My first series!

When I think about the opportunity I'm getting here, I am kind of stunned. Not only am I getting to preach six sermons, I'm getting to do that at two different churches, and three of those are actually consecutive: evening one week, then morning and evening the following week. I don't think many pastoral interns get the opportunity to preach both sermons on one day! And since that's actually supposed to be pretty exhausting, I'll be glad to have the experience once before I'm 'in harness,' as my pastor here likes to say.

I decided, accordingly, to do a series on John 3: Jesus and Nicodemus. I did an exegetical paper on the middle part of it this last semester (it was really fun! and yes, I am a nerd, thanks for asking) so I already had some idea what to say.

I preached the first of those this last Sunday at the Presbyterian church in Bury St. Edmunds. ('The vicar's gone to Bury St. Edmunds. I didn't even know he had died!') It's a lovely old town that used to be the biggest pilgrimage destination in England, since King/Saint Edmund was martyred there by Danish invaders. The Barons used it as a place to meet and conspire before forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta, because it was the major pilgrimage destination, so no one would question why they were going there. Unlike if they were going to Dorset or someplace. Because who just up and goes to Dorset for no reason?

The church meets in a Unitarian meeting house. The Unitarian meeting house used to be a Presbyterian church from the 1700s. Then the congregation went all liberal. And now a Presbyterian church meets there again. It's kind of appropriate, when you think about it.

Bury is near a pair of American bases, so half the congregation is American. The Americans don't come to the evening service, and one of the key families in the church was missing on Sunday, so when I preached, there were 8 people listening.

Which is actually okay, because I thought I bombed the sermon. Really trampled all over it. It started even before the sermon, actually, when I realized that I had a Reading of the Law and Confession of Sin but had forgot the Assurance of Pardon! I had to fake it with Ephesians 2:8-9. By the halfway point of the sermon (which just fine when I practiced it earlier in the day), I couldn't even read my notes. I'm not sure why, but something just went off in my brain. The last third was largely improvised from scattered thoughts I had had about the passage, with only the briefest reference to what I had actually prepared.

It's weird though, because the people there were nodding like I was saying profound and worthwhile things, and afterward people thanked me in seeming earnest. So it's probably like a lot of pastors find: their worst sermons have the best results. It's the Holy Spirit's little way of reminding us who's in charge. And as my sermon was about the Holy Spirit anyway (John 2:23-3:10), that was kind of fitting.

So it was very humbling to me, yet encouraging to the congregation. Which is really about the best possible result, when you think about it.

This Sunday it's 3:11-15 in the morning and 3:16-21. I'm excited. The morning passage includes the verse that I've probably spent more time thinking and ruminating over than any other verse of Scripture (3:13) and the evening passage includes the most famous verse in all of Scripture (3:16). Should be fun. And intimidating. As it ought to be.

Now: to drink a good English ale whilst reading a book about worldliness!