First of all, I was wearing my suit, not some pastor costume. Second of all, that’s a box of Kleenex in my hand in the picture, not a box of myrrh.
I was the worship leader at our local nursing home yesterday. Gil Daenzer asked me about a year ago if I would be willing to do it. He’s a pretty persuasive guy. He pointed out that it was just once a year, and that since I already led chapel at school in front of 400 people, how hard could it be to lead worship in front of 20 people (some of whom would be asleep)? Well, I said I would do it, and about a year later I received a letter in the mail saying I was up in a month. Naturally, I became sick the week I had to do it.
So I had to start off my sermonette by explaining that I had a box of Kleenex with me, not because I was especially emotional and expected to get all weepy, not because I had a good story to tell that somehow revolved around a box of Kleenex, not because it would serve as the basis for a beautiful object lesson, but because I had a cold, and was libel to have to blow my nose at some point, and when you have to blow your nose, it’s good to have a box of Kleenex handy.
Everything really went pretty well. During one of the services I got things a little out of order (we did the confession after the sermon hymn, oops), but I didn’t have to blow my nose.