8:30 a.m. Service 2-Part Sermon
The Lord has Need of You!
Getting ready for an event is all hands on deck! Preparation tasks range from the glamorous to mundane and uninteresting. The Lord has need of YOU! Imagine the conversation between the two disciples tasked with getting the young colt.
“Jesus is healing and changing people’s lives!”
“Yea, Isn’t it incredible?”
“And here we are getting a colt! I was hoping he would let us do some of the good stuff – maybe we could cast out demons or change water into wine”
But NO! We have to make the transportation plans.”
The Lord has need of YOU!
Perhaps, getting the colt seems like a delegated chore that others might not want to do. Like pulling the windblown straw out the garden or scrubbing fingerprints and stains off the walls, filing paperwork from the insurance company, or stuffing envelopes. The disciples in Mark get a boat ready for Jesus, find out how much food is on hand for the multitude, secure the room and prepare the table for the Last Supper and, of course, chase down a colt that the Lord needs to enter Jerusalem. The Lord has need of YOU!
Only the chapter before, two of the disciples had asked to be seated at the right and left hands of God. Jesus reminds them in this community, in this gathering of believers, leaders serve. Contrary to the Roman society around them filled with pomp and circumstance, filled with imperial ceremony and recognition of status, this community had no rulers or supervisors, but a group of servants. All of the disciples had been jockeying for advantage, angling for glory, arguing about who was the greatest. We get to the see the irony that those who had wanted to be seated at the hand of God are mucking around a stable, coaxing a young colt, and guiding an untamed animal back to their Master. For this they left their fishing nets? The Lord has need of YOU!
The Lord had need of a colt. The Israelites had a tradition of young, unridden animals being used for sacred purposes and fulfilled the Zechariah prophecy. This could have caused great trouble for the handlers and rider with the colt racing from the excitement of being untied, or bucked Jesus, with the human weight so startling. Without the experience and training, a young colt might seem like an unlikely choice for a parade, especially the parade of the Master.
But Jesus was in the habit of choosing the unlikely for service, and God calls the improbable for incredible purposes. Perhaps it is like driving with a first time driver or eating the dinner of a new cook. You may have white knuckles, eat burnt edges, but you know you are helping person to learn. The Lord has need of YOU!
It could have gone differently with the owner of the colt. The owner could have said “but I have plans to take my offerings to the city for the Passover”
Or “During Passover? This is one of my busiest times – No way!”
Or “I have no idea who the Master is!”
But this owner of the colt allowed for the animal to be borrowed. Perhaps, Jesus had approached the owner ahead of time to talk about this day and got permission. Maybe there had been an underground network of followers who supported Jesus throughout the Galilean countryside and into Jerusalem. The owner was eager to share resources with the Master and imagined this was one way that would serve the Messiah – much like those who shared and prepared the Upper Room. The Lord has need of YOU!
Isn’t it that way for us? We have plans and intentions of our own that are missing something without being attuned to how the Lord has need of us. How do we respond when the Lord asks us to share of our time, our talents, and our gifts? Like the owner of the colt could have, we may first think of the other demands on our attention. But, what priority does God get with us? Are we able to hear the whisper “The Lord has need of YOU!” or is drowned out by the busy-i-ness of life?
When the face of an old friend appears in your mind’s eye during your prayers, what do you do? Do you initiate contact or do you note the face with barely more than thought? What has changed in our lives so that we can hear the quiet whisper, warming heart, or suggestion in our soul (the vision) that we will answer with affirmation when the Lord has need of us? Each of face different challenges: some in relationship, some with economics, some have medical challenges, and others yet wonder what the next step will be. But one tie binds us together, the Lord has need of each us. Some of us are needed to share the good news, some of are needed to comfort those who hear bad news. Others are needed teach those around them with their lives, and others are needed to step out of their comfort zone to serve. Each one of us is gifted and needed to serve. The Lord has need of YOU!
The Lord has Need of You?
Holy Week is a lifetime in miniature. It goes from celebration to conflict, betrayal, suspense, and then back to a celebration that lasts a lifetime. As the insurance commercial says, “life comes at you fast,” and so does Holy Week. We almost need a month to let the events of Holy Week sink in spiritually and emotionally. Sometimes we can hardly keep up, let alone contemplate how the Lord will use us in this time.
When everything seems to be going well in your life, out of the blue, you or a loved one receives the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness. Without warning, you lose your job and wonder how you will ever reclaim your former professional or economic status. We all live holy weeks, whether in terms of the first or twenty-first centuries and are asked to make a choice as to how we will let the Lord use, even us.
In his discussion of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann, great Old Testament scholar, describes the rhythm of our lives in terms of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation, all of which occur during Holy Week. It is too easy to go from waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” to singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia!” without taking account of religious conflict, betrayal, injustice, agony, and hopelessness that accompany our Easter celebrations.
Holy Week can forever change us if we embrace the seasons of the week and the seasons of our lives, both the sunshine and the shadow and the celebration and desolation. Life’s greatest challenges can also be the womb of life’s greatest possibilities. The Lord has need of, even us. We have a choice.
We can chose between Christ and the way of the day, the domination system which may seem more normal that the radical way of the Christ. It may seem easier to choose the “normal and familiar” way of being. Genuine discipleship, if we are truly following, this means following Jesus to Jerusalem. A place that we know is filled with confrontation, death and resurrection. A place that we must make a choice: are we laying palms or casting stones? We who lay palms draw near to Christ to serve Him and learn more about this way of the living in this world that God created us for and calls us to live out. We who lay palms have to all the answers, but offer ourselves in service and obedience to God. We who cast stones, cannot live with the unknowing of a world in which God’s way is yet coming. We find ourselves wishing to allow violence to act through us, continuing the cycle of oppression, exploitation and legitimation. We who cast stones find the words crucify him on our lips or find ourselves running from the challenges of death and dying right as Christ asks us to wait a little longer with Him in the Garden. How will the Lord use us?
With our faces towards Jerusalem and eyes set towards the city and the events that we know lay on the horizon of this week, what will you chose? Will you choose to cast rocks at the uncertainty, choosing the familiar domination system of Rome and familiar ways of the peace at all costs – Pax Romana.
Or will you celebrate lifting your palm and choosing the way of discipleship, true discipleship that is difficult and calls us to change our lives and urges the work that leads to true peace, a way that leads to making yourself available to the Lord, a way that we know will lead us to the cross and the empty tomb?
This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, thanks be to God, Amen.
11:00 a.m. Traditional Worship Service Sermon
The Lord has Need of You?!?
The Lord has need of you! The disciples heard these words as they chose to follow Jesus. They heard these words as Jesus was preparing for the triumphal procession into Jerusalem. The Lord has need of you, the young donkey’s owner heard as the disciples re-appropriated the animal. The Lord has need of you, the upper room’s owner will hear later this week. The Lord has need of you, Simon of Cyrene will hear as he carries the cross of Jesus. The Lord has need of you, Joseph of Arimathea, will hear as he gives the cave in which Jesus will be laid. The Lord has need of you, the women will hear as they care for the body of Jesus. And the Lord has need of you, the disciples will hear as they are asked to tell all the world that Jesus is alive!
But I get ahead of myself. Jesus has the disciples get a colt for the entry to Jerusalem. Perhaps, getting the colt seems like a delegated chore that others might not want to do. Like pulling the wind-blown straw out the garden or scrubbing fingerprints and stains off the walls, organizing closets, changing signs, or stuffing envelopes. The disciples in Mark get a boat ready for Jesus, find out how much food is on hand for the multitude, secure the room and prepare the table for the Last Supper and, of course, chase down a colt that the Lord needs to enter Jerusalem.
Only the chapter before, two of the disciples had asked to be seated at the right and left hands of God. Jesus reminds them in this community, in this gathering of believers, leaders serve. Contrary to the Roman society around them filled with pomp and circumstance, filled with imperial ceremony and recognition of status, this community had no rulers or supervisors, but a group of servants. All of the disciples had been jockeying for advantage, angling for glory, arguing about who was the greatest. We get to the see the irony that those who had wanted to be seated at the hand of God are mucking around a stable, coaxing a young colt, and guiding an untamed animal back to their Lord . For this they left their fishing nets?
To their surprise, the owner of the colt allowed for the animal to be borrowed. Perhaps, Jesus had approached the owner ahead of time to talk about this day and got permission. Maybe there had been an underground network of followers who supported Jesus throughout the Galilean countryside and into Jerusalem. So, the owner was eager to share resources with the Lord and imagined this was one way that would serve the Messiah – much like those who shared and prepared the Upper Room. The Lord has need of us.
Would we be like that? Too often, we have plans of our own without being attuned to how the Lord has need of us. How do we respond when the Lord asks us to share of our time, our talents, and our gifts? What priority does God get with us? Are we able to hear the whisper “The Lord has need of you” or is drowned out by the busy-i-ness of life?
It is easy to go from waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” to singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia!” without taking account of religious conflict, betrayal, injustice, agony, and hopelessness that accompany our Easter celebrations. But, Holy Week is a lifetime in miniature. It goes from celebration to conflict, betrayal, suspense, and then back to a celebration that lasts a lifetime. As the commercial says, “life comes at you fast,” and so does Holy Week. We almost need a month to let the events of Holy Week sink in spiritually and emotionally. When everything seems to be going well in your life, out of the blue, you or a loved one receives the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness. Without warning, you lose your job and wonder how you’ll ever reclaim your former professional or economic status. We all eventually live a Holy Week, whether in terms of the first or twenty-first centuries.
So, how do we live such that we can hear the quiet whisper, warming heart, or suggestion in our soul (the vision) that we will answer with affirmation when the Lord has need of us? Each of face different challenges in these weeks to come, some are in relationship, some with economics, some have medical challenges, and others yet wonder what the next step will be. But one tie binds us together; the Lord has need of each us. God calls each of us to service and each one of us is gifted and needed to serve.
As we enter this Holy Week, we stamp our passports from location to location. We go from the Temple, to the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane to hill of Calvary to a garden tomb until we meet again next week on Easter Sunday with an empty tomb. We go into this week with vigor, instead of fatigue because the Lord has need of us. Knowing that Christ will be with you each step, the Lord has need of you – how will you respond?
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Scripture of Palms: Mark 11:1-11
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Scripture of Passion: Mark 15:1-39
Jesus before Pilate
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.
Pilate Hands Jesus over to Be Crucified
Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
The Soldiers Mock Jesus
Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s head-quarters; and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.
The Death of Jesus
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”