"We come because we know we are not alone – and need never be alone. Our baptism is our membership in the communion of saints, past, present and yet to come. We come because we are an Easter people in a world which is stuck in Good Friday."
This paragraph struck me as symptomatic of the issue here. What appears to be a sensible and orthodox thought gets pinned to the ground with a commercial tag-line. I know what it's like to have a nifty literary construction occur to you, one like "Easter people" vs "stuck in Good Friday", but this kind of startling comment needs to be framed and then explored. It is telling enough (were it true) that the congregation should have at least a few minutes to contemplate it. This sermon does not provide that, but steamrolls right on. I can imagine a few raised eyebrows as she moved to her final points, not at the content (I suspect that this congregation really does congratulate itself on being joyous no matter the time of year), but rather at the trivial use of what might well be a foundational concept for these people. She just tosses it off, which to me tends to reduce it to an auto commercial jingle.
But the overall sense I get from this is a desire to toss everything she has into this one pot and stir mightily. As others have said, it's mostly not unorthodox (it isn't robustly orthodox, either), but it also doesn't quite hang together. That's an important characteristic for sermons. We are taught to focus on one element of our text and clearly meditate and expound on it. This focus should permit side comments only to the extent that they clearly and meaningfully illuminate the central idea being pursued in the sermon.
Finally, I think the worst aspect of this is that it has no firm theological boundaries but allows language that has no defining sense to describe concepts that really need rigorous defense. For instance, the idea of giving out seedbags has many orthodox uses. She mentions one (planting hope). But then she opens the door we're so used to seeing them insist upon: let's make this a Multicultural Garden.
I say, let's not. Let's make it an Easter garden or the Hope of Easter garden or the Resurrection garden. Any of these would be stricter in sense and reinforce the connection between the church giving out seeds to children and the church giving out hope and faith to the congregation.
Deacon Paul+
I really enjoyed your analysis of her sermon. Thanks for posting your thoughts.
The loosely-defined vocabulary of many Christian leaders allows those outside the body to think they are part of the body. It gives them false comfort instead of challenging them to yield themselves to Christ.
Non-confrontational Christianity is not Christianity at all.