In this somewhat ornery blog, I asserted that rostered leaders have been millstoned by systems and structures of the Church, ones which inhibit them from doing the very work they were called, by the Church no less, to do.

The work in mind, here, is the center of our calling, no millstone but the cornerstone of that which leaders of the church are to be about, namely to preach and teach the Word.

This Word (as we know, because we preach the Scriptures and also read them), is dangerous, unruly, subversive…and is also (to those who are open to receiving it), comforting, en-couraging, hopeful, and profoundly freeing.

We were baptized into this, and for leaders in the church, we opted to officially sign up for this too, denominational system or not.

Like, none of this comes as a surprise.

Trouble is, those who are employed by the church encounter surprising risks: to do what we are called to do invites unpleasant conflict ranging from unhappy council meetings to finding oneself no longer able to or welcome to serve a setting.

We can lose our contextual call and maybe even our livelihood.

Worse, our denominational system has no protection for those who do what the very institution, let alone Scripture and the Holy Spirit, have sent us to do.

With a nod to St. Jerome, let my spleen speak: this is completely messed up.

We may receive affirmation, yes, but “Well done good and faithful servant” does not the house payment make.

Those who are baptized and called to church leadership are also called to speak bold words rooted in the cross, and therefore also tethered to the gospel of the risen Jesus.

The challenge, of course, is that regardless of one’s partisan affinities, the faithful preaching of Scripture sounds political, because Scripture is political.

This truth alone makes it dicey to preach these days.

But I’m of the mind that we have tools in our theological and our Lutheran toolbox that provide ways and means to preach and teach the radical, inclusive, justice-oriented, and yea even political implications of the gospel, centered not in partisan agendas, but in God’s agenda.

The next three posts will be adaptations of a sermon series I offered during a stint as a supply preacher this past summer. References to the actual congregation have been smudged, because the takeway is not context-dependent, but is text-dependent.

I offer them because I believe that they provide a low-hanging-fruit template for how preachers and teachers can offer not just a word, but The Word in these troubled times.

All the while they remain faithful to the texts, faithful to their call, faithful to their community, and faithful to the moment in which we find ourselves, a moment begging for direction, courage, and alignment with God.

Each sermon introduces and uses basic faith terms, and refreshes what was addressed in the prior sermon(s), reminding and building upon unapologetic phrases of the faith, and passages from our shared Book of Faith.

The first sermon was preached directly after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and so you will note my acknowledgment and my condemnation of it.

With that, the next post will carry the actual sermon, based on Amos 7:7-15 (God shows Amos a plumb line, Amaziah the priest scurries to the King to tattle on Amos, claiming that he was conspiring against him by speaking truth: Amaziah banishes Amos), Psalm 85 (the psalmist promises to listen to the Lord), Ephesians 1:3-14 (the reminder that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and are sent with the blessing of the Lord), and Mark 6:14-29 (the beheading of John the Baptist).

(You can find the actual posts linked here, as they become available:)

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Intro to Sermon Series: A Template for Preaching in These Troubled Times