Super Sunday

Put yourself in their shoes. It’s the most important Sunday of the year. You will stand before an audience swelled far beyond normal size. And everyone is waiting to hear what you have to say. If you were a minister or priest, wouldn’t you want to hit a home run with your Easter sermon today?

“Yes, I do feel extra pressure,” said the Rev. Dick Avery, pastor at Shadle Park Presbyterian Church.

His goal is to provide an engaging message that will encourage believers and also bring insight and hope to those who do not yet believe and to those whose faith has ebbed.

It’s a challenge, he admitted.

The Rev. Matt King agreed. “I do feel that pressure,” said the senior pastor at Valley Real Life. “Whether church shopping or simply going for the occasion, everyone that chooses to go to church on Easter is taking a step toward God in their own way.”

He wants them to be glad that they did.

“This might be your only Sunday to reach so many of those relatives and children you see but once a year,” said the Rev. James Murphy, pastor at Bonners Ferry United Methodist Church.

He summarized the daunting assignment: “Make it new. Make it funny. Make it now.”

One problem. “Easter isn’t new.”

But the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to everything Christians believe.

And so Murphy hopes churchgoers walk away from the service echoing the sentiments of an old joke:

Two old gals are heading home after church on Easter Sunday.

The first woman is sour. “He told that same sermon last year,” she complains.

But the second is bright and happy. “Yes, I know,” she replies. “It’s getting better every time I hear it.”

Clerics typically eschew any suggestion that they are salesmen. But at a time when many graying denominations are in decline and national surveys show church allegiance is fluid, pastors know Easter and Christmas are special opportunities to connect with those who seldom attend services.

You know, live prospects. Potential members.

“It’s a chance we get to reach some folks that we might not normally see,” said the Rev. Bill Kafflen at Life Center Foursquare Church in Spokane.

The Rev. Doug Scherschel acknowledged that once he might have attempted to “wow” those in the pews on these special days.

“There is still the urge and the tendency to want to be just a little better on those occasions when visitors are going to be there,” said the pastor at Spokane’s St. Matthew Lutheran Church. “However, when I don’t work so hard to impress people with what a great preacher I am, and just proclaim the simple truths of Christ’s resurrection or birth or whatever the occasion happens to be, I take a lot of pressure off myself and I actually think I do a better job.”

At churches that celebrate liturgical services, there is sometimes less emphasis on the homily. Moreover, there can be a lot for church leaders to do during Holy Week besides camping out with the computer and composing the great American sermon.

“By the time I get to the sermons, they just preach themselves,” said the Rev. Elaine Breckenridge, rector at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Spokane.

But what if that doesn’t happen?

The Rev. Lillian Daniel spelled out a temptation some clerics might experience as they contemplate all those unfamiliar faces today.

“So the Easter sermon is your shot to heal all their religious wounds, convince them that organized religion is not as bad as it sounds, and get them back next Sunday, all without speaking so long that you hold them up for Easter lunch,” said the Illinois pastor (Congregational – UCC) and author who has taught preaching at Yale Divinity School and Chicago Theological Seminary. “It’s an absurd goal.”

Better to keep in mind that the sermon is just one part of the Easter experience, she said.

She might approve of the Rev. Carl Martin’s approach. “I don’t try to hit a home run,” said the pastor at Audubon Park United Methodist Church. “I just try to get the bat on the ball. Fortunately, the almighty is serving up scriptural ‘fat ones’ every Easter that even the pastoral equivalent of a utility infielder can hit.”

The Rev. Neal Buckaloo at Trinity Lutheran Church in Coeur d’Alene also latched on to the baseball analogy. “There are times in this preaching task that I would be content to bunt the message home from third base,” he said. “All the better if it is the winning run!”

To be sure, there are pastors who dispute that there is an imperative to hit one out of the park on Easter.

“I feel no more pressure on Resurrection Sunday than on any other Sunday,” said the Rev. Ron Lowery, pastor at South Hill Bible Church. “Preaching is for the glory of God, by his power and not to entertain others.”

“I do not feel any added pressure for an Easter service,” said the Rev. Mike Erickson, pastor at Driscoll Baptist Church in Spokane. “I put in a great deal of time in sermon preparation each week and so my desire is to do right by every sermon I preach.”

Fair enough.

The Rev. Graham Standish, a Presbyterian pastor and author in Pennsylvania, suggested it’s not quite the struggle some would have you believe. “In many ways I find that the sermon I preach on Easter is the least pressure-filled of the year because the story of Easter sort of speaks for itself,” he said.

But when asked if she felt under the gun to come up with something great for Easter, the Rev. Clare Austen at Unity Church of Truth in Spokane had a ready answer. “Of course,” she said. “I think all ministers probably consider it a Sunday with greater than normal possibilities for reaching new people.”

In her case, there’s an additional concern. “My greatest challenge is finding a meaningful Easter message for a congregation in which many do not believe in the bodily death and resurrection, and some don’t even want me to talk about Jesus.”

Even in congregations that welcome the classic Easter message, though, the pulpit can be in a special spotlight today.

The Rev. John Sowers, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Spokane, has considered this opportunity/challenge.

“We Christians can and do claim that the only son of God was here with us and is here for us,” he said. “To proclaim that in a sermon is to try to define the profound and the mysterious, the sacred and the ultimate. That is a holy privilege and huge responsibility and I pray fervently and carefully that the Holy Spirit will take my words and make them greater than I can in my humanness.”