Six Weeks in the Pulpit

Once more I dust off the mea culpa as I log in and realize that even I have not been back to this blog since May.  For shame.  I might properly blame it on summer, or at least summer in Vermont.  It's all too short, you see, and there are a lot of other things I would rather do related to the outdoors rather than the internet, but it's time to get back to business.  Sunday's at church or listening to the week to Christian radio usually provides sufficient fodder to get a short blog going, but for the past six weeks I have had the privilege to hold the pulpit at the United Church of South Royalton as we went through that interim period between our interim pastor and our new pastor.  That made me an interim, interim, I guess.  What it reminded me of was spiritual giftings that have laid dormant for a long time and were finally given an opportunity to be used in a powerful way.  I know that we give a lot of lip service to recognizing spiritual gifts and allowing them to be used in our congregations, but that may be all well and good for spiritual gifts like hospitality or giving or service, but just where does someone with the gift of pastor/teacher find an outlet?  But that's a side issue for now.  I once again realized the following from my experience:

• Proclaiming the word of God intensely focuses it on your own life, you must first be changed by it or have it real inside of you before you can truly share it.
• The word of God is living and powerful, and when rightly divided and used can reach into the heart and soul of the congregation.
• Preach Christ, and Him crucified, and people will respond better than they will to doctrine (that leaves a soul dry) or judgment (that leaves a soul without hope).  As my wife Kathy always admonishes me when I have a chance to enter the pulpit, "Tell me about Jesus".

I garnered a lot of atta-boys from my six weeks of preaching that helped to confirm again my gifting and calling.  But I wanted to close with the one that meant the most to me.  One woman simply said that she had started taking notes in church again.  What I had to say meant something to her and was worth remembering.  No higher compliment could have been given.

A Call to Worship from the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

If you are part of my generation or older, you may have unconsciously dressed up this morning before coming to church.  That is one of the habits that we learned as part of our Christian journey.  But what else have we picked up along the way that affects how we should look and act when we enter this sanctuary every Sunday morning?  Each Sunday I ask myself  Why am I here?  What do I expect to find in this gathering?  What am I obligated to give as a participant in this assembly?

Just like putting on a good set of clothes to come to church, I can fall into the habit of putting on my good appearance of Russell Rohloff.  I can come into the presence of God and sit in the pews next to you pretending that my life is all put together just right.  I can sing songs expressing that ideal picture of God and my relationship with him, I can lift up my hands and smile, I can pray prayers that are all structured around the way I would hope things are and none of you would know that what is inside of me is any different from what is outside....but I would know, and so would the God I claim to worship.

I know that I can put on a nice set of clothes and a smiling face, but it does not fully cover the brokenness that is in my life, it does not make all of the hard times I faced this week trying to keep my head above water as my finances go south go away, or make me forget about facing one more disappointment from friends or family or coworkers.  A nice set of clothes can dress up but can’t hide the failures and doubts and fears that hide just under this tie.

So why are we here this morning?  Well, I hope each of us discovers the reason throughout this morning, but one thing I know is that there are two or more of us gathered here in the name of Jesus and He has promised to be here among and with us, and that whatever we may have brought into this sanctuary under our Sunday clothes, He has declared that He will be to us a merciful deliverer full of forgiveness and grace and love, and that He will never, ever let us fall from His hand.  And that is as good a reason as any to begin what we do this Sunday in His Name.

Preaching and the Power of the Word

So it has been awhile since I wrote last. When you have nothing significant to say it does not seem prudent to waste words just trying to remain current on your blog site. When you add to that the fact that no one reads what you write anyway then there really is no impetus to blog. But I find myself returning to the reason why I started this site and that was to express my own rambling thought process as I painfully make my way from the center of the evangelical camp to some as yet undefined location on my spiritual journey.

So here is today's thought. For the last three weeks I have had the opportunity to preach in the South Royalton church and the experience served to confirm two things....first, I do have the spiritual gifting of preacher/teacher, and second, God puts power in the message I bring. When I look back at the last three weeks I sense that there is even more power to change hearts present than when I was first ordained. I have changed significantly since that time and it is evident in my preparation and message. For one thing, although I preach from the word of God, usually the Gospel lectionary reading for the particular Sunday, I preach about the living Word of God, Jesus. Kathy always tells me, "Just tell me about Jesus". And I find that when I remain true to that simple principle, that there is power in the message, it is contemporary for all of the cross section of the congregation present, and it is heartfelt. One of the reasons I no longer count myself in the evangelical camp (at least the way it is usually defined) is that they tend to make a god out of the written scripture and do all sorts of contortions to defend it (more on that later) when they should be concentrating on the true revelation of God found in Jesus. It almost seems as if Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees in John 5:39 has come to pass in these ultra evangelicals, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these that bear witness to Me."