|
 When
you read this I will be on a ‘mini-sabbatical' for 6
weeks. After a seven year stay at one church, a sabbatical
is encouraged, so that a preacher can get back to the ‘well'
and get a deep spiritual drink, and then the congregation
can benefit from the ‘water of life'that refreshes his
calling.
I've accumulated
some study leave time over the years, and need to use it or
lose it. Therefore the Session, granted my request. When I
moved into the study, back in the fall of 2000, pastor Ken
Tousley remarked that all the boxes stacked in my office were
full of sermons. That was partially true, but now those boxes
are empty. Getting more ‘sermon fodder' is part of what
I'll be doing on this sabbatical.
Speaking
of sermons....after 37 years of preaching I have a collection
of unforgettable 'sermon remarks', that I've received when
greeting worshipers as they left the service. One elderly
woman said: "That was a fine sermon, and so loud too!"
In a hallway just before the service, I overheard a couple
talking: "Who is this Rick Vogeley who's preaching
today?" His wife said: "I don't know, but
there's still time to get to the Methodist church."
So they left. A fellow preacher told me he had a little old
lady tell him: "I'd like a copy of your sermon."
He was thrilled until she said: "because I didn't
understand it at all!"
After
preaching one of my first sermons, just out of seminary, one
of the elders put his hand on my shoulder and said: "Not
a bad sermon for a green-horn. But I'll tell you something.
You were through about five minutes before you stopped."
A very outspoken lady said to me: "I want you to meet
my Methodist friend, because I told her, we Presbyterians
believe in an educated ministry. A Presbyterian minister may
be a fool, but he's an educated fool"
Bruce
Thielemann, fellow Presbyterian preacher, had a quote I deem
appropriate for this article: "There is no special
honor in being called to the preaching ministry. There is
only special pain. The pulpit calls those anointed to it,
as the sea calls its sailors; and like the sea, it batters
and bruises, and does not rest. To preach, to really preach,
is to die naked a little at a time, and to know each time
you do it, that you must do it again. Surely the preacher's
greatest sin is to put people to sleep with the greatest story
ever told."
We all
need to remember, whatever our calling, that we are not called
to save the world. Our calling, as Christians, is not
to be successful, but to be faithful. The results we must
leave to God, for it is the Lord, not us, who is the Savior
of the world. We need to examine our lives, not with the question,
"How am I doing?" but rather with the question,
"Am I being faithful?"
See you
in church, (but not until the last Sunday in June).
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