It's May...Graduations Are Afoot, So...

...the folks in charge of such things have asked me to give the sermon in Big Church on May 13. The schedule shows us in John 10, and I'll be more or less sharing how I've seen this year's graduating seniors show us a key element in that chapter: An abundant life.

And, coincidentally, I've been doing some introductory studying and came across this little piece of gold in a book with a pithy title and flimsy premise (see list at left) but it's got some quotable moments. Here's some from author Leonard Sweet:

"...in the Greek the word is zoe. Zoe means flamboyant, passionate life. Or in the words of Jesus: "I have come that they may have zoe and have it to the full."...The problem is not that Christianity can't be believed, but that it can't be practiced because of its lack of lived experience. And it can't be observed by others because there are too few Christians who are radical enough to manifest what the Gospel really looks like."

"Who has had a greater impact for God and the Gospel in the early twenty-first century? A denomination with a million-plus members, or one musician named Bono?"

"Authenticity is not about being more relevant but being more Jesus."

"[The chuch's younger generation has ushered in] the unlikely revival of liturgy in religion. In a way, it's as if the Jesus Movement of the 1960's and 1970's cleared the cultural palate so the boomers' GenX children could re-approach liturgy and sacramental tradition without the modern social baggage that had numbed their parents."

Yeah.

I think I'm going to enjoy preparing for this particular sermon.

Fasten your seatbelts.