{"id":255,"date":"2014-04-16T06:24:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T06:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/?p=255"},"modified":"2014-07-21T12:13:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T12:13:29","slug":"from-brian-mclaren-at-eastera-prayer-for-pastors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/?p=255","title":{"rendered":"From Brian McLaren at Easter&ndash;A Prayer for Pastors"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><a title=\"http:\/\/brianmclaren.net\/archives\/blog\/a-prayer-for-pastors-on-easter.html\" href=\"http:\/\/brianmclaren.net\/archives\/blog\/a-prayer-for-pastors-on-easter.html\">http:\/\/brianmclaren.net\/archives\/blog\/a-prayer-for-pastors-on-easter.html<\/a><\/h5>\n<h5>A prayer for pastors on Easter<\/h5>\n<p>Dear Lord, I pray for all the pastors today<br \/>\nWho will feel enormous pressure to have their sermon<br \/>\nMatch the greatness of the subject<br \/>\nand will surely feel they have failed.<br \/>\n(I pray even more for those who think they have succeeded.)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Help them to know that it is enough<br \/>\nSimply and faithfully to tell the story<br \/>\nOf women in dawn hush &#8230;<br \/>\nOf men running half-believing &#8230;<br \/>\nOf rolled stones and folded grave-clothes &#8230;<br \/>\nOf a supposed gardener saying the name of a crying woman &#8230;<br \/>\nOf sad walkers encountering a stranger on the road home &#8230;<br \/>\nOf an empty tomb and overflowing hearts.<\/p>\n<p>Give them the wisdom to know that sincere humility and awe<br \/>\nSurpass all homiletic flourish<br \/>\nOn this day of mysterious hope beyond all words.<\/p>\n<p>Make them less conscious of their responsibility to preach,<br \/>\nAnd more confident of the Risen Christ<br \/>\nWho presence trumps all efforts to proclaim it.<\/p>\n<p>Considering all the Easter choirs who will sing beautifully, and those who won&#8217;t,<br \/>\nAnd all the Easter prayers that will soar in faith, and those that will stumble and flounder,<br \/>\nAnd all the Easter attendance numbers and offering numbers that will exceed expectations<br \/>\nAnd those that will disappoint &#8230;<br \/>\nI pray they all will be surpassed by the simple joy<br \/>\nOf women and men standing in the presence of women and men,<br \/>\nDaring to proclaim and echo the good news:<br \/>\nRisen indeed! Alleluia!<\/p>\n<p>For death is not the last word.<br \/>\nViolence is not the last word.<br \/>\nHate is not the last word.<br \/>\nMoney is not the last word.<br \/>\nIntimidation is not the last word.<br \/>\nPolitical power is not the last word.<br \/>\nCondemnation is not the last word.<br \/>\nBetrayal and failure are not the last word.<br \/>\nNo: each of them are left like rags in a tomb,<br \/>\nAnd from that tomb,<br \/>\nArises Christ,<br \/>\nAlive.<\/p>\n<p>Help the preachers feel it,<br \/>\nAnd if they don&#8217;t feel it, help them<br \/>\nPreach it anyway, allowing themselves<br \/>\nTo be the receivers as well as the bearers of the Easter<br \/>\nNews.<br \/>\nAlleluia!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/brianmclaren.net\/archives\/blog\/a-prayer-for-pastors-on-easter.html A prayer for pastors on Easter Dear Lord, I pray for all the pastors today Who will feel enormous pressure to have their sermon Match the greatness of the subject and will surely feel they have failed. (I pray &#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/?p=255\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}