Wow, the Church has had to be resourceful in the past couple of years!
When the pandemic began two years ago, in just a matter of weeks, worship was literally re-envisioned—as people saw worship through a computer screen.
In short order clergy and lay leaders had to rely on their collective imaginations and technical knowledge to cobble together Holy Week and Easter services online.
We also had to rely on our resources to reconfigure pastoral care, service, and online community.
It’s left many of us frazzled and exhausted.
I feel it too.
That’s why this quotation I ran across by Tom Smail caught me up short:
“Before Jesus had died for him, Peter, relying on his own resources, can only deny him, but after Jesus has died and risen, Peter can follow him along the same route to his own death and resurrection.”
How much have I tried to rely on my own resources instead of the abundance of resources Christ provides?
How has the isolation that we experienced in the last two years gas-lighted us to the truth that we are—even when alone in our homes—still one Body, still a commune of believers knit together by the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, with an overabundance of collective resources?
Relying on our own resources is what causes the exhaustion because we are, by ourselves, limited resources.
But together, with the overflowing abundance of the Spirit, we can re-imagine and re-create as many times as it takes to serve the world with all its changes and unforeseen surprises.
That’s why I love gathering quotations for preachers’ reflections and preaching.
So many of them call me up short, take my breath away, and offer new insights.
This collection of quotes for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday does just that, opening my imagination and heart to help me grow as a follower of Jesus and as a preacher, in addition to providing loads of ideas for sermons that touch our listeners.
I hope these do the same for you.