Sunday, 19 October 2014

An Odd Night in the Pulpit

I had been asked to preach at a short service in what I thought was a small church.  It should have been a very short lesson, and I was expecting to do all of it, or about 10 minutes.

Then I got to the church.  It was massive.  Easily the biggest building I have ever spoken in.  And the service had morphed from a quick ten minutes, to a full collaboration with a number of different speakers.  The minister that asked me to speak had neglected to mention this fact.  And of course the church was full to bursting.

And with this being a bit of a posh do, I was told by the minister that my suit wasn't good enough, so I had to round up a set of robes from somewhere.  Fortunately the choir were able to help out.

When the service started, someone got up and did the call to worship that I was supposed to be doing.  I was a bit annoyed, but you have to keep a professional air, so I said nothing.

Finally, I got up to deliver my sermon, which I had hurriedly re-written to reflect the theme of the day.  As I got into the pulpit, I realised that the lectern wasn't adjustable, and the previous occupant must have been nine foot tall.  I barely stuck out over the top.

I placed my notes on the lectern, looked out at the congregation, then looked back down.  My carefully prepared notes had been replaced with a collection of wine-gums, with the sermon written on top of them.

So then I woke up.

When I eventually got back to sleep.  I had another dream where one of my probationed buddies took me to one side and told me that my delivery wasn't great.  I hope they get afflicted by their sermon turning into wine-gums.

No comments:

Post a Comment