Newsletter #64
On Easter Preaching
I hope everyone, especially those tasked with leading worship yesterday, will ensure they take the time they need to linger over the many encouraging truths associated with Easter. They are not only to be shared publicly but savored personally.
Sunday’s Coming!
People in certain professions labor under rigid timetables and deadlines. The exact kinds differ from occupation to occupation, but they create a sort of rhythm and structure to one’s week, month, and year. In the arena of local church ministry, I can think of no better example than the Sunday sermon.
It doesn’t matter what happened between Monday and Saturday; Sunday is coming. Two funerals? A wedding? A visitation? Marriage counseling? Board meeting? The day off you’re promised weekly? Check whatever boxes you may, but Sunday is coming. Aside from loving and leading his family well among the congregation, preaching is the most public and, in my view, consequential thing a pastor will do. The discerning members notice if you aren’t prepared.
For these reasons and more, I prefer to begin some sermon preparation on Mondays. It’s rather simple. I usually print out the text from www.biblegateway.com, leaving space in the bottom, top, and side margins for copious notes. I then keep the page with me throughout the first few days of the week, reading, rereading, making notes, and meditating over the passage before I start to type anything or read any study materials.
Nevertheless, my study efforts are always susceptible to being thwarted. This past week was such an occasion. Regrettably, it was Easter week.
Stuck!
Last week was hard. I was staving off some kind of illness on Monday. We had some equipment installed for most of the day on Tuesday, followed by an evening meeting. My pregnant wife was quite sick on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. That same morning I learned that we had a significant equipment failure in the night. (A monitor fell off a wall in the sanctuary.) I also had a dental emergency of sorts to tend to. By Wednesday night, I realized my main work computer had gone berserk on me, and I spent much of Thursday trying to repair it. Did I mention that a renovation project needed to be completed, and I needed to make a decision on one aspect of it?
As each hour ticked by, I kept thinking, “Sunday is coming.” Moreover, Easter was coming.
I needed some Divine intervention not only because of the difficulties above, but others as well. I had two or three awkward-to-difficult conversations with members about various issues. These types of things always weigh heavily on me. But they impacted me more than normal because they were happening in the context of a wild week. I had a mixture of frustration, impatience, disappointment, uncertainty, and anger brewing inside me. Needless to say, such emotions aren't conducive for preaching (or living the Christian life more generally)!
I don’t know whether the “sermon prep block” I was experiencing resulted directly from these aforementioned happenings, or whether they were an understandable corollary. But every longtime preacher or teacher has experienced their own version of writer’s block.
Those committed to expositional preaching, as well as book-by-book preaching (notice I didn’t equate those two), are much less vulnerable to this kind of paralysis in the study. The text sets the agenda. And the texts have been arranged canonically under the inspiration of the Spirit. However, those feeling the need to address a specific occasion (e.g., Easter) apart from the guidance of a lectionary or a preexisting book study open themselves up some uncertainty. Where will I go? What shall I preach? What dimension of the resurrection would God have me unfold this year?
So Many Options
I want to linger on this last question for a bit. One of the truths about the resurrection (and Easter more generally) that all Christians would do well to acknowledge is that it’s not just one thing. That it to say, the resurrection elicits a constellation of tightly-related themes, not just one text, image, or concept.
Perhaps I can illustrate this claim by taking a step back to Palm Sunday. This year I decided to preach two messages that were distinct, yet connected. The week before Easter I preached a sermon entitled, “Why Jesus Died (And Why it Matters).” While the biblical authors never divorce the full significance of Christ’s death from his resurrection, it is surely the case that some passages focus on the crucifixion without explicit reference to the resurrection. I had such passages in mind as I prepared this message.
The key, however, was appreciating the way the Bible presented the reason for (or cause of) Christ’s crucifixion. It isn’t just one thing. It’s multi-factorial. While I haven’t read John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, I think the title probably says it all. If one scours the pages of Scripture, he’ll find numerous ways that biblical authors speak of Christ coming to die. Admittedly, fifty seems all-too convenient a number! It might be better categorize the reasons under perhaps six or eight headings, then call attention to specific motifs that best fit each category. However, the point remains that Jesus’ death is so rich and glorious an event, it may not be reduced to just one thing.
For those interested, I focused on three reasons Jesus died: (1) He died because sinners killed him; (2) He died because God loves us; and (3) He died because he willingly gave his life. Acts 2:22-23 is especially relevant in this message, though I utilized other verses.
One reason why preaching Easter sermons each year can challenge preachers is because the resurrection, like the crucifixion, invokes many texts, images, and themes.
Why did Jesus rise? The Father raised him (Acts 2:24a).
Why did Jesus rise? Death couldn’t hold him (Acts 2:24b).
Why did Jesus rise? For our justification (Rom. 4:24-25).
Why did Jesus rise? To keep promises and fulfill prophecy (Mk. 8:31; Acts 2:31).
Why did Jesus rise? To complete his defeat of Satan, freeing us from bondage to the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15).
Why did Jesus rise? To be vindicated by the Spirit (1 Tim. 3:16).
Why did Jesus rise? To complete his teaching ministry (Acts 1:2-3).
Why did Jesus rise? To provide a public testimony (1 Cor. 15:3-8).
Why did Jesus rise? To make our resurrection possible (1 Cor. 15:20).
Why did Jesus rise? To give us living hope for today and tomorrow (1 Pt. 1:3-4).
Undoubtedly, more examples could be summoned. These were just the ones I gave most attention to in my study last week. If you’re wondering, I ended up focusing on the last in that list. It came to me very late in the week. I suppose God put it on my mind because I had preached this passage two or three times before. More importantly, amid a week filled with setbacks—and a season of life in this region and nation filled with so many tragic deaths and sorrows—we need hope now more than ever.
I suppose it’s inevitable that preachers will always ask the crucial question, “What should I preach this Sunday?” I do think there are things we can do to avoid having to struggle with it so fiercely. The best two pieces of advice I can commend are (1) maintain a vibrant devotional life, and (2) commit yourself to systematic, expositional preaching of the Bible as your primary approach. I can think of nothing more helpful than these practices.
Still, I suspect that preaching on Easter and Christmas will continue to pose challenges for some brothers, especially the longer they serve the same congregation. I’ll offer one claim about both of these holidays, and a word of encouragement.
Claim: The incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are too glorious of truths to be reduced to three or four texts or sermons. They are diamonds with facets too numerous for you to ever exhaust.
Encouragement: Therefore, whether you preach Ezekiel 37, John 20, or 1 Corinthians 15 next Easter, if you preach them clearly, sincerely, and passionately, I’m sure it’ll be just fine!
Follow-Up:
A theme which has run through a few of my newsletters is the need for civility, appreciating the complexities of things we might be tempted to oversimplify, and even the possibility of being wrong about something. On a related front, I was reminded this week of a great article professor Roger Nicole wrote years ago entitled, “How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us.”
Currently Reading:
Catch-up week
Quote of the Week:
Conservatism has fractured into many stories, each vying tremendously with each other. All these ideas are being embraced or repudiated, and there is much passion about it all. It makes sense that this is so. Things do seem to have fallen apart, the center does seem wobbly, and some older conservative institutions and policies are non-responsive to current needs. This is natural: when many, especially many of the young, feel the status quo is failing, a variety of new theories and positions will emerge, each attempting to reframe the story, capture imaginations, and win arguments and votes. This is to be expected, even welcomed. Fences need to be painted from time to time so they don’t rot; conservatives shouldn’t refuse to paint out of some strange nostalgia for the status quo. Conservatives are not ideologues, but inclined to cautious empiricism in politics, embracing what is sensible, workable, moral and decent, but without demanding perfection or stasis. If what we’ve been doing and thinking no longer responds, the genuine conservative does something better. The creation of a decent society never stops, and didn’t stop in 1776, 1989 or 2014.
R.J. Snell, “How Should Conservatives Respond to Revolution?”