Wednesday, December 10, 2008

To the Sermon-Writers Out There...

Have you found Kairos CoMotion Lectionary Dialogue? Each day of the week he blogs a brief, evocative reflection on one of the readings for the coming Sunday's readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary. Here's a taste, from today:

Psalm 126

There are comedic dreams and tragic dreams. Here is an example of the comedic. No matter what the difficulty or intensity of a nightmare, things come 'round right. Restoration after disaster brings laughter.

The prayer of the glass-half-full psalmist is that others who are tearful will find a way to see joy eventuating from their exile into dryness. There is a presumption of life being a comedy, not just because of the importance of timing (and what is Advent about but timing), but because difficulties are wonderfully resolved.

A question we are left with - what to do with a comedic dream in the presence of wide-awake tragedy? Do we step back from our disaster and trust a sweet by-and-by? Do we use the dream as motivation when there is not yet an armload of blessed sheaves to bring home? Do we dismiss the dream as "an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato"?

What dream is holding you in the midst of economic uncertainty, political conspiracy, or on-going genocide? Might it hold something as unimaginable in daylight as a manger or a Baptizer John – both of which portend beyond current powers and processes?

This is VERY good stuff. Found him via The Text This Week (thanks TextWeek!).

2 comments:

Jane R said...

Ooh, thanks. TextWeek is an inexhaustible source of riches. That's how I discovered Jan Richardson's Advent blog a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not preaching again till IV Advent, so I just get to listen and enjoy this weekend. But I'll be taking a quick advance look at biblical passages and commentaries a bit later this week, so many thanks for getting me started.

Gannet Girl said...

Oh, this is fabulous. Thank you.