Link:The Glory of Jesus Christ

Summary of what I was saying and why:
Palm Sunday is the beginning of the challenge of Holy Week preaching. The texts and liturgies almost do preach themselves and yet I do feel a need to voice where I believe my community is amongst the texts.
Palm and Passion Sunday is harder for me as a priest than I remember it being as a parishioner. I feel the disconnect between the triumphal entry and the crucifixion end more. This year I found myself getting caught up in the Christology of Paul’s hymn in Philippians and used that to frame a very short sermon.

This sermon, in this style, would not exist without this discipline. I’m never entirely sure if I like a sermon until about six months after I preached it. But I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Theology: Christology
Jesus Count: moderate
Good News: Jesus is not done.

What did I change on my feet?
I rearranged things a bit.
What didn’t work/what did I miss?
I’m not sure the rearranging worked. As I’d written it the bulk of the middle was structured around “the glory is a prelude to the work Jesus is to be about/ the glory is because of the work Jesus has done.” It lost some of the nod towards poetry but I think it still worked as sermon.
I also moved the “Jesus is not done” line. I think that was an improvement.
What did work?
I liked this for Palm Sunday. It is an odd day.

Other sermons I liked:

Bishop Rickel on Palm Sunday setting the stage for the week and our lives.

Bishop Fisher onone of the scary concepts of the Church: commitment.

And it is Holy Week so a lot of sermons aren’t up and my time is limited. Three sermons and services in the next three days! Which probably means a round-up next week.

(Don’t see your sermon or a sermon you liked? Maybe I don’t know about it. Leave me a comment with a link and I’ll take a look.)