I haven’t written in here for a while. Lots going on. Had a young adult clergy retreat this last weekend and really really enjoyed being with other young pastors and just hanging out. It was good to veg for a while.
The whole sermon thing is starting to feel like homework. Especially this week. I feel like I am back in theology class having to write my christology/soteriology/resurrection-ology. I honestly don’t remember ever having to preach an easter/resurrection sermon before… well – except at the two funerals that I have done already. And as I work this week with the raising of Lazarus and then think about Easter in two weeks, my mind is just stuck. What do I want to say about resurrection? Or more importantly, what I have I experienced in my life that is resurrection? I’m still a young person. And there have been a few bumps in the road… but I don’t know that I have had a real resurrection experience. Everything I try to draw upon feels too fluffy and sappy and cheesy to work. To really connect with the lives of people in my congregation.
This week, I really am thinking hard about how this moment in John’s gospel is really the beginning of Christ’s passion. Raising Lazarus is what signs his death warrant here. And he comes so close to Jerusalem in order to do so. From here on out, we know how the story goes. I really want to include some of that tension and pain and passion in with this week. Especially since next week we are doing a sort of lessons and hymns and recalling the whole palm/passion story.
I just feel stuck. Not quite sure what direction I want to take. And instead of really sitting with it, I’m letting myself get distracted (I’m getting excited for Grey’s Anatomy coming back… even though I still have a month and a half to wait! The old episodes, my dvds, are calling my name).