sermons and community

Hillary Clinton's phrase from her book It Takes a Village has become a part of our lingo. As it has I find myself using it in a lot of contexts, most recently that of my sermon. I preached yesterday on an epistle text and I always find epistle's difficult. It has become my habit to include family and congregants in the preparation process, so yesterday was particularly interesting. I had such difficulty with that sermon that I had to rewrite the thing three times! If it hadn't been for one church member sharing a quote of Aristotle with me, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit" and if it weren't for the advice and direction of my parents, I don't think I would have had a sermon. That said, there was a really fabulous moment for me during presentation when I saw my friend who shared the quote realize that I was using what she said for the theme of the sermon. Such excitement came over her expression and it was for me a connection--a holy moment. It was the village at work in my sermon. My sermon--this thing that is usually presented by a preacher without a whole lot of input from others--became a communal event that taught me even as the words wafted from my lips! I hope the sermon will soon be posted on video format at the church website. If you'd like to view it, please do so. You can checkhttp://www.stjohnsbaptistchurch.org/"> this out at the website listed here!