Since I am new at this blogging thing and I don’t see the article I wrote and posted about a week ago, I am trying again. If you are seeing this for a second time, please forgive me.
I served as a pastor in the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church beginning in 1990 and retiring in 2024. In that time I was appointed to two different ecumenical parishes of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and the United Methodist Church, as solo pastor to small town and rural churches, as associate pastor in large urban (for Iowa) churches and as a nursing home chaplain. Except for the nine total years as associate pastor, I was in the pulpit every Sunday, meaning writing a lectionary-based sermon every week.
In my ministry, I often felt restricted in my prophetic role and found it could conflict with my pastoral role. The adage that a preacher was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” was mostly not received well in my churches. I found that in all of my ministry settings, the people were unknowingly indoctrinated in civil religion and to equate militarism with patriotism and patriotism with Christianity. Also, even though the entire time I was in ministry, my denomination was embroiled in controversy regarding the role and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ folx, it wasn’t until 9 years prior to my retirement that I was appointed to a church willing to explore becoming a Reconciling Congregation. In my last appointment as solo pastor I was emboldened to pursue social justice. Yet… yet…the few times bringing up the pursuit of peace, wearing masks during a pandemic, or LGBTQIA+ inclusion brought criticism and caused me to hold back.
I thought that if only I could be appointed to a progressive church I could preach how I really felt and what I really believed. Two different times when I was given the opportunity to request this, it was denied. Now that I am retired, I don’t have a desire to preach, at least regularly. I do feel a need to pursue social justice but don’t have a pulpit, or platform. It was suggested that I blog. Thus, this blog “Sermons I Would Have Written Had I Been Brave Enough.” I know that reading sermons can be dull, so if I find few or no readers, that is OK. I also anticipate that “sermon” will be a loose term. It may be more of an essay that is not based on a particular Biblical passage nor formatted like a typical sermon of mine. Perhaps it will be some creative writing on observations in nature that I occasionally write. Also, I have found in the first year of my retirement, I love writing when I am inspired to write, not because Sunday is coming around again. My posts may be inconsistent.
I am hoping that my low technical aptitude will not get in the way of some therapeutic writing for me and some engagement from my readers. Here begins my sermonizing blogging.