Oops! I Made a Mistake in Yesterday's Sermon

Wow! What do you do when you make a blunder of epic proportions? I guess you just acknowledge it and move on. I made such a blunder in yesterday's sermon. Did you catch it? This past Sunday I preached on the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

If you haven't listened to the sermon yet, go ahead and listen to it then read the rest of this entry to see if you figured out the blunder.

I said that Jesus was on his way from Galilee to Jerusalem when it was actually the other way around. In the Synoptic Gospels, there is a record of Jesus making one trip to Jerusalem late in his ministry. In John's Gospel there is a different chronology. Jesus makes three trips to Jerusalem. This past Sunday's text (John 4) takes place as Jesus is returning to Galilee from his first journey to Jerusalem.

There is no excuse for me making the mistake. I did so because I was rushed last week and I didn't do all of the background work I should have done in preparing for the sermon. Just reading the entire 4th chapter of John would have quickly cued me into my mistake. Fortunately it was not a mistake that really changes the important points of the sermon.

The second reason is that I have been approaching Lent from the context of the Synoptics. Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem and then leaves Galilee to never return. Well, lessons learned. First, I will make mistakes. Second, don't rely to much on my memory as I work week to week on my sermons.