Re-entering the craft of writing sermons

After a couple of weeks in Iraq, I thought it time to try to start writing sermons, in an attempt to maintain the skills I learned in my preaching class last semester. I wasn’t quite successful this week, but it’s all about making progress, right? (As a very good friend recently reminded me.)

This Sunday’s gospel lectionary is from Matthew 16:13-20, in which Jesus asks his disciples who others think he is and then who the disciples think he is. The separate questions bring me to the first of three moves that I considered outlining for a sermon: What do you care what other people think? The late physicist Richard Feynman asks this question in his book of the same title. It’s been too long since I’ve read that book, so I don’t recall the circumstances behind the question; only that Feynman is serious when he asks the question.

The second move is something I’ve continually struggled with on this blog: Concentrate on the will of God, not the will of humanity. It’s probably something with which I’ll continue to struggle for the remainder of my life. This move is closely linked with the first, since caring too much about the judgment of others often causes us to change who we are. Sometimes this can be a change for the better, but in changing who we are simply to change appearances, we risk committing a grave injustice against both God and ourselves. We commit enough injustices against each other and against God already—that’s what sin is.

The third move concentrates on the statement by Jesus to Peter: The gates of Hades will not prevail. To me, this is reassurance that God is always with us. Jesus essentially says here that death (Hades) will not prevail over the church. The faith community is always there, and God is always there—not even death can change that. And the statement is a foreshadow of the idea that Jesus conquered death.

Well, that’s all for now, I think. Now, to work on a sermon for next week! Not that I expect to actually preach it, but it’s still good practice. It’s also good to dig really deeply into the scripture once in a while.