Apocalyptic Preaching (Preaching Video)

This is a sermon from my Preaching In Times of Crisis and Trauma class.  Please see the assignment scope below:

• Assignment: We all have connections to communities that fear their stories are coming to an end--that someone else, or something else, is writing the last chapter on their life together and there is nothing they can do about it. Their story and their agency to tell that story have disappeared. Imagining a future with hope is beyond them. Write a 5-8 minute spoken reflection that offers this community another narrative: a resurrection story. A resurrection invasion. And remember how Blount has framed resurrection, for crisis-hewn, apocalyptic preachers like us: Resurrection is a weapon. Resurrection is God's weapon, for an invasion of the dead. Resurrection is the virus of life, infecting a world breeding on death. 

Sermon:

My dear fellow seminarians.  This has been a remarkable year, however not remarkable in the way we normally use that terminology.  This year has proven to be tumultuous to put it politely.  Life has changed so dramatically for all of us that the hope of when things “return” to normal has run out.  For many of us, our dreams, our best made plans for the future are shifting from being sidelined to being dashed and we are in mourning of what had been our future hopes.  Not only have dreams died, over a million people have died, systems have died, businesses have died, and lifestyles have died and that which hasn’t died is on life support.  The stench of death and decay can be smelled in the economy, in the school system and in the worldwide sociopolitical protests and in Mother earth. We are in a storm of Apocalyptic proportions.  Life feels unstable and looks dangerous.

Yet, we have this call. 

Let’s be honest, this is a scary storm and everywhere you look there are reminders that it is ferociously raging and for some threatening.  The images and commentary are everywhere with people fighting for and against justice.  Many of us are nervous and anxious and despite our best efforts to manage our mental health some of us have slipped into a depression.  For others attempts at selfcare are spotty because we are being asked to do more with less from a deficient of capacity and our mantras and affirmations are hollow, well because we have to get into our Zoom.  And if you are not in the other two groups you might be numb.  Overcome physically, emotionally and spiritually. Just tapped out.  

Yet, we have this calling.

This calling that won’t let us go.  It’s this thing that whispers to us.  Talking to us about the future while we are in mourning about the present, dancing in our imaginations and entangling with our talents and abilities and if we don’t entertain it during the day it interrupts us at night.

What is this thing?  Why is it wrestling with me?

Matt 9:35 says:

³⁵ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease ^[i]among the people. ³⁶ But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were ^[j]weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

That calling… That thing that is bothering   It is the answer to prayer.

We are the response of God for this dispensation of time to Jesus and the disciple’s prayer. 

We are the means by which the harvest is to be attended to. 

We are the ones in whom God has placed responsibility and specified purpose.

We are the summoned. 

We are the assembled called with purpose by the Deep.

We / You,  are   the   answer   to    prayer

Hidden within you are the methodologies and strategies for this season. 

That is why you are compelled when you are tired.

That is why your talent and abilities are continue to produce  

That is why your imagination is captivated

That is why you are wrestling and can’t let go

That is why you feel constrained, it is because you are the treasure in earthen vessels.

You are so intricately designed and placed that your specifications meet the need of the people to whom you are called.  And as you go you too will be satisfied and filled.

So get up! The harvest needs you.

Go! Be and do as you are called for you are the answer to prayer!