I wasn’t feeling too Eastery this week, so I didn’t get a sermon written until this morning. That happens as a pastor. Sometimes, you’re just not feeling the spirit move. Congregations assume that writing a sermon is easy because, let’s face it, writing one sermon is easy. I hope everyone who hears or reads this is aware that I can write an incredible sermon, and, if you’re only reading it, they are much better when I deliver them.

If you hear or read my sermons regularly, you’ll know that not all sermons are extraordinary. Sometimes, they’re just plain ordinary and with the pressure of Easter Sunday, ordinary just won’t do, people want extraordinary. The pastor wants something extraordinary. Pastors have this dream that if you show up on Easter Sunday and they deliver the best sermon people have ever heard, they will start coming back every Sunday.

My message to you this Sunday, pastors, is to stop dreaming that pipe dream. It’s just not true and it’s too much pressure on yourself. Stop thinking the sermon is about you and remember that a good sermon comes from God. I’m going to argue on this Easter Sunday that it comes from God, not the Spirit, as some claim it to be.

As a pastor, you are responsible for bringing the Word of God to the people in a way that they can understand AND apply it to their daily lives. Yes, the Spirit takes a role in this and moves you, but it is not the Spirit’s words you are commanded to speak; that comes from within you. It is God who is supposed to speak through you in the pulpit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.

Jesus Christ redeems you. Stands on your behalf before God at the pearly gates and attests, “They’re with me,” grant them entrance. The Spirit sanctifies, cleanses, purifies, and guides. But like any tour guide, you are not forced to follow their guidance; you may decide to take it as a mere suggestion and go your own way. God, the Creator, however, made you and will be the judge of you. Without the Redeemer and the Sanctifier, you would be found unworthy.

What inspired me this morning to write this message was not the liturgy, which I already knew without even having bothered to read it this week. Don’t ask. It’s been an awkward week for no particular reason at all. Sometimes we’re just not feeling churchy, no matter who we are. Our obstinacy as human beings can get in the way of our relationship with God, no matter who we are. As I am writing this, I don’t even know which resurrection passage the liturgy is using. What inspired me this morning was an Easter Sunday prayer that I did not write

O God, still creating,
we hear your promises of a new day of joy and peace, 
and we are skeptical.
We expect things to go on the same as they always have, 
from bad to worse.
The past will keep us guilty, 
the future will make us afraid,
and the present will burden us 
with too little time and too much to do.

Forgive our lack of faith, 
our quickness to believe that you do not hear us,
and our pessimism about tomorrow.
Do a new thing in our hearts,
and let us be glad and rejoice in your abundant care;
through Christ, we pray. Amen.[1]

It dawned on me one of the many reasons our prayers may feel as if they are not being heard. As a member of a congregation, when was the last time you prayed like this? When was the last time, you prayed this type of prayer for yourself?

Every Sunday, this style of prayer is heard. A prayer your pastor, or some other church leader, has written for you to pray responsively or is praying on your behalf. But the words, are not yours.

As individuals, we generally pray for the healing of others. We pray that others lives are changed. We pray for someone to be healed. We pray for someone to change their wicked ways. We pray for someone to leave a bad relationship. We pray for someone to get a better job. We pray for someone to open their heart to hearing us, seeing us, or yield to us. We pray for God to “fix” everyone else so that the world will be as we want it to be.

What we fail to do is pray to God that it is us who change. We fail to pray that it is our hearts and minds be opened to hearing and adjusting to others. We fail to pray that it us who leaps into actions and volunteers for a church function. We fail to pray that it is us God sends into the world to make disciples of Christ.

We are too busy praying for more time, more money, more health, more joy, more for others to change. The only time we pray these things about ourselves, that we be the one called to fix things is when the words are put into our mouths or prayed on our behalf by someone else. We pray prayers of confession generally, rote, and mechanically instead of using the words of our own heart. The words might be coming out of our mouth, but they are not coming out of our spirit.

We are quick to ask these things of others but slow to ask them of ourselves. To ask them of ourselves would require that we take the initiative and respond to them. We would be asking God to do something God will not do: Make us change.

God has granted human beings, from their creation, autonomy of choice. We chose to disobey in the Garden of Eden. We chose to want that which was not ours to have rather than live blissfully in all that we did have. We chose sin over eternal life.

The Spirit then joined us to try to guide us into making good decisions. Yet still, we chose not to follow. After all, how could a world filled with people just loving, sharing, and caring for one another work when there are so many imaginary “others” out there wishing to do us harm? When that didn’t work, God gave us the Redeemer, his own Son, God incarnate, to repent for us, vouch for us, and physically demonstrate that living a life of love could work. We continue to this day to choose not to follow and instead pray that others change, not ourselves.

We pray communally as if everyone is on the same page. We’re not. If we were, leaders wouldn’t be writing these for the people, hoping that maybe just one of them will take it into themselves and the words will become flesh through them. We pray these words every week and every week, congregations pray that someone (other than them) will answer this call.

To change is a choice. To follow God is a choice. What is not generally realized is that these choices are the same. You cannot follow God without changing. You cannot believe without changing. You cannot let the Spirit move you without changing. It is the changes others see in you that inspires them to change.

I get the most responses out of sermons that have no depth, that require change. People love sermons that talk about how much Jesus loves them just the way they are. They love to hear that they are accepted as they are. What they don’t want to hear is that this recognition and acceptance is a beginning, not an end.

Jesus lived life on this earth, a hard life, to demonstrate to us that redemption on this earth is possible. It is possible to live a good and godly, holy life that runs contrary to society’s expectations. It will bring you ridicule, hatred, and possibly death, but it’s possible. People will love you, turn on you, then love you again, possibly turn on you again, and then they may or may not come to love you again. And, that’s okay.

God’s love is relentless and unconditional. Human love is fickle, but trying to be more god-like. But both… are choices. Isn’t it great to have a God that CHOOSES to love us?

Your pastor chooses to love and serve you; they don’t have to. I find that pastors generally fall into two categories. The first category is that they need to be reminded that they are human and not gods. While they may be Spirit-led or moved, the words that pass through their lips are easily tainted by the ego of their humanity. The second category is that they need to be reminded that their job is to speak the Word of God to the people. Interestingly, both of these categories require getting their own ego (or lack thereof) out of the way.

This sermon is Spirit-led. The Spirit moved me in a direction, and I ran with it. It is not the Word of God. It has only been on rare occasions that I have been able to let God speak through me. I believe that’s because it is a three-part process, not a one-step leap.

You must first accept redemption for all that you have done wrong in your life. Only in this acceptance can Jesus Christ redeem you. You cannot be redeemed for that which you have not accepted as flawed. You cannot repent for that which you do not acknowledge. Once this is done (it doesn’t last long for oh how quickly human thoughts creep in), the Spirit can sanctify you, if you allow it. And then God can speak through you if you allow it.  To allow God to speak through you, you have to let go of that message YOU wanted to deliver. I’m not letting go of that message today.

Each step is a conscious choice. Each step has its consequences. Each step gives you less and less control.

When God speaks, change happens. Things will not remain the same. Creation occurs. Peace happens.

Creator. Redeemer. Sanctifier. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God.

To love is to love all parts, not just the ones you want to follow. Not just when it’s easy. Not just when you get what you want. To pray is to speak with your soul that you be the one who is changed, not the world. We cannot change the world but we can inspire. Only God is powerful enough to force the world to change and yet God chooses not to. Why do you think that is? More importantly, what makes you think that you possess that power and should use it?

This Easter, I pray you choose to pray that you might change. I failed to finish this sermon on Easter Sunday. I ran out of time. I had a service to attend, a dinner to prepare, a life to live. I choose to finish it now as I still feel it is important. These words are mine. They come from my spirit. They are not frivolous or shallow. They are not condemning. They are to bring hope.

You can choose salvation. You can choose redemption. You can choose to let the creator shape you, change you, control you, and set you free. The choice is, as it has always been, yours.

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[1] Written by Dr. Tom Cheatham at https://theconnection08.wordpress.com/. Re-posted on the re: Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/11/prayer-of-confession-isaiah-65-17-25.html.