Sermon:Preparing for Christ’s Mission in Crisis
April 5th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Mark 11:1-11, 14:12-26
The Coming Crisis
The past few weeks have felt like we are in the midst of a crisis! Having to close the church building, to cancel Sunday school and Bible study, tocancel Marie Featherstone’s funeral plans. It has felt like a crisis as we’ve struggled to learn new technology, to figure out how to get everyone onto Zoom, to create a worship service at home that can reach the whole congregation. But last week,as I listened to Ed Stetzer, a national church leader and Dean of Wheaton College, speak on a facebook live post, it began to sink in that all these struggles are not the crisis. All these struggles have been the preparing for the crisis that is coming.
The crisis is the COVID-19 disease itself. We have been watching that crisis unfold – first in China, then in Italy and Spain, now in New York, and increasingly in other cities and even small towns. The crisis is the illness and loss of life that is coming to our community and will very likely touch families in our congregation. The crisis is the financial need, the job loss and food insecurity that is coming for many. The crisis is going to be the painful isolation that results from what we must do to slow the spread of the disease and save lives.
That crisis involves things which our Christian faith has prepared us to face inparticularly helpfuland distinctive ways. Jesus offers resources to deal with this crisis that can be found nowhere else. In the Old Testament, the book of Esther tells about an impending crisis. An edict went out to kill all the Jews and Esther, a Jew who had been chosen as Queen, was told by her uncle Mordecai, “Don’t think that just because you are confined in the king’s house that you will be safe. If you remain silent, relief and deliverance will come from another place and you will perish. But perhaps you came to your position for such a time as this.”(Es.4:14)
I believe the church has been placed in communities throughout the world for such a time as this! This is our time to show and share the love of Jesus which is exactly what is needed to face this crisis. We must not keep silent, or simply seek to hold on toour status quo. The sick and dying will need to know that they are not alone. Grieving families will need to know that death is not the end. Health care workers need to know there are people praying for them. Those who lack food, who can’t pay bills, will need the compassion and generosity of the church. People who are feeling afraid and hopeless, will need to hear the good news of Jesus.Our task in these days is to prepare for the crisis that is coming!
Today is Palm Sunday and as we wave our palms and sing Hosanna, we think about Jesus and his disciples entering into Jerusalem. They too were moving toward a crisis. Jesus had been trying to prepare them for that coming crisis. Jesus had warned several times that he would be betrayed and arrested, that he would be unjustly condemned and suffer a painful death. The disciples are aware of the growing threats against Jesus, the death threats. In fact, that is why they had stayed away from Jerusalem for some time. So here they are walking toward a coming crisis. It will be a crisis of loss – Jesus will die. It will be a crisis of fear – the disciples will be scattered in fear as they too become targets. It will be a crisis of faith – their new faith that Jesus is the Messiah will be tested. They will be asked to carry on Jesus’ mission in new ways they can hardly imagine.
I wonder if they walked toward that crisis with a sense of dread in the pit of their stomachs, with an unease that made it hard to sleep at night, with a fogginess that made it hard to even imagine or conceive of what the coming days would hold. I know those are some of the feelings I’ve had as we move toward our coming crisis.
One of the things that strikes me in Mark’s telling of the first Palm Sunday, is that Jesus is clearly able to see ahead. He is not surprised by the events that unfold. Jesus has a plan, and he guides his followers along. He sends two ahead to find the donkey that is needed. He gives them the words to say. In a few days, the disciples will ask Jesus what to do to prepare for the Passover meal, and Jesus will give them detailed instructions for that, too. He’ll tell them to find a man carrying a jar of water and to follow him. When the man enters a house, they are to say to the owner of the house, “The Teachers asks, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” They will be shown an upstairs room that is furnished and ready. (Mk.14:12-15)
God is not surprised by the crisis the world faces today. God didn’t cause it, but God certainly has a plan to bring us through it. Do you ever wish that Jesus would be as clear to us as he was in directing those first disciples? I know I do! Yet the disciple John tells us that Jesus said, “I assure you that it is better for you that I go away. If I don’t go, the Companion (he was talking about the Holy Spirit), won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn.16:7) We have the Holy Spirit who gives us constant guidance.When we take time to listen, the Holy Spirit will prepare us and lead us.
Jesus prepares his disciples for the coming crisis in 3 more important ways:
Prepared with Worship and Praise
First, they are prepared with worship and praise. That Palm Sunday procession was not for Jesus’ benefit – it was for the benefit of his followers and of his Heavenly Father. Praising God, waving palms, rejoicing in Jesus’ presence, worshipping – those things prepare our hearts to remain steadfast for a coming crisis and to give glory to God. For me, affirming God’s faithfulness over Zoomwith members of the congregation has given me strength. Being given the gift of a private, 3-minute worship service over the phone by Nancy lifted my spirits and encouraged me to keep innovating. Waving our palms, together-apart, this morning reminds me that God is still in charge. His plans will be fulfilled. God will be glorified even in the midst of crisis.
Prepare with Prayer and Supplication
Second, the palm procession and the chants of ‘Hosanna!’ also prepared the disciples with prayer, witha plea. The word ‘hosanna’ had come to be used as a shout of praise, but the Hebrew word originally meant ‘Save us!’ Jesus preparedhis disciples for the coming crisis by providing a word that was both praise and prayer, directing their cry for help to God. Even before that prayer, ‘Hosanna! Save us!’ was on their lips, God has sent the Savior into the world and was already in the process of saving the world.
However, Jesus didn’t save them in the way that crowd expected. They wanted to be saved by escaping suffering, escaping difficulties. Yet Jesus did not seek to escape the crisis, Jesus saved by walking straight into the heart of the problem, by entering into the suffering with us, by joining the world in its vulnerability and pain.
Like those first disciples, we too long for a Savior who can ride in and save the day. We want to cry out ‘Hosanna! Save us!’ and be given a magical and immediate eradication of the virus. We certainly can and should pray for that! We can and should do our part to stop the virus by following all the medical directives. Yet we must never forget that true salvation, the real saving, is recognizing God’s profound love for us that God would enter the crisis and the suffering with us, taking it on himself alongside us, and calling His Church, his followers to do the same, so that every person can receive life and be saved.
Hosanna! Save us! I want to invite you to make a banner or poster, that says “Hosanna!” and put it up in your window, perhaps with the palm branch. Place it somewhere in your home as a constant prayer to God through this ‘Safer at home’ time.
Prepare with Sharing Communion
Jesus prepared his disciples for the coming crisis in one more critical way – by giving them the practice of communion – a practice that bound them together with Jesus and with one another. He prepared them with a practice that would provide them and all believers to come, with spiritual nourishment to give strength to face crises of all kinds.Partaking in communion today prepares us. It gives us strength to face this coronavirus crisis, with all the suffering, the grieving, the economic pain, the loneliness, and uncertainties that are coming. It prepares us to fulfill Christ’s mission in this time, to show and to share the love of God for all people. Let us prepare ourselves now.
Sharing in the Lord’s Supper: Mark 14:12-26, The Lord’s Prayer
Closing Song: “The Family of God”
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