Friday, February 08, 2008

Hot hot Heat

Rejoice with me my brothers and sisters. Stand up and whoop. My boiler which was lost is found. And what is more I am now aware that it has been slowly deteriorating over the last few weeks. For today, simply on its normal setting, I was able comfortably to walk around the house in my boxers (don't hold that thought for too long it's not edifying). Mrs T said it is too hot. The temperature, not my body, although if pushed.... no, ridiculous. Anyway this last happened one July in Malta seven years ago so it must be too hot. Will turn down thermostat and water temperature.

So things are on the mend. And today I can work at my desk in comfort. Since the main task today is an entirely new sermon expect many posts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So just how often does a vicar need to write an entirely new sermon rather than recycle his old ones?

Steve Tilley said...

Good question. Of course I can only answer personally. For me all sermons are new but many of them are assembled from things I have said before in different places. Illustrations work in a variety of contexts. Good quotes are good quotes.

Today's work is a subject I have not tackled before using someone else's outline so I will have to build it from scratch and as such it is not just new but entirely new.

If you ask me to speak, without preparation, on a mainstream subject I will do it from assembled bits (the preparation of years in the study). The words will never before have existed in that order before but the address will not be new; just sampled and given a remix.

If you want more on this I'll post separately. Do ask.

Martin said...

There is a reputation among many that wedding sermons are not generally fresh. I haven't got bored of sermons at weddings I've been to so far, but I know people who have heard the same sermon twice in not such a long period of time at weddings. Of course, I understand that many of the things you might want to say to newly weds are good principles for many such couples, and therefore I suppose something could be said for repeated sermons. What's your take on this? How about if you're in a church that isn't quite getting a certain important point? Do you say it again in a different way? Would you ever run out of ways? Or is this futile, and God sorting things out much better than your words? Or are your words something God uses to do things?

In summary, I'm also interested in a post or few on the topic.