Rev. Sean McIntyre, Centralia United Methodist Church
You may think that preparing a sermon for Easter Sunday would be the easiest thing in the world. “It’s the same thing every year! The sermon should basically just write itself.” Well, the truth is that it doesn’t. And pastors are left with the difficulty of writing and preaching on a 
story that (nearly) everyone in the world has heard at some point or another, a story we return to on an annual basis and a story that is rather theologically deep. At the same time, we have to somehow make it accessible, relateable, unique and applicable. Go get ‘em preacher.
So, as I began to prepare my sermon, I texted a pastor mentor of mine, “Time to write the Easter sermon. Here goes nothing.” And she succinctly yet sufficiently replies, “Here goes everything.” Those three words were the springboard of inspiration for me in my preparation. This day that we celebrate in the spring of every year is a day that changed EVERYTHING. Jesus, God incarnate, died. Make no mistake, Jesus was dead. Lifeless. It seemed that hope was lost. The man who was believed to be the savior of the world laid deceased in a tomb in a garden. But early in the morning, he came back to life.
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard.
