Pulpit Fiction

I have now preached my first sermon.

Years down the line, I may regret my references to "Star Wars" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," but I have preached my first sermon.

The Gospel lesson was Luke 4:1-13. It's the story of Jesus' temptation by the devil. I signed up to preach for this Sunday since I studied that text in my Synoptic Gospel course on Luke last semester. But that advanced preparation didn't keep me from getting more than a little nervous about preaching my first sermon. (Technically, it's my second, since I preached at my home church when I was 16 about my thankfulness for not dying due to a nut allergy the year prior — but there wasn't a lot of heavy theological insight that went into that one.) Driving up expectations even higher were my dad's preaching ability and the fact that today's text, a really fantastic one, is one of my favorites.

I got even more nervous a couple weeks ago after I learned in my introductory preaching course, Telling the Story, that ELCA congregations in a survey considered various elements of preaching to be among the top three most important parts of their worship services. I realized how important a good sermon is to parishioners, and with that, I didn't want to dread the memory of a first-sermon disaster for the rest of my life. So I thought hard over not only what was most important about the Gospel text but also what sort of ideas would keep people's attention. I for one, will admit to big-time daydreaming even during a good sermon.

The venue today was my Contextual Leadership site, Galilee Lutheran Church in Roseville, MN. All in all, I think things came out OK. I probably stretched for more eye contact than what my attempts at memorization allowed — I completely lost my place on my script twice. (And, even after I had cleared the hurdle of the sermon itself, I spoke the wrong blessing at the end of the service, which created some confusion). I think I may have freaked some people out a little bit with my reference to an old "Late Night" bit in which Conan, the host, would be tempted by a devil on one shoulder and would end up with a dimwitted bear on his other shoulder instead of an angel. The bear would give advice only suitable for bears, such as "When rummaging through a campsite, do not eat beef jerky. Spicy, dried meat may look yummy, but it can give Bear an upset tummy," a quote that I actually repeated in the original style of the cartoonish bear. (I connected that to humans' usual inability to overcome temptation on their own, without seeking God). I suppose that was risky. But people seemed to respond well to the "Star Wars" analogy, at least — one parishioner seemed excited afterward about how the sermon took him "to outer space and back."

The kindness from people at Galilee really helped me jump this hurdle. They really even made the sermon fun and energized me with their smiles, laughter and what often seemed to be genuine attention. My pastor and one parishioner were kind enough to offer some critique afterward. It was really exciting that about 40 people showed up for church, even amid the weekend-long winter storm warning. There was even a healthy bunch of wide-eyed kids for the children's sermon.

I was starting to wonder yesterday whether the persistent snow was going to force the service's cancellation, echoing back to a time several years ago when an ice storm led my home church to cancel a meeting at which I was supposed to present a video documentary for the building campaign — lucky for me, since I was running behind on the project due to no small amount of procrastinating. What was even weirder was that that ice storm came in April, prompting my dad to ask God why he would let me off the hook. But with this morning's bearable weather, it seemed that God wanted me to preach today, and I'm mighty glad things turned out the way they did. (What's really odd, as a side note, is that my dad ended up canceling church in Green Bay today due to weather there. It's the first time he's ever canceled church. With me preaching and him not preaching, it seemed like a kind of torch-passing.)

My first sermon was really a great experience and one I definitely won't mind looking back on. It helped that my wife, Tracy, was on hand, silently cheering me on the whole time. She also took me out to Fuddruckers for lunch afterward, which was a great way to celebrate. I think I got some good work done for God, and that's the most important thing. I'm even more sure now that I picked the right business.