The Unspectacular Sermon

When it's something you do so much of, you notice it when it's this different.

I'm preaching on Sunday here at the Hot Springs Church.  This I am invited to do every time I come.  It's a courtesy I think. Let the guest have the pulpit.  Plus, in conversation, I've been told that there is a perception that Western Christians are just generally better educated in matters of faith, theology and Scripture.  Yes, there are good schools here to help train Christian pastors, but really nothing in comparison to the long traditions of Christian education so well established in Europe and North America.  At least that's why I've been told.

So I prepare a talk to serve these dear people.  But still.  I know it will be quite unspectacular.

At home we preachers strive to inspire and uplift, and, when necessary, correct and rebuke.  We do that in varying ways, depending on our congregation and our personalities.  Most of us though want the sermon to be great.  Not just good, and certainly not boring.  But great.  We want to teach in such a way that people will be inspired to move forward in their spiritual understanding and practice, to be encouraged to take next steps, to change old patterns for new, to experience the Divine in their everyday lives.

There's a process that leads to every sermon preached.  Reading and research and prayer that begins months before.  Word crafting and logical progression of thought that is written and refined and edited.  On rare occasion a sermon happens in a very tumbling-out-of-me kind of way.  But mostly it doesn't.  Maybe it's just me, but every sermon is hard work, that is, if I want to do it in the best way I know to honour the God I hope to point people to.

Here it's very different.  It's like everything I know about preparing a good sermon has to be dismantled, re-examined, rearranged.

First off, I am completely aware that there are people who will be listening who are far better qualified to speak to these people than I.  This is a tad unnerving.  Then, there is a language barrier that requires I use an interpreter.  And in every interpretation there is a loss.  It's just the nature of the game.  Here at Hot Springs where everything is beautifully simple, my interpreter is a very accomplished 12 year old girl named Bell, Suradet and Yupa's daughter, who attends a bilingual school.  We work together well, and she does a good job.  But the truth is she's twelve.  And some of the deeper concepts I might want to communicate are just not going to fly.  I have to choose simple words and short sentences.  Anyone listening in English would most likely be bored.  Likely so are the Thais.  No fancy word crafting here, nothing spectacular to keep your interest.  No little humorous story off to the side to keep things moving, although I might try.   Just the bare bones of the ideas I hope to convey.

Sunday's sermon is ready.  It's about pointing people to Jesus.  It's about John the Baptist's example.  Know Jesus, be humble and speak the good news.  That's it.  There's no alliteration in the title or any English based memory tools in my three points, because that wouldn't translate and I don't know Thai well enough to play with the language in that way.   It's short, because with being translated everything is twice as long.  I do have a power point because pictures don't need as much translation, although I'm still not sure that the images I chose to convey an idea quite match the understandings of my hearers.  So, the sermon is ready.  But it is what it is and no more.

So why?  When I know it's so unspectacular, why bother?

I have said before that every sermon is really just a small lunch of loaves and fishes.  We give all we've got and let Jesus feed the people with it, despite the glaring inadequacies.  I say that about my months-in-advance-prepared, word-crafted, passion-driven sermons at home.  I certainly must say it about the meager offerings I preach when I'm here.

So I guess it's an act of humble obedience.  A process of learning in a very accepting environment with the hope of serving more effectively as I go.  A reminder that I am simply a messenger, and that God's Word has a beauty and a life all on it's own.  And a way to serve in unspectacular ways that are good for my soul.

I know how to pray this in Thai, and I do it before every sermon I preach here.
Oh Father.
I do not speak Thai very well.
Would you please help me speak today.
Holy Spirit, would you be our translator.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen

I have no choice but to let God be spectacular in all the ways He loves to pursue us.  And in so doing feel His empowerment in different, but very honest ways.  

A Slower Start

 Finally, it is the alarm that wakes me up.

This is welcome even though the time is 4:15 a.m.  Jet lag has been particularly significant this time, and I am delighted to have been able to "sleep in" this long.  And not have been coughing.

It is Saturday and now a full eight days since our arrival, but in some ways, on this morning of sleeping in, it feels like things might just now be getting started.

Sam and Jaroen wait for service to begin.

Perhaps it's because we didn't go to the mountain for New Years, which admittedly was a huge let down.  Perhaps it's because the children went back to school on Wednesday, which admittedly makes things much quieter around here.  Perhaps it's because our visit to the local schools with ESL in hand is waiting, as scheduled, for the arrival of our third team member, Bill, which admittedly postpones some of the sense of 'purpose' for being here.   And to be honest, I think some of the slower start has been because I've been kinda sick with this nasty cough, and for the first day at least, with a fast but furious visit from the traveler's bug (and here's where I spare you the details) that has left me feeling just a tad cautious about going out too far still.  So slower and sticking close to home has suited me fine on that point.

On all points actually.

One of our 'graduates' Fruk was just 7 when we first came.

It's a slower way of life here anyways.  And I welcome this.  Even on a morning when the alarm finally wakes me at 4:15 a.m.  Slower is Thai.  Slower is good.

I've seen farangs here trying to speed things up.  Meetings or services don't start on time.  It takes forever to gather a group.  Going for a haircut can take an entire day.  People get impatient.  I've seen farangs lose composure, try to force things to a Western way of time-orientation, micromanage their Thai friends.  I've been that farang.  And I guess, at times, as much as I hate to admit it, I can still be.

But not right now.  Right now I embrace this slower start.  Slower start to the trip.  Slower start to the year.  Slower start to what I think might be a slower next step of my life.  (Oh there is so much more to write on that!)

Having said that, it's not like there's been nothing to do. 

Elephants celebrating Christmas.

Preached first Sunday here for New Year's Eve.  Preaching this coming Sunday.  And every evening there's the combined Bible and English lesson with no end of creative possibilities to make the learning both fun and logical.  Spent one day doing a thorough clean up of ESL teaching helps; cards and pictures and books etc.  And we've started our Hot Springs book club so there's no end of reading and being read to happening.  Work at home doesn't come to a complete standstill either, and there have been emails and schedules and updates to write.

But it's nothing like the reckless, what now feels insane pace of the four months that have preceded this.  This is slower.  This is Thai.  This is good.  And very badly needed.

And it strikes me again how badly I need this.  To be reminded of what being a human 'being' looks like, Thai style.  To let a little Thai style sink into my spirit more deeply again.

Here at the beginning of a slower start that's okay by me.

New Years' Pictures As Promised

Pounded Sticky Rice prepared in a hollowed out log, pounded with large sticks.

Sam was a natural.  It's harder than it looks.

The end result, served on a banana leaf.

Waiting for the countdown, watching Despicable Me 3 in Thai.

Ahjahn Jaroen doing technical checks before the Sunday morning service.

They are so thrilled to have Sam join the worship team.

Boy (who is finishing high school at a vocational school nearby) is here for worship!

    A beautiful expression of faith as so many came forward to receive prayer for 2018 and the "New Thing" God wants to do in their lives.

Of Washed Out Roads and Making New Plans

(More New Year's Pictures to Follow)

We didn't make it to the mountain for New Years.

Full story at Highview To Thailand.