Sacrifice or Inconvenience? / Lonely in the Midst of People
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For April 5, 2020:
Sacrifice or Inconvenience?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Liturgy of the Passion
Many of us will, due to various lockdown orders, be staying home on Palm Sunday (and maybe Easter). How, we might ask ourselves, does staying home on the highest, holiest days in the Christian calendar affect us? Is it a painful sacrifice or just an annoying inconvenience?
For some, sheltering in place and social distancing mean home workouts in front of the television instead of going to the gym, cooking on the grill with groceries ordered online instead of going out to eat, doing yard work instead of going to work, working at the dining room table instead of in a cubicle, helping our children with online lessons instead of sending them to school, and playing board games with the kids instead of playing golf with friends.
For others, it means cramming the family of four into a 110-square-foot space, being told that school will be online when you can’t afford a computer, and losing your only source of income which was barely enough to get by on when you had it. It means foraging through trash for edible scraps, losing the other human bodies which were your only source of warmth on cold nights, and crippling loneliness for nursing home patients, homeless people, the rural poor, and those with disabilities.
How different these two scenarios are. Some are inconvenienced. Some have been forced into making severe sacrifices, sacrifices for which they were not prepared and did not volunteer. Yet, if we listen closely, we hear both groups singing Stephen Foster’s lament, “Hard times, come again, no more.”
In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul reminds us that Jesus chose to make a very real sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, on our behalf. And we, who call ourselves Christians, are by extension, called beyond tolerating inconveniences to making genuine sacrifices on behalf of others.
In the News
By Palm Sunday, April 5, many of us will have been under some kind of lock down orders for about two to two-and-a-half weeks and we’ll be pretty frustrated and tired of how this microscopic virus seems to have taken over and is now directing the course of our lives.
It didn’t take two and a half weeks for the discontent to really set in, however.
We were quarantined for only about ten days when politicians and pundits, including the President, decided that it was going on way too long and our cowardice in the face of the Covid-19 virus was making us overreact and threatening to kill not just old people but the entire American way of life, starting with the economy. Some went so far as to say that we should be willing to sacrifice the lives of about 2.5 percent of the population (people over 60, people with disabilities, poor people, and people without health insurance) so we can start eating out and shopping again.
No one was willing to write the names of all those who should be willing to die, but some of them did, in fact, say that to think otherwise was just plain selfish and cowardly.
Neither did it take long for the discontent to drive people to openly defy the lockdown orders. In Louisiana, a church stayed open for Sunday worship, foolishly proclaiming that God will protect them from the virus. Well, maybe or maybe not. It has been my observation that God rarely protects us from the consequences of our own foolish choices. One bar had its license permanently revoked and was boarded up by the police for disregarding the order to close until the coronavirus threat is purged. One young person in Kentucky was diagnosed with the virus after attending a Coronavirus party. And the ban on gatherings of large numbers of people was openly disregarded by thousands of college spring break revelers on Florida’s beaches.
Our news sources are offering page after page on how to keep our marriages and our relationships with our children intact when we’re being required to spend so much time together in close quarters. One humorous meme shows a dog with a vexed expression, apparently rolling her eyes, and says that after hearing her owner grouse and complain day after day she (the dog) suddenly came to realize that she just wasn’t cut out to be an emotional support dog.
We Americans get restless when the government tells us what we have to do, and especially when that order inconveniences us. When it calls us to actually make sacrifices for anything less than a declared war, we chafe and often get angry.
While many of us are merely inconvenienced, however, others are making true and painful sacrifices in the fight against what the President has called, “The Invisible Enemy.” Unemployment is at its highest level in the past decade and is expected to go higher. 3.3 million people filed for unemployment the week of March 16 and that doesn’t include people who were self-employed or private contractors. Large chain restaurants and corporately owned restaurants may be able to weather this storm but independent restaurants, which make up about 23 of the dining out landscape, are another story. “Restaurant analysts and operators have been quoting an estimate that 75 percent of the independent restaurants that have been closed to protect Americans from the coronavirus won’t make it.”
To those who lose their livelihood or the business into which they have poured their lives and life’s savings, businesses that have often been handed down from one generation to the next, these lockdowns are not just inconveniences, they are real and painful sacrifices.
And then, let’s talk about the rural poor, the urban poor, refugees in camps, homeless people huddled together under bridges and in tightly packed shelters. Okay, maybe we don’t have to. Maybe we all get the point.
Healthcare workers live in constant fear. If they go home and they’ve been infected with the virus, they risk infecting their families. So, they sleep in their cars or on cots at the hospital and go back to work, poorly rested, lonely and scared, with no emotional support. These are the ones making real sacrifices.
There is a wide gulf that separates those who are making sacrifices and those who are being inconvenienced.
In the Scriptures
In this day’s Epistle, Philippians 2:5-11, Paul reminds us of the seriousness of Jesus as he faces the very real and painful sacrifice that is soon to befall him.
“Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.”
It is for that reason that we call him Lord.
It’s not because he was a nice guy, or because he was generous and kind, or even because he performed miracles and healed people. Those aren’t the reason we call him Savior and Messiah. It is that ultimate sacrifice that he made on our behalf that causes us to fall down before him and confess that he is Lord of our lives.
Even without what my friend and colleague Chris Keating helpfully calls “the bloody mess of atonement theology,” there is no denying that Jesus is, on Passion Sunday, about to make a supreme sacrifice in the cause of humanity’s salvation. He is about to sacrifice his own life to communicate saving grace and purifying, sanctifying agape to a hurting world paralyzed by doubt and fear.
For Paul, this is not just a story of something that happened once upon a time. Neither is it simply proof of what a nice person Jesus was. It is the nail upon which we hang our faith, the existential reality that sets the course and drives our lives as Christian persons.
We are called not just to worship Jesus but to emulate him. We are called not just to be his friends but to be his students, his disciples, whose task it is to take up our own crosses.
If we stop when we are inconvenienced, if we mistake inconvenience for sacrifice, we put the lie to Good Friday.
We are called to be, as Jesus was, like the bread and wine of holy communion, broken and poured out for the world. Anything less and we are only playing at being Christians.
In the Sermon
Our American culture is scared; of that there is no doubt. And there is nothing wrong with letting our fear inform our lives and our relationships. Without the presence of fear few of us would make it beyond our twelfth year. Fear is what keeps us from attempting to play in the street or with matches. Fear is what keeps many of us at the gym and what motivates us to push away from the table. Fear is what allows us to keep one eye on our children when we are talking with our friends at the picnic.
We know, indeed, we are sure that there are dangerous things out there and our fear of them is healthy and appropriate. Fear is a good informer.
But fear is a terrible ruler. While, as prudent persons, we let our fears inform our behavior, as moral persons we never allow them to rule our behavior.
Currently, there are those in our culture who would have us believe that there are, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, only two choices before us: One choice is to keep non-essential businesses and gathering places closed, while we encourage our people to lock themselves in their homes until the economy crashes and we are returned to 1929 and another Great Depression and, maybe, the death of not just our economy but our beloved country as well.
The other choice, they say, is to ignore the virulent, lethal virus that is currently rampaging through our country and the world, and reopen our restaurants, bars, bowling allies, golf courses, hotels and other “non-essential” businesses knowing full well that doing so will result in the deaths of what experts estimate will be about 8 million souls (2.5% of the population of the United States) and shrugging off that number as acceptable losses in the effort to restore the economy.
One is reminded of the line from Dr. Strangelove: “Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.”
Those, they insist, are our only two choices and, either way, it’s the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the children, the otherwise marginalized persons in our country who will take it in the neck.
But there is, of course, a third option. It is not an easy one. If we choose it, many of us will get hurt and some of us will still probably die, as some have died already. But this third option is one modeled upon the life of Jesus and his disciples in the early church.
In this third model, Christians continue to maintain social distancing and gatherings are still prohibited until the virus has been conquered. Layoffs continue as they have done and healthcare workers continue to work hard on our behalf.
While that is happening, we Christians who are still drawing paychecks and living in comfortable settings, set aside our inconveniences and our petty discomforts and commit ourselves to taking care of our brothers and sisters regardless of their age, race, religion, who are not as lucky as we are.
That is, we commit ourselves to making sacrifices in order that all of us may survive.
We feed those who can’t afford groceries. We buy for ourselves only what we need. We practice, to the limit of our ability, the sterile technique we are being taught by medical experts. We call and talk to and listen to those who are alone and lonely. We encourage those who are discouraged, lift up those who have fallen, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and clothe those who are naked and cold.
In other words, we act like Christians have acted and been called to act throughout our 2,000-year history. We empty ourselves as Christ did on the cross so that others may live.
Writing for the Bulwark, Tim Miller observes that the challenge that lay before us “…requires a call to care about our neighbors more than ourselves. At its core, that’s what this quarantine is all about.
“Making this call is a challenge in a fractured country, where our politics is oriented toward hating the other, where we are told that owning the libs is the highest purpose, that drinking liberal/billionaire/CNN tears is our aspirational goal, that those coming here to seek a better life are actually rapists and terrorists and invaders.
“This should be the opportunity to reject all of that. To reorient the way people think about their responsibility toward each other. This should be a moment for communal grace and healing.”
Dare we Christians let such a moment pass us by unaddressed? If history is a good teacher, as my history professors assured us it is, then the time before us is not just a challenge. It is an opportunity for us to exemplify before the whole world what it means to be Christian.
In 2014 when Ebola was on everyone’s radar, speaker and author Eric Metaxas offered this story, first told by Gibbons in, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
“Between 250 and 270 A.D. a terrible plague, believed to be measles or smallpox, devastated the Roman Empire. At the height of what came to be known as the Plague of Cyprian, after the bishop St. Cyprian who chronicled what was happening, 5,000 people died every day in Rome alone.
“The plague coincided with the first empire-wide persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius. Not surprisingly, Decius and other enemies of the Church blamed Christians for the plague. That claim was, however, undermined by two inconvenient facts: Christians died from the plague like everybody else and, unlike everybody else, they cared for the victims of the plague, including their pagan neighbors.
“This wasn't new — Christians had done the same thing during the Antonine Plague a century earlier. As Rodney Stark wrote in ‘The Rise of Christianity,’ Christians stayed in the afflicted cities when pagan leaders, including physicians, fled.
“Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Notre Dame, notes that an ‘epidemic that seemed like the end of the world actually promoted the spread of Christianity.’ By their actions in the face of possible death, Christians showed their neighbors that ‘Christianity is worth dying for.’ ”
Nobody is asking us to die. Just to stay home and, sacrificially, take care of our brothers and sisters. By this they will know that we are followers of Christ.
They will, as the song says, know we are Christians by our love.
Lonely in the Midst of People
by Mary Austin
Liturgy of the Palms
As we all stay home to “flatten the curve,” the isolation is taking a toll on our spirits. Many people are worried about the loss of income, as jobs in restaurants, hotels, the arts and schools have shut down. Others are worried about family members in other locations, and people have canceled long-planned weddings. Funerals are on hold, and older family members are locked down in retirement communities.
Zoom meetings allow us to work, for those of us who still have jobs, and yet people are starting to lament “Zoom fatigue,” and the pressure of being focused all the time. Zoom lets us see a bit of our co-workers’ homes, but Zoom meetings are like eating potato chips. A little bit is great. After a whole day, we feel a curious unease. It’s food, but not very nourishing.
This year, like no other before it, and hopefully no other after it, we can understand the essential loneliness of Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem. We have a unique window into the isolation of Jesus, as he enters the city.
Our loneliness mirrors his, as he moves into this last week of his life.
In the Scriptures
As Matthew tells the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, we never hear from Jesus after he arranges for the donkey and the colt. The action swirls around him, and, Jesus, curiously, is the least active person in the story. Other than sitting on the donkey, we never hear about him again. The disciples speak, the crowd calls out in acclaim, people in the city ask about Jesus, and other people give an answer. Jesus doesn’t make a speech, and, as far as we can tell, he doesn’t do anything to encourage or discourage the crowd. He rides. And thinks.
It’s easy to picture Jesus, riding in stillness as the crowd shouts around him. This parade mirrors his temptation in the desert at the beginning of his ministry, when the tempter offers him power and glory. Here, the same things are offered by the crowd, as they misunderstand his entrance. Jesus is carrying the weight of his impending death, and the knowledge that he’s not the kind of king the people have in mind. There’s a deep gap between what he knows and what the people around him know.
In this story, it seems that even the disciples don’t see what’s being enacted in front of them. There’s a peculiar loneliness for Jesus, in this entrance, as he knows where the week will end. Even in the crowd, he’s isolated.
In the News
Right now, much of the world is isolated in a different way, but with the same loneliness. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, much of the country is closed, and the isolation of staying home from work and school is taking a toll. Robin Wright notes, “The novel coronavirus has swept the globe at a time when more people are living alone than ever before in human history… I live alone and have no family, and usually don’t think much about it. But, as the new pathogen forces us to socially distance, I have begun to feel lonely. I miss the ability to see, converse with, hug, or spend time with friends. Life seems shallower, more like survival than living.” Researchers document a connection between prolonged isolation and mortality. “In 2015, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Brigham Young University, published an analysis of seventy studies, involving 3.4 million people, examining the impact of social isolation, loneliness, and living alone. The results were notable in light of today’s pandemic. The review found that loneliness increased the rate of early death by twenty-six per cent; social isolation led to an increased rate of mortality of twenty-nine per cent, and living alone by thirty-two per cent — no matter the subject’s age, gender, location, or culture.” “Keep in mind, this is looking at chronic effects over time,” Holt-Lunstad says. Holt-Lunstad says the danger for us will be if we continue these patterns of isolation even when the danger of illness has passed. She cautions, “just like we’re worried about an economic recession, we should worry about a social recession — a continued pattern of distancing socially, beyond the immediate pandemic, that will have broader societal effects, particularly for the vulnerable.”
The loneliness epidemic beat the Covid-19 epidemic, and each is making the other more toxic. “More than 60 percent of Americans reported feeling lonely in 2019, an increase of 7 percentage points from the year before.” Our risk of being lonely falls more heavily on some of us than on others. “Many of the people at greatest risk of isolation and loneliness are also those most vulnerable to the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. People living in institutional settings — nursing homes, assisted living facilities, prisons and jails — are, quite literally, isolated from many parts of society already. And they are particularly vulnerable to viral outbreaks like Covid-19, should it make its way inside their walls. Residents of these same institutions are already particularly susceptible to loneliness. Restrictions on visitors are important for protecting the health and safety of residents and staff of these institutions, but they may also exacerbate already strong feelings of loneliness and isolation.”
Further, in this time when we’re connecting online, the digital divide leaves some people out of Zoom meetings and Facebook live. People without computers or smartphones, and people who use the internet at a now-closed library, lose out on even virtual connections. Many of us are lonely, in a spiritual sense, and others of us are contending with an added layer of physical and virtual isolation.
In the Sermon
The sermon might address the isolation that we are feeling as a way to enter into Jesus’ story. As we embrace the worry, fear and isolation in our own lives, we have a deeper way to understand what Jesus experiences. We are not saviors of the world, but we can understand the loneliness in his spirit through the solitude in our own.
Or, the sermon might address the experience of a lonely death, as that happens to more people around us. Jesus is moving, in this week, toward his death. The sermon might address the plight of people who are dying alone, as loved ones are banned from hospital rooms and long-term care facilities. How do we assure people that God is with them, even when we’re not there to embody that presence? How does Jesus continue to experience the presence of God through the week, as he gets closer to the cross?
Father Richard Rohr (cac.org, from an online devotional) writes, “I am afraid that many of us with privilege have been able to become very naïve about pain and suffering in the United States and the Western world. We simply don’t have time for it. However, by trying to handle all suffering through willpower, denial, medication, or even therapy, we have forgotten something that should be obvious: we do not handle suffering; suffering handles us — in deep and mysterious ways that become the very matrix of life and especially new life. Only suffering and certain kinds of awe lead us into genuinely new experiences. All the rest is merely the confirmation of old experience.” The sermon might examine how “suffering handles us,” as this Palm Sunday comes to us amid a pandemic, along with the loss of work for many. As we enter into a Holy Week like nothing we’ve experienced before, how are we living with suffering?
In an opinion piece, Olivia Laing observes that there are gifts in loneliness, too. “Most of us are perennially short of time, and now we’re left hanging in it. This is an opportunity for a different kind of connection. During a long spell of loneliness, I found that art was among the richest consolations, and that voyaging into other people’s worlds by way of novels, paintings and films had a magical capacity for making me feel connected, seen, met…Love is not just conveyed by touch. It moves between strangers; it travels through objects and words in books. There are so many things available to sustain us now, and though it sounds counterintuitive to say it, loneliness is one of them. The weird gift of loneliness is that it grounds us in our common humanity. Other people have been afraid, waited, listened for news. Other people have survived. The whole world is in the same boat. However frightened we may feel, we have never been less alone.” The sermon might explore the gifts of this time, while being mindful of those who are struggling to pay the rent or buy groceries.
Grounded in our humanity, sharing an experience of sorrow with much of the world, this Palm Sunday invites us to embrace our pain, and welcome the lessons of isolation. Palm and Passion Sunday will feel odd this year, as we celebrate from the living room or the porch. We’ll feel off-kilter, as we worship via Zoom or YouTube, instead of with palms and the music of the church. In that oddness, the presence of God can come fully to life. It may be that we have never been closer to Jesus than we are this year.
Do you believe it?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Matthew 21:1-11
Palm(?) Sunday
Matthew has it that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem from Jericho, a steep, 15-mile trip. As he nears the city he sends two (unnamed) disciples ahead to get a donkey and a colt. Matthew takes Zechariah’s prophecy literally and has Jesus riding both animals. The orders Jesus gives to the disciples recalls the scene in the first Star Wars movie, when Obi-Wan Kenobi informs the imperial guards, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
In Mark and Matthew the text says “branches” (Matthew) and “leafy branches” (Mark) were cut from nearby trees and put on the road for Jesus and the animal(s) to walk on. Luke has no mention of branches at all. Only John 12:13 specifies that the branches are from palm trees. So preacher, if coronavirus keeps your palm branches from being delivered, feel free to improvise. Today’s text is not palm specific.
A more obscure passage that could be deemed prophecy for Palm Sunday is Genesis 49:8-12 (NRSV), Joseph’s final words to Judah and his clan.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his robe in the blood of grapes;
his eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
Judah is the kingdom that includes Jerusalem. So there’s that.
* * *
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Psalm 113-118 are strongly connected to the celebration of Passover. They were sung in the afternoon of Passover when the lambs were at slaughter, and sung again that evening when the diners sang them while eating Seder.
Originally the psalm was probably sung on the occasion of a coronation, or the arrival of a king.
The parts of the psalm that those travelling with Jesus sang are clearly messianic. They would have been very familiar to Jesus’ followers as they were sung at least twice during the celebration of Passover each year.
Verses 19-29 have a confusing series of shifts among the speakers. Here I am indebted to Preaching the New Common Lectionary, edited by Fred B. Craddock, et al., Abingdon Press, 1986, p. 72.
v. 19 – the entering king
v. 20 – the temple priests respond
vv. 21-22 – the king addresses God directly
vv. 23-24 – worshippers sing praises to God
v. 25 – all those assembled pray
vv. 26-27 – the king is blessed as he enters the temple
v. 28 – the king offers thanksgiving
v. 29 – everyone gives thanks
* * *
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Christians are good at recycling. This reading from Second Isaiah was originally a word of hope and encouragement to Judeans in exile in Babylon, probably around 530 BCE. This was prior to the Persian invasion of Babylon under Cyrus. The resolute, determined hope of the prophet embodied that of the exiles awaiting their deliverance — which wouldn’t be for several more generations!
Christians through the ages have seen the same determination in Jesus as he faced humiliation and torture.
* * *
Psalm 31:9-16
This portion of Psalm 31 describes the human, physical cost of distress. While no illness is named, the psalmist’s body is described as being very ill, bones wasting away. The decay is so severe and visually apparent that those who see the psalmist are horrified. The psalmist also imagines being surrounded by enemies. He may be delusional, suffering from schizophrenia, yet, like the Servant Song of today’s Isaiah reading, the psalmist is confident of God’s deliverance and protection.
In the movie “42” about Jackie Robinson’s career as the first African-American to play major league baseball in the 20th century, there is a wonderful scene in which Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford, challenges Robinson, played by Chadwick Boseman, not to retaliate against opposing players who insult and assault him. At first Robinson resists, not wanting to appear weak, but Rickey points out that he’s trying to find out if Robinson is strong enough not to retaliate. Turning the other cheek is not a display of weakness, but of strength.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
This reading may be the oldest Christian hymn. It leaves the singer/reader wondering, however, what exactly Christ was emptied of. Did he somehow pour out that of him which was divine and thus leave only human form? Did he pour out whatever earthly status was his to become as low as a human servant? It’s clear that the song’s structure shows a descent of some kind giving way to an ascent even higher than where the song began.
It’s possible, likely even, that Paul inserted “even death on a cross” into the lyrics of the song to emphasize the degradation of the crucifixion. Crucifixion was singled out in Deuteronomy “anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.” (NIV)
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
The illustrations for this Sunday will address the coronavirus.
* * *
Dr. Ben Carson is the secretary for Housing and Urban Development. At a press briefing held on Saturday, March 4, 2020, he spoke of the power of prayer during the coronavirus pandemic. The Secretary also spoke of the power of community. He said, “There’s nothing wrong with godly principles, no matter what your faith is: loving your neighbor, caring about the people around you, developing your God-given talents to the utmost, so you become valuable to the people around you.” The U.S Surgeon General Jerome Adams shared Dr. Carson’s views at the same press briefing. The Surgeon General said, “No more bickering, no more partisanship, no more criticism or finger-pointing; they’ll be plenty of time for that. But we all need to hit the reset button and lean forward, the health and safety of the American people are top priority.”
* * *
Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for coronavirus while they were in Australia. They were in Australia in pre-production of a new movie, a biopic of Elvis Presley. In the movie Hanks plays Tom Parker, the manager of Presley. During their self-isolation Tom described the experience as “Folding laundry and doing the dishes leads to a nap on the couch.” Tom and Rita also played gin rummy. But Rita, an actress, did one thing more. She posted herself doing silly antics on Instagram. Though she was still “stir crazy” and knew that others who were self-isolating were experiencing the same, she shared her phone number with her 965,000 Instagram followers, which went viral, encouraging those who are going “stir crazy” to contact her, and she would respond personally to each text. On Instagram, on March 23, 2020, she said, “So feel free to text me to my cell phone number. It is me. I will get it to you and I will get back to you in due time, 'cause I'm gonna be probably spending a lot of time on text.”
* * * * * *
From team member Kentina Washington-Leapheart:
Matthew 21:1-11
As he was preparing the author’s note for his then-untitled next book, author Donald Miller offered a “sermonette” of sorts of his coming to terms with — and ultimately being delivered from — his incessant need for external validation. Applause, he writes, was his goal. If he could only do certain things or act in a certain way, then and only then would people validate him. His method worked for a while... until it didn’t. Later as he was able to reflect, he discovered that it wasn’t validation via applause that he was really looking for; it was love.
In this familiar passage of scripture, we are sideline observers to Jesus’s ride into Jerusalem. Like any good parade, there are crowds of enthusiastic onlookers shouting and singing, full of excitement. As they lay their cloaks on the ground, spread the branches atop them, and waved their palms, I can imagine that they were also applauding. The son of David, Jesus the Christ, was arriving. It was a sight to behold and one worthy of celebration.
While we know that Jesus never performed miracles, taught via parables, or turned over tables in order to gain followers (h/t Instagram), Miller’s cautionary tale is an invitation to look at the Palm Parade through the lens of a deep need for validation which, uncovered, is really a deep need for love.
Miller writes, “Somebody once told me we will never feel loved until we have no pretenses, until we are fully able to be ourselves, and until then, we can only feel love in percentages. I’d spent a good bit of my life acting and getting people to clap for me but none of the applause did anything except make me want more applause.”
Many (most?) of those who participated in that Palm Parade were, just a few days later, shouting something very different than “Hosanna!” In less than a week, there had been a shift from adoration to disgust, delight to disdain. A cacophony of adulation had quickly shifted to a call for capital murder. Jesus, who had no “act,” who did nothing from selfishness or pride, but who did come bringing a message of healing, hope, love, and deliverance was sent to his death because of it.
Miller concludes his reflection by saying, “If you want to be loved, be yourself with people who are kind and trustworthy. I act less than before and get a little less applause, but feel slightly more loved. Applause is a quick fix. Love is an acquired taste.”
Applause is a quick fix, both for the giver and the receiver. Love is an acquired taste, one that we often reject because our need for validation can taste so much sweeter at the initial introduction to our tastebuds, but the aftertaste can be quite bitter. The rejection of divine love by those who would later participate in the crucifixion is a cautionary tale to all of us to be careful of where we look to get our needs met.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Palm Sunday
“A cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd”— not!
There’s a stunning contrast between the words of Thomas Troeger’s Palm Sunday hymn “A Cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd” with the image of Pope Francis praying alone in St. Peter’s Square. Like church leaders around the world, the Pontiff will officiate at Holy Week observances in an empty sanctuary. But Pope Francis’ actions will be more than an inconvenience. Social distancing in Rome will be a reminder of the sacrifices required to protect vulnerable persons in Italy, which so far has the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths of any nation. (“A Cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd,” by Thomas Troeger is #200 in the Presbyterian “Glory To God” hymnal, or #193 in the Disciple’s “Chalice Hymnal.”)
***
Passion Sunday (Philippians 2:5-11)
Humble
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — known as Dr. Tedros — tweeted a one word message to the world on Sunday. “Humility,” Dr. Tedros believes, is the most essential lesson to be learned from the current pandemic. He offered no further explanation on Sunday, but later claimed that scientific tools can only take the world so far, saying, “We continue to be encouraged by the signs of global solidarity to confront and overcome this common threat.”
“Coming together is the only option we have,” Dr. Tedros said at a press conference on Monday. “Unity is the only option we have to defeat this virus. Yesterday, I sent a tweet with a single word: ‘Humility.’ Some people asked me: ‘Why?’ Covid-19 is reminding us how vulnerable we are, how connected we are and how dependent we are on each other.”
***
Passion Sunday
Not so humble
Tampa, Florida pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of the River at Tampa Bay Church, was arrested this week for defying safer-at-home orders. Howard-Browne refused to stop holding worship services despite local orders to restrict larger public gatherings. The River Church held Sunday services with more than 400 persons in attendance. Howard-Browne at times openly mocked social distancing requirements.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister offered his own theological reflection on the matter, saying “I believe there is nothing more important than faith in a time like this. But practicing those beliefs has to be done safely.”
Howard-Browne has also stated he believes God will multiply empty toilet rolls, and that his church is equipped with equipment to neutralize aerosolized particles of the virus transmitted during sneezes.
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Palm Psalm
Leader: O give thanks to God who is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: Open the gates of righteousness, that we may enter.
People: This is the gate of God; the righteous shall enter through it.
Leader: You are our God, and we will give thanks to you.
People: You are our God, we will extol you.
OR
Passion Psalm
Leader: Be gracious to us, O God, for we are in distress.
People: Our eyes waste away from grief, our soul and body also.
Leader: For our life is spent with sorrow, and our years with sighing.
People: Our strength fails because of our misery.
Leader: Let your face shine upon your servants.
People: Save us in your steadfast love.
OR
Palm centered
Leader: Our King is coming to us let the people rejoice!
People: Our King comes in humility on a donkey’s colt.
Leader: Hosanna to the Son of David!
People: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God!
Leader: Hosanna in the highest heaven!
People: Hosanna to the Son of David!
Hymns and Songs:
All Glory, Laud, and Honor
UMH: 280
H82: 154/155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216/217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
ELW: 344
W&P: 265
AMEC: 129
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
UMH: 278
PH: 89
NCH: 213
W&P: 267
AMEC: 130
Mantos y Palmas (Filled with Excitement)
UMH: 279
NCH: 214
Make Me a Captive, Lord
UMH: 421
PH: 378
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
Take Up Thy Cross
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELW: 667
W&P: 351
AMEC: 294
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELW: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
I Come with Joy
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELW: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
Bread of the World
UMH: 624
H82: 301
PH: 502
NCH: 346
CH: 387
W&P: 693
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Hosanna
CCB: 24
Renew: 71
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to us in the times we need you most:
Grant us the vision to see you as you enter into our world once again;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who comes to meet us in our times of need. Help us to see you in the midst of all that is going on around us so that we may praise you and find hope. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we confuse sacrifice and inconvenience.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forgotten that things are not always easy and when we are inconvenienced by the circumstances of life, we feel that we are making real sacrifices or facing real hardships. We forget to take on the mind of Christ and look at the setbacks of life as opportunities to let your light shine for others. We are so taken with our own concerns that we forget to care for others. Call us back to the way of the Christ that we may truly be the light of the world. Amen.
Leader: God made us in the divine image so that we could be the light of the world. God always honors our requests to become what we were created to be. Receive the power of the Spirit to shine for all the world.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory be to you, O God, and to your Christ who comes into our midst this day.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forgotten that things are not always easy and when we are inconvenienced by the circumstances of life, we feel that we are making real sacrifices or facing real hardships. We forget to take on the mind of Christ and look at the setbacks of life as opportunities to let your light shine for others. We are so taken with our own concerns that we forget to care for others. Call us back to the way of the Christ that we may truly be the light of the world.
We give you thank for all the blessings we receive from you. We thank you for the guidance of scripture and from our traditions. We thank you for those who have taken the time to allow your light to shine through them into our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are unaware of the presence of the Christ in their lives. We pray for those who are so burdened by sorrow, poverty, violence, and loneliness that they find it almost impossible to believe in a God who cares.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Ask the children for some words that describe Jesus. But what about the word ‘slave’. Does that sound like Jesus? Probably not but the scripture says Jesus took the form of a slave, a servant, to serve the people he came to save. Jesus was willing to serve us and invites us to serve one another.
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CHILDREN'S SERMON
Do What Now?
by Bethany Peerbolte
Matthew 21:1-11
In all good relationships there comes a point where we don’t ask a lot of questions when the other person needs something. I was once sitting in a friend’s home when she suddenly asked her husband for pickles and mayonnaise. Without a thought he got up and brought her three pickle spears and a cup filled with mayonnaise. I will add that she was pregnant at the time, but this was one of the most bizarre things I have witnessed. I think it is similar to the things Jesus asks of the disciples and the community on Palm Sunday. Borrow a donkey? Okay. Parade into enemy territory? Sure. Flipping tables in the temple? Fine. Cursing a fig tree for not having fruit out of season? Whatever. Their week becomes more and more bizarre, but they know Jesus does not ask without a reason so they follow faithfully.
It can feel like we are asked to do strange things in life. Forgive those who hold grudges against us. Give to those who can do nothing for us in return. Welcome strangers into a full life with us. Be kind to those who bully us. Jesus’ final days were spent asking remarkable things of his disciples possibly to prepare them for the most remarkable thing of all, resurrection.
This lesson will work well over the internet too, since we are all learning how to be televangelists thanks to Covid-19. If you have kids, or even adults, in your household you can have them demonstrate the opening with you. I highly suggest doing these things with the kids, too. It is great for kids to see their pastors being silly and real.
In your lesson say something like:
I need you all to do what I do, so follow me. First I want you all to walk around like an elephant (take a few moments to walk around). Okay that was great. Next I need you to tap dance. You are all so good at that! Next I need you to kick your legs in the air like this. Now I need you to keep kicking but also pat your head, and stick out your tongue and smile really big. Okay thank you for your help with that.
That was really important work. Don’t believe me? It was! I needed you to do that for me so we could all laugh and be silly together. You see I’ve been feeling kind of sad and worried lately and being silly really helps me find joy. SO thank you for that important work.
We have all been doing important work these past few weeks by staying home. I know it might not feel like really important work but it is. Keeping to ourselves makes sure the germs of Covid-19 can’t jump from person to person. When they can’t jump they can’t get people sick and we all stay safe. But I understand how staying at home doesn’t feel like we are doing much.
Jesus’s disciples got asked to do things they didn’t always understand either. In our lesson today Jesus asks his disciples to go to a town they had never been to and find a donkey they had never seen and take it from the owner who was a guy they didn’t know. Jesus said it was all arranged by God and they just need to follow the instructions.
Now we might expect the disciples to question Jesus and say “are you sure” but you know what, they don’t ask any questions. The disciples trust Jesus so much by now, they have all been friends and living together for 3 years, that they say “okay” and go get the donkey. Sure enough it all falls into place just like Jesus said it would. Their trust was well placed with Jesus.
Sometimes what God asks us to do feels odd. Like we are supposed to be nice to people who are not nice to us. We are supposed to give to people who have nothing to give back to us. Those are odd things, but when we trust God we know is it smart to listen. Let’s say a prayer to help us listen and follow God.
Loving God, We want to help the world, but we don’t always know the best way. Let us hear how you want us to help and be brave enough to say okay. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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The Immediate Word, April 5, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Sacrifice or Inconvenience? (Liturgy of the Passion) by Dean Feldmeyer — Even without the bloody mess of atonement theology, Jesus’ sacrifice is clear. But for us the distinction between “sacrifice” and “inconvenience” may not be so clear.
- Lonely in the Midst of People (Liturgy of the Palms) by Mary Austin — As we embrace the worry, fear and isolation in our own lives, we have a deeper way to understand what Jesus experiences. We are not saviors of the world, but we can understand the loneliness in his spirit through the solitude in our own.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen, Ron Love, Chris Keating, Kentina Washington-Leapheart.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on humility and servanthood; sacrifice vs. inconvenience.
- Children’s sermon: Do What Now? by Bethany Peerbolte — It can feel like we are asked to do strange things in life. Forgive those who hold grudges against us. Give to those who can do nothing for us in return. Welcome strangers into a full life with us. Be kind to those who bully us...
Sacrifice or Inconvenience?by Dean Feldmeyer
Liturgy of the Passion
Many of us will, due to various lockdown orders, be staying home on Palm Sunday (and maybe Easter). How, we might ask ourselves, does staying home on the highest, holiest days in the Christian calendar affect us? Is it a painful sacrifice or just an annoying inconvenience?
For some, sheltering in place and social distancing mean home workouts in front of the television instead of going to the gym, cooking on the grill with groceries ordered online instead of going out to eat, doing yard work instead of going to work, working at the dining room table instead of in a cubicle, helping our children with online lessons instead of sending them to school, and playing board games with the kids instead of playing golf with friends.
For others, it means cramming the family of four into a 110-square-foot space, being told that school will be online when you can’t afford a computer, and losing your only source of income which was barely enough to get by on when you had it. It means foraging through trash for edible scraps, losing the other human bodies which were your only source of warmth on cold nights, and crippling loneliness for nursing home patients, homeless people, the rural poor, and those with disabilities.
How different these two scenarios are. Some are inconvenienced. Some have been forced into making severe sacrifices, sacrifices for which they were not prepared and did not volunteer. Yet, if we listen closely, we hear both groups singing Stephen Foster’s lament, “Hard times, come again, no more.”
In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul reminds us that Jesus chose to make a very real sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, on our behalf. And we, who call ourselves Christians, are by extension, called beyond tolerating inconveniences to making genuine sacrifices on behalf of others.
In the News
By Palm Sunday, April 5, many of us will have been under some kind of lock down orders for about two to two-and-a-half weeks and we’ll be pretty frustrated and tired of how this microscopic virus seems to have taken over and is now directing the course of our lives.
It didn’t take two and a half weeks for the discontent to really set in, however.
We were quarantined for only about ten days when politicians and pundits, including the President, decided that it was going on way too long and our cowardice in the face of the Covid-19 virus was making us overreact and threatening to kill not just old people but the entire American way of life, starting with the economy. Some went so far as to say that we should be willing to sacrifice the lives of about 2.5 percent of the population (people over 60, people with disabilities, poor people, and people without health insurance) so we can start eating out and shopping again.
No one was willing to write the names of all those who should be willing to die, but some of them did, in fact, say that to think otherwise was just plain selfish and cowardly.
Neither did it take long for the discontent to drive people to openly defy the lockdown orders. In Louisiana, a church stayed open for Sunday worship, foolishly proclaiming that God will protect them from the virus. Well, maybe or maybe not. It has been my observation that God rarely protects us from the consequences of our own foolish choices. One bar had its license permanently revoked and was boarded up by the police for disregarding the order to close until the coronavirus threat is purged. One young person in Kentucky was diagnosed with the virus after attending a Coronavirus party. And the ban on gatherings of large numbers of people was openly disregarded by thousands of college spring break revelers on Florida’s beaches.
Our news sources are offering page after page on how to keep our marriages and our relationships with our children intact when we’re being required to spend so much time together in close quarters. One humorous meme shows a dog with a vexed expression, apparently rolling her eyes, and says that after hearing her owner grouse and complain day after day she (the dog) suddenly came to realize that she just wasn’t cut out to be an emotional support dog.
We Americans get restless when the government tells us what we have to do, and especially when that order inconveniences us. When it calls us to actually make sacrifices for anything less than a declared war, we chafe and often get angry.
While many of us are merely inconvenienced, however, others are making true and painful sacrifices in the fight against what the President has called, “The Invisible Enemy.” Unemployment is at its highest level in the past decade and is expected to go higher. 3.3 million people filed for unemployment the week of March 16 and that doesn’t include people who were self-employed or private contractors. Large chain restaurants and corporately owned restaurants may be able to weather this storm but independent restaurants, which make up about 23 of the dining out landscape, are another story. “Restaurant analysts and operators have been quoting an estimate that 75 percent of the independent restaurants that have been closed to protect Americans from the coronavirus won’t make it.”
To those who lose their livelihood or the business into which they have poured their lives and life’s savings, businesses that have often been handed down from one generation to the next, these lockdowns are not just inconveniences, they are real and painful sacrifices.
And then, let’s talk about the rural poor, the urban poor, refugees in camps, homeless people huddled together under bridges and in tightly packed shelters. Okay, maybe we don’t have to. Maybe we all get the point.
Healthcare workers live in constant fear. If they go home and they’ve been infected with the virus, they risk infecting their families. So, they sleep in their cars or on cots at the hospital and go back to work, poorly rested, lonely and scared, with no emotional support. These are the ones making real sacrifices.
There is a wide gulf that separates those who are making sacrifices and those who are being inconvenienced.
In the Scriptures
In this day’s Epistle, Philippians 2:5-11, Paul reminds us of the seriousness of Jesus as he faces the very real and painful sacrifice that is soon to befall him.
“Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.”
It is for that reason that we call him Lord.
It’s not because he was a nice guy, or because he was generous and kind, or even because he performed miracles and healed people. Those aren’t the reason we call him Savior and Messiah. It is that ultimate sacrifice that he made on our behalf that causes us to fall down before him and confess that he is Lord of our lives.
Even without what my friend and colleague Chris Keating helpfully calls “the bloody mess of atonement theology,” there is no denying that Jesus is, on Passion Sunday, about to make a supreme sacrifice in the cause of humanity’s salvation. He is about to sacrifice his own life to communicate saving grace and purifying, sanctifying agape to a hurting world paralyzed by doubt and fear.
For Paul, this is not just a story of something that happened once upon a time. Neither is it simply proof of what a nice person Jesus was. It is the nail upon which we hang our faith, the existential reality that sets the course and drives our lives as Christian persons.
We are called not just to worship Jesus but to emulate him. We are called not just to be his friends but to be his students, his disciples, whose task it is to take up our own crosses.
If we stop when we are inconvenienced, if we mistake inconvenience for sacrifice, we put the lie to Good Friday.
We are called to be, as Jesus was, like the bread and wine of holy communion, broken and poured out for the world. Anything less and we are only playing at being Christians.
In the Sermon
Our American culture is scared; of that there is no doubt. And there is nothing wrong with letting our fear inform our lives and our relationships. Without the presence of fear few of us would make it beyond our twelfth year. Fear is what keeps us from attempting to play in the street or with matches. Fear is what keeps many of us at the gym and what motivates us to push away from the table. Fear is what allows us to keep one eye on our children when we are talking with our friends at the picnic.
We know, indeed, we are sure that there are dangerous things out there and our fear of them is healthy and appropriate. Fear is a good informer.
But fear is a terrible ruler. While, as prudent persons, we let our fears inform our behavior, as moral persons we never allow them to rule our behavior.
Currently, there are those in our culture who would have us believe that there are, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, only two choices before us: One choice is to keep non-essential businesses and gathering places closed, while we encourage our people to lock themselves in their homes until the economy crashes and we are returned to 1929 and another Great Depression and, maybe, the death of not just our economy but our beloved country as well.
The other choice, they say, is to ignore the virulent, lethal virus that is currently rampaging through our country and the world, and reopen our restaurants, bars, bowling allies, golf courses, hotels and other “non-essential” businesses knowing full well that doing so will result in the deaths of what experts estimate will be about 8 million souls (2.5% of the population of the United States) and shrugging off that number as acceptable losses in the effort to restore the economy.
One is reminded of the line from Dr. Strangelove: “Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.”
Those, they insist, are our only two choices and, either way, it’s the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the children, the otherwise marginalized persons in our country who will take it in the neck.
But there is, of course, a third option. It is not an easy one. If we choose it, many of us will get hurt and some of us will still probably die, as some have died already. But this third option is one modeled upon the life of Jesus and his disciples in the early church.
In this third model, Christians continue to maintain social distancing and gatherings are still prohibited until the virus has been conquered. Layoffs continue as they have done and healthcare workers continue to work hard on our behalf.
While that is happening, we Christians who are still drawing paychecks and living in comfortable settings, set aside our inconveniences and our petty discomforts and commit ourselves to taking care of our brothers and sisters regardless of their age, race, religion, who are not as lucky as we are.
That is, we commit ourselves to making sacrifices in order that all of us may survive.
We feed those who can’t afford groceries. We buy for ourselves only what we need. We practice, to the limit of our ability, the sterile technique we are being taught by medical experts. We call and talk to and listen to those who are alone and lonely. We encourage those who are discouraged, lift up those who have fallen, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and clothe those who are naked and cold.
In other words, we act like Christians have acted and been called to act throughout our 2,000-year history. We empty ourselves as Christ did on the cross so that others may live.
Writing for the Bulwark, Tim Miller observes that the challenge that lay before us “…requires a call to care about our neighbors more than ourselves. At its core, that’s what this quarantine is all about.
“Making this call is a challenge in a fractured country, where our politics is oriented toward hating the other, where we are told that owning the libs is the highest purpose, that drinking liberal/billionaire/CNN tears is our aspirational goal, that those coming here to seek a better life are actually rapists and terrorists and invaders.
“This should be the opportunity to reject all of that. To reorient the way people think about their responsibility toward each other. This should be a moment for communal grace and healing.”
Dare we Christians let such a moment pass us by unaddressed? If history is a good teacher, as my history professors assured us it is, then the time before us is not just a challenge. It is an opportunity for us to exemplify before the whole world what it means to be Christian.
In 2014 when Ebola was on everyone’s radar, speaker and author Eric Metaxas offered this story, first told by Gibbons in, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
“Between 250 and 270 A.D. a terrible plague, believed to be measles or smallpox, devastated the Roman Empire. At the height of what came to be known as the Plague of Cyprian, after the bishop St. Cyprian who chronicled what was happening, 5,000 people died every day in Rome alone.
“The plague coincided with the first empire-wide persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius. Not surprisingly, Decius and other enemies of the Church blamed Christians for the plague. That claim was, however, undermined by two inconvenient facts: Christians died from the plague like everybody else and, unlike everybody else, they cared for the victims of the plague, including their pagan neighbors.
“This wasn't new — Christians had done the same thing during the Antonine Plague a century earlier. As Rodney Stark wrote in ‘The Rise of Christianity,’ Christians stayed in the afflicted cities when pagan leaders, including physicians, fled.
“Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Notre Dame, notes that an ‘epidemic that seemed like the end of the world actually promoted the spread of Christianity.’ By their actions in the face of possible death, Christians showed their neighbors that ‘Christianity is worth dying for.’ ”
Nobody is asking us to die. Just to stay home and, sacrificially, take care of our brothers and sisters. By this they will know that we are followers of Christ.
They will, as the song says, know we are Christians by our love.
Lonely in the Midst of Peopleby Mary Austin
Liturgy of the Palms
As we all stay home to “flatten the curve,” the isolation is taking a toll on our spirits. Many people are worried about the loss of income, as jobs in restaurants, hotels, the arts and schools have shut down. Others are worried about family members in other locations, and people have canceled long-planned weddings. Funerals are on hold, and older family members are locked down in retirement communities.
Zoom meetings allow us to work, for those of us who still have jobs, and yet people are starting to lament “Zoom fatigue,” and the pressure of being focused all the time. Zoom lets us see a bit of our co-workers’ homes, but Zoom meetings are like eating potato chips. A little bit is great. After a whole day, we feel a curious unease. It’s food, but not very nourishing.
This year, like no other before it, and hopefully no other after it, we can understand the essential loneliness of Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem. We have a unique window into the isolation of Jesus, as he enters the city.
Our loneliness mirrors his, as he moves into this last week of his life.
In the Scriptures
As Matthew tells the story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem, we never hear from Jesus after he arranges for the donkey and the colt. The action swirls around him, and, Jesus, curiously, is the least active person in the story. Other than sitting on the donkey, we never hear about him again. The disciples speak, the crowd calls out in acclaim, people in the city ask about Jesus, and other people give an answer. Jesus doesn’t make a speech, and, as far as we can tell, he doesn’t do anything to encourage or discourage the crowd. He rides. And thinks.
It’s easy to picture Jesus, riding in stillness as the crowd shouts around him. This parade mirrors his temptation in the desert at the beginning of his ministry, when the tempter offers him power and glory. Here, the same things are offered by the crowd, as they misunderstand his entrance. Jesus is carrying the weight of his impending death, and the knowledge that he’s not the kind of king the people have in mind. There’s a deep gap between what he knows and what the people around him know.
In this story, it seems that even the disciples don’t see what’s being enacted in front of them. There’s a peculiar loneliness for Jesus, in this entrance, as he knows where the week will end. Even in the crowd, he’s isolated.
In the News
Right now, much of the world is isolated in a different way, but with the same loneliness. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, much of the country is closed, and the isolation of staying home from work and school is taking a toll. Robin Wright notes, “The novel coronavirus has swept the globe at a time when more people are living alone than ever before in human history… I live alone and have no family, and usually don’t think much about it. But, as the new pathogen forces us to socially distance, I have begun to feel lonely. I miss the ability to see, converse with, hug, or spend time with friends. Life seems shallower, more like survival than living.” Researchers document a connection between prolonged isolation and mortality. “In 2015, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Brigham Young University, published an analysis of seventy studies, involving 3.4 million people, examining the impact of social isolation, loneliness, and living alone. The results were notable in light of today’s pandemic. The review found that loneliness increased the rate of early death by twenty-six per cent; social isolation led to an increased rate of mortality of twenty-nine per cent, and living alone by thirty-two per cent — no matter the subject’s age, gender, location, or culture.” “Keep in mind, this is looking at chronic effects over time,” Holt-Lunstad says. Holt-Lunstad says the danger for us will be if we continue these patterns of isolation even when the danger of illness has passed. She cautions, “just like we’re worried about an economic recession, we should worry about a social recession — a continued pattern of distancing socially, beyond the immediate pandemic, that will have broader societal effects, particularly for the vulnerable.”
The loneliness epidemic beat the Covid-19 epidemic, and each is making the other more toxic. “More than 60 percent of Americans reported feeling lonely in 2019, an increase of 7 percentage points from the year before.” Our risk of being lonely falls more heavily on some of us than on others. “Many of the people at greatest risk of isolation and loneliness are also those most vulnerable to the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. People living in institutional settings — nursing homes, assisted living facilities, prisons and jails — are, quite literally, isolated from many parts of society already. And they are particularly vulnerable to viral outbreaks like Covid-19, should it make its way inside their walls. Residents of these same institutions are already particularly susceptible to loneliness. Restrictions on visitors are important for protecting the health and safety of residents and staff of these institutions, but they may also exacerbate already strong feelings of loneliness and isolation.”
Further, in this time when we’re connecting online, the digital divide leaves some people out of Zoom meetings and Facebook live. People without computers or smartphones, and people who use the internet at a now-closed library, lose out on even virtual connections. Many of us are lonely, in a spiritual sense, and others of us are contending with an added layer of physical and virtual isolation.
In the Sermon
The sermon might address the isolation that we are feeling as a way to enter into Jesus’ story. As we embrace the worry, fear and isolation in our own lives, we have a deeper way to understand what Jesus experiences. We are not saviors of the world, but we can understand the loneliness in his spirit through the solitude in our own.
Or, the sermon might address the experience of a lonely death, as that happens to more people around us. Jesus is moving, in this week, toward his death. The sermon might address the plight of people who are dying alone, as loved ones are banned from hospital rooms and long-term care facilities. How do we assure people that God is with them, even when we’re not there to embody that presence? How does Jesus continue to experience the presence of God through the week, as he gets closer to the cross?
Father Richard Rohr (cac.org, from an online devotional) writes, “I am afraid that many of us with privilege have been able to become very naïve about pain and suffering in the United States and the Western world. We simply don’t have time for it. However, by trying to handle all suffering through willpower, denial, medication, or even therapy, we have forgotten something that should be obvious: we do not handle suffering; suffering handles us — in deep and mysterious ways that become the very matrix of life and especially new life. Only suffering and certain kinds of awe lead us into genuinely new experiences. All the rest is merely the confirmation of old experience.” The sermon might examine how “suffering handles us,” as this Palm Sunday comes to us amid a pandemic, along with the loss of work for many. As we enter into a Holy Week like nothing we’ve experienced before, how are we living with suffering?
In an opinion piece, Olivia Laing observes that there are gifts in loneliness, too. “Most of us are perennially short of time, and now we’re left hanging in it. This is an opportunity for a different kind of connection. During a long spell of loneliness, I found that art was among the richest consolations, and that voyaging into other people’s worlds by way of novels, paintings and films had a magical capacity for making me feel connected, seen, met…Love is not just conveyed by touch. It moves between strangers; it travels through objects and words in books. There are so many things available to sustain us now, and though it sounds counterintuitive to say it, loneliness is one of them. The weird gift of loneliness is that it grounds us in our common humanity. Other people have been afraid, waited, listened for news. Other people have survived. The whole world is in the same boat. However frightened we may feel, we have never been less alone.” The sermon might explore the gifts of this time, while being mindful of those who are struggling to pay the rent or buy groceries.
Grounded in our humanity, sharing an experience of sorrow with much of the world, this Palm Sunday invites us to embrace our pain, and welcome the lessons of isolation. Palm and Passion Sunday will feel odd this year, as we celebrate from the living room or the porch. We’ll feel off-kilter, as we worship via Zoom or YouTube, instead of with palms and the music of the church. In that oddness, the presence of God can come fully to life. It may be that we have never been closer to Jesus than we are this year.
Do you believe it?
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Matthew 21:1-11
Palm(?) Sunday
Matthew has it that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem from Jericho, a steep, 15-mile trip. As he nears the city he sends two (unnamed) disciples ahead to get a donkey and a colt. Matthew takes Zechariah’s prophecy literally and has Jesus riding both animals. The orders Jesus gives to the disciples recalls the scene in the first Star Wars movie, when Obi-Wan Kenobi informs the imperial guards, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
In Mark and Matthew the text says “branches” (Matthew) and “leafy branches” (Mark) were cut from nearby trees and put on the road for Jesus and the animal(s) to walk on. Luke has no mention of branches at all. Only John 12:13 specifies that the branches are from palm trees. So preacher, if coronavirus keeps your palm branches from being delivered, feel free to improvise. Today’s text is not palm specific.
A more obscure passage that could be deemed prophecy for Palm Sunday is Genesis 49:8-12 (NRSV), Joseph’s final words to Judah and his clan.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his robe in the blood of grapes;
his eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
Judah is the kingdom that includes Jerusalem. So there’s that.
* * *
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Psalm 113-118 are strongly connected to the celebration of Passover. They were sung in the afternoon of Passover when the lambs were at slaughter, and sung again that evening when the diners sang them while eating Seder.
Originally the psalm was probably sung on the occasion of a coronation, or the arrival of a king.
The parts of the psalm that those travelling with Jesus sang are clearly messianic. They would have been very familiar to Jesus’ followers as they were sung at least twice during the celebration of Passover each year.
Verses 19-29 have a confusing series of shifts among the speakers. Here I am indebted to Preaching the New Common Lectionary, edited by Fred B. Craddock, et al., Abingdon Press, 1986, p. 72.
v. 19 – the entering king
v. 20 – the temple priests respond
vv. 21-22 – the king addresses God directly
vv. 23-24 – worshippers sing praises to God
v. 25 – all those assembled pray
vv. 26-27 – the king is blessed as he enters the temple
v. 28 – the king offers thanksgiving
v. 29 – everyone gives thanks
* * *
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Christians are good at recycling. This reading from Second Isaiah was originally a word of hope and encouragement to Judeans in exile in Babylon, probably around 530 BCE. This was prior to the Persian invasion of Babylon under Cyrus. The resolute, determined hope of the prophet embodied that of the exiles awaiting their deliverance — which wouldn’t be for several more generations!
Christians through the ages have seen the same determination in Jesus as he faced humiliation and torture.
* * *
Psalm 31:9-16
This portion of Psalm 31 describes the human, physical cost of distress. While no illness is named, the psalmist’s body is described as being very ill, bones wasting away. The decay is so severe and visually apparent that those who see the psalmist are horrified. The psalmist also imagines being surrounded by enemies. He may be delusional, suffering from schizophrenia, yet, like the Servant Song of today’s Isaiah reading, the psalmist is confident of God’s deliverance and protection.
In the movie “42” about Jackie Robinson’s career as the first African-American to play major league baseball in the 20th century, there is a wonderful scene in which Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford, challenges Robinson, played by Chadwick Boseman, not to retaliate against opposing players who insult and assault him. At first Robinson resists, not wanting to appear weak, but Rickey points out that he’s trying to find out if Robinson is strong enough not to retaliate. Turning the other cheek is not a display of weakness, but of strength.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
This reading may be the oldest Christian hymn. It leaves the singer/reader wondering, however, what exactly Christ was emptied of. Did he somehow pour out that of him which was divine and thus leave only human form? Did he pour out whatever earthly status was his to become as low as a human servant? It’s clear that the song’s structure shows a descent of some kind giving way to an ascent even higher than where the song began.
It’s possible, likely even, that Paul inserted “even death on a cross” into the lyrics of the song to emphasize the degradation of the crucifixion. Crucifixion was singled out in Deuteronomy “anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.” (NIV)
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:The illustrations for this Sunday will address the coronavirus.
* * *
Dr. Ben Carson is the secretary for Housing and Urban Development. At a press briefing held on Saturday, March 4, 2020, he spoke of the power of prayer during the coronavirus pandemic. The Secretary also spoke of the power of community. He said, “There’s nothing wrong with godly principles, no matter what your faith is: loving your neighbor, caring about the people around you, developing your God-given talents to the utmost, so you become valuable to the people around you.” The U.S Surgeon General Jerome Adams shared Dr. Carson’s views at the same press briefing. The Surgeon General said, “No more bickering, no more partisanship, no more criticism or finger-pointing; they’ll be plenty of time for that. But we all need to hit the reset button and lean forward, the health and safety of the American people are top priority.”
* * *
Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for coronavirus while they were in Australia. They were in Australia in pre-production of a new movie, a biopic of Elvis Presley. In the movie Hanks plays Tom Parker, the manager of Presley. During their self-isolation Tom described the experience as “Folding laundry and doing the dishes leads to a nap on the couch.” Tom and Rita also played gin rummy. But Rita, an actress, did one thing more. She posted herself doing silly antics on Instagram. Though she was still “stir crazy” and knew that others who were self-isolating were experiencing the same, she shared her phone number with her 965,000 Instagram followers, which went viral, encouraging those who are going “stir crazy” to contact her, and she would respond personally to each text. On Instagram, on March 23, 2020, she said, “So feel free to text me to my cell phone number. It is me. I will get it to you and I will get back to you in due time, 'cause I'm gonna be probably spending a lot of time on text.”
* * * * * *
From team member Kentina Washington-Leapheart:Matthew 21:1-11
As he was preparing the author’s note for his then-untitled next book, author Donald Miller offered a “sermonette” of sorts of his coming to terms with — and ultimately being delivered from — his incessant need for external validation. Applause, he writes, was his goal. If he could only do certain things or act in a certain way, then and only then would people validate him. His method worked for a while... until it didn’t. Later as he was able to reflect, he discovered that it wasn’t validation via applause that he was really looking for; it was love.
In this familiar passage of scripture, we are sideline observers to Jesus’s ride into Jerusalem. Like any good parade, there are crowds of enthusiastic onlookers shouting and singing, full of excitement. As they lay their cloaks on the ground, spread the branches atop them, and waved their palms, I can imagine that they were also applauding. The son of David, Jesus the Christ, was arriving. It was a sight to behold and one worthy of celebration.
While we know that Jesus never performed miracles, taught via parables, or turned over tables in order to gain followers (h/t Instagram), Miller’s cautionary tale is an invitation to look at the Palm Parade through the lens of a deep need for validation which, uncovered, is really a deep need for love.
Miller writes, “Somebody once told me we will never feel loved until we have no pretenses, until we are fully able to be ourselves, and until then, we can only feel love in percentages. I’d spent a good bit of my life acting and getting people to clap for me but none of the applause did anything except make me want more applause.”
Many (most?) of those who participated in that Palm Parade were, just a few days later, shouting something very different than “Hosanna!” In less than a week, there had been a shift from adoration to disgust, delight to disdain. A cacophony of adulation had quickly shifted to a call for capital murder. Jesus, who had no “act,” who did nothing from selfishness or pride, but who did come bringing a message of healing, hope, love, and deliverance was sent to his death because of it.
Miller concludes his reflection by saying, “If you want to be loved, be yourself with people who are kind and trustworthy. I act less than before and get a little less applause, but feel slightly more loved. Applause is a quick fix. Love is an acquired taste.”
Applause is a quick fix, both for the giver and the receiver. Love is an acquired taste, one that we often reject because our need for validation can taste so much sweeter at the initial introduction to our tastebuds, but the aftertaste can be quite bitter. The rejection of divine love by those who would later participate in the crucifixion is a cautionary tale to all of us to be careful of where we look to get our needs met.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:Palm Sunday
“A cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd”— not!
There’s a stunning contrast between the words of Thomas Troeger’s Palm Sunday hymn “A Cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd” with the image of Pope Francis praying alone in St. Peter’s Square. Like church leaders around the world, the Pontiff will officiate at Holy Week observances in an empty sanctuary. But Pope Francis’ actions will be more than an inconvenience. Social distancing in Rome will be a reminder of the sacrifices required to protect vulnerable persons in Italy, which so far has the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths of any nation. (“A Cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd,” by Thomas Troeger is #200 in the Presbyterian “Glory To God” hymnal, or #193 in the Disciple’s “Chalice Hymnal.”)
***
Passion Sunday (Philippians 2:5-11)
Humble
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — known as Dr. Tedros — tweeted a one word message to the world on Sunday. “Humility,” Dr. Tedros believes, is the most essential lesson to be learned from the current pandemic. He offered no further explanation on Sunday, but later claimed that scientific tools can only take the world so far, saying, “We continue to be encouraged by the signs of global solidarity to confront and overcome this common threat.”
“Coming together is the only option we have,” Dr. Tedros said at a press conference on Monday. “Unity is the only option we have to defeat this virus. Yesterday, I sent a tweet with a single word: ‘Humility.’ Some people asked me: ‘Why?’ Covid-19 is reminding us how vulnerable we are, how connected we are and how dependent we are on each other.”
***
Passion Sunday
Not so humble
Tampa, Florida pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of the River at Tampa Bay Church, was arrested this week for defying safer-at-home orders. Howard-Browne refused to stop holding worship services despite local orders to restrict larger public gatherings. The River Church held Sunday services with more than 400 persons in attendance. Howard-Browne at times openly mocked social distancing requirements.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister offered his own theological reflection on the matter, saying “I believe there is nothing more important than faith in a time like this. But practicing those beliefs has to be done safely.”
Howard-Browne has also stated he believes God will multiply empty toilet rolls, and that his church is equipped with equipment to neutralize aerosolized particles of the virus transmitted during sneezes.
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Palm Psalm
Leader: O give thanks to God who is good.
People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Leader: Open the gates of righteousness, that we may enter.
People: This is the gate of God; the righteous shall enter through it.
Leader: You are our God, and we will give thanks to you.
People: You are our God, we will extol you.
OR
Passion Psalm
Leader: Be gracious to us, O God, for we are in distress.
People: Our eyes waste away from grief, our soul and body also.
Leader: For our life is spent with sorrow, and our years with sighing.
People: Our strength fails because of our misery.
Leader: Let your face shine upon your servants.
People: Save us in your steadfast love.
OR
Palm centered
Leader: Our King is coming to us let the people rejoice!
People: Our King comes in humility on a donkey’s colt.
Leader: Hosanna to the Son of David!
People: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God!
Leader: Hosanna in the highest heaven!
People: Hosanna to the Son of David!
Hymns and Songs:
All Glory, Laud, and Honor
UMH: 280
H82: 154/155
PH: 88
AAHH: 226
NNBH: 102
NCH: 216/217
CH: 192
LBW: 108
ELW: 344
W&P: 265
AMEC: 129
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
UMH: 278
PH: 89
NCH: 213
W&P: 267
AMEC: 130
Mantos y Palmas (Filled with Excitement)
UMH: 279
NCH: 214
Make Me a Captive, Lord
UMH: 421
PH: 378
Take My Life, and Let It Be
UMH: 399
H82: 707
PH: 391
NNBH: 213
NCH: 448
CH: 609
LBW: 406
ELW: 583/685
W&P: 466
AMEC: 292
Renew: 150
Take Up Thy Cross
UMH: 415
H82: 675
PH: 393
LBW: 398
ELW: 667
W&P: 351
AMEC: 294
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELW: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
I Come with Joy
UMH: 617
H82: 304
PH: 507
NCH: 349
CH: 420
ELW: 482
W&P: 706
Renew: 195
Bread of the World
UMH: 624
H82: 301
PH: 502
NCH: 346
CH: 387
W&P: 693
How Firm a Foundation
UMH: 529
H82: 636/637
PH: 361
AAHH: 146
NNBH: 48
NCH: 407
CH: 618
LBW: 507
ELW: 796
W&P: 411
AMEC: 433
Make Me a Servant
CCB: 90
Hosanna
CCB: 24
Renew: 71
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to us in the times we need you most:
Grant us the vision to see you as you enter into our world once again;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the one who comes to meet us in our times of need. Help us to see you in the midst of all that is going on around us so that we may praise you and find hope. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we confuse sacrifice and inconvenience.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forgotten that things are not always easy and when we are inconvenienced by the circumstances of life, we feel that we are making real sacrifices or facing real hardships. We forget to take on the mind of Christ and look at the setbacks of life as opportunities to let your light shine for others. We are so taken with our own concerns that we forget to care for others. Call us back to the way of the Christ that we may truly be the light of the world. Amen.
Leader: God made us in the divine image so that we could be the light of the world. God always honors our requests to become what we were created to be. Receive the power of the Spirit to shine for all the world.
Prayers of the People
Praise and glory be to you, O God, and to your Christ who comes into our midst this day.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have forgotten that things are not always easy and when we are inconvenienced by the circumstances of life, we feel that we are making real sacrifices or facing real hardships. We forget to take on the mind of Christ and look at the setbacks of life as opportunities to let your light shine for others. We are so taken with our own concerns that we forget to care for others. Call us back to the way of the Christ that we may truly be the light of the world.
We give you thank for all the blessings we receive from you. We thank you for the guidance of scripture and from our traditions. We thank you for those who have taken the time to allow your light to shine through them into our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are unaware of the presence of the Christ in their lives. We pray for those who are so burdened by sorrow, poverty, violence, and loneliness that they find it almost impossible to believe in a God who cares.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Ask the children for some words that describe Jesus. But what about the word ‘slave’. Does that sound like Jesus? Probably not but the scripture says Jesus took the form of a slave, a servant, to serve the people he came to save. Jesus was willing to serve us and invites us to serve one another.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONDo What Now?
by Bethany Peerbolte
Matthew 21:1-11
In all good relationships there comes a point where we don’t ask a lot of questions when the other person needs something. I was once sitting in a friend’s home when she suddenly asked her husband for pickles and mayonnaise. Without a thought he got up and brought her three pickle spears and a cup filled with mayonnaise. I will add that she was pregnant at the time, but this was one of the most bizarre things I have witnessed. I think it is similar to the things Jesus asks of the disciples and the community on Palm Sunday. Borrow a donkey? Okay. Parade into enemy territory? Sure. Flipping tables in the temple? Fine. Cursing a fig tree for not having fruit out of season? Whatever. Their week becomes more and more bizarre, but they know Jesus does not ask without a reason so they follow faithfully.
It can feel like we are asked to do strange things in life. Forgive those who hold grudges against us. Give to those who can do nothing for us in return. Welcome strangers into a full life with us. Be kind to those who bully us. Jesus’ final days were spent asking remarkable things of his disciples possibly to prepare them for the most remarkable thing of all, resurrection.
This lesson will work well over the internet too, since we are all learning how to be televangelists thanks to Covid-19. If you have kids, or even adults, in your household you can have them demonstrate the opening with you. I highly suggest doing these things with the kids, too. It is great for kids to see their pastors being silly and real.
In your lesson say something like:
I need you all to do what I do, so follow me. First I want you all to walk around like an elephant (take a few moments to walk around). Okay that was great. Next I need you to tap dance. You are all so good at that! Next I need you to kick your legs in the air like this. Now I need you to keep kicking but also pat your head, and stick out your tongue and smile really big. Okay thank you for your help with that.
That was really important work. Don’t believe me? It was! I needed you to do that for me so we could all laugh and be silly together. You see I’ve been feeling kind of sad and worried lately and being silly really helps me find joy. SO thank you for that important work.
We have all been doing important work these past few weeks by staying home. I know it might not feel like really important work but it is. Keeping to ourselves makes sure the germs of Covid-19 can’t jump from person to person. When they can’t jump they can’t get people sick and we all stay safe. But I understand how staying at home doesn’t feel like we are doing much.
Jesus’s disciples got asked to do things they didn’t always understand either. In our lesson today Jesus asks his disciples to go to a town they had never been to and find a donkey they had never seen and take it from the owner who was a guy they didn’t know. Jesus said it was all arranged by God and they just need to follow the instructions.
Now we might expect the disciples to question Jesus and say “are you sure” but you know what, they don’t ask any questions. The disciples trust Jesus so much by now, they have all been friends and living together for 3 years, that they say “okay” and go get the donkey. Sure enough it all falls into place just like Jesus said it would. Their trust was well placed with Jesus.
Sometimes what God asks us to do feels odd. Like we are supposed to be nice to people who are not nice to us. We are supposed to give to people who have nothing to give back to us. Those are odd things, but when we trust God we know is it smart to listen. Let’s say a prayer to help us listen and follow God.
Loving God, We want to help the world, but we don’t always know the best way. Let us hear how you want us to help and be brave enough to say okay. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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The Immediate Word, April 5, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
