To Move and Be Moved

The things that move me, that evoke an intense emotional response are sometimes surprising. It might be a praise and worship song that comes up on a CD that I've listened to two dozen times already. It might be the touching blog entry the brother of a friend of mine wrote in memory of his friend that just passed away. It might be the small gesture made by someone I barely know at church asking me over for dinner at their home. But what surprises me even more than what moves me, is what I do or say that moves other people.

This past Sunday I found myself preaching the fifth sermon in a sermon series on predestination entitled, "What's God's Will for My Life?" Seems like the perfect question for me to address as I look to my near future and face some big questions about what it is that I'm going to be doing in the next year or so. I thought this sermon was going to be a nasty one to write but was surprised when it came to me fairly quickly.

Underlying my sermon is the understanding that predestination means that God destines us to believe, that we cannot believe without God's intervention. That the saving work is left up to God and not to us. Beyond that, we as Lutherans believe that we have free will in our daily life. Basically, I am the one who decides that I wanted to wear my linen black shirt to work today, I am the one who decides where I go to seminary, I am the one who decides who I marry. God is not pulling all the strings.

So, with that in mind, the main focus of my sermon was that even if we look to all the right places when we go to make a decision about our life (the Bible, common sense, advice from each other), we're still going to some bad decisions. But, God is able to work with all of our decisions, good or bad, for the good. And that nothing, even any bad or disastrous decisions we may make about our lives, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is through Christ Jesus our Lord (to my sem friends: feel free to pick apart the theology :)

Sunday I was ready to go, prayed, and went up and did my best trusting that God would do the rest. And for some reason, this one really hit a nerve with people. I had people telling me I had spoken directly to them and that this was exactly what they needed to hear. Was it the delivery? Was it the stories I used (Joseph from Genesis i.e. amazing technicolor dreamcoat and my own struggle trying find the right internship site)? Was it the Bible passages (Genesis 50 and Romans 8)? I'm not quite sure.

And as much as I would like to think it was me doing the moving, I can't take the credit. God showed up somewhere in a big way in the process of research, writing, practice, and the actual delivery. This was God's show and I was simply doing as I had been directed. Though I may be getting the best performer award I wouldn't be there without the screenwriter who wrote the words for me, the casting director who contacted me about the role, director who had the original vision about what this role could be and made me reach for that level, and the producer who was willing to take a chance on me and who was willing to risk so much of what he had on me.

This isn't my show, it's never about me. And as I work on my preaching and hopefully get better, perhaps that's the most important thing to keep in mind. It's not about me or my words, it's about God and his word, his final word that because of what Jesus did on the cross for us, we are forgiven.