Limiting our preaching to immediate, practical impact and instant, quantifiable results prohibits preaching from being uniquely biblical. PowerPoint Preaching pushes for a selection of timeless general principles—rather than relationship with a complex person who is on the move, moving through time, our time, yet not bound by our time, not bound even to our wise general principles.
[Willimon, William H. (2010). Undone by Easter (Kindle Locations 415-418). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.]
I was taken by Willimon’s reminder that the message of Easter—the message of the gospel—the message of Christian faith—is not something that can be properly reduced to a few salient points that can be memorized, or pulled out of a wallet, or fit on a bumper sticker. The message of Easter is a time-intruding, life-altering relationship with the death-defying one who questions us at every turn and creates a story in which we must live and move and have our being from birth until death, and even beyond.
We have a potted plant at our house that was given to us, in full bloom, when my husband's father died in April of 2004. It died back completely in the Fall and I assigned it to the basement for the Winter. When the weather warmed into Spring again I watered it just in case there was any life remaining. A tiny sprout surfaced and I was reminded that this is the message of Easter, that there is life after death. The full message of the Gospel, though, is that we must die to sin every single day in order to live in the fullness of the life that God destins for us, life in His love and grace--a life that mirrors Him so well that we bring others into His kingdom.
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Have you read or watched Francis Chan's "Crazy Love"? Great topic, book, and goes along with William Willimon. Love that!!!!
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