Does anyone else feel like they preach the same sermon over and over again? I feel like my messages each week are beginning to blur together: God is good (all the time). God is gracious. God's love is abundant and there is enough of God's blessings for everyone, we don't have to fear "losing" our portion if we invite another. The goodness of God's blessing is so great, we should be out inviting everyone we know, and those we don't know, to experience it. God's promises and blessings are available to us not just in some far off "eternal" time that is relatively irrelevant for us in the here and now, but they are also available to us now. "Hell"/punishment is living outside the umbrella of God's love--that's the worst reality we can know: living without God. And there is no reason to live in that reality, for God has made God's self abundantly present for us, in every moment, despite our past, despite our sins, despite our shame, God's gift of mercy and grace is there. Right here. Right now. Isn't that exciting? Doesn't that make you want to jump up and shout for joy? Doesn't that make you want to go out and tell someone the good news? Then what the heck are you waiting for????
That seems to be my sermons in a nutshell. Week after week after week. Now, I know my phrasing there makes it seem like I am less than enthused, and that is wrong. I am super enthused, and I feel like I am jumping up and down and waving my arms to get people to see the true beauty and abundance of the good news AND to go share that with someone else, and all of it seems in vain.
Who knows? Maybe I'm just frustrated that I don't have something new, unique, and different to share tomorrow. Guess I get to rely on that whole abundant grace thing, again!
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