Sometimes I make things too hard.
I like a challenge. I like to push myself to spiritually, emotionally and especially as a student of the Bible. So, after the most recent worship planning group at TUCO, I was inspired to preach through sequence of readings in Revelation offered by the Revised Common Lectionary.
So, that might have been a little overzealous. I’m racing to finish the first sermon in that series before I go on vacation and it’s not coming together fantastically well. I know. I know. Not every sermon can hit it out of the park. Sometimes the best you can do is write the best sermon you can before you go on vacation so you don’t spend the entire vacation working on it.
What this journey through Revelation does offer is the opportunity to dust off some books from seminary. I took a wonderful class with Hal Taussig on the Revelation of John which forever changed my experience of these strange words at the end of the Bible. I fell in love with the imagery and it gave my justice-seeking heart a place to soar. And then, in my second year of seminary, my preaching professor made us read Barbara R. Rossing’s The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation. I really want to ask every church member to read this book. It’s so easy to read and really debunks the crazy stuff that is layered onto this text. But, I won’t do that. Not this time.
Now, I’ll just countdown to vacation and hope that I don’t forget to pack anything. All the while, I’ll try to remind myself not to make things so darn hard. It’s not always a good thing.
Cooking with Elsa 