Sunday’s Sermon, II

WED., AUG. 11, 1999, 8:45 AM
A.S.C., F.P.C.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about how you should approach this sermon opportunity, coming up this Sunday. As you reread what I, Holy Spirit, suggested you realize that it will be hard to cram all of this into 20 minutes of pulpit time. So, yes, you will have to organize this and then practice it, to determine how long it takes… allowing for My surprise intrusions.

Yes, o son, you should introduce yourself, briefly, so the Marion folk won’t have to wonder “who is this guy?” But then get into the message… which is that spirit is not only a dimension of health, but is the unifying dimension, and, finally, is that which finally IS health… in contrast to your culture’s dominant perception. (In other words, the culture and its medical model would proclaim that the cancers developing in your body constitute a condition of ill-health, and these must be killed before you can be healthy again. I say that as these cancers motivate you to appreciate life more fully and expect the continuation of your spiritual “being” more fully, then they become a condition of health.) Spirit is your link with Me… for you certainly know that I have no body, and am the essence of immortality.

One important result of spiritual health is the inclination and desire to be of service to others. Forms of service are many indeed, and these will be different in the “eras” of your life. Your profession, over those 48 years, was one of service to students and to colleagues. You encouraged learning, and you related positively to those you had the privilege of encouraging. You also have served church congregations in a number of ways. Oh, you haven’t been exemplary, but as in other ways, you’re “above average.”

Now it’s time to make a transition into a final era of this life, with more attention to Me than to “others.” You know you’ll “move on” in some fairly short period of time, so this shall be a time of assessing and evaluating life as you’ve lived it, with the most attention to the positive, the ways in which you’ve grown and developed, as a spirit… even an immortal soul.

Today you must select the New Testament reading, and you should organize the thoughts I offered you yesterday and select a title. Then it’ll be important to go over the notes you develop so that it is a true, spoken sermon rather than the reading of a well-prepared essay. This has been your style as a teacher, so “dust it off” and “employ it” on Sunday. I want it to “flow,” from the heart, not just as “nice words.”

Another expression of spirituality that I have opened up for you is concern for the maintenance of a healthy earth, one that makes a healthy life possible, even probable. You can touch on this in introducing your holistic model, and then expand on it a bit later. Again, you’ll have to practice, for you may be preparing for a 50 minute lecture… instead of a 20 minute sermon!

But… here’s another thought… to help make your decisions for inclusion even harder: what is the relationship among… being Christian… being religious… and being spiritual? The folks present on Sunday will be those (mostly) who are Christian and religious. Some of these will also be spiritual, to a greater or lesser degree. Yet there will also be folk, in most neighborhoods, who are religious, but not Christian… and some who are spiritual without being religious… or Christian. In this culture there are many combinations of these three “factors,” made more complex by differing degrees of each, plus changes with age and reactions to life experiences.