When a Plan Comes Together

January 21, 2018

In 1983, the A Team made its television debut, starring Mr. T playing himself, and George Peppard playing the captain of the team, Hannibal Smith. Special agents who solved all sorts of problems with an unlikely combination of skills, strategies, and luck, the culmination of every episode was when the bad guys were caught and Hannibal intoned, “I love it when a plan comes together!” 

That’s how I feel when Sunday services are finished, and the Word has been proclaimed with some degree of competence. We work through the week crafting a worship experience that by Christ’s grace we trust will help people enter the Presence of God in worship, in order that they may go forth in Jesus’ Name to serve others. Preachers are given an impossible task. I cannot make someone else believe; I can’t open another’s eyes to the miracle of faith in Christ; I can’t bring about the transformation of a human life that takes a person from darkness to light. All I can do is try to set the stage, to hold open the door and invite people to taste and see that the Lord is good. 

One doesn’t always know if that has actually been accomplished. People bow their heads in prayer, sing the songs of worship, listen to the Scriptures being proclaimed, and come to the Table. But the actual work of the Spirit is, as Jesus said, like the wind: we see it’s effect, but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going. What I do know is there is often a flow in worship and in preaching that sometimes moves with ease and power, while at other times it seems strained, even forced. Today was one of those former experiences. I had put in the necessary time for the sermon, but was pleasantly surprised at how it seemed to come together. The rest is now in God’s hands, and I am trusting that he will do with it what he wants, and thanking him for the honor of standing before his people and holding forth the Word of Life. After all, I do love it when a plan comes together!