Documentary

yesterday I ended up watching 2 DVD's. The first one was "Comedian" - the documentary about Jerry Seinfeld putting his act together after the end of the run of his sit com.
To put act together took months as he went from comedy club to comedy club to try out material and put it together with just the right words and timing and gestures. At first his act was 5 minutes and then 10 and then 20. It was laborious. And hard. There was one snippet where he stopped in the act and could not remember what comes next.

And, of course, he is a multi millionaire who did not have to do it for money. But he is a comedian and that is what he does. There were also parts of talking about the craft with other comedians.

It reminded me somewhat of what we do preaching. One thing I noticed is that everyone has their own style that comes to fit them. His was so meticulous. And he was always evaluating all of it. The difference of preaching is that every week it is a different sermon. And that is not all of what we are doing during the week.

But the smilarities are that we do have to find our own style and what works for us. I preach with a manusrcipt and often every word that I have written is spoken. Sometimes I go off of it - but not much. Over the years I have experienced preachers who preach without a manuscript who have acted like that style is somehow better - more guided by the spirit. And what I liked about this DVD was that there was none of that with the comedians. No one was trying to say - do it my way. Everyone knew they were each trying to find their own voice.

One other enormous difference between comedians and preachers. When comedians are effective - it is obvious - people laugh! When we are effective we often do not know it. I don't know how many times I have finished a sermon and thought - "oh well, I tried" - or "maybe I needed to spend more time" and afterward was told that I was "speaking to them." And of course, the compliments we do get are always suspect. "Good sermon, preacher" what does that mean? At this point in my life, although I get a fair amount of feedback from parishioners, I try to listen to my own voice about the whole thing.

The other documentary I saw was "Grizzly Man" about Timothy Treadway who lived for 13 summers with the grizzly bears in Alaska. He saw himself as loving and protecting them and being in a relationship with the bears. Eventually a bear killed him.
It was the story of a man who came to find himself less comfortable living with people and more at home in the wild with his image (delusion) of who the bears were and their relationship with him. It was interesting and I found myself thinking about the ways in which people project feeling and relationship that aren't true. Maybe it is a stretch, but it reminded me of my father and his feeling about his company - as if it were a person that cared for him. Later in his career, the company did not care at all about his well being. It was not a person - it was an institution.

Anyway, just some random thoughts.
Gotta go to a prayer retreat and then.....work on the sermon.