Medium
This past Sunday was my first time preaching (as in giving the message/sermon) at our church since I started here in 2008. When our Settled Pastor arrived in in July he was surprised to hear that I hadn't been given the opportunity before so he put me on the calendar for the day after Christmas.
Ironically, I don't think I would have been as nervous if I were invited to a different church to speak, but something about finally preaching for a church I've known my whole life made the experience a bit more nerve racking.
I talked about the incarnation... at least that's the fancy theological term for it. I talked about connecting with others, learning to connect with others on all the levels of human connectivity, and what it means to actually be there for others. In Colossians 1:15-23, Paul highlights the fact that we were reconciled by Christ's "physical body." This is interesting on one level because it flies in the face of gnostic philosophy which stipulates that the "physical" is essentially evil and should be replaced by the "spiritual." To highlight Christ's physicality in this context suggests a salvation of the physical and a very physical incarnation.
On another level this is interesting because the physical body goes beyond a phone call, a text, a get well card, a Facebook message, a blog post, fulfilling some kind of role or function, and all the others ways we have become accustomed to connecting with one another. God did not try to love us from a distance. God came near. All those things that can only be communicated through actual physical presence were communicated by God through Christ.
We, having been created in the image of God, are invited through Christ to be for others as God has been for us. We are invited to communicate love with our physical body by drawing near and being there for others. We are invited to be the medium for God's message of love.
Of course I told a few stories and used a couple of illustrations but that's the gist of what we talked about.
Ironically, I don't think I would have been as nervous if I were invited to a different church to speak, but something about finally preaching for a church I've known my whole life made the experience a bit more nerve racking.
I talked about the incarnation... at least that's the fancy theological term for it. I talked about connecting with others, learning to connect with others on all the levels of human connectivity, and what it means to actually be there for others. In Colossians 1:15-23, Paul highlights the fact that we were reconciled by Christ's "physical body." This is interesting on one level because it flies in the face of gnostic philosophy which stipulates that the "physical" is essentially evil and should be replaced by the "spiritual." To highlight Christ's physicality in this context suggests a salvation of the physical and a very physical incarnation.
On another level this is interesting because the physical body goes beyond a phone call, a text, a get well card, a Facebook message, a blog post, fulfilling some kind of role or function, and all the others ways we have become accustomed to connecting with one another. God did not try to love us from a distance. God came near. All those things that can only be communicated through actual physical presence were communicated by God through Christ.
We, having been created in the image of God, are invited through Christ to be for others as God has been for us. We are invited to communicate love with our physical body by drawing near and being there for others. We are invited to be the medium for God's message of love.
Of course I told a few stories and used a couple of illustrations but that's the gist of what we talked about.
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