Don't Speak

So today I preached a sermon entitled "Don't Speak." This sermon was focus on the passage in 1 Corinthians 14:34-5 where it says that women shouldn't speak and to do so is shameful. This passage was something that I had to confront for myself, to figure out how this fits in my Sacred Scripture. I used it in the context of domestic violence and how women are silenced in churches by our inaction on their behalf. 

I woke up at 9 and I was sooo ready to go, but service didn't start til noon.  I wasn't really nervous about the sermon, I had come to peace with it. I woke up ready to preach, there was an urgency. I had this word, and I just needed to let it out. I was excited, but calm. I was impatient. I had a dream that when I got up to do the opening I just started my sermon, that's how ready I was. 

I felt a sense of calm that I have never experienced before. I was excited, my foot was twitching, but my hands were stead, my stomach wasn't doing summersaults. I got up there and while I was doing it I felt good. There were places where I was worried, the sermon was tough and the audience looked a little shell shocked. I couldn't read them and I thought I was yelling at them, and that's why they weren't emoting much. When I finished and walked away and I was in a weird space. Still, there were no nerves. I was calm.

However, after service the reception I received was different. There is a usual "You did well" (which I still don't know how to react to). But today, the congratulations were more sincere, the hugs were much tighter. Today was different and I cannot explain it. My facebook blew up with compliments. Things were moving today and I don't really know how to deal with them, but today was definitely different.