The Easter Story

 

How do you tell the Easter Story

In a way that is thought-provoking and engaging

To people who have either

Heard the story their whole lives or

Come to church for the first time?

 

How do you tell the Easter Story

In a way that is new and exciting

To people who have either

Stayed true to the story their whole lives or

Wandered away from its impact due to questions and doubts?

 

How do you tell the Easter Story

In a way that is meaningful and real

To people who have either

Known you your entire life or

Seen you for the very first time?

 

These were the questions I was asking myself

As I prepared to preach the Easter Story for the very first time.

My dad was able to go to church yesterday,

To welcome the congregation and to pray,

But he didn’t have the stamina to preach,

So Little Rev. delivered the message instead…

And I was very nervous.

 

Easter is highest of Holy Days in the Christian Tradition.

It’s the pinnacle of our faith and

The very promise of hope, redemption, resurrection, and life.

Easter is one of two Sundays per year that many people come to church.

Easter is a time of joy and celebration, and

Easter is a time of family togetherness and remembering.

 

So how does one prepare an Easter message?

One only needs to

Tell the story:

 

Jesus is not dead.

Christ is not in the tomb.

Jesus Christ is not trapped behind the large, heavy, immovable burden of stone.

And because of this,

Because of the power of resurrection,

Neither are you stuck behind the stone of hopelessness and death.

 

The stone is rolled away!

Christ is risen!
A new beginning is here!

 

Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift.

 

Amen.

Voiceless Coughing

 

It only took one Friday night cough for me to know that

I wasn’t going to have full voice on Sunday morning.

One cough told me that a cold was coming to sit in my chest and take my voice away.

One cough dashed weeks of hopeful planning for singing a powerful duet.

One cough set into motion numerous measures to keep my voice from leaving,

But to not avail.

I woke up yesterday morning unable to sing.

Truth be told,

I could barely talk.

 

To say that I was aggravated is an understatement.

I had been at home all week,

Not around known germs,

Resting,

And I still got sick.

Again.

 

And I got sick on a weekend I was scheduled to preach and sing.

The entire sermon was inspired by a song,

Yet suddenly my voice was stripped away and I was left singingly mute.

I muddled my way through the sermon with fear and trepidation.

The last time I preached, I was afraid of a nosebleed.

This time, I was afraid of a cough.

Last time, the nosebleed waited.

This time, the cough did not.

I coughed quite a few times,

My nose ran,

Tears rolled down my face from watery eyes,

And I was left standing there trying to deliver the message that was burning in my heart

But that I couldn’t get out of my mouth with voice inflection or style

Because I was on the verge of coughing with every word.

 

Thankfully, my friend Jes stepped in and sang a beautiful solo.

As she sang:

“You can pour your soul out singing,

A song you believe in,

That tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang,

Sing it anyway,”

I fought back tears,

Thinking,
“You can pour your heart out speaking

A sermon you believe in,

But the message will get lost in

Every cough,

Preach it anyway.”

 

Preach it anyway, with whatever voice you have.

Sing it anyway, even if the singing is in your head.

Show up anyway, fully aggravated or completely pleasant.

Love anyway, because you must.

Even when it seems your best is not good enough.

God still is…

Anyway.

 

Amen.

 

---

 

An excerpt from my sermon:

 

But, Deanna, we aren’t Jesus. 

And it’s hard to love

When someone speaks ill of us or someone we love,

When someone mocks all that we hold dear, 

When someone gives us the cold shoulder and refuses to work alongside us, 

When someone is flat out mean and seeks to destroy forward progress,

It’s hard to remember that they, too, are God’s child.

 

Yes. 

 

It is. 

 

But God created all humankind in God’s own image and 

Called humankind, 

At its core,

Good. 

 

And so Jesus challenges:

 

Love your enemies (because they are human.) 

do good to those who hate you (because they are human).

bless those who curse you (because they are human). 

pray for those who mistreat you (because they are human). 

 

You don’t have to like them. 

You don’t have to accept their bad behavior. 

You don’t have to remain silent in the face of injustice  

And you don’t have to endure abuse.

 

But Jesus challenges you to love.

To wish upon all people God’s higher good—

However that wish manifests itself in your life.

 

(pause)

 

Love them anyway. 

Nosebleeds

 

My nose has been bleeding a lot lately. 

The weather changes and the dry air have combined to make daily nosebleeds a reality. 

It’s okay. 

It doesn’t freak me out. 

I’m a lifelong nose bleeder. 

My mom and my sister are too. 

When it starts, 

I just get tissue, apply pressure to the nose, and wait for it to stop. 

No big deal. 

Unless you’re leading worship and all eyes are on you. 

Then it might be a big deal. 

 

Such was my fear this past Sunday morning. 

I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle it if my nose started bleeding in the middle of the service. 

And to make matters worse,

I knew that my sermon was going to be evaluated by my peers in my preaching class

So I was even more worried that something would go wrong.

 

Thankfully, my fears did not come true

During the service. 

But you know what happened on my way home? 

Yep. 

My nose bled. 

 

I think what worried me the most was knowing that I was being filmed.

A nosebleed at home is not filmed.

A nosebleed in my classroom is not filmed.

A nosebleed in my car is not filmed.

But a nosebleed in the middle of a service that is live-streamed every week is filmed.

It is broadcast for the world to see from now until who knows when.

People were watching live. 

People will watch again on a delay. 

To see a regular service is one thing. 

To see a nosebleed is another. 

It freaks some people out! 

And I didn’t want to be the person who freaked people out. 

I didn’t want to be the person known for creating an awkward pause of worry in worship. 

 

Like I said, 

My fears didn’t come true during Sunday’s service 

And I am grateful. 

But my worry put me in touch with my pride. 

Yes, my pride was mixed with humility and the genuine desire not to disrupt worship. 

But my pride made me concerned about how I’d look

And I didn’t want to look stupid. 

Especially on film,

Especially when being critiqued. 

 

I know. 

This is normal. 

And I’m not beating myself. 

I’m just confessing my humanity in a way that I hope will connect with yours. 

 

Because, friends, we are all human. 

We all have fears. 

We all have hopes. 

We all want to be liked and appreciated. 

We all want to look like we have it together. 

We all struggle with pride and 

Many of us have nosebleeds that we don’t want filmed for the world to see. 

 

Yes, we are all human. 

So let’s treat each other as such. 

Especially now when it is so easy to hate. 

Especially now when not only the weather is cold 

But also attitudes and hearts. 

 

Amen. 

Anyway

 

“for the measure you give will be the measure you get back”

 

Monday was MLK, Jr. Day.

 

Because I teach about him each year,

I know a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr.

And while I know that he was not a perfect man,

I consider King to be a modern-day prophet.

And like many prophets of old,

King suffered.

He endured multiple death threats,

Jail time, and

Beatings,

For his work that centered on Jesus’s belief that

There is neither Jew nor Gentile,

neither slave nor free,

nor is there male and female,

for we are all one in Him.

 

As best as he could,

MLK did not judge.

He did not condemn.

He forgave.

And he gave.

Yet he was judged.

He was condemned.

Some people could not forgive him for his message of equality.

Some people did not care how much he gave.

And in the end,

His life was taken much too young.

 

The measure he gave was not the measure he got back…

So why bother?

 

Why bother to do good?

Why bother not to judge?

Why bother not to be selfish?

Why bother not to say horrendous things about our enemies?

Why bother to give to the poor and needy?

Why bother forgive?

Why not hold grudges and get even?

Why not amass wealth for ourselves?

Why not slander our neighbor?

Why not mock those who differ from us?

Why not be manipulative and wicked?

Clearly, those things get you far in this world.

 

Why take the hard road when there is a much easier path to follow?

 

Why?

 

Because it’s the right thing to do.

 

The Love of God

Is a redeeming love that is open to all

through the cross and resurrection of

Jesus Christ.

 

THAT is why MLK, Jr. did the work he did.

 

And THAT is why

Those of us who follow in the way of Love

Do the work we do as well.

 

But it is so very, very hard sometimes.

 

Especially when the measure we give

Is not the measure we get back.

 

…

 

Yet we do it anyway.

 

We do it

because we must.

Funeral Questioning

 

I went to a funeral last Saturday.

The service was lovely—

A true tribute to an amazing woman—

And the friend whom I went to see spoke beautifully as she honored her mom.

Something happened at the funeral that I didn’t expect to happen, though—

And it wasn’t just a brass quintet 😊—

The minister delivered a message that moved me and made me think.

 

Let me see if I can summarize the message:

 

Sometimes life is hard.

And sometimes life isn’t fair.

Why my friend’s parents both had to suffer like they suffered is something we will never understand.  

Her father had Alzheimer’s.

Her mother had a debilitating stroke.

My friend, age 44, has been a caregiver for 20 years.

Sometimes, as my friend said, life sucks.

And sometimes life isn’t wrapped up with a nicely packaged bow like some brands of Christianity preach.

Life is a mystery.

Life is full of questions.

And Jesus himself was the master of questions.

Jesus was asked something like 300 questions in the New Testament.

He directly answered very few of them.

Jesus responded instead with a parable or question.

He asked something like 180 questions in the gospels,

And his parables often didn’t make much sense.

But what we know that makes sense is this:

Jesus, himself, grieved when his friend Lazarus died.

Jesus, himself, told the thief on the cross that he would be with him, that day, in paradise.

(Paul later explains a different version of when the dead will rise).

And Jesus, himself, said, “The greatest commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

So if we are followers of Jesus,

Then we,

In the midst all the other junk—

The questions, the doubts, the heartaches, the fears—

Should be a people who

Question,

Grieve,

Love, and

Believe.

 

That’s who my friend’s mom was.

That’s who my friend is.

May it be who we are, too.

Amen.

Ministry-Sized Hole

 If you’ve known me for awhile,

Then you know that I am an ordained Baptist minister

Who once thought herself called to full-time vocational ministry.

 

I have two graduate degrees:

A Master of Divinity in Christian Education and a Master of School Administration.

If I were to get another degree, I would most likely pursue a Doctorate of Ministry,

But unfortunately, I haven’t found a program compatible with my life as a public-school music teacher because

I’m technically not “in the ministry,” and

My schedule is not set up for day-time school.

 

Yet there is a constant yearning—

A ministry-sized hole that longs to be filled.

I often wonder what I’m doing with my life,

Spending my days with snotty-nosed kids who don’t know how to tie their shoes or

Stinky kids who haven’t yet figured out that they need deodorant.

I often hear echoes of voices telling me that I’m “wasting my gifts” and that

I could be “doing so much more.”

 

…

 

I didn’t want to go to church yesterday.

Sometimes, when church is over 30 minutes away,

One just doesn’t feel like making the drive.

But I did.

And the Holy Spirit completely, totally, 100% unexpectedly showed up and poured certainty into my ministry-sized hole.

 

Pastor Ann’s sermon was not about vocational call.

She spoke about that a few weeks ago.

I was moved by the notion that all vocations are called to share the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

But even then, the ministry-sized hole gaped open.

 

Then yesterday, while preaching a sermon about “The Good Life,”

Pastor Ann briefly mentioned something about ministering to children.

Tears formed in my eyes.

I quickly pulled myself together, though, because the statement was passing and not the focus of her sermon.

A few minutes later, in total context of what she was preaching, Pastor Ann asked how we would feel if Jesus looked at us, like he did Peter, and said, “Get behind me Satan.”

Tears swelled in my eyes as my gut reacted to the statement and

I knew that I never wanted to hear Jesus say those words to me.

Then, as Pastor Ann was ending her sermon, she once again mentioned something about children,

And at that point I couldn’t contain the tears.

They rolled down my face.

I was hearing the words I never wanted to hear yet they were revolutionizing my life:

Get behind me voices telling me that I’m wasting my life.

Get behind me voices telling me I could be doing so much more.

Get behind me Satan.

 

I, Deanna Deaton, am called to be a public-school music teacher for such a time as this.

And there is nothing more important that I could be doing.

 

God has a way of moving when we least expect it.

God has a way of planting us exactly where we need to be.

God has a way of commanding evil to get behind the cross.

And God has a way of speaking fullness into the gaping holes of our hearts...

 

Amen.