Sermons (Page 122)
Easter Sunday
It was a Sunday afternoon in May. 8-year-old Sergio walked down a street in his hometown in Chile. As he walked with the cobblestone below his feet and the sun beating on his face, he began to feel a little off-balance. Within seconds he fell to the ground. From the ground, he saw chimneys falling through roofs and electrical wires swinging from telephone poles. For the next ten minutes, this earthquake rattled his hometown, which geographically moved 30 feet westward. As the town moved, a large tsunami wave started flowing across the Pacific Ocean headed toward Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippians. When that rattling finally stopped, it was named the largest recorded earthquake in history…
Easter Vigil
This is the night. This is my favorite night. Oh, what a night! It’s my favorite night mainly because it both clarifies & muddies resurrection. Oh, what a night, that I will remember.
Now, in contemporary Christianity, I think we’ve taken the resurrection and limited it far too much. You see, in our continuous repetition of a figure of speech sometimes we turn a metaphor into a definition. For example, since the church seldom calls God “rock,” the language is recognized as metaphor, but because the church often calls God “father,” some people imagine God to be literally a father in the sky…
Good Friday
For three years, Jesus spent his ministry challenging authority. He spent time with the outcast and the marginalized – ate with them, healed them, walked with them, loved them. He faced those who were in power – criticized corruption, subverted oppressive structures, advocated for religious reforms, and challenged the Roman Empire itself. He inspired many and threatened many. His was a message of love and a vision of justice for all people. But this message threatened those in power so much that they decided to execute him. They took this man of hope and killed him as an enemy of the state and threat to the peace of Rome. On this night we remember how God came to us bringing love and justice for all people and it was so offensive to this world that we literally wanted to kill God With Us by nailing Jesus to a cross. It’s enough to leave us feeling hopeless – feeble – alone…