Today was the first time in a very long time, maybe ever (?), that I have preached two intentionally different sermons on the same day. More than once, I have found that the two sermons are quite different in the end but not in the intention but today was different.
I am preaching specifically in regard to the St. Mark’s mission statement in Moose Jaw and staying with the lectionary in Briercrest. I’m not sure what to think of the end result. Both sermons are shorter than usual and I think they are quite distinct from each other. As is so often the case, I suspect I am not the best person to reflect on the value of each sermon but I am trusting, as I try to always do, that a gracious God will through the Holy Spirit address any of my shortcomings.*
The Knox (Briercrest) sermon is my response to Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and Herodians asking about whether or not taxes should be paid. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God’s” is NOT Jesus’ statement about ethical citizenship and it is doubly NOT addressing the separation of church and state.
The St. Mark’s (Moose Jaw) sermon is a discussion about how we glorify God in worship and takes some it’s biblical context from the Exodus story where Moses asks to see God’s glory and God tells him that “no one can see my face and live.”
If you are so inclined to listen to both I would value any input that any of you have about the two.
Knox Presbyterian But isn’t it all God’s?
St. Mark’s Presbyterian We glorify God in . . . worship
Blessings,
*This is not intended as a preemptive excusing of any inadequacies but rather a firm understanding that it is not I, or any preacher, who moves people but it is always God.
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