Strange Sermons

When you are an aspiring preacher like myself who is passionate about speaking, you'll take almost any opportunity you can get to preach. No opportunity is too small. No setting is too insignificant. You'll go anywhere (well, almost).

I was thinking recently about all the strange sermons I've preached over the last couple of years. Remembering each of them makes me laugh a little, wondering how I get myself into such messes sometimes.

There was the "Soul Freedom" sermon I delivered at Zebulon Baptist Church in NC in October of 2004. Their pastor was on sabbatical and in his absence a "Who are we as Baptists?" thematic sermon series was planned. I was asked to speak on this topic because of my unconventional call to ministry as a woman coming out of the Southern Baptist tradition. But even though I tried to tell my call narrative with as much clarity as possible, I left the church that day still unsure about what "soul freedom" actually means and why I had to preach a whole sermon on it. We as Baptists are strange beasts.

Then, there was the "gluttony" sermon I preached last spring at Calvary Baptist Church, DC. It came in a series on the Seven Deadly Sins during Lent. (I previously wrote about this experience in a blog). I will always remember this sermon for how difficult it was to weave together themes of scripture, relevant stories and what I felt was a proper exhortation about God's view of food to this congregation. I walked away from this experience thinking, "Wow, I just preached a whole sermon on food!"

Last summer I was asked by Tennessee CBF to be the official "young preacher" at a women's preaching conference. The Saturday event was all about affirming the gifts of women and improving one's preaching skills and techniques. I didn't have a ministry position yet and felt a bit insecure about being there with all the questions about my future, but I preached nonetheless.

This event was strange for two reasons: First, after I gave my sermon on the call on Samuel, I became a panelist by myself on how one preaches. (I was thinking, if my seminary professors could see me now!) It was the funniest experience I realized how well Duke had prepared me. There were so many little things I knew that the women in the audience looked shocked by. For example, I mentioned my love of the website textweek.com and everyone was like "Wow! We've never heard of that before!" Second, it was unusal because four of my parents' friends from the Tennessee church I grew up in came to watch. Three of them had never seen a woman preach formally. It was surreal experience, especially as these were my Sunday School teachers and leaders growing up.

Then, recently I found myself preaching a funeral sermon to a family I didn't know from the Philippines. I was asked to do this event by the funeral director at a near by funeral home. I learned the family had no ties to a minister. If this fact wasn't weird enough, there were cultural and language differences. As I spoke, I had no idea if the widow had any idea what I was saying. While her children spoke English well, she did not. I kept telling myself to keep speaking slowly and passionately because this family had wanted me to be there even if I wasn't a perfect choice for their situation. While I wondered if my pronunciation of the deceased man's name had so offended them that they weren't listening, I tried to be senstive to their needs. But overall felt pretty helpless in knowing what I could do to make the situation any better. Oh well. What a learning experience!

I hope that I continue to have opportunities to preach even if they are strange. This stories are all great material for my book one day . . .