Reading the Bible with New Eyes

I'm not preaching every Sunday now. This removes an enjoyable stress from my life. Preaching was stressful in that each week you are asking yourself a question that you cannot immediately answer: What does God have to say to US this week. The US being our church family. My assumption has usually been that the Holy Spirit of Jesus is leading us. And that the preacher's job is to try and figure out how God is speaking to us at this given point in time and at this particular place.

I also assume that preaching is an imperfect task. It is imperfect because the preacher is imperfect. Maybe the preacher is hearing God wrong. The preacher may be following an idol. For example, the preacher may want something in his/her life more than the preacher wants God. Memorial Day is a good example of this. Maybe the preacher cares more about being seen as patriotic and God-fearing than the preacher cares about being a faithful servant of a God who doesn't really care how the preacher looks to others. In that case, God's word for the people is filtered out by the preacher's desires. "God couldn't want me to say that because then I will look like a non-patriotic, God-hater."

Preaching is enjoyable because it kept me on my spiritual toes. Beginning early in the week (say Tuesday, unless I'm procrastinating) I would begin praying, "Lord, help me. What should I preach about this week?" This prayer would gain in intensity and sincerity as the week progressed. Culminating with me getting up very early on most Sunday mornings to re-evaluate what I had thought up to then about the sermon.

I don't want to lose either of these components of the preaching life, neither the stress nor the enjoyment. I've begun reading Eugene Peterson's translation of the New Testament called The Message. Peterson tries to capture the Message of Jesus in the language that people speak today. 

It's hard for me to believe that God still loves me even though I'm retired. But I certainly preached that. God loves us because that is Who God is. I don't earn God's love because of what I do.