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.”
Philippians 2:1-11
Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any
comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by
thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with
each other. Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of
others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their
own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was
in Christ Jesus:
Though he was in the form of God,
he did not
consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the
form of a slave
and by
becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on
a cross.
Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a
name above all names,
so that at the
name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on
earth, and under the earth might bow
and every
tongue confess
that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My week didn't turn out quite how Nancy and I planned.
It was supposed to start with Nancy and I going to Chicago,
last Sunday afternoon to spend a few days visiting our grand-daughter.
Then we were going to head to Jackson Tennessee (my father's
birthplace) and run a half-marathon yesterday --- driving back last night to be
ready to join in our Palm Sunday parade
For some reason it just didn't work out as we had planned
Nothing seems
to be going as any of us planned
One of my favorite days in the life of the church is Palm
Sunday, when we start the service off by singing "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" and parading into the sanctuary
waving our palm branches.
The last couple of years have been extra special because
when Matt and I would walk in --- little Zeke would always walk with us --- there
is a picture of that event that hangs in the welcome center.
So today we created a new Palm Parade --- one that we will
remember for a long time.
It was fun to see all the palm
branches being waved and some of you marching around to Hosanna, Loud Hosanna"
I have always been struck by the paradox of this day.
While the Jesus parade is taking place on the West side of
the city --- with Jesus and his rag-tag group of followers marching down the
Mount of Olives heading into the city of Jerusalem
On the other side of town another parade is taking place ---
a very different parade ---this parade has at its head Pontius Pilate ---
riding into town with the 10th Legion of the Roman army to keep the peace
during Passover week
What always seems strange to me is that everything that is
going to take place over the next week seems to be carefully choreographed.
Everything that Jesus will do seems to have one goal in mind
--- to try one more time to show us
what a disciple looks like
During this season of Lent, Mary and I have been sharing
with you some of the key markers of being a disciple of Jesus
·
A disciple worships
·
a disciples is in intentional community
·
a disciple engages in spiritual practices
·
a disciple is generous
·
a disciple engages in service to bring about God's
compassion and justice in the world
This morning we will conclude with the sixth marker of a
disciple --- a disciple desires to become Christ-like in all that they do
One of the things that I love about Meridian Street UMC is
our level of intellectual aptitude (I am challenged week in and week out by
this)
While that is one of the real strengths of this congregation
--- it can also prove to be our weakness.
We see most things as a checklist of things to accomplish
and expect things to flow in a linear fashion
What is so challenging about Discipleship is that it is far
from a to-do list
and it rarely
follows a linear coarse.
Not only is that true for Discipleship on a broad scale ---
but it is also true in our own personal journey with Jesus.
We have ups
and downs.
We grow ---
and backslide
This Discipleship Pathway that Mary and I have been talking
about isn't a pathway like interstate 65
It is not a
super highway
Instead it is more like a meandering stream
Each individual's journey is unique --- but the pathway is
there to help point us in the direction that God is desiring us to go
Each of these six characteristics are more like touch points
to help along the way
So don't be surprised when your journey jumps around
What draws me
in, may not be the same for you
If your passion is for God's
justice that growth point may ultimately help you to realize that worship is
essential to your life and you seek to discover the Christ everything.
Or maybe it is the disciplines that
draw you in --- and as you become more disciplined in your walk with Jesus you
start to recognize that you must love your neighbor as much as yourself --- while
contemplation is great, it needs to go beyond ourselves --- and when there are
things that hold your neighbor down --- you now desire to see them change
Almost fifteen years ago I came across a fascinating book
that in many ways was more prescient than people realized
Dan Kimball's "They Like Jesus but Not the Church"
argued that many people were fascinated with Jesus --- but didn't like what the
church was doing with him and with his message.
They saw Jesus as being filled with love and possibility
Yet, the
"church" often was rigid and unforgiving
Most people come to Christianity, not because of the
"church" but because somewhere along the way they have encountered
Jesus in the life of a disciple of his and they are intrigued.
Eventually we move from simply being fascinated by Jesus, to
wanting to know more and more about him --- which ultimately leads us to a
decision to allow Jesus to become the moral compass for our lives.
And we experience that from how other followers of Jesus
model their journey with him.
How they had
become "Christ-like" in their lives
That process, of moving from an interest in Jesus, to
devoting our life to him is called sanctification.
I can think of no better description of what it means to
follow Christ, than what is given to us by Paul in his letter to the Church at Philippi
You already heard Phil share it, but I want to give you
excerpts of it from the translation known as the Message, because Peterson
always puts it into such simple and profound language:
If you’ve gotten anything at all
out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if
being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart,
if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be
deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your
way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be
obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend
a helping hand.
Think of yourselves the way Christ
Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much
of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter
what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and
took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed
human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special
privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a
selfless, obedient death
Is there a better description of being a disciple?
When we set aside our privilege and recognize Jesus in all
of God's children.
And not just
recognize Jesus, but lift them up --- higher than ourselves
In 1918, Indianapolis and the rest of the United States and even
the world was gripped by a pandemic. It
was September of that year that the Spanish flu began infecting soldiers
stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison of the far East side of town.
The Spanish flu killed more than 675,000 people in the United
States and reports say 20 million worldwide — though others argue that it could
have been as high as 50 million.
Nearly a third of the world's population was infected with
this flu
While the flu pandemic in Indiana was less severe than in
other parts of the United States, it still afflicted an estimated 350,000
Hoosiers, and claimed 10,000 lives between September 1918 and February 1919
In October of 1918 Indianapolis was virtually shut
down.
No gathering
larger than 5 people was allowed.
Churches were
closed by order of the Marian County Health department.
On October 7th, 32 year old Edna Fletcher went to the head
of Methodist Hospital and offered to organize and lead a group of volunteers nurses
to travel across town to Fort Benjamin Harrison and help stem the crisis that
was taking place there
Thirteen women volunteer, mainly student-nurses at Methodist
hospital.
The group traveled the fourteen miles via train from
downtown Indianapolis to Fort Benjamin Harrison.
The Fort had become one of Indiana’s epicenters for the
pandemic, among the worst such sites in the Midwest.
Conditions were awful.
Nearly 3000
soldiers were ill
No effective treatment
existed to eliminate the flu.
The only
thing the nurses could do was provide comfort for the afflicted soldiers.
While they were there, two of the volunteers contract the
flu and died
In early November, the epidemic seems to have abated --- the
policies, that we know of as social distancing today, seemed to have worked
Yet, in mid November, when the restrictions began to be
lifted, the flu returned
On Thanksgiving Day, Edna Fletcher developed a cough,
accompanied with a fever. Four days later, she was dead
What does a disciple look like?
A disciple
seeks to become Christ like in what they think and do
What does a disciple look like?
Edna Fletcher
and her 13 volunteers
What does a disciple look like?
All of you
who are working every day to help us overcome this virus
Doctors
Nurses
First
Responders
Grocery
Store clerks
I would even suggest that everyone
who is staying home and doing no harm is modeling Jesus.
There are two parades this morning --- one is the Jesus
parade, as he comes into town to demonstrate one more time what a disciple
looks like
The other parade is the parade of power, the parade of
privilege and influence
Which parade has grabbed your attention?
The parade of
sacrifice
or
The parade of
worldly ambition?
Someone asked me the other day: "What is the purpose of
the church"
And I would tell you that we have ONE JOB and Jesus made
that very clear as he rode into Jerusalem on the fist palm Sunday.
Our job is to make disciples --- to become Christ like in
all we think and do --- everything else we do is secondary.
