PULPITMAN.COM "My whole intent in living here is to make God smile." (Gianna Jessen)
Replacing the Yoke Nahum 1:11-13
Delivered to Smith Chapel UMC on April 22, 2011 (Good Friday)
What I Didn't Say
Good Friday--I'm not sure why, but I have always found Good Friday to be the easiest day to preach. The hardest days for me to preach seem to be Christmas and Easter. I can't really explain those phenomena, but that's the way it seems to fall for me.
If I could take an educated guess, I suppose it would be that Good Friday is so dramatic and stark. It provides it's own tension and it can be viewed from so many angles. One might argue that Christmas and Easter do the same. And I have to say it would be hard to refute that argument. I guess the main difference would be the apparent negativity of the Passion. Maybe I do better with negative messages than I do with positive ones.
Who knows?
Correction--On the Sunday following this message (Easter Sunday), just prior to Sunday School, one of my parishioners came to me to inform me that the Roman scourge was not called a cat-o-nine tails as I said in this sermon. It was a flagellum that had three leather strands, not nine. I checked it out, and it seems he's right.
