Scripture: Act 10:42
[The resurrected Christ] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead
Thought for the Day: In the last two days, in three separate settings, I heard the word preach used. What caught me off guard was the context and purpose of its usage. In each case, the word preach was used as a negative. For example, I heard a woman say to her son (late teens), “The last thing you want is for me to preach to you, and for that reason, I won’t. But please understand my concern…” I know that Christians do not hold a copyright on the word preach, but as I heard the words of that mother, I thought to myself that maybe her son needed her to preach…remembering that some of the best sermons are ones that we see with our eyes and not hear with our ears.
In this part of Acts, Peter was talking about the preaching that Jesus followers were called to do. It included preaching peace, the healing of the oppressed and the forgiveness of sins. Those all seem like incredible gifts, something everyone would want to experience. Maybe the reason the word preach has taken on such a negative connotation is because many sermons don’t have much good news. Preaching has become sirupy self-help or embarrassing attacks on proven science or simply mean and hateful speech. If those were the experiences of the three people I heard over the last couple of days, I could understand why the word preach was used as a negative. But before we toss the whole thing down the drain, let’s try to reclaim it by providing an experience of preaching that is life-giving, joyful, instructional and relevant in our intellectually savvy world. That seems to be what Jesus did, and he had all kinds of folks flocking to experience his preaching.
Prayer: Give me a word, O Source of the Living Word, so that what I offer is relevant and provocative and liberating. Amen.
DON’T FORGET
This Saturday
Creekfest
&
The Blessing of the Animals and Stuffed Animals
