Link: The Church, Sacraments, and Unity, Easter 7, 2013

Summary of what I was saying and why:
Jesus’s prayer for the unity of the Church is great. And hard to preach. Because it is so patently not what is. Also, while I can encourage many of the other things Jesus says and Christians can, mostly, work together toward them, we aren’t all about to fold into the One Church we never were. However, the talk I’ve heard of the mystical, unseen unity of the Church and the Church’s concrete, less than perfect reality got me thinking about the outward and visible versus the inward and real. And then I was off onto Sacraments, the Church, and the connections…

Theology: Sacrament
Jesus Count: low
Good News: God’s grace is not limited by people.

What did I change on my feet?
Everything always gets changed in interactive sermons. I knew how I was starting and I knew (roughly) where things were headed.
What didn’t work/what did I miss?
I left the last line unfinished. I should have added “without the grace of God.” And I didn’t and I didn’t catch it for a crucial 60 seconds.
I’m not sure I emphasized the Church’s unity is a sacramental aspect of the Church’s existence enough.
What did work?
I really enjoy when interaction in a sermon goes well. I think it did here. I liked the approach of looking at the Church as sacramental.

Other sermons I liked:

Bishop Fisher reminds us that, after Ascension, Jesus is not a missing person (and worked in a Mother’s Day reference!).

Priest Sinclair preaches and has Greek and puzzle imagery! (All I need is a gratuitous science fiction reference. But I’ll take good theology first.)

Priest Baum lets us in on conversations that happen for the benefit of those listening in.

(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.)