Preaching and such on Palm Sunday.
This Sunday I am not preaching a traditional sermon. I tend
not to on big days like Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and Christmas. I tend to
offer ways for people to engage in the story of that day in different ways.
Why?
I suspect that I have already blogged about this somewhere.
But, briefly, there are two reasons.
The first is that a long time ago I went to a youth ministry
conference in Oxford, England (the inaugural Studies in Youth Ministry
Conference in 1995) where Bob Mayo presented a paper on using scripture with
young people. It came out of his experience of missionary work overseas and in
Eastend of London. Basically he said “tell the story and shut up – let them
work out what it means for them”. There was more to it than that but he did
encourage us to trust people to engage with the story and to work out its
meaning for them. Some were outraged – they might get it wrong. He replied that
we do a lot of the time and don’t even know it. So why keep on passing on our
wrongheaded ideas?
The second was a course I did 10 or so years ago on New Testament
Theology through Otago University. (It was part of my Masters program). Joel
Green, the lecturer, talked about the purpose of preaching being to allow the
listeners imagination to be shaped by the biblical story. That is my goal.
While I love preaching and working up great ideas and trying
to share them, I am aware that lots of parishioners do not take a lot in. Some do
and appreciate what I am saying. But others not so much. So every time there is
a 5th Sunday I don’t preach in our main service, we do small group work
with art, poetry, singing, and discussion. And on Palm Sunday we alternate
between doing a congregational drama of the story, and small group stuff.
So this year I am going to read Matthew 21:1-11 from The
Message – more as a meditation – put yourself in this story way than a “lets
stand for the gospel and try to listen: kind of way.
Then there will be some time for people to reflect on these
questions.
• What
did you experience with your senses?
• Where
were you in this story?
• If
Christ were to look at you, what might you experience?
• Think
of a time when you were part of a public parade or demonstration.
– How
was it like this parade?
– How
was it different?
• How
does this story affect you, influence you, challenge you, change you?
At 8am,
instead of preaching a sermon, I will invite people to talk to about their
response to those questions.
At 9.30
people will be invited to decide between one of these ways of engaging
with the story:
Small group
activity
·
Journaling or
Poetry – response to this story
·
Decorating crosses
– with Bonnie
·
Art – response to
this story
·
Find someone to
talk to about your response to those questions
Should be
fun
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