Rejoicing in the Midst of Chaos

My first sermon as part of the program was preached last Friday. Its title was “Rejoicing in the Midst of Chaos” based on Philippians 4:4-9. As I’ve mentioned before preaching on Paul is not something that historically I’ve chosen to do on my own accord and not something that I’ve usually enjoyed, yet this sermon was a wonderful experience of what Paul’s pastoral ministry in the 1st century CE can still say to us in the 21st century CE. It was a great chance to delve into a text and preach it to a community of preachers that contained a very familiar phrase “rejoice in the Lord always.”
Now preaching to that community was a whole other matter. It’s is one thing to preach within a community where you’ve developed a relationship. Where we’ve share communion and baptism; where we’ve mourned together; where we’ve celebrated new covenants together; where we’ve struggled with budgets and vision. Preaching to preachers is a whole other matter and so last Friday, at the end of a very long day and week, I went second to last, and with great humility preached to my classmates a sermon that I wrote while here in Chicago with a style that intentionally would have an African-American flavour.
The end result, a powerful sermon based on Paul and his message to the early church that’s still relevant to us today. It was a sermon that certainly had an African-American flavour; at least as much as a white guy can have one, which received the comment “man I think you’ve been eating some greens and black eyed peas!” I was a wonderful experience to have folks respond during the sermon to what was being preached. It was a powerful collective witness to the power of God in our live through Jesus out Christ who calls us to rejoice and rejoice and rejoice again regardless of what life throws our way. It is something that I will probably try out from time to time at home as another way of sharing our witness of the gospel with one another.
One sermon down, another one this week. Lots of great feedback that is building on the experiences and changes in myself that I’ve noted during the course of the last two weeks.