Other than a very lovely image (not this one, but similar!) on the first PowerPoint slide there really wasn’t much of our Service this morning to indicate that it is, in fact, Trinity Sunday.
I guess I had received “fair warning” in that there had been an email earlier in the week describing plans for a 12 –week summer sermon series on the minor Prophets of the Old Testament.
Sometimes fitting into a non-Lectionary based Service structure is a huge learning curve for me. Since a goodly portion of the congregation does not come from the Anglican tradition it is easy to understand that this sort of plan would be perfectly normal whereas for me it
is quite a radical shift.
is quite a radical shift.
Not that I did not appreciate the months we spent on the Book of Acts, or even my first summer at St. Stephen’s when Rob Bell videos formed the core of each week’s teaching. Knowing that the children would not be there today I went expecting to hang with the adult congregation; so armed with my knitting, I did!
There certainly was a wide variety of content, from a selection of new worship songs (I hadn’t been foolish enough to expect St. Patrick’s Breastplate”!!) to a presentation from a parishioner who spent an extended period working in a Youth Initiatives conflict resolution program in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and then to Jenna’s homily on the Book of Hosea.
Whew! pretty diverse.
Whew! pretty diverse.
Thus there was plenty to chew on as I cycled home. Reflecting on the summer Sundays to come and on my desire to find the “kernel” in the Service that will be there just for me, (as I firmly believe that when we consciously go to public worship in order to meet God, He always has something unique for each person present)it sometimes hits one in the face with a major wham! whereas other times it is subtle and harder to find.
One of Jenna’s suggestions was that we read the whole book of each “Prophet of the Week” and I certainly intend to make that a part of my personal discipline, even on those weeks when I know that Camp Ministry work will keep me away from Church, but I also think that it might help to take the time each week and imagine how to share that Prophet’s message with the small children. It does not matter if they actually come or not, the exercise is to stretch me, to be creative and imaginative in conveying the message found in that “kernel”and by so doing make it impact on my own heart.
Sound like a lot of extra work? Maybe but it seems to me the best course forward rather than griping because we are not following the Gospel reading for Pentecost 3, or whatever the Lectionary dictates! We’ll see how it goes!!!
Thanks for these reflections. Very insightful. I love the lectionary too. I love the calendar- it is a challenge, isn't it, to diverge away now and then from the liturgical calendar, but still honour it in our service? I think this is a conversation worth having !