A Ministry of Failure

Now that I've moved to outlines in my sermons, I thought it might be more valuable to make some notes about the sermon, in case anyone was interested in learning more about my process or what I thought was interesting here.  At the very least this helps me refine my skills as a pastor.

As a way of background, I was really struck by the failure of the disciples and how, as those most intimate to Jesus, they still couldn't get it.  We're going to be no more lucky.  Should that stop us from living into our calling?

Notes by Time

2:40 - This is all very true.  It's one of my favorite memories of childhood.

5:09 - I think it's important to think that perhaps our enjoyment of Christian life doesn't need to be connected at our "success" in it.  And this is probably as much a function of reinterpreting what Christian "success" is.

7:10 - Again, how are we interpreting "success" in Christian faith?  If we think it's related to something that we are best and worst, it will lead to the same type of competition that we hear in the gospel.

8:07 - The word is σοφία (Sophia), which means "wisdom."

8:17 - I'm not sure that this connects as well as I'd have liked it to.  It's easy to think that competition and being the best (and defining success) is good wisdom, but it isn't.  The next couple minutes of conversation is trying to unfold that more.

9:57 - This is quoted from https://www.weforum.org/agenda...

11:54 - Again, I'm shocked by this.

12:45 - I find these to be the most common things that wear us out in Christian life.  

13:06 - This is another place where I'm not sure it landed as well.  Was it helpful to connect competition and perfection?  It makes we wonder in hindsight if I could have dropped perfectionism or have spent a bit more time making the connection.

13:40 - It is easy to do both - to rank oneself against other preachers.  The best way that I've found to avoid that thinking practically is to sit with preachers and worship together.  We all have varying gifts in preaching (and some of us, our main ministry isn't really preaching, and so it is an ancillary activity.  If you are really, extraordinarily gifted at pastoral care, I imagine your congregation will forgive you if you bonk more sermons than others).  In the end, I can only trust the voice God gives me and use it well.

14:26 - This is a really important point for me personally that the gospel offers.  The more any of us spend in competition, the less likely we are going to grow, because we're not going to ask questions.  Call it what you'd like - perfectionism, ego, arrogance, fear, competitive spirit - they all head us towards not asking when we need to ask.  I want to ask more questions, and I want people to ask more questions of me.

15:10 - Hermeneia (Collins and Attridge) argues the timidity of the disciples was contrived by the writer of Mark in order to set Jesus up for the proceeding discourse.  I don't know if it matters.  Either way it's instructive of humanity, and perhaps it hints at a knowledge of what is good sophia and not. This went unexplored, and maybe at some point might be worth another look at a couple years from now.

15:40 - Probably not a fair construct of coaches.  Not everyone's Bobby Knight.

16:10 - I added this section towards the end of the sermon preparation, and it could have been struck, I think.  I think the argument at 16:47 still stood.

17:15 - This is James in conversation with Mark.

17:30 - I really do not like sermon titles because I think it invites us to think about ownership too much (Genesis reminds us that we name the things we own).  These are God's words through me.   No one has ownership over them but God.

17:43 - I thought it was provocative.  Was it?

18:11 - The lectionary passage from Wisdom of Solomon made its way into the bulletin, and I didn't mention to remove it.

19:30 - There may be a difficult question here to resolve, and a move that is interesting to still work with: is a ministry of failure and imperfection a ministry of good wisdom, of God's wisdom?  That's the argument I'm making here when I refer back to James.  I think it's better to consider that a non-competitive, non-perfectionist faith is more holy.  But perhaps that's the limit.

20:04 - That's why I started to clarify, because I do think they're related to each other, even tangentially.

20:41 - This is my final restatement of the thesis: brokenness and grace.  

21:33 - This coming week's Psalm (19) connects well to this thought, too.

Questions?  Thoughts?  Comments?  Let me know!