Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ life before he was crucified. Worship this morning was special – and different. I didn’t preach (perhaps that is why it was so special!) but sat on a bar stool (sans beer) and read the Passion story in its entirety: Matthew 26:14-27:66. Sometimes it is just best to allow the gospel writers to do all the speaking, and today, Matthew spoke.
I wasn’t sure how people might respond. Would they be bored? Fall asleep? Feel like they were ripped off for not getting a sermon? (My dad told me, jokingly, that I since I didn’t preach I shouldn’t take a paycheck this week). None of that happened. Rather, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Most, if not all, were completely absorbed in the story – several I noticed were wiping away tears, obviously touched.
I wonder to what degree we pastors get in the way of the message more than we proclaim it? I wonder if the problem can be located in how much the Bible has been turned into a book of propositions and doctrines that we preachers can just pluck from its pages and wax eloquent (or not so much) on. It reminds me of just how much the Bible is a masterful Story – a wonderful narrative that can speak life into our otherwise dead and lost lives. Sitting on a barstool in a sanctuary today, while reading a story, was perhaps the best preaching I have ever done. Hearing good stories, I think, helps us all to write better stories with our lives.
May this Holy Week awaken the story within you that God is longing to write.
peace.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: holy week, preaching, religion, story
