Fatih Crisis - Just in Time...

So much to do, so little time. Seems to be a theme with me - I feel like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland except most days my life isn't in Wonderland...

Easter's coming - I'll have a Good Friday sermon to get ready and Two Easter Sunday messages - though I've been working on the Breakthrough message for a while.

I have a little trouble with the Easter sermon - not sure why. I guess there really isn't anything "new" to discover in it. How do I present the story of the Resurrection that is engaging and fresh? What's so very sad about my problem is that this is the focal point of our faith, isn't it? I think it's just that I'm too close to it - too familiar, too much a part of who I am. I guess it's like talking about my marriage - I don't know that I can talk about it in ways that are "new and fresh and engaging" to other people - I'm too tied into it... Maybe that's a bad example... What I'm afraid of is that maybe I'm too DIS-connected from the reality of the resurrection to really talk about it. I mean, I can talk a pretty good game. Even if I haven't had an experience, I could probably bluff my way through a conversation about something... What if I'm doing that all along with my faith? What if there really isn't any depth here? Why do I have so much trouble with that one event that is as the core of my faith? I believe it - not just in my head, the resurrection is an anchor for me in my faith - the assurance that even when some part of me dies, there is hope for something new. Yes, I'm not just talking about the whole "get into heaven free" thing that the resurrection points to - I DO want to spend eternity with my Savior - and I know that I will (which is crucial, I realize) - but I also know that the resurrection points to the whole of faith. The death of the old me is resurrected into the new me (2 Corinthinans 5:17). I have experienced resurrection power in all kinds of other ways, too... I'm having trouble articulating all of this... Words, the very stuff of my job, my calling, my life, fail me right now...

So, that's my faith crisis right now... Perfect timing...

Comments

Michael Airgood said…
I am sure your Easter message will be great. But, if you are still stuck - take an Easter message you preached years ago - and do what it was about. I have heard a lot of Easter sermons that were mainly stories. One was of a pastor who brought in a lamb and then proceeded to almost cut it's head off. It was a great story - but it would have been an active learning moment if I had seen it. Maybe if you take a sermon you preached years ago with a story that you can act out and build from there.

If that doesn't work - start on your Christmas message and wait to get burned out on Christmas and start on Easter again.
9:09 PM
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