God: The Closer

It would be difficult to describe in this short caption how NOT informed about sports I am, even as a former Bostonian. But this is Jonathan Papelbon who, miraculously,  I have actually heard of. Thanks forbes.com!

One of the great things about being a minister and believing in an omnipotent, omniscient, interventionist God at the same time is that you don't have to worry to much about preaching to people's specific circumstances. Because they're not listening to you, they're listening to God, right? Pretty sweet. How many other professions are there in which you can do a reasonably good job and then sit back and wait for God to bring it home? Can attorneys do that? No. Doctors? Hopefully not. Firefighters? I don't think so.

For instance, last Sunday I gave a sermon about finding God's desire for our lives and someone came up to me afterward and said, "You know, you're so right. My children do know what's best for me." I actually went back to see if I had said something along those lines....I hadn't. Nice one, God!

Another time, I gave a sermon about the sacraments (communion, baptism, etc.) and someone shook my hand in line and said, "Thanks for giving a sermon about doubt. I really needed it know it was okay to doubt." I actually do thing doubt is a good and important thing, but I didn't say anything about it in my sermon at all. Sweet.

Most people would say this is people hearing what they need to hear. I'd prefer to think of it as God as the Great Closer*, whose got my back.

And while we're on the topic of preaching, let me close with a little translation primer I've come up with for decoding things people say to you as they leave church:
"Nice sermon." (Read: Your sermon was nothing special but was not deeply offensive to me in any way.)
"Nice service." (Read: Your sermon sucked. But I think you seem nice and I liked the hymns.)
"That sermon was interesting." (Read: I disagree with everything you said.)
"I'd like to talk to you at some point bout that sermon." (Read: I disagree with you and everything you stand for.)
"That's such a nice stole.*" (Read: I'm probably never coming back to this church!)



*While searching for images for this post, I put "closer" into google images and in the first page got pics of Natalie Portman, Josh Groban, Ne-Yo, Ralph Nadal, President Barak Obama, and Pope Benedict. I think we should get all these folks in a room and ask how God helps them with their jobs!
*This is a joke actually. People really do like my stoles. Although I recently conducted a written survey about worship on a Sunday morning and when I got the surveys back, I noticed one of them in the "What did you most like about the service?" section said, "That is a beautiful stole that Liz had on." Amazing! Also, Mom, thanks for the stole!