If I Had Only One Sermon

Today was one of those days that had me wondering just what God was up to. Bunny was away doing her amazing artist stuff, and I was left along at home to read, study and pray (oh and freeze! It's cold here today). As I wrote earlier, I've been reading the "red letters" - everything Jesus said in the Scriptures - this week, getting ready to preach a series based on them.

The way my mind works though, I go into "immersion mode", where I soak up everything I can on the text I have before me. It's not uncommon for that work to generate 50-90 pages of notes for a 40 minute Sunday morning sermon. I'll do all the background stuff, word studies, scan other versions, and read the text over and over and over. Then I have to walk away for a while and do something else.

Today when I did that, I was reading an excellent book by Kenneth Bailey on Luke Chapter 15. Bailey writes from the background of someone who knows the lifestyle of the Middle Eastern peasant intimately. I have been blown away by his insight. He's like Rob Bell on steroids.

If I had only one sermon to preach, it would be on the three "lost" parables in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. I haven't done much "candidating" in my career, and have only done two "revivals". I'm a pastor. I need to know the people I'm helping connect to God in order to be truly effective.

But let me preach Luke 15, and I would stand in front of anyone or any crowd. It speaks so deeply to me. I've been that prodigal. I have prodigals I love dearly. I've been that older brother, and known quite a few in the churches I've been a part of and led.

And that Father... oh, that Father. How I long to love like that. How thankful I am to be loved like that. How I want to see our church full of people willing to love like that!

There are other texts that move me, but if I had only one sermon - Luke 15.