Year A THIRD
SUNDAY OF EASTER
May 4, 2014
This blog is an extension of
ShortStop a site committed to providing ideas and resources for
interim/transition ministry professionals (http://shortstopblog.blogspot.com/) Lectionary Preaching in Times
of Change and Transition is dedicated to
exploring the lectionary preaching texts as a "lens" on life's
transitions experienced in congregations, personal life, and families.
Transitions and what churches call "interim ministry" are "short
stops" on the journey to new beginnings. The ShortStop Lectionary
Blog is one way to help preachers in the transition times to find ideas from
the Revised Common Lectionary. Each text will be considered but the focus
each week will be on the text(s) that will be most helpful for preaching during
an interim transition time. The preacher will be able to "connect the
dots" creatively with themes of the lections.
Acts
2:14a, 36-41
One of the early interim ministry books
published by Alban Institute was William A. Yon’s small book, Prime time for
Renewal (1977). He noted and many
interim/transitional leaders have concurred over the years, that congregations
in a time of change and transition For the preacher in the interim transition congregation. Peter’s sermon underscores one of the
realities of transitions in people’s lives: When
discontinuity threatens our stability, most of us become much more spiritually
open.
Life challenges will often drive people of faith to
explore more deeply how their faith will support them with hope and spiritual
resources. This has been my experience
and Peter’s sermon in this week’s text reminds me of several very special moves
of God in the life of interim/transition congregations.
The remainder of Peter’s sermon from last week is picked up this
week. Peter speaks again of a transition
that is spiritual in nature. In this
case, the transition is about repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus
Christ results in forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This is an entirely new faith chapter for these Hebrew followers
of Jesus. Last week’s text in Acts 2 had a larger view of faith transition
while this week’s text gets close and personal. I’m wondering what it would
like to preach this with the call to personal commitment, or the call to
renew/refresh our personal commitment to our faith? These same themes are also reinforces in the
Epistle text for Sunday, 1 Peter
1:17-23.
Luke 24:13-35
The road to Emmaus is a well-traveled path for preachers. In
this text the endings of Jesus death are present but so too are the future
story of new beginnings. Verse 21 has a
little phrase that is easily overlooked, we
had hoped. Richard Swanson of workingpreacher.com
writes this: “ . . . the thing that
catches my eye is that little imperfect tense verb: “we had hoped.” I have
heard families use that phrase when they were packing up the things they had
brought with them to the ICU. “We had hoped … ,” they say, and then they go
home alone. I have heard families use this phrase when addictions return, or
jobs go away. Although theologies of hope focus on a dawning future, the moment
that catches me is that moment of deep disappointment, when only a painfully
imperfect verb tense will express what needs to be said. (https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1992)
Congregations struggling with the loss of a pastoral leader will easily
run toward any sign of hope, any glint of light at the end of the tunnel. This Sunday may be one to address the “we had hoped” thinking in the
congregation: We had hoped that the
pastor would stay until retirement; we
had hoped that we could solve our disagreements; we had hoped that she wouldn’t
be tempted by a larger church; we had hoped that the good preaching would grow
our church. You can add many more.
It is in these dark times that the Gospel surprises us. Luke
reminds us that the future is about eyes being opened to realities that are
around us but we can’t see until grace opens our eyes. In short, the future is
not about solving a problem, but about our “becoming” part of a process of God’s
heavenly work on earth.
