Post-sermon Crash

So, here it is... the fruits of the last two weeks of sermon crafting. Arguably my most Marxist sermon. Thanks for to those who were reading along.

Eleventh Hour

Comments

[Brennan]

Great sermon, Bill. Keep up the good work!

[Kinard]

I'm glad Brennan commented, because it forced me to get off my ass and read the sermon.

I really liked it.

I mean a LOT.

We've just started doing a weekly lectionary-based bible study at church with the young adults. We chewed on these two passages last week, and to say it made my faith "itch" is an understatement.

In the end, I came down feeling like this parable is a scathing indictment of our "First at all costs", "Work hard, get more" culture.

I think there are lots of folks that would like to think that the Kingdom looks a lot like the US, but it seems to me, that Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom is nothing like America. Rather, it's almost the opposite....

Somewhere Karl Marx is giggling....

[Jared]

1. Nice triangling :). In thinking about our previous conversation on the topic, I was wondering: where are you physically standing when you preach? It occurs to me that some preachers prefer to preach from a tall lecturn or podium, while some prefer to teach almost "in" the crowd. It also occurs to me that those that prefer to preach from the lecturn almost always come of as "preaching from on high" both literally and figuratively, whereas triangling like this seems to be easier from "in" the crowd.

Thoughts?

2. I really wish I could have heard and saw you deliver this. Your natural cadence (at least the one I know - which may well be different from your preaching cadence, I think I've only heard that once or twice) is very different from the cadence indicated by the typography. Do you think about that much when you're preparing/delivering? Or does it come naturally?

3. I really like the point you make that the workers who put in a full day's work literally contributed to the pay of the ones who put in less. It makes it clear that this isn't just a generous master - in a real way, the master is being generous with the work/effort of the other workers. That's a very good point (and extremely Marxist...but good nonetheless.)