just fine.