KNOWING THE UNKNOWN GOD

A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Acts 17:22-31
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."(NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is amazing how much a person can accumulate and nowhere is this more apparent than when you move. I remember one year as we were all getting ready to move out of our seminary dorm rooms, I stopped in on a friend who was sorting her items before she began to pack them into boxes. I made my way gingerly through the numerous and precarious piles of stuff before settling down in what seemed to be the only free corner of the room. There was not much to say, I was generally amazed at the amount of things she had managed to pack into her little room. She had a system to combat the accumulation, she would move from one section of the room to the other working one shelf and one drawer at time. Only if I had viewed her on a time-lapsed camera would I be able to enjoy the full effect of her moving madness.

While she was going through some items in her desk she handed me a metal screw cap.

"What is this," I asked.
She shrugged, "I don't know, but it goes in that box beside to you."

I looked to my side and saw a box filled with strange objects, each one of them was a piece of something from something. I dropped the cap inside the box. She told me that the box was her "what's this?" box and it was a tradition that she began some years back when she discovered that unusual items would turn up, which she could not identify, yet she could not throw out until everything had been sorted. If the items in the "what's this?" box did not find homes by the end of the packing then they would be thrown away.

The notion of the 'what's this?' is something we can all relate to, not only in housecleaning, but in the workplace, relationships, just about every aspect of human interaction. We are all confronted at some time by something that we do not understand yet we feel it is too significant to just dismiss, so we place the issue in the back of our minds with the hope that perhaps someday we will come to understand it.

Athens, Greece was a leading city of intellectuals. It was the place where many went to study arts and letters. A very 'heady' city that was not easily disturbed by new thought; however, six hundred years before Paul's delivery to the Athenians a terrible pestilence ravaged the land. The survivors felt that they had upset the Grecian gods and had to make amends. It was suggested, by a resident poet, that sheep be let loose in the town and when the sheep had run themselves to exhaustion then the place where the sheep came to rest would be the place where they would be slaughtered to the god whose temple they were nearest to. If a sheep came to rest near no particular shrine or temple then that sheep would be sacrificed to "the unknown god." There was an understanding to the Greeks that they did not feel that they had discovered all the gods that existed—they had the sneaking suspicion that there was a god whose presence could be felt but even though they did not fully understand who the god was. This feeling of an unknown god was too important for the Greeks to dismiss, but they just did not know who this god might be so they built up shrines to an unknown god, thus keeping connection with this god whose appearance was still a mystery to them. It is this notion of the "unknown god" that Paul builds his presentation to the gathered intellectuals in Athens, which we heard in our first lesson from Acts.

Paul appears to them in the Areopagus, a prominent area in the center of town that served as a kind of ‘speaker's corner.’ He explains to the Athenians that he knows the identity and character of their 'unknown god.' So he begins to unfold his findings to the people of Athens. Paul asserts that. this God is the one, true living God—that he is not limited to the walls of the temples nor is this God the creation of human imagination. These many shrines and idols that the Greeks have created are not the places where God dwells and the Athenians have been mistaken to feel that their gold and silver reproductions can match the power of the living God.

Paul asserts that God alone is the creator and we are the creation—this means that we are merely the creatures of this God and we have no access to the inner thoughts and actions of God. This God is not like their Greek gods who demand the sacrifice of sheep and cattle in order to bestow blessings. Paul tells the Athenians that while they were in darkness, they stumbled around for the truth—they made idols and worshipped those idols because they did not know the living God. They did not know any better. He adds that God acknowledged with a 'wink' their actions, but now that they have heard the gospel, God is calling everyone to repentance. No more will the idolatry be ignored as it was before, once the truth has been revealed then ignorance is no longer a valid excuse. Furthermore, Paul demonstrates to the people that God has spoken the terms of his judgment through the resurrection of his appointed one, Jesus Christ, and that through him, all will be raised and judged accordingly.

Paul's words continue to resonate through the halls of time and confront us here today as well. Like the Athenians, we have been searching for God and perhaps groping for God. And in Jesus, we have heard the good news that God is not far from each one of us. We can no longer claim ignorance as to the nature and character of God. “Oh, I don’t know God...I don’t know what God wants from me!” This is no longer a valid excuse, you see. Because Christ has come, we cannot place our religious faith in the “what's this?” pile, acting like we just don’t know any better. We do know better, for we have heard the Gospel—and many of us have heard it for years and years! And now that we have heard it, we cannot go on with our idolatries and ignorance about faith.

Since we have heard the Gospel and know it, what is important now, is how we respond to Christ. For in Christ, we have seen the mysterious, unknown God and, in this way, we can know God. This God of the universe is no longer a mystery to us, a “what’s this?” God. No. This God has been revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and now that we know this, how shall we proceed? This is a question we must all ask ourselves. We are called to put aside our former, ignorant ways—to repent and follow this Savior, Jesus Christ, who can show us the way to the Father, who can help us know the unknown God, and who is coming again to judge the world in righteousness. May we follow him with all our hearts. Amen

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

 
© 2008 Laura Gentry

MY LOVE IS MY SHEPHERD

A Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter
April 13, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and from our Savior Jesus Christ.

In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy stands with her arms folded and a resolute expression on her face, while Charlie Brown pleads with her. "Lucy," he says, "you must be more loving. The world needs love. Make this world a better place, Lucy, by loving someone else." At that Lucy whirls around angrily and Charlie goes flipping over backwards. "Look, you blockhead," Lucy screams. "The world I love. It's people I can't stand!"

We laugh at Lucy’s antics but her attitude here is all too prevalent. It’s funny because it is true. People trying to get along with people is a dicey business. We can get pretty jaded and exhausted trying to deal with the conditional love and the lack of love we see in the world.

And so when we stop to consider the love of God, it seems too good to be true. We are not used to such lavish love, especially when it is undeserved. The 23rd Psalm from our lectionary today is a famous song of God’s love and care for us.

It uses the metaphor of sheep and a shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” it declares. We are so accustomed to this language because of the popularity of the psalm but have you ever stopped to think about the implications of our sheepness in this metaphor? Sheep. Why would we be sheep? Why not something more exotic like an eagle, perhaps.

You may have heard that sheep are kind of stupid. That doesn’t make us feel too good about ourselves, then, does it? But you see, sheep in Biblical times were highly valued. They were central in the economy and so it isn’t actually an insult to be called a sheep. For us to be sheep and have God as a shepherd means that we are enormously valued.

The shepherd in this Psalm goes to great lengths to care for the sheep. There are many tender images here about the way our shepherd leads and cares for us. And the verbs in this passage are all talking about the shepherd. It is the Lord who does all the active things: leads, restores, comforts, anoints, and so forth. The sheep passively receive all this, simply enjoying the marvelous gifts provided by the shepherd.
In this Psalm, it is interesting to note, it says that the shepherd prepares the table. In Biblical times, this preparation meant preparing the fields for the sheep. The shepherd would have many things to do in order to make a field graze-ready for the sheep. There would be poisonous weeds and thorns to remove, along with snakes and scorpion’s nests. In the evening, the shepherd would corral the sheep and tend to the injured ones, treating them with oil and a curative drink sweetened with honey. The 23rd speaks of these things, explaining that this is what the Lord does for each one of us.

Another important thing to note about sheep is that they are communal animals. They don’t thrive alone. They need to be with others and they need a shepherd to guide and protect them. So, we need one another. As members of the church, we have the delightful assurance that we are not alone. We struggle to have faith and live God’s will, not as individuals but as a community. As a flock, we share a common life and this is, indeed, good news.

Then, in our gospel reading today, Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. He says that he calls the sheep and that they know his voice. I once saw a wildlife special in which a baby hippo had been orphaned and was being cared for by human caretakers. The little hippo looked pretty placid in the pen until his human “mother” came out to feed him. She called his name and little ears began to quiver with joy and he ran toward her with great vigor. It just sticks in my mind as a metaphor as to how we should respond when Jesus calls. So now you’ve been compared to not only a sheep today, but a hippo as well!

Jesus, as our good shepherd, calls us gently into a relationship. He never forces himself into our lives though that is where he most wants to be. No, he gently woos us into a loving relationship because of all the love he gives to us first. When the Lucys of the world scream “it’s people I can’t stand!” Jesus says, “it’s people I can’t stand to be without!” and he pours himself out for us.

Jesus, who is both the shepherd and the gate declares that he came for us, that we might be life more abundantly. As the gate, he has opened the way for us. He seeks us so urgently, that we—along with the rest of the flock—might be God’s own.

Yet it is hard to feel this loved. We feel beaten down by life’s hard blows, unworthy and unable to accept this love as it is lavished upon us by God. But that is the whole point. The theologian Walter Brueggemann once wrote: “The true joy and purpose of life are to love God and be loved by God, no longer alone, but in communion." True joy, my friends, true joy! Don’t you want it? Don’t you want to lay claim to it?

Can we admit that we are helpless sheep in need of a trustworthy shepherd? We accept the unfathomable love of God who loves us just as we are? What would living in that love fully mean for our daily living? How would accepting ourselves as God accepts us translate into the way we treat others? Let us prayerfully invite our good shepherd to love us that we may know and share this love.

In closing, I would like to share a brand new recording with you. Augsburg Fortress Publishers just produced this recording of modern renditions of Psalms by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. The web site for this album is: The Psalm Project: Sharing the Road. In this version of the 23rd Psalm it calls the Lord “my love,” suggesting a deep, loving relationship with God. The pronoun is feminine, which might seem jarring at first, but it is intended to help us think of God’s presence in a mothering, nurturing way. Let us listen to it and pray along, inviting God’s love to overwhelm us today.

VERSE 1
My Love is my shepherd; I need nothing more For she leads me into lush pastures of green And beside the still waters My life is renewed today Guiding me in the best paths of her way, Though I walk through the valley of darkness and fear, My Love is with me.

VERSE 2
Anointed and bless’d with abundance, I thrive With a table prepared in spite of my enemies And all my secret fears My soul lacks for nothing now Goodness and mercy are following me Every day of my life And I’m forever home in the presence of Love

Copyright © 2008 Augsburg Fortress. All Rights Reserved.


For more information visit Behind the Song.


© 2008 Laura Gentry

HOLY HEARTBURN

A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter
April 6, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Luke 24:13-35
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.(NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This morning’s gospel text takes place on that first Easter morning, the day that the women found Jesus’ tomb empty and were greeted by an angel. As our text begins, two very downtrodden disciples are sadly making their way to Emmaus, a seven mile journey from Jerusalem. It was just four days ago that they had shared the bread and cup with Jesus at the Last Supper. Yet, now their shattered world is crumbling in on them and they feel the sting of loneliness. They are so caught up in the drama of this tragic narrative that when Jesus himself shows up, they don’t even recognize him. He comes right up to them and asks, “what’s going on?” Still, they cannot see that it is their Lord! Cleopas answers him, “don’t you know anything?” and then proceeds to tell him all about Jesus’ death and burial. Jesus patiently listens to his whole oration and at length, he begins instructing these two who are slow of heart to believe. He uncovers the mystery of the Holy Scriptures and explains the words of the prophets and how they spoke of the coming Messiah. Now he didn’t make them memorize any of Luther’s small catechism or take any sermon notes like we do for our confirmation students, but he did instruct them at length. And this is not the first time the disciples been instructed. Certainly Jesus taught them many many times while he was with them before his death.

Why are these two so foolish? How can they not recognize their own leader? I mean did he shave off his beard or something? Did he have a new and improved “Risen” look to him? We don’t know. Luke simply says, “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” Certainly it is understandable. Their Lord has just died. They are disturbed, afraid, disappointed, weary, confused, and feeling abandoned. They cannot make sense out of what had happened. And the Risen Jesus himself comes along and gives them words of Hope—of God’s plan for the Messiah, certainly profound and amazing words that should have overwhelmed them—that should have given sight to their spiritually blind eyes. But that does not happen. They continue to walk along in their darkness.

And what happens to us when we hear these stories about Jesus or when we go to Sunday School or confirmation and learn about God’s plan for our salvation through Jesus Christ? Does it turn our world upside down? Does it radically transform us into brave disciples who run off to proclaim the good news? If not, don’t be too hard on yourself—it didn’t happen that way for the disciples, either. They knew in their hearts that they were longing for God to reach out and deliver them from their terrible state, but hearing Jesus speak about the scriptures doesn’t yet do it for them.

But that night, as the disciples reach the village, they urge Jesus to remain with them, even though they still don’t know who he is. And as they sit at table, Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. In that very moment, their eyes are opened. “It’s HIM!!! Could it be?” they wonder. This stranger on the road to Emmaus is their very own Jesus—the Jesus who had broken bread with them in this same manner just four days before. Their eyes are opened, and they recognize him; and he vanishes from their sight. That quick. Revelation! And then he is gone. And in his absence, it begins to dawn on them and they say, “were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

Holy Heartburn, Batman! Their hearts were burning within them! They knew it then, but they just couldn’t put their finger on it until now—until this experience of breaking the bread with him. Now, all that opening of the scriptures talk about the Messiah on the road to Emmaus is making sense.

Even so, many things are still so unclear to them—why did Jesus have to die in the first place, and why did he trick them by not identifying himself to them, why did he vanish just when they recognized him and when is he coming back!? So many things they don’t know—that they can’t know, but they do know that they have met him in the meal. He did come to them—not even death could keep their Lord away!

Yet the questions remain. Perhaps all these questions don’t have answers that would make sense in the mere words of a sermon. Perhaps it is that God has created us in such a unique and complex way that we need more than intellectual understanding in order to open our eyes to the presence of Jesus in our midst. Perhaps in the gift of the bread and the wine, the body and blood of our savior, there is something altogether different—that can’t be explained in words, because it is an experience of the whole person—one in which Jesus transcends time and space and comes to us in a most tangible way and we experience the true presence of Christ. And then, our holy heartburn makes sense.

That same hour, the two disciples leave Emmaus and return to Jerusalem to tell the others. They don’t mind that it is the middle of the night. They aren’t upset that Jesus vanished from their sight the moment they recognized him. Just catching a glimpse of him in the meal is enough to sustain them—even on the dark journey back to Jerusalem. They have seen the truth for an instant and it has fired them with emotion and given them the assurance—the abounding assurance that their Lord is risen.

This is such an interesting story, one that connects with the lives of many people. Have you ever felt holy heartburn—the deep sense that you wanted more, needed more, that your life was missing something and that you were reaching out for it, even though you couldn’t quite figure out what it was? This is what the disciples were going through in this story. Their hearts, they later realized, were burning within them!

I’ve met many a holy heartburner in my ministry already. While I was in California, I taught a series of First Communion classes, which were also open to children who had not yet been baptized. They plan was for all the children to receive instruction in both the sacrament of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, then on First Communion day, the children who had not yet been baptized would be baptized as well that morning. One particular session, we advertised with a flyer that went home with the children of the church’s elementary school and the response was overwhelming. Twenty eight children and their parents showed up! Ten of the children had not been baptized! And as the instruction progressed, there was holy heartburn going on. As I visited individually with the children who would be baptized, the Spirit was moving. I was sitting in the living room of one family and the mother of the child spoke up. She explained that her parents had changed churches several times and never gotten her baptized and that after receiving the baptismal instruction with her daughter, she was experiencing an intense desire to be baptized also, and would I be willing to baptize her? I was amazed at how God was calling her to baptism. And then the next day, I was meeting with another family and this child’s mother had a similar story. She too, had never been baptized and felt she was being called to baptism. As if that wasn’t enough, be the end of the week, two more mothers asked to be baptized! In the end, I baptized 14 people on one Sunday—including four mother-daughter pairs. They realized there was something about these sacraments that spoke to them in a unique way—in a way that words alone had never done. Holy Heartburn.

The miracle of this story is that Jesus knew his followers had holy heartburn and would stop at nothing to reveal himself to them. And Jesus continues to do the same for us today! Our hearts hunger and yearn for a deep, abundant, life-changing experience of God—they burn within us, and Jesus comes to meet that need. He comes to us in his Holy Word and is made known to our burning hearts. But he does not stop there, he also gives us the gifts of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion where he is manifest—where he comes to wipe away the crimson stain of our sins and tell us, “I love you, you are mine, you will always be mine.” May Christ’s appearance in word and sacrament meet your heart where you need him most.

Let us pray: Holy Jesus, we praise you for your resurrection. We praise you for appearing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, for meeting them in both your words and in the sacrament. Meet us today, we pray, that we may know you more and our burning hearts may be satisfied. Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry

HE HE HE HE IS RISEN!

A Sermon for Holy Hilarity Sunday
March 30, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (NRSV)


Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here we are on our second annual Holy Hilarity Sunday! I thank you for indulging me and assume you enjoy these silly celebrations as much as I do.



Easter, as we’ve said, is God’s great joke on death. Now the thing that makes a joke funny is that there is something unexpected that catches us off-guard. By this definition, resurrection is comic. The people who originally witnessed it were not expecting Jesus to be risen. Oh, he’d told them that he would be rising but they thought it was a more of a spiritual metaphor than something this outrageously real! Here he is, alive again! He beat sin and death, isn’t that funny?

You could go so far as to claim that the empty tomb is the "banana peel" of the Christian faith. Easter is the cosmic pratfall as God pulled the rug out from under the powers of darkness and death by the resurrection.

So this celebration of Eater with humor isn’t so strange after all. In fact, there is evidence that post-Easter lightheartedness is part of our Christian heritage. Even Martin Luther was a fabulous laugher. He once said, “If you’re not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.”



So for this laughing celebration, I have some new Easter jokes and funnies for you.

This was sent to be by Bob Grover. It is entitled: “Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from the Easter Bunny” and I will give you a few of the highlights.



• Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
• Walk softly and carry a big carrot.
• Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
• Keep your paws off other people's jellybeans.
• Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.
• Some body parts should be floppy.
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Here are some other fun jokes:

Good Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Easter.
Bad Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Xmas.
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The problem: How to get two pounds of chocolate Easter candy home from the store in a hot car.
The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.
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This one is a picture and if you haven’t seen it, you can imagine it. One chocolate Easter bunny has a bite taken right out of his back side. He complains to his fellow chocolate bunny, “My butt hurts.” But the other one’s ears have been bitten off so he says, “What?”
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Secret Service
A man was heading out of church on Easter morning. The pastor greeted him at the door, then pulled him aside and said to the man: "You need to join the Army of the Lord!"

“But Pastor, I'm already in the Army of the Lord!” he said emphatically.

Pastor questioned, "How come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?"

He leaned in and whispered, "I'm in the secret service!"


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Post-Resurrection Visit
It cannot be found in the scriptures, but one story has it that upon his resurrection, the Lord appeared to a certain fisherman.

"I am Jesus - My death has saved all who do or will believe, and I am returned to show the Father's love and power.

"No, you're not Jesus, so bug off, you're scaring all the fish," answered the old fisherman.

"I see thou are full of doubt. What would thee have me do to show who I am?"

"Walk across the river," he tells Jesus.
So Jesus starts walking across the river. Next thing, he sinks and disappears under the water. After he swims back to shore, the old man says to him,

"There you are, see, you're not Jesus, you can't walk across water"

Jesus responds, "Well, I used to be able to do it until I got these darned holes in my feet!"


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Top Ten Reasons to Celebrate Easter
10. You absolutely love the movie, "The Ten Commandments".
9. You look really, really good in yellow.
8. You just went on a low cholesterol diet and didn't want to waste all those eggs in the fridge.
7. You figure any Holiday that starts with a "Good Friday" can't be all bad.
6. You love to bite the heads off chocolate bunnies.
5. It's a good time to check out your neighborhood church and not be noticed.
4. You have this bunny suit you love to wear, but are too insecure to wear it without a reason.
3. Even though you don't know what it is, you really like the sound of going to a "Passion Play."
2. You figured since Jesus went to all THAT trouble to make it to the first Easter, you'd give it a shot.
1. As a Christian you celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, why not Easter too?
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This morning, we heard the story of doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas, though he went on to do such good work, we always think of him as Mr. Doubtful. The other disciples have seen the risen Christ and so they believe. But they tell Thomas and since he wasn’t there, he just won’t believe that Christ is risen. He tells them: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Perhaps Thomas' real problem was that he was so devastated by what had happened that he could not see the wonderful reversal that God has accomplished in the resurrection. He was blind to the miraculous power of God. Even his friends shiny, happy faces could not convince him. Thomas could not connect to their joy.

No doubt there are some of you here today in the same boat. Life has dealt some crushing blows — financial struggles, loss of loved ones, insurmountable problems, diseases, depression, the list goes on and on. We so desperately want to be Easter people but at times, our lives look a lot more like Good Friday. Hope seems to have dried up and our joy is no where to be found.

The message of the story of Thomas is: open your eyes! You might not see it at first, you might doubt it, but the resurrection is real! The resurrection if for you! Celebrate! Go ahead and laugh!

We need this reminder so much. Life can be so hard and we can get so down that we forget which way is up. And then along comes Holy Hilarity Sunday and we are given the chance to have laughter and light-heartedness, for comedy and silliness. We can throw our hearts into celebrating the victory of the resurrection. The psalmist says that God "sits in the heavens and laughs," and I believe God invites us to do join in the heavenly laughter. God wants us to live in the joy of the Lord.



So here’s one last joke for you.

A man was blissfully driving along the highway, when he saw the Easter  Bunny hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the bunny, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of his car
and was hit. The basket of eggs went flying all over the place. Candy,  too.
 
The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out to see what had become of the bunny carrying the basket. Much to his dismay, the Easter Bunny was dead!



The driver felt guilty and began to cry.  A woman driving down the same highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong.
 
 "I feel terrible," he explained, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and killed it. What should I do?"
 
The woman told the man not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead bunny, and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the little furry animal.
 
Miraculously the Easter Bunny came to back life, jumped up, picked up the spilled eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned,  waved, hopped  another 50 yards and waved again!!!!



 
The man was astonished. He said to the woman, "What in heaven's name is in your spray can?" The woman turned the can around so that the man
could read the label.  It said:
 
"Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave."

Happy Holy Humor Sunday! Be joyful. Let us never live another day as if Jesus were dead. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, so let’s laugh! Amen.

 
 
© 2008 Laura Gentry

DO YOU WANT YOUR STONE TO BE ROLLED AWAY?

A Sermon for Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry


Above are the "Alleluia" flags the children distributed to begin our worship service. Every time we said or sang "Alleluia" we waved our flags to show the celebratory nature of our worship.

John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (NRSV)


Here we are on Easter Sunday, gathered for our celebratory worship: the sanctuary is decked out in fragrant lilies, we’re in our Easter finery and we’ve got yellow “Alleluia!” flags to wave about excitedly. What could be better? The stone of the grave has been rolled away and Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Ah, but what does it mean for us that Christ is risen? What sort of demands does it make upon us? That’s right: demands. Have you ever thought of the resurrection of Christ as demanding? Yes, it is fun to worship on Easter morning with all the great hymns and scriptures and to down bags full of pastel colored candies and dye eggs but there is more to this message than that. We have to face the reality that Christ is risen, really risen!

Because he is no longer in the tomb, he won’t be quiet. He is not just a fond memory. He is a living presence with whom we can have a relationship. As a resurrected Savior, he’s entitled to his opinions about the way we choose to live our lives. Frankly, he’s concerned about our disinterest in living the resurrected life.

The question he asks us is: do you want your stone to be rolled away? Do you want to be alive with me or would you rather stay in your old, dull, dead-end lifestyle? You see, we tend to like to stay in our graves. It is safer there. There is no challenge, just go through the daily routines and everything will be fine. Do you want your stone to be rolled away? He demands an answer.

Certainly Jesus’ disciples had a difficult time answering that question. They find the tomb empty and struggle to figure out what this unexpected ending means for them. To be honest, it would have been a lot more convenient for them if he had stayed dead. Oh yes, they would miss him and all those great parables he used to tell, the exciting healings he would perform and so on. But in the grave, he couldn’t challenge them to take up their crosses anymore. I mean, they’d already dropped their nets to follow him, what more did he want? In the grave, he couldn’t give them a mission to spread the good news. In the grave, he couldn’t ask them to give up their very lives for this cause. What simple, uneventful lives they could have led if only he’d stayed in the grave.

Now the stone has been rolled away! Now his body is gone and an angel announces that he is risen. What do they do? They should be leaping for joy and holding laughter club meetings to giggle at the devil’s foiled plot. Instead, they respond with fear. “Oh no! What’s going to happen to us now?” they think. “How are we going to take up the challenges, which the risen Jesus lays before us? We had so wanted to be able to retire in comfort and, you know, perhaps write the Gospels with all our newfound free time.” They don’t seem eager to embrace the adventure that is set before them. They kind of liked it before the stone had been rolled away.

As human beings, it is our nature to want stable and predictable lives. We want life to be easygoing and God to always have comfortable messages for us. But that is the life of the grave. That is not what we were designed for. The resurrected Christ has a more exciting plan. He barges into our neatly ordered lives and demands that we drop our nets and follow him. He demands we put down our tv sets and our easy chairs and our notebook computers and anything else that stands in the way of our discipleship. He demands that we follow him, and follow him all the way to the cross. Then he rolls away our stones whether or not we wanted him to. And then he calls us to live the resurrected life with him!

To live the resurrected life means that we come out of our self-inflicted tombs. It demands that we allow the stone to be rolled away. It demands that leave behind our fears. If we truly believe that our Lord has risen from the dead and that in doing so, he has secured our salvation, then there is no room for fear. There is no room for small-minded, go-with-the-flow, be-like-everyone-else, live-a-boring-life thinking! There is NO room for it! We cannot proclaim that Christ is risen and then turn around and shrink in fear that we can’t handle our lives.

Yet so many people live in this perpetual state of fear and anxiety. It’s easy to see why they do it. The news stations broadcast a smorgasbord of tragedy every single day. You can’t even bring a full-size bottle of shampoo on the airplane with you because of the terrorist-fighting restrictions. And who can you trust to love these days? So many broken relationships and broken hearts may cause us to be cautious. Looking around at the state of our world, it is logical to want to sequester ourselves, to hunker down for a safe but boring life in the grave and ask Christ to kindly leave our stones alone. It may not be great, but this is the life we know and we don’t want it disturbed by any risen Saviors.

The ending of the Gospel of Mark is the subject of much scholarly debate. How did the original writer end it? There are actually three possibilities. Each one of the endings is possible and is supported by ancient manuscripts. Yet, the most likely ending is odd. After telling the story of the resurrection, it simply ends with the sentence: “and they were afraid.” And they were afraid? That’s not a very triumphal ending to such an amazing story! Yet it is truthful. That’s how the disciples felt when they first heard the news. Like us, they were afraid of the stone being rolled away.

So Christ asks us on this Easter morning: do you want your stone to be rolled away? Do you want me to infuse you with my resurrection power? Do you want to believe that I am alive and working in you to live the life God plans for you? Do you want to leave the sofa behind and step out into the adventure of resurrected living? Do you want to be overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord, with the peace that passes all understand, with the courage to face life’s fears head-on in faith? You, yes you, are being called forth from your graves. You are being asked to live with Christ, to really live! Let us summon the courage to say YES to these questions, my friends. Let us sing and dance and shout “Alleluia!” not just today but every day, for our stones have been rolled away! Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry

SHOES & SERVICE

A Sermon for Maundy Thursday
March 20, 2008
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 13:1-13, 33-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”


Shoes! Don’t you just love shoes? I do. I confess I have a particular weakness for shoes. I especially love the bold and bright, the interesting, whimsical as well as the comfortable. In fact, I’ve brought a few of these tonight—just my favorite ones, the ones that really demanded to make an appearance.

First, my newest: fuchsia Crocs. They just arrived yesterday and I’ve already got them mostly broken in. I’ve resisted getting Crocs because, frankly they’ve been a bit too popular and on most people they look rather silly. But after reading a review that says even podiatrists are now recommending them because of their extreme comfort, I broke down and got a pair. Of course, the fact that they were available in fuchsia was also another plus.

I’ve also got these fuchsia shoes, which I painted myself nearly 15 years ago. I had a dress this color and couldn’t find any other shoes to match so I painted these. As you can imagine, they went splendidly with my dress!

There are also my orange Keen shoes, which helped me walk comfortably all over Bulgaria and slip off easily while in the car or airplane. I’ve got these patent leather red Danskos, also known for their great comfort. Professionals who are on their feet a lot, like nurses and chefs tend to wear them. They helped me stand in museums all over Scandinavia without any back pain.

Now even though comfort is important to me, so is style. That’s why I have these patterned boots (and I’ve got a matching suit and handbag for them). I’m also a sucker for polka dots and so I’ve got the red polka dotted gardening clogs and the retro polka dotted sandals. And while these are perhaps my most uncomfortable shoes, they also get the most compliments and look fabulous with my polka dotted apparel.

As I look at this portion of my shoe collection, I am reminded of all the places my shoes have taken me. I think of that old saying about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. And as we have come to Maundy Thursday, we take upon ourselves the task of walking the way of the cross in Jesus’ shoes. We hear again the passion narrative with all the painful steps and we remember how much his journey means to each one of us.

And tonight, we hear how this journey to the cross continues from where we left off on Sunday. We heard of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The cheering crowds, waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” was certainly an exciting part of Jesus’ walk. But now, he dines with his disciples for what he knows will be the last time before his death. It is likely the Passover meal they are celebrating. They would have retold the great story of how God delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.

But suddenly, Jesus does something unexpected: he strips off his robe and kneels down to wash each one’s feet. Feet? Why does it have to be feet? This is such an important night—their last supper—and he has to drag feet into it.

Feet are perhaps the most unglamorous thing about us. They are kind of funny looking, they can give us pain, they are hard to reach because they are way down at the bottom of our bodies and worse of all, they stink! Well, at least after a day of use, they tend to stink. One year for Christmas, someone gave me a bottle of “Albert Einstein’s ‘No More Smelly Shoes!’” spray. A hint? Perhaps. There are many such products because, well, foot smell is a reality. Even my new Crocs advertise that they are built with an antibacterial material as well as ventilation air holes to keep your feet smelling nice all day.

Now in the time of Jesus, feet were even more problematic. They didn’t have any great products like this Einstein spray or stinkless rubber shoes and people wore open-toed sandals and walked through dusty deserts and messy downtowns where people drove donkeys instead of SUVs, so you can imagine the mess that their feet would have been through in any given day. Yet, here is Jesus grabbing up those day-old feet and lovingly washing them.

It’s a bit difficult for us to understand how outrageous this was for his disciples to witness. On top of the hygiene issue, feet were symbolically unclean according to their religious traditions. Yes, feet needed to be washed, but religious people didn’t wash their own. They had slaves do it for them, and not just any slave, but the lowest slave in the household. It was an embarrassing chore that nobody but nobody would have volunteered to do. So there is, no doubt, shock when Jesus decides to do this task himself.

Why would he do such a thing? Jesus explains a few verses later when he tells them: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Not only is his foot-washing stunt an example of humility and love for us, but it foreshadows his final act of love: his self-sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus does not beat around the bush. He commands his disciples to love in the same way that he has loved. And why wouldn’t he? His whole life centered around this message. The love of Christians for all people should be the distinguishing mark by which the world recognizes them as followers of Jesus.

So if Jesus’ commandment is so clear: that we are to love one another, why aren’t we Christians more focused on that task? Why is it that this priority sometimes take a back seat to less important issues—even within the church? How is the world going to know that we are Christians if we do not love? This annual service of Maundy Thursday is always an important reminder that love—showing itself in humble service—is our highest calling.

How that service plays out in our daily lives is up to us, but the commandment is clear: serve. And so we ritualize this annually at our Maundy Thursday worship service. Last year, I decided that instead of just talking about foot-washing, I should give you the opportunity to come forward and have your feet washed. There were a couple of “plants” in the congregation that I had arranged with ahead of time. They promised me that even if nobody else came forward, they would do so. Even just a couple of foot-washings would be a sufficient object lesson. To my surprise, however, most people came forward and let me wash their feet! It was a powerful experience for all of us and so we’re doing it again tonight.

Many of us feel rather self-conscious about our feet, even if we are wearing nice shoes on them. To come forward and take off a sock and let it be washed, demands that you let go of those inhibitions and come as you are. This is not about how your feet look, though. This is about experiencing what the disciples got to experience. It is about being served in a symbolic, humble gesture so that it will empower you to go out and do likewise.

Our feet carry us so many places in the course of our lives. Jesus wants to have control of those feet. He wants to wash them in his love and self-sacrificial death on the cross and he wants to empower them to continue his work so that we walk in “his shoes” in the light of God.

I urge you to think about your feet in this Holy Week journey. As they are washed tonight, may you listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying to you. Where exactly are your feet supposed to take you? Perhaps it is to that family member of friend with whom you have a conflict. Your feet need to go make peace. Perhaps it is to that person in physical pain. Your feet need to take you to their bedside. Perhaps it is to that outsider whom everyone else has forgotten. Your feet need to include them, to take you to them so they can feel included. Perhaps it is to those people across the globe in need. Your feet need to serve them through the funding of missionaries or perhaps even becoming one yourself. There are endless possibilities for your little feet. They have great journeys to make. To walk in Jesus’ shoes means that we must always be eager to help, to uplift, to comfort, to support and to serve. That’s what being a disciple is all about.

On this Holy Thursday, our feet are compelled to take action. Jesus calls us to love one another, generously, recklessly, without counting the cost. That’s why Jesus spent his very last evening on earth washing his disciples feet and emphatically issuing this new commandment—a commandment which speaks to us as loudly today as it did then. May we walk in the light of Christ, polka dotted shoes and all. Amen.

© 2008 Laura Gentry

SAVE NOW!

A Sermon for Palm Sunday
March 16, 2008
Pastor Laura Gentry

Matthew 21:1-11
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee." (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Hosanna!” they shout at Jesus as he enters the great city of Jerusalem. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They welcome Jesus into the city with open arms. They show great enthusiasm, waving branches as he comes. It must have been a marvelous parade! How exciting to see Jesus riding in upon a colt and being heralded as the prophet from Nazareth.

But wait a minute! Aren’t these the same people who make up the crowd who will turn on him by the end of the week and throw their angry fists in the air? Aren’t they the same ones that will soon beg Pilate to “Crucify Him!” Aren’t they the bloodthirsty crowd who would rather see a convicted felon, Barabas, released than allow Jesus to live? From “Hosanna” to “Crucify him!” Quite a change in public opinion in one week’s time. What’s going on here?

This story begins with the explanation of how Jesus' disciples obtain the colt upon which Jesus will ride into Jerusalem. Matthew makes it clear that Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City upon this young donkey is another fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophesy about him: “Tell the daughter of Zion, look , your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a cold, the foal of a donkey.”(Zech. 9:9) So the disciples go and do as Jesus commands them and they retrieve the colt for him without incident. Jesus is intentional about his use of a colt—even though he has to borrow one for this purpose—because in fulfilling the prophesy, he is claiming to be Messiah.

Not only that, but Jesus' use of a donkey shows that he is coming in peace. In biblical times, if a king was going to war, he would ride into the city on a horse as a sign that he intended to wage war. But when a king came in peace, he would ride in on a donkey. We can see that Jesus chooses the animal of peace. He comes as the king not of war, but of peace.

But the crowd doesn’t seem to want peace! They want a military leader to reign over Israel. They want a king who ride in triumphantly on a horse—who will wage war and win the victory for them. A leader who will overthrow their Roman oppressors, that’s what they prefer. Jesus' desire for peace truly the hopes of the energetic crowd. They don't even seem to notice that he’s not on a horse. They still think he’s going to lead them to war so they give him a conqueror's welcome, a military hero's welcome.

They shout: “Hosanna!” This cry is used today as a praise word. We sing it in our communion liturgy, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.” Yet, in Hebrew, it literally means “Save now!” It is an expression ancient Israelites used to beg for help and protection from their king. When the people cry “Hosanna!” it is not a shout of praise, it is a cry for help. They want God to intervene in their human affairs through the gift of this Messiah. They want so badly to be saved.

They toss their garments on the ground—another expression of respect for a king. For many, this cloak is all they own, yet they willingly cast it before Jesus, their king. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” they say. The phrase “He who comes,” was a common expression for Messiah. They had always spoken of the coming Messiah as “the one who is coming.” So they do recognize that Jesus is the Savior, but they don't know what kind of savior he intends to be.

And this expression the people use, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” is from Psalm 118 (verse 32), which we heard at the start of today’s service. In 167 B.C. there was an extraordinary king in Syria called Antiocheius. He was a zealot of Greek religion who, for a time, conquered Palestine. He made it against the law to possess a copy of the Jewish law or to circumcise a child. These were crimes punishable by death. He desecrated the Temple courts and made it a worship place for Zeus instead of God. With deliberate insult, he offered swine's flesh at the great altar of the temple. You must understand this was most blasphemous act imaginable. He did everything he could to wipe out the Jewish faith. It was then that the hero Judas Maccabaeus arose. He drove Antiocheius out and repurified and reconsecrated the temple, an event which is now celebrated as the feast of Hanukkah. Scholars believe Psalm 118 was written to commemorate that great day of purification and the battle, which Maccabaeus won. Therefore, is a conqueror's psalm.

And it is the same phrase used in this Palm Sunday scene. Jesus does not claim to be a military leader—instead he comes in peace. He is riding on a colt. Later in the week, when they see he is not the man of war they thought he was, when they see that he is no Judas Maccabaeus, they turn on him.

Intentionally, Jesus begins his journey—humbly marching headlong into suffering and death. God has a bigger plan to save all of humanity through this Messiah, not just Israel. God has a plan to answer those “Hosanna” cries for salvation, even though the crowd can’t understand that now.

I remember reading about an actress who spent a summer of her college years doing a low-budget, outdoor Easter pageant. The quality of theatrical resources was dismal. It was poorly organized and the cast ended up playing all sorts of practical jokes on each other just to keep up their moral. In the rain and the mud, the actor portraying Jesus tried to get the donkey to cooperate in the Palm Sunday scene. The donkey (named Jack) always refused to cooperate. So Jesus, who was supposed to be riding the donkey, many times ended up trying to lead him and often slipped in the mud and fell on his behind (so you can imagine the jokes it sparked about Jesus arriving into Jerusalem on his you-know-what). The whole miserable thing suddenly took on a new meaning for this actress who was struck by the extremely vulnerable position of Jesus in front of the crowd. She wrote: “I realized God sent a savior not as a powerful conqueror but as one with an extremely vulnerable heart of compassion. Suddenly, I can see that I don't want a powerful conqueror. No, I want this vulnerable one. He's the one I can give my own vulnerable heart to. He's the only one who can save me.”

Jesus is not the military leader come to vanquish our earthly enemies and instantly make life easy for us according to earthly standards. He is the vulnerable king who has come to wage war, not on enemy people, but on sin and death. We may not understand him. We may wish he'd come to save us some other way. But we do know that he has come to answer our “Hosanna!” cries. “Save now!” we cry, “Save now!” From our troubled breasts, our cry goes up to God and because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, we know that that cry will not go unheard.

As we enter into Holy Week, may we have the courage to follow this vulnerable one to the cross that we may rise victoriously with him on Easter morning.

Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© 2008 Laura E. Gentry