I DID IT!!  And it wasn't too bad! We had Morning Prayer instead of the Eucharist, and that was wonderful, we don't do it often enough. (I do it every morning, but I seldom have company unless on a retreat.)

Bill Hurry was the officiate, and he did a tremendous job. I was surprised at the number of people in church -- 60+, not bad for a holiday weekend. The organist said she saw my hands shaking a little as I switched papers around when I finished reading each one at the lectern, but it never showed in my voice. So that was good. I made key words bold to help me to remember to slow down as I spoke, too. When I get passionate about a topic, I tend to speed up -- and this was a topic I was pretty passionate about! Sooo - I guess I can do it -- and will certainly get better at it.

What an interesting process. At first I thought I could tie together all the readings – and the psalm! Yeah, right. I pretty quickly tossed that out. Then I sat with all the readings and just had to go with the end of the gospel – -- this last part of Matthew, 11:25-30 really kept resonating with me -- it was a “gimmee” – as Bill said when I saw him for breakfast before the service. When he saw the readings this week, and read about carrying heavy burdens, he said he couldn’t wait to hear what I had to say about that! Hmmm. I have found these words of Jesus to be a comfort for years. I'm not sure I will have to put in so much time for every sermon I ever write, but it is an fascinating process to fine-tune something and when I started I was so all over the map! And I wrote a prayer at the end, not having a clue how to finish up, the words came to me, so I used them. I also woke last night, such little amount of it as it was -- around 3:30, realizing I had used the old words -- the ones I had learned as a child "come unto me all who are heavy laden, and I will refresh you..." not this "carrying heavy burdens" stuff. Oh, well - I jumped out of bed and changed it -- knowing the newer folks wouldn't be able to follow along in their bulletins. Although as Scott said, "who would ever notice that but you, mom? no offense".  Bill also had me read the Gospel - something I have never done before - AND give the blessing and charge at the end. Whew - heady stuff!  I think I am on my way. It blew me away to greet people coming out of church, I thought they would be polite and nice – after all, this is my church family – they really love me! But it was so much more than that – sincere words about what it all meant to them, specific quotes (they LISTENED!) and just warm and lovely support. How lucky am I? Whew! Pam called to check on me a few minutes ago – and I asked her if this was the “throw her in the middle of the lake and see if she can swim” theory? And she said “yup – I knew you would never use an old sermon of mine and I also knew it would be fabulous!” What a girl! And just think – in the real world – when I get there in three years – I would get to do it all again next week!!