one sermon.

Over on her blog, the Painted Prayer Book, Jan Richardson writes about the idea that every preacher really has only one sermon, and she writes about what she imagines her "one sermon" to be. She suggests that most of us have one real message that we see in the gospel, and we simply find new ways of saying that same old message over and over.

Which of course, got me thinking about what my one sermon would be. I think, boiled down it probably goes something like this: Notice the Miracle, and become new. In other words, look at the incredible beauty of every moment, look at what God is doing right now in your life and in the lives of those around you. Look how the Divine is breathing in the painting, coming to life in that poem, shining with dewy green in the grass. Look, look! How could we be missing this?! And think how that God is creating still, even now, even in you. The God who breathed life in the dust, who became incarnate in Christ, who rose from the dead-- is creating and recreating. Right now. In us. We get to be a part of it.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how this is really the sermon I most need to hear. It is the message I most often forget, and need to be reminded of. I fill my mind and my life with things and forget that God is in all of it. I forget to take time to see God in the poem, the painting, the day. And more than anything, I so often doubt that change and transformation is possible, especially in myself. So, the sermon I try to give over and over, is really the one I am giving myself.

I wonder, if it is the same with most of us. Is the message we preach, really the one we need to hear? I was also thinking of how most people I know, whether or not they are in professional ministry, seem to have a sermon they are living as well. The message that they hope to share with their words, and their choices. Whether it is as simple as, "Love others," or "Dance whenever you can," each person I know has an amazing sermon they are telling me with their lives. What do you think yours is? If you had to boil down all your sermons (or all your days of living) into one overall message, what would it be?