Scandalous Sermon

I had thought that upon the completion of a sermon I would be transcribing it and posting right here to my blog.  Alas, that is not to be the case with Sunday morning's sermon, on John 6.56-69.

Here it is for you to listen.

Scandalous Gospel

While I had some reasonable hashed out notes for it, complete with intending to make points and driving the final message home, in the course of  preaching that did not occur.

Here are some things that took place:

1. Having the attention deficit issues I have, I normally take medication on days when I particularly need my concentration. I get by most of the time without, as it the mediation I take can be easily abused, and I'm not comfortable taking daily. But it really helps me on occasions that require me to be at my best. I forgot to take it on Sunday morning.
2. Furthermore, I was nervous. My first sermon before a congregation about whom I knew virtually nothing. I wanted to impress. I forgot to let go and let God.
3. I forgot the most memorable piece of advice from Preaching class; when I'm anxious, to squeeze my sphincter muscle a few times and that will release some of the tension.

 And so...

4. From the very start, I forgot the prayer I wanted to open my sermon with. That in itself help to throw me off further.
5. I referred to Jesus' feeding of the 3,000; not 5,000
6. In describing what is meant by "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," I somehow unintentionally insinuated that the sacraments are symbolic. That's contrary to my beliefs as well as Lutheran piety in general.
7. One important point that I wanted to make, was that there is a perception that Christians are conservative, judgmental, and anti-gay; that we don't want to be perceived that way, and that it can be "scandalous" to admit that we are Christians as a result of it; but we should strive to do so anyway. Somehow this point got lost and came across as telling people not to be so judgmental, antigay and conservative.

All in all, however, I was told that it was a reasonable first sermon, about par with any preacher going on internship. I have done better, and I know I can do better than this, so the only way is from here is up.