Category: Preaching Notes
Lost Paragraph for Easter Sunday
Like Christmas, I work hard to not preach too long on Easter Sunday. It is the liturgy that is important, the sharing of communion, and prayer. Here is a paragraph that didn’t make it into the Easter sermon in its entirety. Parts show up in another form.
The gospel that confronts this disciple’s Easter confession comes from the film, Chocolat. The priest, Pere Henri, after a stressful week with the mayor and members of the community, steps to the pulpit on Easter Sunday and delivers these words:
I’m not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be.
Do I want to speak of the miracle…
of our Lord’s divine transformation?
Not really, no.
I don’t want to talk about His divinity.
I’d rather talk about His humanity.
I mean, you know, how he lived his life here on Earth.
His kindness.
His tolerance.
Listen, here’s what I think.
I think we can’t go around…
measuring our goodness by what we don’t do.
By what we deny ourselves…
what we resist and who we exclude.
I think we’ve got to measure goodness…
by what we embrace…
what we create… and who we include.
Authentic Friday
I think of this day as authentic rather than Good or God Friday. Given what I know of Jesus of Nazareth he could not escape to the country side. That would have damaged, easily discounted the prophetic critique of culture and religion in his time. It is authentic because when I think of others that have preached “good news” of the kingdom of God: release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, equity for the poor, love your neighbor as yourself they too were smeared, killed, or cast aside. Authentic Friday reminds me to seek wisdom.
Lyrics for Authentic Friday, from “Come Sophia” by Miriam Therese Winter
“Come Sophia, we believe you are the Shaman of the soul. Break us open to receive you, fill us up and make us whole. You inspire us to envision all the fullness of shalom, on a new path through tradition that will surely lead us home.”