As I’ve been preparing, I’ve been keeping this (intimidating) quote in mind:

…sermons are supposed to be “audible sacraments.” They are not simply for the conveying of information, though that is important in a world increasingly ignorant of some of the most basic biblical and theological information. They are not simply for exhortation, still less for entertainment. They are supposed to be one of the moments in regular Christian living when heaven and earth meet. Speaker and hearers alike are called to be people in whom, by the work of the Spirit, God’s word is once again audible to the heart as well as to the ears. Preaching is one key way in which God’s personal authority, vested in scripture and operative through the work of the Spirit, is played out in the life of the church.  N. T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today (p. 139).

The truth is that preaching still makes me nervous.

Every. Single. Week.

Over the years that nervousness has changed, though. Gone are the intense “I think I’m about to throw up” nerves that were my constant companion over my first decade of preaching. In their place now are more subtle, yet still present, butterflies in my stomach (still, ever single weekend). I kind of wish that they would just go away!

But what I don’t wish would go away, and what I actually hope keeps increasing over time, is my sense of awe (and the associated spiritual and emotional fear) that comes as I realize just how miraculous the moment of preaching really can be. My hope and prayer every Sunday is to let God’s word shine through in the moments when I’m speaking. I know I don’t always do that, but that is my desire and it’s a desire that arises from my own experience: God’s word, his voice to me, changed my life forever. I desire that for anyone who happens to gather on a Sunday when I’m preaching and I promise to keep being nervous as I stand in awe at the fact that God has give me the opportunity to share.

While I can’t bring heaven and earth together I do know God can as he speaks to us through scripture and as we open our hearts to be receptive to his voice.

Wherever you are and whatever your role as you gather for worship this week, let’s be receptive together!

There are many things which a person can do alone, but being a Christian is not one of them. As the Christian life is, above all things, a state of union with Christ, and of union of his followers with one another, love of the brethren is inseparable from love of God. Resentment toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart with love to God. The personal relation to Christ can only be realized when one has “come to himself” as a member of His Body, the Christian fellowship. – William T. Ham, “Candles of the Lord” (via CQOD)

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when He called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone, you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called–the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together