Photo by Aleksandr Greckas, courtesy of stock.xchng
I’m preaching this coming weekend at Newport-on-Tay (Fr David‘s old stomping ground).
Preparation has started already … I don’t have the luxury of being able to write sermons during the day any more, sadly. And I’m supposed to be in Selkirk on Saturday helping Mum, so even my ‘safety day’ has gone.
I can’t even “recycle” an old sermon for that Sunday as I’ve never preached on that Sunday before (Pentecost 12) — I know: I’ve checked. And my word! it’s not as if it’s an easy passage to preach about either. Have a read:
The Gospel according to St Luke 12: 49-56
- “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth–how I wish it were blazing right now!
- I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up–how I long for it to be finished!
- Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront!
- From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be– Three against two, and two against three;
- Father against son, and son against father; Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law.”
- Then he turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’–and you’re right.
- And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’–and you’re right.
- Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
Translation: The Message (also available free in electronic form as part of e-Sword.)
Prayers please
So your prayers please for me this week as I wrestle with the passage, and that I hear from God the right thing to say to the congregation in Newport. Pray that I may know how to interpret the present time!