Anyway. Towards the beginning of the semester (or maybe the end of last...I don't know. Sometime.), Jennifer asked if I wanted to preach a sermon this term. Sure, that'd be a good experience, right? So I said yes.Well, then I actually thought about it, and realized I had to pick a scripture (yeah that's right, we rebels at PSF don't follow the lectionary...) and actually come up with something good/useful/insightful/interesting to say about it. That stressed me out a whole lot. I feel like I know a lot of ministers who are really great at what they do, which (despite the grace that comes along with one's first sermon ever) is still pretty intimidating. But then I started writing. My semi-nerdy religion major self really really enjoyed sitting in the Shed's living room with reference books, notes and a couple Bibles spread out around me. The scripture I picked was Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd..."), which as it turns out was one of Sunday's lectionary texts, so I guess we're not that rebellious after all. I didn't know it was when I picked it...honestly I came across Psalm 23 on my way to look at another one, and for some reason I just decided to pick it. Then that stress kicked in of "Oh man. Everybody knows this one. How in the world am I going to make this interesting?"
But it just happened. I started writing and with a little help next thing you know I had 5 pages. The whole time I was just thinking about how this probably isn't the last time I'll be writing a sermon. And I'm really, really ok with that. Not to mention all the support that came along after I actually gave my sermon at PSF. It's a wonderful thing to get some affirmation after you put yourself on the line a little.
So anyway. To read my sermon go here, and scroll down until you see a link to the PDF file. Not exactly word-for-word what I said, but it's mostly the same.
Love, Allison.
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