Rev. Jeffrey T.
Howard
First Presbyterian
Church of Ocean City
Sermon – Mark
11:1-11 Getting the Donkey
March 29, 2015
Today is Palm
Sunday. This is the Sunday each year when we remember the day Jesus
entered Jerusalem. It was Passover, the equivalent of July and
August here in Ocean City. Jews and Gentile believers came to the
city for a great feast and worship in the temple. The Roman
authorities were on hand to ensure that nothing would happen to
disturb the peace of Rome. But Jesus came this day to make a
political statement. He would enter Jerusalem riding a donkey, in
fulfillment of prophecy. He was coming to Jerusalem as the messiah,
and the Son of God. And by the end of the week he would be dead.
This then is the
beginning of Holy Week, the most sacred week of the church calendar.
We will gather in this sanctuary this Thursday night a 7:00 pm to
join Jesus in his last supper and death. On Friday we will join with
other churches in Ocean City at noon to walk with Jesus, carrying his
cross. And next Sunday we will gather again right here for brunch
and then worship as we celebrate the surprising conclusion to all of
this. Let’s pray.
May the words of
my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight
O Lord, our rock and redeemer.
We celebrate Palm
Sunday thankful of our freedom to worship here in America. But in
many places in the world Christians are not free to worship as they
choose. One of these places is Syria. Listen to this true story.
“It was Palm
Sunday 2010 in the Christian quarter of Homs, Syria, where thousands
of inhabitants gathered in the area square to celebrate the holy
event. People marched from their houses and churches toward the
square. Parents were carrying their infants. Children, youth and
young adults were wearing nice clothes and holding olive branches and
candles. All were singing, “Hosanna in the highest.”
A year after, on
Palm Sunday 2011, a different march with different people with
different slogans took place in Homs. Thousands of Muslim men
marched toward the city square, passing by the Christian quarter.
That day, Christians celebrated Palm Sunday fearfully. They stayed at
home or inside their churches. That same night, sounds of fighting,
shooting and screaming “Allah Akbar” filled the city of Homs,
announcing the beginning of a new era. Since then, Homs was never the
same.
What was supposed
to be peaceful demonstrations, turned out to be a cover for violence.
Slogans of freedom, democracy and human rights were rapidly
substituted with phrases of hatred, cursing and enmity accompanied
with acts of violence. From the Palm Sunday on, violence, shooting
and fighting happened every day in Homs. People from different sides
or no side were shot and killed. Opposition fighters continued their
violent actions against the police and some civilians, believing that
aggression, assassinations and crimes in Homs — including the
Christian quarter — would lead to the collapse of the ruling regime
in Damascus 165 kilometers south. Days, weeks and months passed on
while victims and destruction continued to increase.
In 2012, Homs could
not have Palm Sunday of any kind. Rebels had occupied the old city of
Homs, including the Christian quarter, evacuating the area of its
inhabitants. On Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, a major displacement of more
than 60,000 civilians of Christian majority happened in Homs. People
left their homes and could not come back again until today. As
consequence of the rebels’ invasion, civilians were killed, houses
were stolen and churches were destroyed. Violence has only led to
more violence, more victims and more destruction.” 1
The people of Homs
cry out “Hosanna”, which means “God save us”. They need a
savior. Let’s talk about the savior who entered Jerusalem two
thousand years ago.
“As
Jesus was about to descend the Mount of Olives to enter Jerusalem,
Mark reports, he dispatched two of his disciples to fetch a colt. A
seemingly minor matter of transportation it would seem, but
surprisingly, over half of Mark’s story of Jesus’ entry into the
city is occupied with mundane details about acquiring this animal --
where to go to find it, what kind of colt to seek, what to do, what
to say.
Though no one
knows what these two disciples were thinking, I am fairly confident
that they had imagined for themselves a grander and nobler role on
this day than being on donkey detail. Mark does not name these
disciples, but maybe they were James and John, who only hours before
had proposed to Jesus, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand
and one at your left, in your glory." But it hardly matters
which two they were. All of the disciples had been jockeying for
advantage, angling for glory, arguing about who was the greatest. So
it is deliciously ironic that on this very public and glorious day of
Jesus’ ministry, a day when he will be welcomed into Jerusalem with
joyous hosannas, they find themselves engaged in a most unromantic
form of ministry, mucking around a stable, looking suspiciously like
horse thieves, and trying to wrestle an untamed and no doubt balky
animal toward the olive groves. For this they left their fishing
nets?
Why does Mark
allow this donkey-seeking scene to come across as a trivial matter of
advance planning? In the Gospel of John, by contrast, Jesus begins
his entry into Jerusalem on foot. The donkey enters the picture only
afterward, when the crowd gets caught up in a palm-waving,
nationalistic, king-admiring zeal. At that point Jesus finds the
donkey on his own and sits on it, as if to say, "I’m not that
kind of king." In John, then, acquiring the donkey is something
that Jesus himself does as a dramatic gesture, and it is a beautiful
symbol of his humility in the face of triumphalist misunderstanding.
But in Mark, finding the donkey seems more like a delegated chore --
somewhat akin to the worship committee meeting to plan the a Maudy
Thursday Service, one of those thousands of routine and inglorious
details of church work that are necessary but not the real action.
In the ordination
service of the Presbyterian Church, candidates for the ministry are
asked, "Will you in your own life seek to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ, love your neighbors and work for the reconciliation of the
world? . . . Will you seek to serve the people with energy,
intelligence, imagination and love?" These are bracing words,
and the wind ruffles through your hair when you hear them. Such
language implies that ministry is a brave white-water romp over the
cultural rapids toward global transformation in the name of Christ.
Never once is it mentioned that serving people with energy,
imagination and love often boils down to stuff like ordering bulletin
covers, changing light bulbs in the restrooms, visiting people in
nursing homes who aren’t quite sure who you are, getting the brakes
relined on the church van, making a breathless Saturday afternoon run
to the florist because someone forgot to order the palm branches and,
as two of Jesus’ disciples found out, finding a suitable donkey at
the last minute.
It is right at
this place, though, that Mark imparts some of his best theological
wisdom. He begins his Gospel with the exhilarating trumpet call to
"prepare the way of the Lord," but he makes it clear, by
his description of the disciples’ activity in the rest of his
Gospel, that the way to do so is not by becoming a member of the
Knights Templar and gallantly defending Christendom, but rather by
performing humble and routine tasks. The disciples in Mark get a boat
ready for Jesus, find out how much food is on hand for the multitude,
secure the room and prepare the table for the Last Supper and, of
course, chase down a donkey that the Lord needs to enter Jerusalem.
Whatever they may
have heard when Jesus beckoned, "Follow me," it has led
them into a ministry of handling the gritty details of everyday life.
Mark understands, as Markan scholar Joel Marcus notes, "the
preparation of the Lord’s way in a rather prosaic manner as the
arrangements people make for the ministry of Jesus."
The "arrangements
people make for the ministry of Jesus" -- one could hardly find
a more apt description of what we, as disciples, are called to do.
This cuts two ways. On the one hand, we are called to prepare the way
for Jesus’ ministry, and it is his ministry, not ours, that
ultimately counts. We are but donkey fetchers. On the other hand,
because we are -- in ways often hidden from our eyes – "preparing
the way of the Lord," the routine, often exhausting, seemingly
mundane donkey-fetching details of our service are gathered into the
great arc of Jesus’ redemptive work in the world.
In Mark, the
Twelve are sent out to proclaim the gospel, cast out demons, heal the
sick and exercise authority. But Mark wants us to know that what this
looks like is often a matter of speaking a quiet word in a committee
meeting, spending time with someone who is incoherent and coming
apart at the seams, emptying a bedpan at the hospital and scratching
a few desperate, halting words in the computer when getting ready for
Sunday’s sermon. In Mark’s world, "preparing the way of
the Lord" usually looks like standing hip-deep in the mire of
some stable trying to corral a donkey for Jesus.2
So what Jesus
wants us do is to keep doing what we already do. Keep cooking
breakfasts and lunches. Keep reading books and studying the Bible.
Keep sending cards, visiting shut-ins and those in hospital and
nursing homes. Keep maintaining the buildings, greeting visitors and
inviting friends to church. And keep praying. And in your prayers
pray for the Christians in the Middle East who have lost the freedom
to worship and are now oppressed. Pray that the messiah will come to
save them. Hosanna! Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus we
pray for Christians, around the world, who are unable to worship you
freely. We ask for a savior to come to save them. We pray for the
Prince of Peace to come to end warfare and violence. We pray for
your kingdom to come. Amen.
1Paul
Seebeck
http://www.pcusa.org/news/2014/4/9/three-different-palm-sundays/
2Thomas
G. Long http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3389
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