My new daughter decided not to arrive in the air-breathing world before I made my three public appearances, and I’ll admit that I’m relieved.? I didn’t have to punt any of the three, and I can say I completed each, if not brilliantly, in good faith.? Yesterday’s sermon in front of Emmanuel College’s convocation service was at once the shortest of the three (I promised fifteen minutes or fewer, and I edited until I got it there), and it was also the most nerve-wracking.? The bright stage lights kept me from seeing my colleagues and several hundred students, but I still knew they were there.
I’m still kicking myself for forgetting to return to Habakkuk to close out the sermon–I had been following the structure of the book up to that point, and I closed structurally the way Habakkuk closes, but I never mentioned Habakkuk. ?Oy. ?On Sunday I had just bitten off more text than I could chew right now, trying to take on Mark’s pericope of the Syrophoenician woman, one of those texts so hard to interpret that it breeds books like The Evolution of God. I should have taken on something more in line with where I am right now, but it was competent.
None of the three was inspired, but I know well that not every sermon can be one’s best ever.? Each was as far as I could tell competent, and I’m pleased with that.? Now it’s time to teach some classes, wait for our baby to start arriving, and keep on with my industrious self.
