Our King is Coming!

Sermon Matthew 21:1-11 April 5, 2020 Palm Sunday year A  

  Worship during covid19 

Our King is Coming!

Our King is coming! He’s riding on a donkey and heading to Jerusalem. He’s certain where he’s going. He knows what’s ahead of him. He has no doubt of who he is or how his story will end.

Our King is coming! He’s riding on a donkey and heading to Jerusalem. We’re certain where he’s going. We know what’s ahead of him. We have no doubt how his story will end.

We are the people in the crowd.

We have decided he is the one who will save us.

We are the woman in need of food on the table for her five children. We know that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem to turn over the tables of injustice and make sure there is always food for the poor.

We are the people in the crowd. We have decided that our government is corrupt and Jesus is coming to be the new King and will remove the Romans, the dishonest, cruel politicians from the nation.

We are the crowd. We have decided Jesus has come to save us. We are the crippled, the blind, the homeless, the jobless, the disenfranchised and Jesus is coming to create a world of equality.

Our King is coming!

He’s riding on a donkey and heading to Jerusalem.

We are among the very crowds that sing Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

and betray him the very next day.

We know Jesus is coming for us in our way and only our way. If he doesn’t do what we want, how we want it, when we want it, and where we want it, we’ll quit. We’ll walk away. We’ll say he was never for us anyway.

They needed, wanted a savior. They needed the promised messiah to come.

The followers of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem expected a Savior to end the madness of Roman occupation. They were going crazy with rules always changing and never knowing if they were doing the right thing. They could not trust that life would ever have any normalcy because of the fickle changes of leadership from one season to the next. Governors and Jewish leaders were thrown in prison or relieved of duty frequently. The Jews had a tyrant for a king. The people were fearful. They were anxious. The crowds saw no end in sight.

Today, we need a savior too. We need a Savior, a rescuer like any other person in any other time of deepest darkest difficulty.

We are facing a war of the worst kind. It is an invisible beast, insidious, destroying nations, communities and families. It has no sympathy for any race, economy, or person. What’s worse is there is no end in sight. Ten more weeks the Virginia governor tells us. We’ve barely endured the last three weeks. How will we get through this isolation? We really want to be in a crowd. We want and need our ability to worship in this sanctuary.

We want our chance to be filled with joy

bursting from our seams

as we watch the little children

carry banners and wave palms.

We want and we need to laugh with one another

as we rejoice and rub shoulders with each other.

We love Palm Sunday!

It is the fun church holiday.

It is the one Sunday where everything, absolutely everything is all about happiness.

And this year we have to make the happiness happen in our homes.

Three years ago we couldn’t celebrate in this sanctuary because for six months it was being cleaned from smoke damage. Then we asked, ‘How are we going to do this?’ And here we are this year asking the same question.  We think-We really need someone to rescue us from this insanity.

The followers of Jesus had been through a lot.

The followers of Jesus continue to go through a lot.

Jesus was the one they trusted.

The ones who had followed him through the years.

They witnessed his miracles.

They experienced his touch.

They were nourished.

Their bursting hearts rang out in boisterous sounds of praise!

They could not be contained.

It seemed as if all those years of following him built up the anticipation and expectation of who he needed to be for them in that moment.

Hosanna-save us.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Be our rescuer now!

It’s time the climax of the movie is here and we need you more than ever.

Division and fear is everywhere and the people are clinging to the newness of Jesus. They are hanging on to his words of love and his listening ears and compassionate ways.

We are going through a great deal of anxiety now with no end in sight.

Our emotions are running high.

Instead of following distancing rules we are now acting in avoidance of one another.

We used to say hi to everyone.

Now we look at each other in suspicion.

We can safe distance and still maintain social etiquette.

We do not have to fear one another.

We need each other.

We don’t need to shame each other, or judge, or condescend, or ignore.

More than ever we need to practice hospitality.

We need to greet, to engage, to raise a hand and wave a palm, high and low, raise our voices in confidence and support.

We can imagine why people were flocking to Jesus. He gave them stability, comfort and hope in a world that had none of that for them then.

Perhaps, that’s why we are still seeking a savior.

We still seem to be lost in hope when we face tragedy, turmoil, and disaster.

The moment we feel we have grip on the world

and the way life is around us-we shout for joy

and we sing hosanna-we got this.

And then in the next breath we are

blindsided by a circumstance that betrays

our very feelings and knocks us on our tushies.

We come this year and every year to be reminded that we are always the people in the crowd crying out to Jesus Hosanna-save us!

We may not be in a physical crowd but we are in a virtual one. We are all flocking to the computer screens looking for the worship service that gives us Jesus the savior to speak to our needs. And if the preacher isn’t selling the Jesus we want, we’ll switch the channel, we’ll walk away. We’ll quit.

That’s what happens the day after the parade.

Holy Week we call it now.

The week we are entering as we enter with Jesus into Jerusalem.

We make this journey every year because we need Jesus.

We need to follow his ways and as the years roll by we begin to recognize the power of Jesus within us.

We sense his presence stronger.

We feel our bodies bursting with joy as we go.

And this year more than ever we’ll raise our palms and banners together.

We’ll march together in the parade there in our living rooms excited about the Savior. Excited about our love for him who taught love for each other.

We believe!

We will raise our voices, we will work together.

We will show that distance does not change our ability to be in mission. Distance is what strengthens our resolve to reach out further than ever. We raise our palms and we shout through the roof that our Savior is with us. We will not walk away. We are connected by the power of the Holy Spirit that makes us the body of Christ. We can praise today and we can sing!

Our King is coming! He’s riding on a donkey and heading to Jerusalem. He’s certain where he’s going. He knows what’s ahead of him. He has no doubt of who he is or how his story will end. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word Year A

It's NOT a Dream

Sermon John 11 March 29, 2020 5^th Sunday in Lent. Covid19 Livestream worship.

It's NOT a Dream

When bad things happen we sometimes deal with it by asking someone to pinch us. We look to them and ask them. “Was that a dream; did this really happen?”

When we feel the pinch which can really hurt-we realize it was NOT a dream!

Martha and Mary are living their worst nightmare.

Their precious brother Lazarus is ill to the point of death. They do what anyone would do and they call on their best friend to come and help them to save their brother.

What do we do when we are faced with a tragedy, a trauma; we call out to our dearest ones. We call to them to come back to us and help us. We want them to help us through our fear and to solve and fix our problems for us. 

We trust them with our life and we have some pretty high expectations of them. 

Most of the time we get pretty mad at the people we have preset assumptions of what they can and should do for us.

Especially when we are in a crisis.

And when we are suffering from grief.

To make this story even more interesting is that we too get mad at Jesus as we read how stalls showing up for his friends.

It’s not that he is showing up for some acquaintances-no! These are his best friends ever! When Jesus heard the news he should have dropped everything and gone running to be the hero and save the day.

So, along with Martha we’re really upset with Jesus!

We ask him too, “Where were you?! You could have done something to fix this, to save Lazarus.”

I imagine many people have been in Martha’s shoes this week.

And Mary’s too.

“Where were you Jesus when this virus took over the world?”

“Why didn’t you stop it yet?”

“How could you have hung out in other places and not put us on the top of your list of favorite people to come running to?”

We can be encouraged to know that Martha and Mary are not afraid of Jesus to let him have it.

They are not afraid to let him know the truth of how they feel.

They are not afraid to let him know what they expected of him and how disappointed they are in him for not coming to save their brother.

Perhaps, we too need the assurance that we can let Jesus have it

and let him know our feelings of disappointment and anger too.

These three were Jesus closest friends ever.

Jesus doesn’t react to their feelings. He doesn’t scold them. Jesus just loves them.

He recognizes in them the power of their faith.

Lament and expression of frustration and grief is as much a part of faith as any other expression.

Our feelings of grief and pain, hurt and sorrow are holy.

They are not unbelief but the truth of the power of faith.

Why?

Because when we believe God could have done something, we believe in the power of God of death and life.

And that’s when Jesus lets us know who he is in the heart of our faith.

He IS the resurrection and the life!

Jesus asks the women if they believe and they let him know-yes!

But, then Jesus heads to the tomb and asks the stone to be rolled away and the reality of the death within the tomb hits hard.

It hits home.

And they yell, “no don’t do it! He stinks!

It’s been four days!”

Don’t open the tomb.

Don’t open the reality of death. Don’t open the truth.

From the confession of faith in Jesus to the stark reality of the un-denying dead as a doornail Lazarus-the women are no longer dreaming!

We too have hit the hard reality of the death in the tomb.

And it stinks!

We are stuck in a pandemic and it stinks.

It really, really smells.

And it is NOT a dream!

It has hit home to us.

We have someone we know who has been infected by this virus. We have someone we know who has lost a loved to this virus. We have someone we know who has had negligent medical care because the focus has only been on this virus. And beyond that our daily life is totally turned upside down.

Hopes and dreams of retirement are now in limbo. Our young people are without career opportunities as all job interviews are on hold. Graduations, weddings, birthdays, funerals all are cancelled until further notice. Parents are scrambling to figure out how to work and teach. Teachers are scrambling to figure out how to teach without touch, toys, or tutors. Yes. We are all together standing at the tomb with Martha and telling Jesus don’t roll away the stone of the reality of how all of this really, really, stinks!

We are fearful the truth will escape in a wretched odor.

The power for us as individuals and as the church, as the community of faith and community of people everywhere, is that Jesus IS the resurrection and the Life!

He is the truth of who he has claimed and God has anointed from the beginning.

When Jesus says even though they die, they live-that’s exactly what we believe!

We say it in all our confessions.

All who live will never die.

Death is but a transition from this life to the next without any interruption of life with Christ.

The future hope is in today!

Abundance of life is now in any circumstance.

There is no fear about rolling away the stone of reality.

God is with us.

God is calling the stone to be rolled away and for new life to emerge!

God loves the world so much he has given the world Jesus for salvation.

Life is promised from the first breath of faith and the fullness of God is there, present never leaving us.

Abundance of God’s presence is what the gospel of John promises.

Over the top wonder of God working new life in those who seek him.

So when Jesus calls Lazarus to come out,

he is calling all new life to emerge.

New beginnings will emerge from the death of reality.

As we face our fears and do not let them keep us apart from God or from one another, we discover the power of God to work the abundance of opportunity in us.

Hold on to hope!

It is true that this is NOT a dream.

But, we can trust that Jesus is there calling us

to come back to him with all our heart.

Jesus is waiting for us to allow new life to emerge from the tomb.

Jesus is waiting and longing for us to come to him.

To believe in him.

To say yes when he asks us if we believe.

Friends, it’s NOT a dream.

Jesus is here right now, fully present,

all powerful,

filling us with the breath of life.

Believe his love for you today.

Amen.

Resources: NIB Gospel John Gail O'Day; Encounters with Jesus by Francis Taylor Gench,