Sermon on the New Year, Holy Name, Solemnity of Mary, et cetera
It’s not a New Year’s resolution that I will blog more often in 2012, but — let’s face it — I couldn’t blog much less than I did last year. As a first-fruits of the new year, and as an easy way into blogging for the coming year, I’m attaching this morning’s sermon below.
It’s not composed de novo; it’s based on a sermon I preached back in the States a few cycles ago. The content and context are different, though, and I’ve tidied up some unsatisfactory formulations that resulted from the editing process. (I’ve argued before, in the heyday of non-commercial blogging, that it’s perfectly kosher even to repeat sermons verbatim; the task of composing an admirable, entirely fresh essay week on week poses too great a challenge for almost every preacher. Moreover, the notion of ‘originality’, and especially the expectation of homiletical originality, derive from some very dubious source, and certainly not from a gospel imperative. In any case, this morning’s sermon wasn’t a repeat, but a new version of an old theme. And here it is.)
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