Preaching

My rector, Fr. Vance, says, "Everybody has one good sermon in them." So a couple of weeks ago I let a lay person preach and he did great. He's an insurance salesman who God is doing a great work in him. That inspired another young man named Vern. He asked if he could say some things some time. I told him to write it out so I can read it first and we'll go from there. This young man is bi-polar and lives in a half-way house. So I was a little worried. He wrote out his story of growing up on the streets of Manhatten where he was involved in a gang, been stabbed & shot, involved in drugs and done jail time. But he moved to he north country to get away from that. He's since attended anger management classes and doesn't do drugs. And he's begun going to church. So I let him tell his story tonight. It was more about him than what God was doing in him but he was eager to give encouragement to others. His basic point was that if someone like him could have his life turnaround anyone's could. Now Vern is not the most eloquent and showed up in a ratty, grungie t-shirt & baggy sweats. But he got up and read his story - one page, handwritten, front and back. People cheered wildly and gave a standing ovation for over a full minute. It was moving. Now when I preached afterward, there was one obnoxious child being her usual beligerant self and one other woman with psychiatric problems throwing things, rolling her eyes and mumbling. I was so distracted and I was just plain bad. So I call tonight the night when I got outpreached by a bipolar, gangbanger from a halfway house who reads his manuscript. It was a great night to be outpreached.