NO. 40

For the past thirty-nine years I have had a place to preach on Easter Sunday. When I retired, I figured that "preaching streak' would end. No preacher I know invites someone to preach for them on Easter Sunday. To do so might be cause for the Bishop to question the preacher's call to preach. However, life has strange twists and turns and once again I find myself with the opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday. When asked back in February to fill in for a couple of months, one of the first thoughts I had was that it would give me one more Easter Sunday to preach. Tomorrow at Rocky Ford United Methodist I will be preaching Easter sermon No. 40.

Over the years I have done a number of things with the preaching on Easter. There were times when I really failed to preach the message. One thing learned over the years is that trying to be cute with some catchy thought on Easter is pointless. People do not come to Easter morning worship because they need to be entertained. Entertainment is everywhere we turn in our world. What brings them to Easter morning worship is the message of the resurrection and to focus on any other theme is to waste the preaching opportunity and their time as well.

So, tomorrow I have one more time to preach that marvellous life changing message that Jesus has been raised from the dead and that He desires for us to share that same victory when this life of ours on this earth comes to an end. This is the message people come to hear. It is the only message worth preaching on a day which C.S. Lewis said, "causes the foundations of hell to tremble." May it be so where we all are on this Easter Sunday, 2011.