The broad title for this weeks service is "sharing our stories" and completes our seven weeker on discipleship based on Mark. This week we centre on the return fo the twelve from their first mission and what happens when they start sharing their stories.
This week I've spent a lot of time listening to people, one of the privileges of ministry; people sharing their everyday stories. Stories rich in humour and tenacity, struggle and anxiety, to name but four of the many interwoven themes or threads of feeling and attitude.
My sermon writing is running way behind schedule this week, but that's OK because I kind of know where it's going to go. But I can't help feeling that the conversations - the sharing of stories - this week has been a living sermon, with people articulating the stories of their lives, sometimes vocalising how faith informs or is informed by that, or questioning how God is active or present, sometimes not even hinting at things spiritual or theological.
Testimony, beloved of Baptist Baptisms and Baptist/Congregational/URC ordinations/inductions, as we tell stories of how God brought us to this moment...
Testimony, beloved of tent missions and revival meetings when we hear how God rescued some incredibly miserable sinner from a life of debauchery (probably two decades ago and seemingly has done very little since)...
Testimony, the sharing time in some congregations where the same people every week tell how God has been good to them in some material blessing...
Yes, these are deliberate exaggerations in some cases but it does remind me how we make 'testimony' something other than it really is. Telling our stories, the everyday stuff, that's testimony, whether or not we recognise or name God's involvement. Sharing the fact that life plods on with nothing much to report. Admitting that life is a struggle or that we are beset by questions or emotions that trouble us. Rejoicing in the funny or wonderful or special. Testimony ought to be natural, we ought to be able to share our stories and perhaps, together, tease out the hints and glimpses of God's grace.
Can life be a sermon? I suspect, if we have ears to hear, it can.
Now I just have to write something for Sunday that isn't just a repeat of this!