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| The pulpit, organ, and Communion Table at St Fergus Parish Church |
The picture at the left shows the front part of the sanctuary of St Fergus Par-ish Church. There is a depth of rich-ness of colors of the sanctuary. I was thrilled by its beauty ever since I first set foot in the church in early June of last year. My favorite time of the week is Sunday when I lead the worship ser-vice here every Sunday. My favorite time in the service is when I mount the steps of the pulpit to preach.
Ever since I first came to the church, I have preached from the pulpit. I would rather preach from down below, closer to the people; but that would just not sit right with the people in the pews. It is not a battle I choose to fight, so I preach from the pulpit. I am a happy camper just as long as I am preaching, whether from above in the pulpit or down below on ground level. I enjoy preaching every Sunday from the pulpit. Except for twenty-two occasions to preach during the year of pas-toral ministry in 2008/09, I had few times to preach from the middle of 2003 until the middle of 2012. One reason I love being here at St Fergus Parish Church is that I have the opportunity to preach every Sunday.
In over thirty-five years preaching, I have always carefully selected my preaching text. I tended to choose passages from the Psalms or the epistles of Paul. But here I've decided to follow the gos-pel readings of the Lectionary. This year the Gospel Readings have been from Luke. Each Sun-day I preach from the selected reading from that Gospel. For the last several months the readings for each Sunday have been from the parables of Jesus in Luke. I find the parables challenging to preach on and have tended to disregard them in my sermons. But since I committed myself to keeping to the discipline of preaching from the Gospel passage assigned in the lectionary, I preach from Jesus' parables. Each week when I begin my study and reflection on the assigned text from Luke, I always wonder how I can preach from this text. But by the time I enter into the pulpit to preach the text, I am excited to share what I have learned during the week.
In over thirty-five years preaching, I have always carefully selected my preaching text. I tended to choose passages from the Psalms or the epistles of Paul. But here I've decided to follow the gos-pel readings of the Lectionary. This year the Gospel Readings have been from Luke. Each Sun-day I preach from the selected reading from that Gospel. For the last several months the readings for each Sunday have been from the parables of Jesus in Luke. I find the parables challenging to preach on and have tended to disregard them in my sermons. But since I committed myself to keeping to the discipline of preaching from the Gospel passage assigned in the lectionary, I preach from Jesus' parables. Each week when I begin my study and reflection on the assigned text from Luke, I always wonder how I can preach from this text. But by the time I enter into the pulpit to preach the text, I am excited to share what I have learned during the week.
The reason that I choose to preach from the assigned Gospel readings from the lectionary each Sunday is because they focus on who Jesus is and why the Father sent him into the world. The dear people of St Fergus Parish Church are good and decent, even religious; but they know very little about Jesus Christ. They haven't heard on a consistent basis what is of first importance: that Jesus died on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that he arose from the grave, also in accordance with the Scriptures. The people in the pews have heard that, and yet they really have not heard it. My task as a preacher is to proclaim the life-giving Gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ whenever I preach and Sunday by Sunday. I am held to that by keeping to the assigned lectionary texts of the Gospel of Luke. As I climb the steps into the pulpit at St Fergus Parish Church each Sunday, I am excited. It is the highpoint of my week. I am proclaiming the Gospel of the Jesus of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. There is no other message I'd rather proclaim. As always, I ask for your continued prayers.
Blessings to you and yours,
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