Tuesday is steeping day for me. Not much intentional work happens on the sermon—some of the juicier morsels get put in the Crock Pot, and I’ll check sometime tomorrow to see how the whole concoction’s coming together.

What this means in practical terms:

I’ll glance at the text throughout the day, and mull.

I might even work on learning the text by heart, if it’s a short passage and a light week (or a week heavy with administrivia which I’m procrastinating). It’s a nice discipline I learned back in December, and actually not too laborious, assuming I’m not having a mommy-brain flare-up.

If I’m lucky, my best friend will be preaching too, and we can have our own little lectionary group by phone. She says, “Where are you going with it?” and I expect to ramble out a response, but something comes out of my mouth that’s a lot more compact and precise than I had expected. Thanks, Spirit!

All in all, a nice low-impact day in the preaching routine.

Well, except when someone else starts sniffing around the Crock Pot, suggesting additional ingredients. Senior Pastor, who normally takes an extremely hands-off approach to my preaching (which I appreciate greatly), suggested that it really would be nice if the sermon hit some Time and Talent themes. You see, we’re collecting people’s forms next weekend (Pentecost) and dedicating those gifts during worship, so it would be nice to talk a bit about discerning one’s spiritual gifts, the variety of gifts in the body of Christ, etc. etc.

Hmm. Really wasn’t planning to go there. Because the text isn’t going there. But then I start to feel uncertain. Maybe I should go there. Worse, maybe I should have foreseen this. Bad pastor, for not thinking about this earlier. It is a major emphasis in the church, after all. Maybe I could weave some of that in, but oh, it could be awkward, like the fresh thyme that just doesn't belong, or the onions that are added too late to the stew so they have no time to mellow out.

My big issue is, I just want to preach the text. I don’t want to preach Time and Talent or Small Groups Sunday or Mission Sunday or Sunday School Kickoff or Insert Big Event in the Church’s Life Here, it just sucks every bit of energy I have for some reason. And yet sometimes that’s what’s called for. Or is it? Do we have to make those connections so explicit, or can the liturgy in the rest of the service carry some of that weight? Does giving those events such a front-row seat in the sermon limit what the Spirit might be doing with the Word, or does it acknowledge who and where we are in a real and important way?

Um, revpals, I'm really asking!

Basically, I think there is nothing, no title or emphasis we can conjure up, that will be more interesting and more urgent than those questions to which the text will lead us. And if it comes down to going where the text wants to take me—to take us—vs. adhering to a Special Emphasis Sunday, I’d rather follow where the text leads.