Monday, June 16, 2008

It Preached...All of It

I honestly had fun preaching yesterday -- even though (like many of you, I suspect), it didn't come together entirely until about 6:00 in the morning. And unbeknownst to me our organist came up with just the right combination of hymns to touch on the same points I was making...I love that sense of synergy.

And -- remarkably -- my nascent food-share plan made a huge hit with the congregation; as I explained my idea during the announcements, you could almost see lightbulbs going off in people's heads. One of our newer members cornered me after the service, a huge smile on her face, and said, "I have got to talk to you." Turns out she's another one of those people who feels sorry for orphaned vegetable starts in late-spring nurseries; she has over 40 tomato plants and pepper plants she rescued from garden-department oblivion this year, and is rarin' to both give her surplus away and organize a canning/freezing bee. Wow.

Our pastor is at confirmation camp next Sunday, so I'm preaching again. And...the designated AM has a family commitment, so I will be literally ministering "the full meal deal" for the first time. (For those of you outside the ELCA, or at least my synod, we lay ministers can receive a special, case-by-case dispensation from the bishop's office to celebrate the Eucharist.)

Nervous? A little. But just a little. Now.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still hate your job?

LutheranChik said...

Anonymous: Yes. The paying one, that is.;-) This job, I like.

Trish said...

You can do it! We did a Communion Practicum for one of our classes last semester. We practiced a bunch, but I was still nervous. And you're doing the real thing! The way it sounds, though, you sound quite able to do the "job" right. :) Peace.

Diane M. Roth said...

hmmm.
glad the sermon preached well.
you go, girl. Again!

Tom in Ontario said...

I could never be working on my sermon Saturday night or SUNDAY MORNING?!? I'm always done by the time I leave the office on Thursday.

Full meal deal. Very awesome. I didn't get to do that until I was ordained. I'm glad that in your synod the Rev. types aren't the only ones who get to have that kind of fun. And even better, someone who doesn't fit the ELCA's rules gets to do it.

Anonymous said...

That rocks!!

I'm jonesing for my job-day to be over and enjoying reading about your happy day yesterday.

Then I get to go to yoga. And be me.

(I'm a different anonymous than the previous one.)

Rachel said...

Wow, our synod is a lot more strict with that. A pastor being away for a week doesn't do the trick.c

LutheranChik said...

In our Synod the bishop needs a written request (usually faxed) from the pastor or church council to allow a lay minister to preside over the Eucharist. This is only valid on a week-by-week/case-by-case basis...no long-term dispensation.

Although, as one of my pastor-mentors once observed, it's odd how we create barriers to laypeople celebrating the Eucharist -- a liturgical formula that's been around from the beginning of Christianity -- but yet we let, as he put it, "any idiot" preach a lay sermon.;-)

LutheranChik said...

In our Synod the bishop needs a written request (usually faxed) from the pastor or church council to allow a lay minister to preside over the Eucharist. This is only valid on a week-by-week/case-by-case basis...no long-term dispensation.

Although, as one of my pastor-mentors once observed, it's odd how we create barriers to laypeople celebrating the Eucharist -- a liturgical formula that's been around from the beginning of Christianity -- but yet we let, as he put it, "any idiot" preach a lay sermon.;-)