Wednesday's reflection on Sunday's sermon

Okay, here's the problem.

On Sunday I posted the sermon topic as a sermon on the Prodigal Son. I had worked out what I would do with the younger son who strayed and the older brother who stayed and was going to suggest that, in one way or another, we represent either of those prototypes. Great idea.

Then Reverend Eakle preached his sermon in which he covered some of the same area with the same text. He did a great job with it and I have had to regroup and reconsider what I will do with the sermon.

These sermons, since I announced my retirement, have been directed to some phase of what a transition means to us since we are in a transition.

The sermon Sunday will feature the text in John's gospel where Nathaniel says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

The sermon will deal with bias and prejudice. What do we do when we are the object of the presupposition?

In a real sense the person who comes in as Senior Pastor will be judged and juried immediately. We will learn who he or she is and will visit the church they are serving's blog or web page. We will read their sermons and their newsletter articles and we will have formed impressions about who they are.

The new pastor will, just as much, have formed presuppositions about our church. Are we conservative or liberal? Are we progressive or traditional? Are we open minded our confirmed in our belief? Do we read the bible literally or do we ignore it altogether?

The sermon will address the issue of presuppositions and bias; how we face it when we are prejudged and how we avoid prejudging other people.

Have you ever experienced prejudice against you that was unfair? What did you do about it?

Have you ever been biased against someone only to discover that you were wrong? How did you discover your mistake and how did you repair the situation created by your prejudgment?

If you have thoughts about this subject write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster