Last Sunday...

Something I didn't mention in my blog entry about last Sunday...

I got up early in the morning after a night it which I had tossed and turned to think about my sermon. I do this best in the shower, and spent at least a good hour thinking through various Pentecost issues. By the time I arrived at church I had a lot of good ideas, but only a few of them were appropriate for a sermon.

You see, preaching must always be done to build up the community, and that often means balancing the prophetic vs. the pastoral. We heard a lot about this dichotomy in seminary preaching classes, and it indeed does prove true in experience. You want to challenge the congregation and speak truth in love, but you also want to nurture and support them.

Anyway, I was thinking about where I should draw this line as I listened to the lessons during the 8 o'clock Mass on Sunday. Then it was my turn to read the Gospel. Although I was quite familiar with the text from John appointed for the day, I didn't really feel it in my bones until that moment of reading it aloud to the small congregation of early risers. Something about the almost mournful character of Jesus' sayings at that moment, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?" I thought at that moment of the Holy Spirit saying that to church. How have we failed to recognize our Lord among us? It was a thought that nearly brought me to tears as I was reading to that congregation. Nice to know that I'm still capable of having those kinds of moments.

-t