Thanksgiving 11.28.2024

     For all intents and purposes this post is the last word, at least from me for 2024. I just finished my sermon for Sunday December 1, which is of course the first Sunday of Advent 2024/5. As far as I’m concerned, it’s next year. You may not operate that way. You may find it odd that I spend obsessive amounts of time considering the processes and practices of preaching, and that’s OK. 

    Ministry is personal and each preacher must work out his or her own best practices and an individual path forward each week. My purpose in writing these words is less to provide a model for how you work than to encourage you to see that this divine task to which we are called is serious business. I provide an orderly way forward. If you have a different way—that is fine. If you don’t…why not? Does the word not “burn like a fire within you?” Serious people do serious things, and they take a serious approach to their life’s work. 

    My purpose right now is not to begin next year’s work but to end this year. It is always right and proper to give thanks. I am getting as much work done as possible today—Tuesday November 26th because tomorrow Mrs. Beckman and I will begin our Thanksgiving travels. I will have a laptop with me but considering how hard it is for me to get much done at the Parsonage on the Hill…let’s just say that one anticipates distractions.

    So, to close this space out for 2024, to begin the process of moving forward into a new year with new opportunities let me clearly state a couple of things for which I am thankful. 

1. So great a Salvation. 

2. My wonderful wife.

3. My children, grandchildren, great grandchildren.

4. The call to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

5. The Body of Christ, His Church here in Grayville.

6. Colleagues, friends, and collaborators who make the life of ministry interesting, rewarding, invigorating. 

7. It is November 26…the Minnesota Vikings and Illinois Fighting Illini have not broken my pea-picking heart. 

    OK, more than a couple. Now, you know that I am (clearly) a list-maker. I’ve made mine, but I can’t make yours. The day set aside to consider our blessings and give thanks is right around the corner. Might be a good idea to start on that list.