Preaching Holy Week and Easter
April begins with the challenge of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter. In many ways this is the most challenging time for the preacher in the Christian Year. How does one reflect the importance of these events without being either too personal or too global? How do we understand the events of death and resurrection in a time when people here and around the globe are experiencing loss and difficulty?
This certainly is not a time for triumphalism. Yet neither is it a time for understatement. Easter is at the heart of the Christian understanding of how God intervenes in the world to make new possibilities and to create a new heaven and new earth. Preaching must steer between saying too much and saying not enough.
Palm Sunday
April 5, 2009
Mark 11: 1-11 or John 12: 12-16; Psalm 118:12, 19-29
Either gospel reading focuses on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with the people celebrating his entry. How will the preacher approach the Markan or Johannine stories? What is being announced and how do we share in this event in 2009?
Maundy Thursday
April 10, 2009
Exodus 12, 1-4, (5-10), 11-14; I Corinthians 11: 23-26; John 13: 1-7, 31b-35
Observance of Maundy Thursday is set in the context of the Exodus. John’s Gospel also puts this narrative in the context of the Passover. John’s narrative is the only version to include the foot washing ceremony as central to the Last Supper.
If Jesus is celebrating a new Passover, how can we make clear the call to servanthood and love? How is Maundy Thursday an opportunity to both participate in the Lord’s Supper as well as to experience this call to love on another?
Good Friday
April 11, 2009
Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 10: 16-25; John 18:1-19:42
In many Protestant churches, Good Friday is observed in a three hour service which focuses on the Seven Last Words from the cross. These readings provide a different opportunity to focus on the meaning of Jesus death from a primarily Johannine perspective. John’s long narrative includes all the drama of the disciples, the crowd, the religious authority, and the civil authority.
John deftly presents Jesus’ death as a fulfillment of scripture and provides the longest passion narrative of the four gospels. The dialogue between Pilate and Jesus about power is one possible entry point for the preacher to talk about the function of power in the 21st century. In what ways do the Pilates of our time have no power? What kind of power is the power of death? Is there something about our culture that needs to die for resurrection to come?
Easter Sunday
April 12, 2009
Acts 10: 34-43 or Isaiah 25: 6-9; I Corinthians 15: 1-11 or Acts 10: 34-43; John 20: 1-18 or Mark 16: 1-8
How will you approach Easter this year? The longer John story, as does the shorter Markan story, focuses on the appearance of Jesus to the women. In that context the women would be regarded as less than credible witnesses. Yet Jesus seems to make his message known to the least and the lowly. Does this pattern of presentation give us a clue about where Jesus is appearing in our time? Where do we find in our time and culture this witness of life over death, of joy over sorrow, of hope over despair? Can we witness in our preaching to Easter not only as a primary event in our past but a primary paradigm in our present?
Second Sunday in Easter
April 19, 2009
Acts 4: 32-35; I John 1: 1-2:1; John 20:19-31
Here we have John’s version of Pentecost. Jesus appears to the disciples who were in hiding and breathes on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” With the gift of the Holy Spirit also comes the responsibility/authority to forgive sins (20:23). The receiving of the Spirit and the forgiving of sins is different than the traditional account of Pentecost in Acts.
What function does this giving of the Spirit play in John? Why does it come earlier than in Luke/Acts? What can we learn from this narrative?
Third Sunday in Easter
April 26, 2009
Acts 3: 12-19; I John 3: 1-7; Luke 24: 36b-48
The Gospel drama now turns to the Lukan account with the appearance of Jesus to the disciples. In this version, Jesus shows the disciples his wounds and ate broiled fish. What meaning does eating have in Jesus’ appearance to the disciples? Is this a link to the Last Supper? Is “meal fellowhship” a key to experiencing the appearance of Jesus? How do we extend this Easter message into contemporary experience?
