Sometimes, it's harder to say things simply and directly. This past Sunday, I preached the same "basic" sermon 3 times, in 3 different settings. Even though the central message stayed the same, I re-wrote it for each service to tailor the style and wording for the audience.
The easiest one to write, and the one I started with, was the most formal and wordiest one, for our traditional worship service. I altered it slightly, to be a little more conversational, for our contemporary worship service - and added a slideshow to go along with the sermon. The most challenging, strangely, was the version that had the most basic theology and vocabulary. It was for the Montagnard-American Alliance church's worship service, a congregation composed of Montagnard refugees from Vietnam, many of whom are fairly recent converts to Christianity. The sentences had to be short, so they could be translated into Jarai as I preached. The images and language had to be easily accessible to a community with different metaphors and experiences than my own.
I have always been a slow writer, largely because I choose my words and construct my sentences carefully. The flow is important to me - I search for just the right phrasing and language. I love the right-click thesaurus in Microsoft Word! So, it was a real challenge to let go of the desire to speak poetically and to instead construct brief, concise phrases that explained exactly what Lent is; that said why we often give things up for 6 weeks; that tried to quickly clarify who Satan is and why he'd want to tempt Jesus...to re-read each sentence I had written with new eyes that urged me to explain so many of the ideas that I take for granted because I've grown up with them.
It was such a helpful exercise for me, though, to have to boil down my fancy words to expose the real foundation underneath. To speak the good news in it's most simple, direct form. To figure out what I was really trying to say that would matter to someone who had really confronted evil & violence firsthand and who had truly found new life by starting all over again in a strange country.
The simplest things are often the hardest, but they can also be the most rewarding.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Are you sure?
"...I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write"
(Berryman, by W.S. Merwin)
This poem seemed an especially appropriate one to come across as I am trying to do more writing...and as I was trying to write a sermon the past few days. It fits well with my motto that kept me going through the last few months of Divinity School, too: "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done."
How much of our lives do we spend worrying about being perfect, rather than just living...how often do we keep ourselves from trying something because we fear we can't do it good enough? I know this is something I struggle with. It's something I'm working on - giving myself permission to fail, to not be perfect, to attempt things because they're worth doing, not because I am sure I will do them well.
For years, I avoided singing in public (well, except in a big chorus full of people so no one could hear MY voice). I was convinced I didn't sing well, and so no one should have to listen to me sing. But then I started singing along with our praise band at church, and realized that not only did I really enjoy it, but i wasn't too bad at it. Now, I'll step right up to the mic, and not worry about whether every note is perfect - I just sing with my heart and have fun.
My friends and I have formed a band, too. Not all of us are great -- I took 6 weeks of guitar lessons about 10 years ago -- but some of my favorite nights are when we gather around a firepit in someone's backyard and find ways to blend our ecclectic mix of instruments (guitars, mandolins, a banjo, a harmonica, Indian drums, A Native American flute...). We laugh and occasionally make something that sounds like real music, and I always end those nights feeling joyful and inspired.
You can never be sure...but who says you have to be? You just have to start.
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write"
(Berryman, by W.S. Merwin)
This poem seemed an especially appropriate one to come across as I am trying to do more writing...and as I was trying to write a sermon the past few days. It fits well with my motto that kept me going through the last few months of Divinity School, too: "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done."
How much of our lives do we spend worrying about being perfect, rather than just living...how often do we keep ourselves from trying something because we fear we can't do it good enough? I know this is something I struggle with. It's something I'm working on - giving myself permission to fail, to not be perfect, to attempt things because they're worth doing, not because I am sure I will do them well.
For years, I avoided singing in public (well, except in a big chorus full of people so no one could hear MY voice). I was convinced I didn't sing well, and so no one should have to listen to me sing. But then I started singing along with our praise band at church, and realized that not only did I really enjoy it, but i wasn't too bad at it. Now, I'll step right up to the mic, and not worry about whether every note is perfect - I just sing with my heart and have fun.
My friends and I have formed a band, too. Not all of us are great -- I took 6 weeks of guitar lessons about 10 years ago -- but some of my favorite nights are when we gather around a firepit in someone's backyard and find ways to blend our ecclectic mix of instruments (guitars, mandolins, a banjo, a harmonica, Indian drums, A Native American flute...). We laugh and occasionally make something that sounds like real music, and I always end those nights feeling joyful and inspired.
You can never be sure...but who says you have to be? You just have to start.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Life Ain't No Dress Rehearsal
For a long time, one of my goals has been to write more. As we begin the 40-day journey through Lent, I realized that this might be the perfect time to challenge myself to actually do it - to write something every day, whether I feel like it or not, whether I feel like I have something to say or not, whether anyone reads it or not! One of my disciplines will be to write, to put into words the ever-changing adventure of this journey with God. A dear and inspiring friend likes to remind others that "life ain't no dress rehearsal," so let the show begin.
There's no reason for us to postpone fully living our lives -- God has created each of us uniquely to live our lives as we are. We each have the exact qualities, personalities, bodies, hearts and minds that we need in order to be and do exactly what we are meant to be and do, we each are exactly who the world needs us to be in this moment. So, let's start living, loving, writing, acting, and claiming our place on this wild and wonderful stage.
There's no reason for us to postpone fully living our lives -- God has created each of us uniquely to live our lives as we are. We each have the exact qualities, personalities, bodies, hearts and minds that we need in order to be and do exactly what we are meant to be and do, we each are exactly who the world needs us to be in this moment. So, let's start living, loving, writing, acting, and claiming our place on this wild and wonderful stage.
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