Take Them To The Cross. On Easter.

On Wednesday our beloved Shilohparson posted this on his blog,
“I was working on my Easter Sunday sermon today. You know what? When you’ve been preaching Easter sermons for as long as I have it sometimes seems like there is no new way to go about it!”

While many Fight’n Fundies will bristle at such a comment, I very much appreciate his candor. I take him to mean that he is striving mightily to communicate the resurrection story in a vibrant and relevant way. I am not the least bit concerned that he might have gone over to the side of those who strive mightily to give it a new meaning.

Still the issue is a good one. We have all heard the Easter messages in search of a point or the homilies that devolve into a celebration of the rite of spring. I have left my church lots of Easter afternoons frustrated and angry. In fact, I myself, have had to be restrained from throwing my Bible at many a clueless minister and from yelling at the top of my lungs, “Hey! If you can't do any better than that, just read the text and sit down! We can figure it out!”
(I am trying to shorten this down to make it more impactful—as if my three-pound Promise Keeper’s Full Reference Study Bible bouncing off his forehead weren’t impactful enough. So I’m now thinking I will yell, “Hey Bonehead! Let the donkey speak!”)

In a more constructive vein, my standard advice for all pastors trying to make their well-worn Easter sermons fresh is, “Preach Christ and Him crucified.” That's right! Preach on the crucifixion! Shake 'em up!

In the passion calendar we go from the Triumphal Entry straight to the Resurrection. Yes I know all about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I’m talking about Sunday to Sunday. First we hear a happy talk titled, “Hosanna! Ride on King Jesus!” and then we hear another titled, “Glory! He Is Risen!” with no gut wrenching, guilt-inducing, blood splattering, face to face encounter with Calvary—and ourselves. What is up with that?

Well for starters it lets everyone off the hook. The timid, insipid clergy types can feel good about their presentation of the gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale and the pew-sitters can likewise go to their Easter dinner feeling good about themselves and their standing with God.
Also it presents the church and its pastor in a favorable light. Maybe they will return before the next Easter and maybe, just maybe, glory to God, they will become giving units!

But we can’t do anything about the calendar. And so here is my next piece of advice, like unto the first: What those one-time-a-year-attenders need is a good dose of the cross. The cross is offensive so don’t miss the opportunity to offend as many as you can. Make them look into God’s mirror. Jesus died in the most brutal and horrific way and they/we all participated. Ask them why he had to suffer and die in such a ghastly way and then tell them how God views their brutal and ghastly sins. Tell them about the utter despair of his followers and the ruin of their hopes. Tell them about the complete victory of evil and of the triumph of envy, deceit, intrigue, hate and murder. Tell them about the death of compassion and justice. Tell them about the darkness at midday and the earthquake and the unearthly rending of the veil. Tell them about an old man on a lonely, wind-swept mountain with a knife poised at throat of his only son.

Now tell them about the resurrection! Now tell them about a new life raised up from what was hopelessly and irretrievably dead. You have taken them to hell now lift them up to unimaginable joy! Let them experience it. They will get it. I dare say most of them will get it.

Happy Easter.
Christ is risen!