I have been doing some more thinking about the Kingdom Service, esp about how a sermon that is short sentences broken by the pauses of translation into two languages still gets across. It has everything to do with the Holy Spirit. I was preaching from 1 Peter 1:1-9, about remembering our true identity, being together from all over the place, belonging nowhere except in the “gathered community.”
The reason the sermon worked is because the Holy Spirit had already done the work! We were the gathered community, we were aware of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we grope towards living into our identity as created, redeemed children of God.
I suppose if none of that were true for us, I would have had to come up with something eloquent so no one would have felt cheated! We come expecting because we have received.
Pray, pray, pray. This is all you can do-- pray that you will be open to the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work He always does: convincing the world of its sinfulness, drawing people to Christ, providing faith, and then empowering them to live the Christian life. I guess based on where we were, I could have simply said, “Jesus. Holy Spirit. All of us together. Look!” and we all would have really felt something! The Holy Spirit had already done the work the Word was talking about!
p/g,
Aaron
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