Less "Off" Than "Open"

Monday is an odd day of the week for a preacher who isn't scheduled to preach on the next upcoming Sunday. Most Mondays are usually spent reading more carefully the designated bible reading and revisiting the sermon title listed on the sign in the lobby and beginning the Sisyphean project of rolling the next homiletical stone up the hill. It is a character-building regimen, often exhilarating and sometimes wearisome.

But next Sunday is laity Sunday for our car on the ecclesiastical train, and by some novel stroke of providence, a layperson from our congregation is actually filling the pulpit. My pulpit services will not be needed. So without the press of an impending sermon to prepare, what do I do?

The list, given any thought at all, isn't hard to populate. Since, as my retired minister father once pointed out, "Sunday comes around with ruthless regularity," I could always get started on the following week's pulpit offering. Or I could give some attention to the seasonal planning that routinely gets denied. Or there is the pile of books that only gets taller. Or...

As the Personnel Committee would be quick to remind me, it's not like preaching is the only thing I do. There is, I might defensively assert, plenty to keep me busy. There are calls I could set up -- visitors to connect with; absentees to check in on, grieving and convalescing I could comfort or encourage. I could actually push back from the desk, back out the car and head over to any one of the many care centers where members unable to "come to church" would be thrilled to see the church "come to them."

Or I could, in the midst of it all, recall that my worth is not integrally linked to my pastoral production, close the door, bow my head, and center into the leading, enlarging Spirit of the one who called me here in the first place; the Apostle's admonition to "pray without ceasing" having received about as much attention lately as the shut-ins.

And who knows, that same Spirit could even waft into my soul some clue about which, of the many options available, might beckon my renewed energy, passion and attention...
...first.