Sunday, December 11, 2022
Sunday Reflection: Brooding
A week from today I will be giving a sermon. (If you are interested, it will be at 10 am at First Covenant Church in Minneapolis). It's a very small congregation but has a great gospel choir led by Robert Robinson (who is in the video above).
That means that for part of the week, I will have to block out some time for brooding. Hulitt Gloer taught me about that-- it's a period you set aside to think about a sermon without writing it. You just kind of let the words roll around in your head and the ideas percolate.
I've given sermons without brooding over them first, and it doesn't work very well. Going straight to writing means that you are going straight to structure without knowing what the big thing is that you want to say.
I'll be honest: the brooding continues right up to the start of the sermon for me. I have often scratched things out and added stuff as the choir is singing and even when the passage I will preach on is being read.
It's no way to get to perfect, but it is a good way to get to inspired. And I fear that there is too little brooding overall in our society, by me and a lot of others.
Hulitt was right: you have to feel it before you do it.
