New(ish) sermon

I've posted my most recent sermon to the right. A few of you may notice that it's the same title and text as an Ash Wednesday sermon I preached last year...it's actually almost the same sermon. I was asked to preach last weekend sort of last-minute (last minute being relative for a preacher who stresses about sermon-writing for months in advance, leading up to the agonizing creative birthing process that takes days). Hence, the re-working. BUT, the text was the lectionary for last week, and I've felt for awhile that I wanted to do more with the Ash Wednesday sermon. I'm not sure how I feel about revising sermons...I'm generally against it, what with leaving room for the Spirit and being authentic to your context, but I think this one worked and was appropriate for our church at this time. Someone (who knew I revised an old piece) told me it felt to him like two sermons, but when I was preaching, it didn't feel that way to me.  One of the things I miss most about seminary is the feedback sessions after every sermon in class...let me know what you think about my sermon re-working, and if you have opinions on re-working sermons in general, will you?

Comments

[Emily]

The sermon didn't feel like two different sermons to me. But I liked the expanded sections. It seemed faithful to your new context.

Last year when Chuck preached during a conference on ministry, a few students and I did a feedback session with him. We were shocked to find out that he had preached a reworked sermon. He said he did it because he wasn't happy with it yet.

I reworked the sermon I preached in January. Well ... sort of. It was my alternative context sermon that I never preached in a church.

I think it's dangerous to fall into the habit of falling back on sermons that have already been written and reworking them. But I think every now and again, it's okay. And it can be faithful.

[KnittinPreacher]

I have reworked a few semrons since I have been here with vaired success. What seemed appropriate for one context never fits the context here, and I wind up pretty much starting from scratch. Maundy thursday I preached mostly the same sermon from last year and while it received good feedback (and no one remembers it was almost the same), to me it felt flat and empty. That may be because I was sick, but it was a good lesson. Bottom line for me -- it's OK to do every once in a while as long as I pay attention to what is supposed ot be preached form the text on this day, and not three weeks ago. Use old ones as a starting point if you want and see what delveops from there.

[John Stuart]

Re-use your sermon illustrations, but don't re-hash old sermons. In fact, throw them away. You'll become a better preacher and teacher if you do.

[Patrick]

You mean you write new sermons? I wrote all mine in seminary and then just change a word here or there.

Seriously, I don't think it matters as long as the focus is on delivering God's Word to THOSE people on THAT day. I have re-preached 3 times and two of them were awesome, because God was not done with them yet. I re-preached once because I thought MY words were so awesome and it was a disaster.

I loved your sermon both times and reading it makes me miss you bunches.

Peace!