Sunday August 12

This weekend I have done something I have never done before---I preached four times in the same church, with the same sermon. I had been asked to preach at First UMC in Blue Springs this Sunday--Steve Campbell was on vacation. I preached once last night and three times this morning. It was quite the experience. I preached three times regularly on Sundays the first year I was at Community UMC in Columbia, but never four times.

The text I used is actually the epistle lesson from the lectionary for next week---Hebrews 12:1-2. I reworked an old sermon in which I used Lance Armstrong as an example; used Shel Silverstein's Little Blue Engine; and, basically said as I summed at the end, When you think you can and you can; when you think you can and you can't; when you think you can't and you don't; in all those times we are help in the magnificent and mystifying love of God through Christ.

One thing I noticed today, preaching this many times, was how much I miss speaking aloud theologically---preaching is a way for us preachers articulate what we beleive, to say the important things out loud, not only for the congregation, but for our own souls as well.

Two other lovely things today: Yolanda Villa, my colleague in the office who now is the Heartland Central ds, called me on my way home from Blue Springs. Know why she called? Just to tell me she had been thinking about me and praying for me because she knew I was preaching 4 times. And she let me tell her about it. Wow.

And then tonight, after a called charge conference at FUMC Kearney (to set a new salary for the associate pastor whose hours have been increased and to establish another building committee to start to move forward on expanding the worship area) I went to dinner at the home of the pastor Fred and Linda Leist. It was so nice just to sit around the kitchen table, to eat the Greek food Linda had prepared for us and to have good conversation. Very nice indeed.