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!
posted by Yakimaniac at 11:01 PM
8 Comments:
Preach it brother!
So, if Hillary doesn't become the next leader of the free world...and your funding goes down the toilet...you are wonderfully ready for your next career behind the pulpit.
And, may many "giving units" walk into your house of worship both willingly and unashamed.
You would be welcome behind the Shiloh Community Church music stand (serving as a pulpit) any time! Well said!
I am making notes for next year's Resurrection Day sermon.
Seriously, you are so right. If we (preachers) would quit concerning ourselves with trying to impress and entertain and simply preach what is written I suspect we would experience some real spiritual growth in our churches.
My preaching mentor, Charles H. Spurgeon, (died 1881, which made him an easy mentor to work under) taught me something very important. The cross should be preached somehow every week, not just during Holy Week! After all, the cross is the message of redemption, not series of sermons on self help!
Thanks again!
Oh yeah, one more thing,
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Amen!
A perfect sacrifice, his death was sufficient. But the crown of thorns, the beating, the nails, the cross - I think all of that was to inspire gut-wrenching gratitude. Why else come during the brutal Roman rule when today he could have received a "humane" lethal injection?
Just want to add. As much as I agree, my kids objected to the "movie version" shown in our church this AM. My son thought his imagination should be enough, and I agree. It certainly has been enough for followers for hundreds of years. Personally, I was distracted by the skinny, pale, blue-eyed Jesus, and my daughter couldn't get over the perfect part he had, as her's is never so straight. She also added, the scenes were too much for her, and being eight she wasn't ready to know what adults know. (This is one of my main teaching points, as I steer her away from information from adult world on a daily basis...I'm glad she is listening.)
We are right to know the graphic horror of Christ's death and its certain finality, because that does make the resurrection all the more amazing. Kids will get the big picture in due time. If you cancel Sunday School, and have a family service, be mindful of that!
He is risen indeed. BTW, Hi ya'll. Eileen
Hmm. Good thought Oggie. It had not occurred to me that lethal injection might be a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:5, (had he come today).
I remember studying somewhere that Christ came "in the fullness of time" because of 1)Pax Romana, 2)Roman Law, 3)Roman roads, 4)universal Greek language, and 5)a general disillusionment with paganism.
Beyond that I wonder about crucifixion itself. If we believe in equivalence between our sin and the kind of suffering and death it would take to atone that sin then the cross would seem to be the perfect vehicle for such an exchange. It is said that brutality achieved its zenith with this methodology. The point was not so much death but prolonging the agony as long as possible. Apparently the Romans developed it into an art form.
Also, it was public. Today the executioner does his work out of the public eye, apart from a few witnesses. Both Paul and Peter stress the importance of Jesus being "lifted up" as a "presentation" and a "demonstration" on a tree.
I have no doubt that it was pretty important for first-century people to see - and for us to visualize - this graphic illustration of sin. Yes it makes us squeamish. We recoil in horror. We avoid it. We insulate our selves against it.
I know I do.
It makes me see the enormity of my own sin.
Hi Eileen! It’s good to hear from you!
You are right to remind me about the children. I don't know what “movie version” you are referring to but I agree that a multi-media depiction of the crucifixion is not for kids.
This kind of presentation is not even for all adults. I admit not going to Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. The trailers I saw struck me as gratuitous – a kind of Brave Heart in Palestine. I’m not saying that no one should see it but that, for me, it is unnecessary. My mind can go there without the visual. I read the book.
In considering the mode of execution for the Lamb of God...
That which has become so politically incorrect over the last 50 years or so, is the preaching of the blood sacrifice. Not only has it disappeared from so many pulpits but it has been surgically removed from hymnody as well. The Old Testament makes a point of saying that the life is in the blood. An argument can be made that Abel's sacrifice was accepted because of the presence of blood. Food laws included the prohibition of eating blood. Blood was essential to the rites of tabernacle and temple worship.
The Messianic fulfillment of the OT prophecies of course required blood to be shed. Thus, the "Lamb of God" references from The Baptist and others. I'm trying to think of modes of execution where there was the extensive shedding of blood without the breaking of bones.
At the same time, most crucifixions in Roman times did not depend on the shedding of blood for death. It was usually a death by exposure or asphixiation due to exhaustion. Most crucifixions did not include nails or spikes because the victims were tied onto the cross. Thus, Pilate was amazed that Jesus was already dead. The victims were meant to linger.
With all of this information, we should be even more amazed at the uniqueness of Jesus' crucifixion and the fulfillment of prophecy.
Eileen! Great to hear from you again!
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