EASTER Making the message count: Clergy prepare holiday sermons

The clergy find new ways to bring the Easter message to life for churchgoers.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR RELIGION EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Here's the challenge: Preach an exciting message on the real meaning of Christianity on its most holy day.
The catch is that the congregation will consist of believers celebrating Easter as the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead to save mankind, the faithful who may need encouragement and those who are making their once- or twice-a-year trip to church.
The Rev. John Horner, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, says his theme is salvation but to make the message vital, "I have to change it every Easter."
Jesus' return from the grave demonstrates the scriptural promise that all things will be made new, said the pastor.
Easter, to believers, demonstrates that "new life is here," said the pastor who moved to Youngstown six months ago and discovered the spirit of despair and hopeless that seems entrenched in this area.
Suffering: "In Youngstown, there is the drama of so many things being raised from the dead. ... The Valley has been through so much suffering and pain," said the Rev. Mr. Horner.
The message of Easter gives people the option to choose, "Hope over despair, law over crime, and life over death," Mr. Horner added.
Those decisions go beyond the individual.
"If everything is to be made new, it has to do with community," said Mr. Horner. "It concerns the [people] and a New Testament, not just a private deal in making things new."
Added the pastor: "The news is faith and hope and love, and it's stronger than anything if people believe it."
Or if people see it, or at least seek it.
Adventure: Locally, the Salvation Army has been using an eight-week Spiritual Adventure leading up to Easter, said Stella McGuire, who along with her husband, Doug, are captains in the Salvation Army in charge of the Glenwood Avenue facility.
The adventure, "tries to help us [realize] the unseen Christ can be seen," said Mrs. McGuire.
Participants keep journals and each week try a different exercise. One week they are asked to visualize Christ as if he was standing right beside them, and on another, they are asked to worship Christ as if he was present at that moment.
The program has been used before at the Salvation Army with very good results.
McGuire and her husband alternate giving the message on Easter. She said she makes sure she gives a complete description of Christianity.
"When you have visitors for the holiday, you really want to make sure you bring it all in," she said.
The Rev. Brittany Barber, pastor of First Christian Church of Youngstown, said Easter reminded her of comedian Ben Stiller calling Yom Kippur "the Super Bowl" of religion.
Easter, she said, "is the Super Bowl of our religion."
The Rev. Ms. Barber said she had not yet decided the approach she would take in her message, but she noted it does not pay to lay guilt on the occasional church-goer who appears on the holy day.
The pastor said people in the hustle and bustle of life find that cars or homes and other trappings of modern life aren't truly fulfilling and ultimately ponder the question, "Why am I here?"
The Christian message answers questions about our relationship with God and other people, she said. Easter means being in a relationship with, and worshipping God, and being in relationships with families and other people so our lives will have meaning.
"God gave you life and gave you life abundantly on Easter morning," the pastor said.