A sermon or two

Years after I graduated from college and seminary and became a parish priest, a college friend bemoaned the fact that I was not writing poetry anymore.  I told him all my writing energy was devoted to producing a sermon every week.  He is not a church person.  It made no sense to him.  To my friend sermons were momentary vehicles. Poems are somehow the real thing.  Now I blog every day.  It is somehow homage to the fact that God is working everywhere, all the time.  I hope to capture a bit of it every day.  Now I have friends who bemoan the fact that I am not preaching.  These friends are fewer and fewer as time has gone on.  As clergy we do not hear one another preach anyway.  Now, after leaving parish ministry in 2007, most folk have forgotten I ever did preach.  Now I also remember that I landed in the pews of one parish that knew how to really listen to sermons.  I consider new possibilities.

In the midst

Of dropping off

The forgotten key at school;

Considering new recipes

For kale;

Watching the cat

Asleep in the sun;

I think perhaps

I may have a sermon or two

Waiting to be preached

To a larger gathering

Than one or two.

After all

I did this for years

Almost every Sunday.

I think a sermon or two

May be in hiding

Around the corner,

Waiting to jump out,

Catch me by surprise.

I think a sermon or two

May demand

A thing or two:

A soapbox
Perhaps

A pulpit.