WHOSOEVER AND WHATSOEVER

WHOSOEVER AND WHATSOEVER One Sunday morning, I was told by a "member" of the tiny church that I was first assigned to pastor in Butler, Bates County, Missouri, Brooks Chapel African .Methodist Episcopal Church, the following: "Reverend Coleman, you can make a sermon out of just anything!" I thanked him, of course, for the compliment, if such it was.But, I was not sure of his meaning at that time. So, I just went on ministering. Perhaps, my peculiar and pragmatic practice of deriving, both, the scriptural reading, and the sermon, itself, from the text of that week's Sunday school lesson, had prompted his observation. I had adopted this practical approach to Biblical exegesis, based on my living 60-miles away from that tiny church in Kansas City; Missouri; only preaching there twice per month, and, lacking an ability to conduct either a Bible study, nor Sunday School with my "members" there. So, acting expediently,I combined all 3 of these, all rolled into one! Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit that prompted Mr. Troy Burton's comment. Whatever it was, I now deduce that God's omnipresence places sermons all around us, even within us, so we can feel them. As I feel. smell, taste, hear. see, intuit, so I preach, unashamedly! By the way, "members" at Brooks Chapel A.M.E. is (or was) a term of art, meaning whoever showed up or "whosoever will let them come."