The Reading: 1 Peter 1: 8-12
Although you have never seen Christ, you love Christ; and without seeing, you still believe, and you rejoice with the inexpressible joy touched with glory, because you are achieving faith’s goal—your salvation. This is the salvation the prophets were looking for and searching for so carefully; their prophecies were about the grace which has come to you. The Spirit of Christ which was in them foretold the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would come after those sufferings. They tried to find out at what time and in what circumstances all this was to happen. However, it was revealed to them that the news they brought—regarding all the things that have now been announced to you by those who proclaimed the Good News, through the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven—was for you and not for themselves. Even the angels long to catch a glimpse of such things.
THE GOSPEL: John 20: 19-30
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were locked in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Temple authorities. Jesus came and stood among then and said, “Peace be with you.” Having said, the Savior showed them the marks of crucifixion. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw Jesus; who said to them again, “Peace be with you. As Abba God sent me, so I’m sending you.” After saying this, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
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Great and glorious God, grant us the wisdom to listen to you speak in all the ways you are present in our lives and give us the willingness to follow the leading of your Holy Spirit. May the words I speak today and our thoughts today and throughout the days to come bring you honor and glory. Amen
I want each of you, as you are comfortable, to turn to your neighbor and say, “I am the Good News”. How did that feel? I don’t know about you, but the first time I tried to verbalize that sentence I was not comfortable at all. But we are, all of us, the Good News. As the people of God, we are habitations for the Christ who lived, died and experienced resurrection. Our brief Gospel story is the story of the evening of Easter when the disciples, still unsure of what the women had seen, gathered together in a locked room. They were heart-broken and afraid and they were feeling like anything but Good News.
In walks Jesus and says, “Peace be with you”. He showed them the scars of the crucifixion and they rejoiced. And he said again, “Peace be with you”. And then, he commissioned them just as he had been commissioned by God—he breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit.” And so they did. And by receiving the Holy Spirit, they became the Good News to all the world. What if, and I want you to think this through carefully, what if we, like the disciples before us, became the Good News in our world, small and large. What if we, at the very least, grew more comfortable saying, “I am the Good News”? I have very few rules about how I “do” ministry, but one of them, which I will not break, is that I will not ask you to do anything that I will not do myself. And so, here goes.
I am the Good News. I am the Good News because, as a child, no one was at all certain that I would actually live to adulthood. The diagnoses were many and no one thought until many years later to wonder if the verbal and physical abuse of my father might not have contributed to why I seemed to fail to thrive. I am the Good News because I, like many of you, was one of those teenagers that came very close to giving in to the powers of darkness that seemed to close in and leave me without hope in a world where I could not seem to fit in at all. I remember the day, not the date, of course, but the day when I felt God say to my repeated question of “what is wrong with me?” ”There is nothing wrong with you, my child. Walk with me a while longer and you will see all that I have in store for you”. I am the Good News because when I could have continued to shield my heart by negativity and fear, God stepped in and called me to a more authentic, hopeful life and said, “Walk a little while longer and see all that I have in store for you.” I am the Good News because when the church I loved rejected me, the God who loved me still, said again, “Walk a little while longer and see all that I have in store for you”. I am the Good News because of all of you, who love me and pray for me, and carry me when I am tired or need a break. And I am the Good News because God is not finished with me yet, and says, “Walk a little while longer and see all that I have in store for you.”
Your story may differ from mine completely, but if you are here today, you are the Good News. In ways similar, and in ways radically different, we come together into a faith community and say, “we are the Good News”. Is that not what God, through the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ calls us to? And, in boldly stepping up and saying, “we are the Good News” in a world that needs the Good News like our grass needs the rain, we make a powerful statement indeed.
We are here to transform the world, our world, our little world and the world far from here. If you read your newsletter week before last, you will know that we are starting a new sermon series called Living the Gospel: Being the Good News. To use a phrase that I probably haven’t used for a while, but it’s a good one, nevertheless, God has laid upon my heart a calling to challenge all of us with what it means to be the Good News in the world.
Sometimes God gives us confirmation of our callings and mine happened on the Friday before we left for vacation. I went to a one-day conference on church planting. Now, this was definitely not a conference endorsed by MCC, but we thought that I might be able to gain some ideas for our new international team. The presenter, a fairly well-known church planter was, shall I say, conservative. He truly believes that the only reason one plants a church or begins a new ministry is to save a new group of people—more than likely folks that might just look a whole lot like you and me—from hell. Now, depending on your belief about hell, this may or may not make sense to you. What got me fired up was his complete inability to see that God calls us to start new churches to bring more people to understand and receive God’s unconditional love, thereby, saving them, if you will, from the hell of living outside the realm of God’s loving arms in this life. Regardless of what you believe about salvation and the afterlife, and nothing that we believe about living in God’s unconditional love in the present makes it impossible to believe in salvation as it relates to life after death, I believe that a full understanding of the love and ministry of Jesus will not allow us to ignore the transformational power of God’s radical acceptance here and now.
And so, we like those to whom Peter is writing in our epistle today are called to minister in the name of Jesus, whom we have never seen, but still love and believe in. So, we, too, are blessed with inexpressible joy touched with glory because, as we live the Gospel and are the Good News to others, we are living out faith’s goal and experiencing God’s saving grace as we share it with others. This joy is birthed by the very same joy that the disciples experienced when, on Easter evening, when all that they had hoped in had turned to sorrow and pain, Jesus appeared, and granted them peace.
How do we begin to live this life of peace? We cannot underestimate the importance of Jesus’ gift of peace to the disciples and to us. When we are praying for folks who have experienced bad times or are nearing their death, or grieving a loved one who has died—we pray that God will send those people peace. And as we live the Gospel and become the Good News we will be bearers of peace—peace that comes from the undeniable knowledge that God loves us and wants us as children of God.
And so, before we can be the Good News we must receive it ourselves. I always learn my greatest theological truths from you—in conversation and discussion, through your emails and questions. One day, week before last, I was having a conversation with Marti. We were talking about some of the folks who may have been turned off to MCC because they believe us to fail in the evangelism arena. She told me of someone who had questioned why we do not give altar calls at Open Circle. For those of you who have no experience with such a thing, let me explain that altar calls are very powerful parts of most mainline traditionally evangelistic services. At the end of the service, after the sermon, the preacher asks for those who have decided to follow Jesus to come forward. Now, this is not a part of the MCC tradition, though there is nothing wrong with altar calls at all as long as they call to grace and freedom and not guilt and shame. Anyway, I started to give this explanation to Marti who was already way ahead of me. She said, “so I told him that you do give an altar call every Sunday, every time you invite us to come forward and receive holy communion—you don’t tell us what we are supposed to feel or do, but you invite us each week to receive the Good News into our hearts”. Thank you, Marti, for opening my eyes to a beautiful way to look at, not only the tradition of the altar call, but also our celebration of communion.
So, this week, when we come to share communion, I invite you to think about how you want to go about being the Good News. What do you need from each other, or from me, your pastor? What, even, do you need from God? And, so together, we receive and together we share. We are the Good News. Amen and amen.
Welcome!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Reading: Acts 10:34-43
34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts those from every nation who fear God and do what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
THE GOSPEL: John 20:1-18
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman,[a] why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to God. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Holy Parent and your Holy Parent, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
God, Your presence is beauty to our spirits and we live in gratitude that through the grace of Jesus Christ, You have made our very lives beautiful. As we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, may my words and our thoughts be pleasing unto You. In the name of the one who calls us to the resurrected life, Amen.
Happy Easter! I am a little disappointed in the small number of Easter bonnets here this morning. I guess the rumors of an Easter Parade after the service were highly exaggerated. Perhaps next year.
Our readings and music have led us to this time and place where we think upon the meaning of Easter for us here, today. Easter may have different meanings, different priorities at different times in our lives; but today, what seems to be most compelling in the resurrection story is the connection of beauty and bravery.
Perhaps you think that the bravery took place before the resurrection day—that bravery was manifested only in the hours leading up to the crucifixion of Christ; and, you would be right that we must not underestimate the bravery of Jesus as he faced the cruel and excruciating painful death on the cross. Or the bravery of Joseph of Arimathea when he approached Pilot and sought the release of Jesus’ body so that he could be buried properly. Or the bravery of all those disciples and women who stayed with Jesus until he died. We must not even forget the bravery of the women when early on that day, they made their way to the tomb.
Yet, there is more. We must not lose the bravery of the Resurrection Day itself—the bravery of all the Resurrection Days in our lives. If we stop our celebrations at “He Is Risen”! then we have cheated ourselves and each other out of the fullness of the Easter story. I drive past lawns, and see the “He is risen” sign in the yard, and have to restrain myself from going up to the door, knocking and saying, “And…” Think about it.
Jesus, who had all the power in heaven and on earth, could have chosen to end his career and his earthly life with a “goodbye” tour or clouds and lightning and all the makings of an epic movie. Instead, he chose to die, a death that was far from beautiful—hear the words of the prophet Isaiah—“You had no stately form or majesty to make us look at you, there was no beauty to attract us. You were rejected and despised by all; you know suffering intimately and you are acquainted with sickness. When we saw you, we turned our faces away; we despised you and did not value you. [And yet] …upon you lies a chastening that brings us wholeness, and through your wounds we are healed.” Easter Sunday morning rises out of the deep grief of the two days preceding it. Beauty dies to bravery in the willingness to die on a cross between two thieves. It is from the rubble of beauty and bravery, that we enter our Resurrection Day. And on this very Resurrection Day, we are called to discover in ourselves and in each other the unique beauty of the risen Christ in each of us—and bravely to grow spiritually, showing the glory of God as we live boldly in this beauty.
Nicole Nordeman, a young, contemporary Christian rock singer has a song that speaks to me every time I hear it. The title is “Brave”. The first verse goes like this:
The gate is wide
The road is paved in moderation
The crowd is kind and quick to pull you in
Welcome to the middle ground
You're safe and sound and
Until now it's where I've been
'Cause it's been fear that ties me down to everything
But it's been love, Your love, that cuts the strings
In the chorus, she continues:
So long status quo
I think I just let go
You make me want to be brave
The way it always was
Is no longer good enough
You make me want to be brave
Brave, brave
I want us to think of what it would mean if we gave ourselves permission to be brave today. In the midst of the beauty of the risen Christ, what if we found our deepest bravery yet. You are all brave in your own ways—why, for some, it took courage to come here today—perhaps you’re not sure about this God thing or this Jesus thing and, yet, on Easter Sunday, the one Sunday you can be certain the preacher is going to preach on Jesus, you came. There’s a certain kind of bravery that allows us to give ourselves permission, even in the midst of doubt, to be present to the very thing of which we are unsure. For some of you, you came knowing that Easter Sunday would bring you memories of other Easter Sundays when you were excluded from those granted abundant life in the grace of the one who died for us all—and you were brave—brave enough to say, “that was then” and “this is now”.
We are called by this Jesus to be thoroughly and honestly brave and beautiful. I am looking at a sea of faces that contains all the beauty in the world, each of you beautiful in your own ways, in the unique way that you reflect the love of God at work in your hearts and lives. This is a beautiful community—this community which, itself, reflects the uniqueness of this particular body of Christ. And, into this beautiful community, we are called to be brave—to bravely say what is in our hearts—to bravely love each other and this community enough to risk—no, to trust that what we say will be heard and what we feel will be understood. We are called to meld bravery and beauty in this community of faithful people. We are called to be unique, to live the Resurrected Life every moment of our days. And, we are called to bravely walk together in our journey of discovery—to honestly be present to the working of the spirit in our life and in the lives of our brothers and sisters who walk this way beside us. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen and amen.
34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts those from every nation who fear God and do what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
THE GOSPEL: John 20:1-18
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman,[a] why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to God. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Holy Parent and your Holy Parent, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
God, Your presence is beauty to our spirits and we live in gratitude that through the grace of Jesus Christ, You have made our very lives beautiful. As we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, may my words and our thoughts be pleasing unto You. In the name of the one who calls us to the resurrected life, Amen.
Happy Easter! I am a little disappointed in the small number of Easter bonnets here this morning. I guess the rumors of an Easter Parade after the service were highly exaggerated. Perhaps next year.
Our readings and music have led us to this time and place where we think upon the meaning of Easter for us here, today. Easter may have different meanings, different priorities at different times in our lives; but today, what seems to be most compelling in the resurrection story is the connection of beauty and bravery.
Perhaps you think that the bravery took place before the resurrection day—that bravery was manifested only in the hours leading up to the crucifixion of Christ; and, you would be right that we must not underestimate the bravery of Jesus as he faced the cruel and excruciating painful death on the cross. Or the bravery of Joseph of Arimathea when he approached Pilot and sought the release of Jesus’ body so that he could be buried properly. Or the bravery of all those disciples and women who stayed with Jesus until he died. We must not even forget the bravery of the women when early on that day, they made their way to the tomb.
Yet, there is more. We must not lose the bravery of the Resurrection Day itself—the bravery of all the Resurrection Days in our lives. If we stop our celebrations at “He Is Risen”! then we have cheated ourselves and each other out of the fullness of the Easter story. I drive past lawns, and see the “He is risen” sign in the yard, and have to restrain myself from going up to the door, knocking and saying, “And…” Think about it.
Jesus, who had all the power in heaven and on earth, could have chosen to end his career and his earthly life with a “goodbye” tour or clouds and lightning and all the makings of an epic movie. Instead, he chose to die, a death that was far from beautiful—hear the words of the prophet Isaiah—“You had no stately form or majesty to make us look at you, there was no beauty to attract us. You were rejected and despised by all; you know suffering intimately and you are acquainted with sickness. When we saw you, we turned our faces away; we despised you and did not value you. [And yet] …upon you lies a chastening that brings us wholeness, and through your wounds we are healed.” Easter Sunday morning rises out of the deep grief of the two days preceding it. Beauty dies to bravery in the willingness to die on a cross between two thieves. It is from the rubble of beauty and bravery, that we enter our Resurrection Day. And on this very Resurrection Day, we are called to discover in ourselves and in each other the unique beauty of the risen Christ in each of us—and bravely to grow spiritually, showing the glory of God as we live boldly in this beauty.
Nicole Nordeman, a young, contemporary Christian rock singer has a song that speaks to me every time I hear it. The title is “Brave”. The first verse goes like this:
The gate is wide
The road is paved in moderation
The crowd is kind and quick to pull you in
Welcome to the middle ground
You're safe and sound and
Until now it's where I've been
'Cause it's been fear that ties me down to everything
But it's been love, Your love, that cuts the strings
In the chorus, she continues:
So long status quo
I think I just let go
You make me want to be brave
The way it always was
Is no longer good enough
You make me want to be brave
Brave, brave
I want us to think of what it would mean if we gave ourselves permission to be brave today. In the midst of the beauty of the risen Christ, what if we found our deepest bravery yet. You are all brave in your own ways—why, for some, it took courage to come here today—perhaps you’re not sure about this God thing or this Jesus thing and, yet, on Easter Sunday, the one Sunday you can be certain the preacher is going to preach on Jesus, you came. There’s a certain kind of bravery that allows us to give ourselves permission, even in the midst of doubt, to be present to the very thing of which we are unsure. For some of you, you came knowing that Easter Sunday would bring you memories of other Easter Sundays when you were excluded from those granted abundant life in the grace of the one who died for us all—and you were brave—brave enough to say, “that was then” and “this is now”.
We are called by this Jesus to be thoroughly and honestly brave and beautiful. I am looking at a sea of faces that contains all the beauty in the world, each of you beautiful in your own ways, in the unique way that you reflect the love of God at work in your hearts and lives. This is a beautiful community—this community which, itself, reflects the uniqueness of this particular body of Christ. And, into this beautiful community, we are called to be brave—to bravely say what is in our hearts—to bravely love each other and this community enough to risk—no, to trust that what we say will be heard and what we feel will be understood. We are called to meld bravery and beauty in this community of faithful people. We are called to be unique, to live the Resurrected Life every moment of our days. And, we are called to bravely walk together in our journey of discovery—to honestly be present to the working of the spirit in our life and in the lives of our brothers and sisters who walk this way beside us. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen and amen.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Hosanna Times Two--e-1-12
The Reading: Philippians 2: 5-11
In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the [Eternal Parent].
THE GOSPEL: Mark 11: 1-11
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
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Hosanna Times Two 4-1-12
God, we come like the crowds waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” We wonder what comes next. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear as we walk the way of Jesus on his journey to the Cross. May the words that I speak and the thoughts and feelings in our hearts be acceptable unto you, O God. Amen
Here’s what we know about the two disciples who went into Jerusalem to retrieve the donkey for Jesus: (pause). That’s right, nothing, we know nothing about them except that they followed Jesus’ request to a ‘T’. I looked in all the Gospels, read commentaries, and then gave up. Nothing, we know nothing. We don’t know whether they were men or women, gay or straight, rich or poor. We do know, or we can gather, that they weren’t among the 4 or 5 ‘top’ disciples because their names are not used. Had Peter, James, or John, or even Judas been one of these disciples, we would know it. History always fails to record the names of the least important, so we can safely assume they were not among the more highly regarded disciples. But they are very important in at least one way: they showed us what it is like to do exactly what Jesus says because they “answered as Jesus told them to”.
Let’s just assume for a moment that these two disciples were women or gay, very old, or had tattoos all over their bodies. Let’s assume they listened to hip-hop or lived on the streets; had Ph.D.’s from Harvard, or spoke the broken English of a Mexican immigrant living illegally in Arizona. Let’s assume they had AIDS, or were autistic; had 6-figure jobs or lived on welfare. What then? Would any of this mattered? No, not one bit, because what mattered was that they followed what Jesus told them to the very letter. The Bible is full of anonymous people, but these two are anonymous is a special way—their anonymity stresses to us that the most valuable thing we can do or be is a follower of Christ.
The sermon on Palm Sunday is always hard—the so-called “holy” week that follows leaves us wanting, maybe even begging for Easter. We’d rather skip right from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It is my task to say, wait—wait, there’s more. And the more is not easy to hear, like the twelfth grader who walks in on the first day of school, eyes all sparkly with thoughts of graduation—wait, wait there’s more, like 9 long months of school and F-CAT’s and tests. Well, wait-wait, there’s more to our story, more our two anonymous disciples can tell us when we view this week through their eyes.
Now, just for the sake of the sermon, I’m going to be one of these disciples and you are the other. Just for now, I will do the talking, but feel free to answer me many times over as we walk together through this week.
We are with Jesus. He says to us, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there… Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” Off we go. I can’t imagine why Jesus picked us for this job, I’m really shy and if someone tries to stop me, I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to get Jesus what he wants. Oh, I know all about Jesus giving us strength to do what he asks of us—it had better be true, because I’m not at all sure about this. We walk on, you are not doing much to calm me down. Sure enough, there’s a donkey. I look around. Oh, good, I think we can pull this off without anyone seeing us. All of a sudden, there are a group of men who walk up to us and say, “What are you doing with this donkey, it isn’t yours.” Suddenly, I remember the words Jesus told us to say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” And, they let us go. I don’t even know where those words came from, certainly not from me. Jesus was right about everything so far, but this whole thing feels a little strange.
After all that, I’m taking this donkey right back to Jesus. Look at the disciples and other people—they are starting to put their coats on the donkey and on the ground for Jesus to ride on. The word spreads through the crowd and, suddenly, everyone is shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed, blessed, blessed—hosanna, hosanna! They’re whispering, “this is the King that God promised us; he will overthrow our enemies and we will be free!” What? This is Jesus, we’ve been with him for months now—how could we not have known that he was the King. But, we’re in it now, just part of the crowd and I’m getting hoarse from shouting. By the time we get all the way to the Temple, it is late, so after He looked around, he went with us back to our camp at Bethany.
Jesus doesn’t try to explain what had happened. He seems lost in thought, almost somewhere else. I know that he is praying a lot and seems to be headed somewhere I can’t explain. The next morning and for the next four days, He just keeps going into Jerusalem and preaching and teaching in the Temple and around the city. I tell you, I am really frightened for him—I know this can’t lead to any good. Those guys have it in for him, and he’s walking into their trap. Look, there is another one of them—listening to Him. Why do they shake their heads in disgust? Don’t they know what I know—that he is a good man who never meant anyone any harm?
I’m glad that our headquarters were in Bethany—we’re in the house of Simon. Simon is a Leper, but things like that never stopped Jesus before. Look, do you see that woman? What, what, oh, no—she just broke an beautiful jar and poured the sweetest smelling oil all over Jesus’ feet. Oh, look at her face, how she adores him. There’s going to be trouble though—I can feel it. Can you hear those loud mouths? Telling Jesus to rebuke her and send her away—that the oil could have been sold and the money put to better uses. Look at her, her pain just breaks my heart. What does she know that I don’t know? Jesus is putting them in their place. But there he goes again. Why is Jesus telling us that we won’t have him for long. I’m really starting to be scared.
It’s the night of the Passover meal. Some other disciple has set it all up. It’s just before the meal, and Jesus is telling us that there is a traitor among us. Please, don’t let it be me, it just can’t be me. Jesus lifts a loaf of bread—he tells us to take a piece and remember him by it. Remember him, where is he going? The meal is over and he’s passing us a cup of wine—what does he mean by “this is my blood”? It’s just a cup of wine—he’s starting to scare all of us now. And, now, we go to the garden. It’s getting dark, and it’s really a little creepy out here. But it’s late and I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep. Jesus is waking us, he is in tears, asking us to stay awake with him. I’m one of the last to go to sleep, but I just can’t stay awake. I’m trying, Jesus, I really am…but it’s just too hard and I’m too tired.
Suddenly there are soldiers everywhere and before we know it, they take Jesus away—Wait, wait, where is he going? Will this night ever end?
And so, it is morning—Jesus is on trial—now the crowd is yelling to crucify him—there’s no one even trying to defend him and they beat him in front of everyone. Look, there’s Mary and Jesus’ mother—they are sobbing, this is all so out of control—I just don’t understand. They beat him bloody and now they are putting a cross on his back. He can hardly stand, somebody ought to help him. And finally, they nail him to the cross—I can’t watch, I want to be with him to the end, but it’s just too hard and I’m too tired. It seems like hours later—the sky turns black. What has happened? People are scrambling—most of us stayed at a distance where we could see what was happening. And so it is over. Where do we go now? And how do we go on?
I love you Lord and I lift my voice
To worship you, o my soul rejoice
Take joy my king in what you hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
Amen and amen.
In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the [Eternal Parent].
THE GOSPEL: Mark 11: 1-11
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hosanna Times Two 4-1-12
God, we come like the crowds waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” We wonder what comes next. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear as we walk the way of Jesus on his journey to the Cross. May the words that I speak and the thoughts and feelings in our hearts be acceptable unto you, O God. Amen
Here’s what we know about the two disciples who went into Jerusalem to retrieve the donkey for Jesus: (pause). That’s right, nothing, we know nothing about them except that they followed Jesus’ request to a ‘T’. I looked in all the Gospels, read commentaries, and then gave up. Nothing, we know nothing. We don’t know whether they were men or women, gay or straight, rich or poor. We do know, or we can gather, that they weren’t among the 4 or 5 ‘top’ disciples because their names are not used. Had Peter, James, or John, or even Judas been one of these disciples, we would know it. History always fails to record the names of the least important, so we can safely assume they were not among the more highly regarded disciples. But they are very important in at least one way: they showed us what it is like to do exactly what Jesus says because they “answered as Jesus told them to”.
Let’s just assume for a moment that these two disciples were women or gay, very old, or had tattoos all over their bodies. Let’s assume they listened to hip-hop or lived on the streets; had Ph.D.’s from Harvard, or spoke the broken English of a Mexican immigrant living illegally in Arizona. Let’s assume they had AIDS, or were autistic; had 6-figure jobs or lived on welfare. What then? Would any of this mattered? No, not one bit, because what mattered was that they followed what Jesus told them to the very letter. The Bible is full of anonymous people, but these two are anonymous is a special way—their anonymity stresses to us that the most valuable thing we can do or be is a follower of Christ.
The sermon on Palm Sunday is always hard—the so-called “holy” week that follows leaves us wanting, maybe even begging for Easter. We’d rather skip right from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It is my task to say, wait—wait, there’s more. And the more is not easy to hear, like the twelfth grader who walks in on the first day of school, eyes all sparkly with thoughts of graduation—wait, wait there’s more, like 9 long months of school and F-CAT’s and tests. Well, wait-wait, there’s more to our story, more our two anonymous disciples can tell us when we view this week through their eyes.
Now, just for the sake of the sermon, I’m going to be one of these disciples and you are the other. Just for now, I will do the talking, but feel free to answer me many times over as we walk together through this week.
We are with Jesus. He says to us, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there… Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” Off we go. I can’t imagine why Jesus picked us for this job, I’m really shy and if someone tries to stop me, I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to get Jesus what he wants. Oh, I know all about Jesus giving us strength to do what he asks of us—it had better be true, because I’m not at all sure about this. We walk on, you are not doing much to calm me down. Sure enough, there’s a donkey. I look around. Oh, good, I think we can pull this off without anyone seeing us. All of a sudden, there are a group of men who walk up to us and say, “What are you doing with this donkey, it isn’t yours.” Suddenly, I remember the words Jesus told us to say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” And, they let us go. I don’t even know where those words came from, certainly not from me. Jesus was right about everything so far, but this whole thing feels a little strange.
After all that, I’m taking this donkey right back to Jesus. Look at the disciples and other people—they are starting to put their coats on the donkey and on the ground for Jesus to ride on. The word spreads through the crowd and, suddenly, everyone is shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed, blessed, blessed—hosanna, hosanna! They’re whispering, “this is the King that God promised us; he will overthrow our enemies and we will be free!” What? This is Jesus, we’ve been with him for months now—how could we not have known that he was the King. But, we’re in it now, just part of the crowd and I’m getting hoarse from shouting. By the time we get all the way to the Temple, it is late, so after He looked around, he went with us back to our camp at Bethany.
Jesus doesn’t try to explain what had happened. He seems lost in thought, almost somewhere else. I know that he is praying a lot and seems to be headed somewhere I can’t explain. The next morning and for the next four days, He just keeps going into Jerusalem and preaching and teaching in the Temple and around the city. I tell you, I am really frightened for him—I know this can’t lead to any good. Those guys have it in for him, and he’s walking into their trap. Look, there is another one of them—listening to Him. Why do they shake their heads in disgust? Don’t they know what I know—that he is a good man who never meant anyone any harm?
I’m glad that our headquarters were in Bethany—we’re in the house of Simon. Simon is a Leper, but things like that never stopped Jesus before. Look, do you see that woman? What, what, oh, no—she just broke an beautiful jar and poured the sweetest smelling oil all over Jesus’ feet. Oh, look at her face, how she adores him. There’s going to be trouble though—I can feel it. Can you hear those loud mouths? Telling Jesus to rebuke her and send her away—that the oil could have been sold and the money put to better uses. Look at her, her pain just breaks my heart. What does she know that I don’t know? Jesus is putting them in their place. But there he goes again. Why is Jesus telling us that we won’t have him for long. I’m really starting to be scared.
It’s the night of the Passover meal. Some other disciple has set it all up. It’s just before the meal, and Jesus is telling us that there is a traitor among us. Please, don’t let it be me, it just can’t be me. Jesus lifts a loaf of bread—he tells us to take a piece and remember him by it. Remember him, where is he going? The meal is over and he’s passing us a cup of wine—what does he mean by “this is my blood”? It’s just a cup of wine—he’s starting to scare all of us now. And, now, we go to the garden. It’s getting dark, and it’s really a little creepy out here. But it’s late and I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep. Jesus is waking us, he is in tears, asking us to stay awake with him. I’m one of the last to go to sleep, but I just can’t stay awake. I’m trying, Jesus, I really am…but it’s just too hard and I’m too tired.
Suddenly there are soldiers everywhere and before we know it, they take Jesus away—Wait, wait, where is he going? Will this night ever end?
And so, it is morning—Jesus is on trial—now the crowd is yelling to crucify him—there’s no one even trying to defend him and they beat him in front of everyone. Look, there’s Mary and Jesus’ mother—they are sobbing, this is all so out of control—I just don’t understand. They beat him bloody and now they are putting a cross on his back. He can hardly stand, somebody ought to help him. And finally, they nail him to the cross—I can’t watch, I want to be with him to the end, but it’s just too hard and I’m too tired. It seems like hours later—the sky turns black. What has happened? People are scrambling—most of us stayed at a distance where we could see what was happening. And so it is over. Where do we go now? And how do we go on?
I love you Lord and I lift my voice
To worship you, o my soul rejoice
Take joy my king in what you hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
Amen and amen.
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