Sure you can

It is good to be back . . . again.

I was away for a work retreat (it was in Mexico so don’t waste any sympathy on me) which meant that I missed two Sundays in a row. There is nothing like a bit of absence to help you remember how much you enjoy doing something, in this case, it was good to be reminded of how much I enjoy preaching. This might lead you to think that I spent the two weeks working ceaselessly on this week’s sermons but that would not be correct, I spent a week of the time hanging out with co-workers in the warmth of Mexico and a week of the usual routine.

Now I hasten to add that I did spend some extra time thinking about the Lectionary texts for this week and came up with a personal and (hopefully) sermon title of “I’m not sure I can do that.” What I was thinking about is that we listen to the call of Christ on our lives and we judge that it is too hard or to unfamiliar or to . . . something and subsequently tell ourselves that we can’t do it. This led me into some reflection of the incredible power of the word “can’t.” I mention the cliche, which contains truth as all cliches do, that whether we think we can or think we can’t we are correct as an illustration of this.

The good news is that no matter how we assess Christ’s call upon us as far as impossibility goes, we are never, NEVER, asked to do the impossible. The blog title is a riff on the sermon title, or perhaps an answer to it; we might not think that we can but we can.

Knox Presbyterian I’m not sure I can do that

St. Mark’s Presbyterian I’m not sure I can do that

There is a larger than usual disparity in the respective lengths of these sermons. I am quite interested in hearing if one is significantly better, whatever that might mean, than the other and if anyone out there see any correlation between length and quality.

Blessings,