The Summer Preaching Schedule
As the school year starts to wind down and the graduation ceremonies are celebrated, spring turns to summer and the mood shifts. We have more than a few weeks of quiet simplicity. The liturgical year reflects this as we move from Easter season to Ordinary season. Having gone from Christmas to Lent to Easter (birth, death and resurrection of Christ), we now set about being the church—becoming the people of God here on earth.
The plans for the summer sermons should reflect this move into Ordinary time. This year we will start on June 2 with a passage from the Hebrew Scriptures, then we will spend several weeks in the Gospel of Mark and, finally, we will finish the summer with four weeks in the Book of Ruth (we will also have four guest preachers who will provide an occasional interlude). Every year I look forward to the “ordinariness” of Ordinary time. After Pentecost, I’m ready for something other than the Christmas/Lent/Easter drama and here we are.
I’ll introduce each section by sharing why I made these selections, starting now with this week’s passage from 1 Samuel 3:1-20. This is the story of Samuel’s beginnings as a prophet. He is still a little child when God sends him to others with a message that is hard to bear. While the Gospels are often summarized as the story of God’s love for us, the Hebrew Scriptures are much harder to boil down into one theme. The Hebrew Scriptures are more like stories that pose moral questions. These questions do not elicit simple “this is good” or “this is bad” answers. They are ideas that we should sit with, ponder, and maybe even let ourselves be changed by. I am hopeful that this week’s passage will kick off our summer with a question that will stay with us through the season—one that will be added to and commented on by Mark and Ruth. I hope you can tune in, whether in person or online. It will be the beginning of a quiet summer stroll through the challenging and life changing story of God.
Blessings,
Pastor Jen
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