When I graduated from Barton College I had no real plan other than I knew I would be starting seminary in the fall at Lexington Theological Seminary and that I needed to find a congregation to serve as a student pastor. I was not particularly excited about preaching. The idea of standing in front of a group of people proclaiming a message of hope from scriptures that opened more questions than answers honestly terrified me. Yet, my regional minister put my name out there on the pulpit supply list and the wait began.

On a Thursday morning while working my coffee shop job, my phone rang. “Hello there Miss Jessica,” the caller said, “I know it is last minute, but we here at Mill Creek Christian Church were wondering if you might be able to preach this Sunday?” You would have thought it was a call telling me I won the MegaMillions. An excitement I did not expect rushed over me as I very quickly worked to get my shift for Sunday covered before exclaiming a resounding yes!

I spent the rest of the week crafting a sermon about leaning not on our own understanding, but instead listening to the call of God in our lives. I was just certain that this message would resound for this church that was in transition, and who knows: maybe it would encourage them to call me as their interim while I was in seminary! I had not started school yet, so the sermon was crafted from online commentaries I happened to stumble upon and what I thought were powerful statements.

Sunday finally came, and I arrived at church two hours before the service, as one of my mentors had instructed me to do. The jitters were flowing. I led the parts of service I was asked to without a problem and was feeling pretty confident when it came time to preach. I stood up and I read my sermon out loud, and before I knew it, it was over. Not in a good way, where the relief of finally having done it gives you pride, but in the way that you realize it only took about three minutes to read everything I had written. I awkwardly laughed, and said out loud as my very short sermon ended, “Well, that’s all I got.”

Mill Creek called me as their interim and then, after a year, as their Senior Minister and I served them for four beautiful years. From that three-minute sermon I have grown and now preach standard length sermons that weave in the intricacies of exegesis alongside application. Yet, I still can’t help but think sometimes, when asked to preach the same week as a law that takes away women’s rights, or the same week as a school shooting, or the same week as innocent humanitarian workers are killed on the Gaza Strip and there don’t seem to be any right words to say; I can’t help but think, that’s all I got. All I got is a little bit of hope, a little bit of love, a little bit of the light of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the brokenness of the world.

Sometimes a sermon only needs to be three minutes long, sometimes a sermon needs to be thirty minutes long, but all we’ve got is the love and light of God, and by golly, that’s enough!

Published in the May 2024 issue of For the Messengers

Rev. Jessica Braxton is one of the pastors of Saguaro Christian Church in Tucson, AZ. Ensuring young adult voices are heard is a passion of hers as she serves on the Young Adult Commission and General Board. In her free time she can be found having adventures and with her two pups, Hank and Shasta.