Good News to Share!

Easter morning will be the 31^st consecutive Easter Sunday that I have had the joy of sharing the glorious news of the resurrection with my church family.  It is also be the most unusual Easter!

Ten years ago, I wrote an article for The Dispatch the day before Easter.  I thought you might enjoy seeing it again—I think it speaks in some ways to our present situation.

Easter 2010

Good news, oh, the chariot's coming
Good news, the chariot's coming,
Yeah, I don't want to be behind. (Spiritual)

Dear sisters and brothers, this is one happy preacher writing this column. Why? Because good news is coming soon! It's coming in the morning! Easter Sunday morning!

Tomorrow morning, I will stand before the faithful, and a few who haven't been so faithful, and announce: "I have good news to share!" The economy is awful, unemployment is soaring, health insurance is unaffordable, but I have good news to share. In spite of sickness, tragedy, natural disasters and suffering, I have good news to share. The world is full of evil and hatred, wars continue to escalate, terrorism lurks in the shadows, but I have good news to share. The good news will reverberate from coast to coast, nation to nation, ocean to ocean, and continent to continent. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I've always been excited about Easter. One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting with my daddy on Easter Sunday on a folding chair on the front porch of the sanctuary because there was no more room inside. I vividly remember the bright Easter sun, the singing birds, the budding trees, and the blooming flowers announcing the good, glad, glorious news of the resurrection much more powerfully and creatively than our pastor ever could; bless his dear heart.  He was droning away on the inside with a tedious sermon.

Tomorrow morning, I will have the great privilege of preaching the good news of Easter joy for the 21st consecutive year here in Lexington. Mercy, time flies when you're having fun.

I wasn't having much fun some 34 years ago (44 years ago now) in my first church when I learned that I would not be preaching on Easter Sunday. Dear Miss Louise, bless her dear heart, who had been the music director at our church since the Reformation, informed me that Easter Sunday was reserved for the annual Easter cantata—yes it was. 

In the spirit of the Reformation I started to protest, but she, in the spirit of the Inquisition, told me that all of those people who came to church on Easter didn't want to be bored with a silly sermon. No sir-ree! It was an Easter cantata they wanted and an Easter cantata they would get.

I cried that Easter Sunday. People thought I was moved by the cantata, but I was crying because I thought I would have to move in order to preach an Easter sermon. But the good Lord must have heard my cries because a couple of years later he moved dear Miss Louise. Bless her dear heart, he sent the chariot for her.  I guessed they needed someone to direct the Easter Cantata in Glory. (I wonder how Peter and Paul took the news that they couldn’t preach on Easter anymore?)  But with no one left to direct an Easter Cantata at my church, I knew I would get to preach my first Easter sermon!  Good news was coming at last!

For my first Easter sermon I went out and bought a stunning, three-piece polyester light blue suit with matching patent leather blue shoes that shined so much you could see yourself in the reflection. I worked up a mighty fine Easter sermon and generously applied the Old Spice to drown out the Easter lilies and some hair tonic to doctor up my hair. (The light blue suit, the blue shoes, the sermon, and my hair have all disappeared, but I think I still have the Old Spice.)

I was so excited I barely slept Saturday night.  The next morning, Easter Sunday, I stood in the pulpit looking a lot like an Easter egg and smelling like a barber shop, but I was just as happy as I could be. I couldn't tell you a thing I said.  All I know is that I had good news to share!

As people sniffed the air and looked quizzically at my bright blue outfit, they told me it was a good sermon. After locking all the doors to the church, I walked out into the brilliant Easter sun, heard the birds singing, saw the trees budding and the flowers blooming and I realized that all creation was announcing the good, glad, glorious news of the resurrection much more powerfully and creatively than I ever could, bless my dear heart!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! That's good news to share!