Tomorrow I will preach for the first time in three weeks. I will preach on my feet for the first time since the first Sunday in June. The broken foot is well enough that I can stand for the sermon instead of sitting...and the doc wants me to work the foot....so I'll stand.

The sermon is done, but there is nothing particularly special about it. I'll admit it. I wrote it today....entirely. I was on vacation until Thursday morning and I didn't even look at the texts until then....I know, I know...bad preacher.

Still, the closing words of Romans 8 are so incredible, they practically preach themselves. That being said, I continue to find it very hard to preach from this Romans cycle because there is FAR too much theological meat in each chunk of verses chosen by the Lectionary gurus. Then again, this was a week of overloaded texts. I intentionally did NOT chose the Matthew passage this week because it is TOO full of imagery. I had an idea of how to preach that, but it refused to gel on Thursday and so I chose the Romans.

Tomorrow is our first Sunday with a substitute musician since our accompanist/substitute joined the saints. I've invited a friend to come and lead music while the director of music takes a much-deserved Sunday off. I am anticipating that it will dredge up very mixed feelings...he's brilliant and very different from the dear woman who know plays for the heavenly choir...but her absence will be palpable.

All in all...I'm looking forward to being back in the collar again. (The fact that I spent more than half the vacation sick with allergies and bronchitis is probably one of the reasons.) Come Spirit come!