The fourth Sunday in Lent is sometimes referred to as Refreshment Sunday – a day when the strictures of Lent are relaxed a bit. (It is also Mothering Sunday for those who keep that festival).
At St Mary’s tomorrow, our refreshment is coming in the form of some of the most lovely choral must that we sing here. Fr Vice Provost will be preaching on the Prodigal Child. And we’re adding one or two guest choristers into the mix.
Expect something special.
I think I would add: if it does not matter to you, yourself, then don’t imagine it is likely to matter to anybody else. Find, if you can, the point where your concerns and the concerns of the text cross. Better to say a very little that matters, than a lot which really does not.
Also: read (to yourself, before you start) the whole passage you are going to speak on and read what comes before and after. You do not have to agree with it. You do have to enter into dialogue with it. Supine agreement of Scripture is not (in my opinion) required. Taking it seriously, is.
[…] Dent-de-Lion by admin Posted on November 2, 2012 Six Points for Preachers […]
I’ve noticed how uncomfortable preachers are with the word ‘love’. Discounting the times in is used in a pre-set theological phrase like ‘love of Christ’ as sort of a plug in, I rarely hear it in sermons.
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