"Thankfulness" @ St John the Divine

One month after my last visit, I find myself back at St. Johns.  The readings mean that I am preaching on a reading that I've done before. Today's sermon is here.  The previous one is here.  Having read it again, I remember the previous sermon quite clearly.  It poses the question for me: "How has my preaching changed?".  My earlier sermon is more aimed at teaching - there is much more detail in it on some topics. There are also a couple of personal stories which I always find helpful from preachers, so use whenever I can.  The later one is to a less well known congregation, and has more 'stories' in to illustrate the points I'm trying to make.  It got a few gentle laughs too.  The biggest laugh came from my attempt to get the flip chart to a place where everyone could see it.  Almost a piece of slapstick (a small tribute to Norman Wisdom perhaps).  I realise how spoilt I am by the modern technology at Christ Church.  The sermon's aim was less at teaching and more at encouraging the congregation to act differently (be more thankful).  Is that a good change?
I used to think that the Bible should be allowed to speak for itself, and that if it was explained properly and people were committed to understanding and acting on it (aren't all Christians?), then all the preacher had to do was make the text clear.  Judging by today's sermon, it isn't that clear-cut. 

Hmm ?

Being at St John's has always been a good experience, and today's was no different.  They are a very welcoming and friendly congregation.  I enjoyed the service, I hope the congregation did too, I pray that something I said will have helped them as they try to follow Jesus more closely.

St John the Divine

Today I was leading and preaching at St Johns Outward Common.  The congregation is smaller than Christ Church, but they are very friendly and welcoming.  Sermons are not recorded there so the only way you will have any idea what was said is to read the script. The videoed rehearsal was better, but still not good. I enjoyed the service, except for missing out a hymn, and had some good conversations with people afterwards. I'm looking forward to going back there later in the year.  I found out just before I left home that I was supposed to be on serving duty at Christ Church.  Thankfully Liz stood in for me.  I haven't received the bill yet!

This afternoon, after watching Jensen Button just missing out on a win at Monza, I spent nearly an hour on a Skype video conversation with Karen.  The conversation was mostly about her forthcoming wedding.  The man she is marrying is an American and she was trying to work out the best time for his relatives to come over.  Hopefully the date will be confirmed soon.

After that we took a drive to Willingale.

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We parked under the cherry tree in the 'Street view' picture (its not in bloom now though).  We soon lost the track that was described and ended on the road at the wrong place. I wonder if that was due to the field I think we were supposed to cross just having been ploughed.  I will probably never know.  The outline map we had indicated that another path existed so we followed that as best we could.  We did get back to the original route, and returned to the village at about the right time.
Its a very nice walk, in a village that has two churches next to each other.