Say What?

On this day in 1905, G. K. Chesterton preached his first lay sermon at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, in London. His wife said it was the happiest day of her life. Around the Year with C. S. Lewis and His Friends, Compiled by Kathryn Lindskoog

I got to hear the very first public sermon that my preacher husband, Bruce Wooley, ever gave. We had just married and moved to Harrison, AR where I had a gig playing Mammy Yokum at Dogpatch U.S.A., a now defunct theme park, for the summer of 1971. Members of the church we attended learned that Bruce had graduated from Harding with a Bible degree and one of them called him on a Saturday night to fill in for a preacher at a small country church the next morning. They did not know that Bruce had never preached a public sermon or that when he had graduated in January of 1970 he was a militant, professing atheist. He had a “road to Damascus” type conversion experience and returned to Christ in April of 1971; we were married in May, and this was three weeks later.
The inside of the church, which has since become a wedding chapel, was unusual for a Church of Christ in that the pulpit was off-center, set back and raised above the congregation. The attendees were mostly elderly and female and there was no sound system. I sat in the audience cupping my hand over my ear to signal Bruce that he needed to speak up. I don’t think he looked at me once, and I’m not sure he actually saw anyone.
In the car on the way back to our little trailer he asked, “What do you think I should preach on at the evening service?”
I said, “Just preach the same sermon only louder.” (I didn't major in speech for nothing.)

Acts 9: 3-6
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”