I'm a bit surprised this week. Why? Well all sermons have a starting point and this week mine was our kettle. Now don't get me wrong I'm as ......... proud as the next person about our kettle, but as a sermon idea I wasn't sure. Maybe kettles as large black metal bowls suspended over open fires appear in the Bible, but I've never read about interactive electric kettles. There you go thats my starting point. Our kettle is interactive. I don't just mean push the button and the light goes on. The kettle asks you what temperature you want the water to be before it will start heating up. Apparently it knows that coffee, tea, hot chocolate and fruit infusions all need different temperatures of water. So there you go a sermon based around a kettle. Things are hotting up this week.
Maybe you see where I'm stumbling too. John speaks of Jesus words to his disciples after the last supper just before they go off to the garden of Gethsemene. Remember how he talks of how others will hear about Jesus because of the message or word that Jesus' disciples will spread. There's something about unity there. A new commandment and all that. Love that's how people will know who they are. Reflecting the love they feel from God. But this is more than unity. This is where the kettle comes in and so much of modern life from smartphones to museums. Sharing this love is about interactive love. last week our guest preacher Dr Katie Bradley used illustrations from the musicals of Rodgers and Hamerstein set beside Psalm 121 and Matthew 6 to remind us of God's love and asked us a question. How were we going to spend God love in the world? So how are we going to do that? Well together of course. By this people will know you are my disciples, but more by showing what is unique to us as a church. Much of what we do for the community could be done just as well by secular groups and charities. The church has a buzzword for all this though. Mission we call it when we help out; providing lunches, visiting and helping people in difficulty - all these can be done by any group, so what is unique about us? Well it's all wrapped up in these two buzzwords, worship and mission. It's how we define these words and then live them out in the world, that's what makes us unique. Worship, spending time with God, spending time with others or kettle like love seems to underpin it all and bounces off into our definition of mission. It turns out that the buzzwords worship and mission seem to be two facets of the same idea, spending love from God with each other and in the world. Interactive united love. Aah now I see a sermon shaping up. More than that, what becomes clear is that worship is more than just people joining us for worship services on Sunday or during the week. Then again, mission isn't just about going out and telling people about Jesus and expecting them to come to the church each week. Both mission and worship are about meeting people in whatever questions of life they are living and sharing the moment, the friendship, the agape love that we as a united, interactive group of followers of Jesus receive from God. Using some of our time in our busy lives to spend the interactive love we receive from Jesus with others. that's what I mean about kettle love. Now let's have a look. Water for coffee should be a maximum of 90 degrees. What could be better a Tunnock's wafer and a perfect cup of coffee. United and interactive, a simple pleasure expressed in our world of questions. This weeks references My Braun Kettle. The Hills are alive from Sound of Music Climb ev'ry mountain from Sound of Music You'll never walk alone from Carousel. psalm 121 Dr Katie Bradley from World Mission Council. Church of Scotland. Comments are closed.
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November 2017
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