I preached one of my worst sermons on Easter Sunday seven years ago. On paper, it looked like a masterpiece. It preached like a wounded duck. Here’s what happened.
Ever noticed how many people in the gospels run in response to the news of the resurrection? You’ve got people running to the tomb, from the tomb, etc. Well, I had the brilliant idea of preaching about how the resurrection gives us the energy to run. I unpacked a number of scenarios in which we’re running to Jesus, away from sin, with each other, etc. Honestly I’ve tried to forget as much about it as possible.
To enhance the sermon, I had a buddy of mine (are you out there Kyle Schei?) take footage from the movie Run Lola Run and loop it on a screen so that throughout the service we could watch Lola, um, run. Then I’d get up and preach about running.
It didn’t work. The sermon itself was half-baked and contrived. The added visual only made it worse. People left the service wondering if I really understood the gospel and I went home and started looking through the classifieds for a new career.
I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. Easter Sunday is not the time to get cute or gimmicky with your preaching. If you want to try something cute or gimmicky in a sermon, save it for Daylight Satan (Savings) Sunday. That way if you come up with a good idea, it will wake everyone up and if you flop no one will be conscious enough to notice or remember it.
Easter doesn’t need our gimmicks. It doesn’t need our creative help. Easter stands on its own. It doesn’t need us to pump excitement into it. Easter generates its own energy. Simply tell the story and let the gospel do its thing. Since that failure, I’ve tried to preach Easter sermons that are simple, to the point, and don’t obscure the view of the empty tomb or get in the way of what the risen Jesus might be up to that day.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Aww man. You have to try to do a recreation sometime.
Great reflection, Wade. With Easter morning two days away and one really crappy sermon in the can, these were encouraging words.
Had you donned a green jacket and done trivia with a great door prize and sound effects, it would have worked.
Sometimes, bouncing the yellow ball leads you astray.
Great words today, Wade.
I think you should have ran around the auditorium in spandex. That would have been very attractional.
I hate being forced to deliver the “best” sermon of the year on Easter/X-Mass. It’s like Valentine’s day, if you do good for your significant other w/ flowers and a good date, then that’s expected. If you screw up and call her the wrong name or decide to take out to watch UFC instead of some Matthew Mcconaughey movie, then its real bad. Whereas if you get flowers any other day of the year you are a champ.
Great story!
You are right on–the essence of Easter preaches.
So, what will the sermon look like tomorrow?
Kyle Schei, present and accounted for.
Oh, it was going to be beautiful. The connection to a recent indi film was so hip and relevant… how could we go wrong? The great expectation turned to great pain when the whole thing flopped.
I do remember the blank “who-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-here” look that was on their faces… I think it was the same look we received as the only two (tall) white men in a Vancouver China Town theater watching the release of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’.
That viewing of Crouching Tiger was one of my all-time favorite movie experiences. It was also one of the most threatening. . .
This reminds me of something Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste.”
I think if I were a pastor preaching on easter Sunday, where 50% or better hadn’t been in attendance since christmas or last easter, I’d be tempted to turn it in a history lesson on the origins of easter- a pagan holiday in no way related to Christ at all. Okay- I admit that it would be terrible, but I never claimed to be a GOOD preacher! “Just put your ten percent in the plate and we’ll see you again in December.”