Last week I broached the idea with you of the way I view sermons - as a spiritual diet that I serve up every Sunday.  I also like to think of Sermons as a partnership between me and you.  That partnership includes feedback.  Not "that was a good sermon."  I probably will ignore what you said because there will be someone behind you saying, "I didn't like that sermon."  On the other hand, I like feedback that says anything from, "i've got to think about that some more," to "I've changed my mind about X."

I think that a partnership means 1) listening to last week's sermon when you have to be absent, 2) making suggestions about what subjects would be helpful to you, to 3) being aware of how much YOU contribute to the delivery of sermons by being present, by actively praying both for me and for us as an audience to this dance.

In my notes to myself are reminders to include a sermon about the Eucharist.  Also a sermon or two on the power and importance of the resurrection.  I have a suspicion that most of us don't grasp this.  That the Lord's supper is more like a fire cracker than the nuclear bomb that it is.

After we finish the Deadly/Capital Sins series I intend to return the gospels.  I didn't get "full" of talking about them and think it would be good for all of us.

So buckle your seatbelts.  I hope that the sermon train will be compelling and helpful to you.

In the West, prayer has too often evolved into an ATM transaction.  Expecting God to grant me that for which I ask.  But you know how tricky that is.  In this video, Rob Bell explores what prayer is for.  The video is challenging because it explodes many of the popular ideas aboiut prayer.

Jesus, in his prayers to his Father, models what faithful, realistic prayer looks like.  Not an ATM transaction but partnership with God in God's work.  I think you'll enjoy it.

Be encouraged.