What does God need from us right now?
Our passage today focuses on Jesus’ royal entrance into Jerusalem for Passover.It’s easy to imagine:
It is also worth remembering the larger power dynamics at play in the wider culture. Just as Jesus is making his own triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the Roman governor is arriving into the city with all of the pomp and circumstance of a royal parade.** The governor did not normally hang out in Jerusalem, but it was clear to those in the city why he was there that week: Passover.
Passover is one of the most significant holy days for the Jewish people, where they remember, and tell the sacred story of how God saved them from a similarly oppressive empire. The best way to squash any potential revolutionary ideas was to make the empire’s presence overwhelmingly known. And that is exactly what the governor was doing.
While there is much to reflect on with regard to these competing processions into the city (and I will post a link to Molly’s sermon from last year which covers this subject more thoroughly) or even to play with the dynamics of the crowd, I’d rather spend the rest of our time today focused on a different, maybe more subtle, part of the story.
What drew me in this year was that darn colt. After Jesus and his disciples arrive in Bethphage and Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, he sends two disciples ahead of him to collect something he needs. A colt. Jesus says to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately’” (Mark 11:2-3).
When the two disciples arrive, they find a colt tied up outside on the street (Mark 11:4). When some bystanders notice what’s happening they ask, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” (Mark 11:5). The two disciples told the bystanders what Jesus had said, and “...they allowed them to take it” (Mark 11:6).
This section of today’s gospel lesson begs the question:
What does God need from us right now?*
Surely, Jesus could have provided his own colt. After all, we know that earlier in Mark’s gospel, Jesus:
At this point in the game, present day readers and disciples alike have a pretty good sense that Jesus of Nazareth is somehow God’s love made incarnate. Jesus seems to be able to do things the rest of us could not even imagine trying. So why on earth does he need his disciples to commit the antiquity equivalent of grand theft auto?
The gospel lesson begs us to consider:
What does God need from us right now?*
For many this question might be a tinge uncomfortable. Maybe it pokes at the outer edges of our struggle to understand our own self worth. After all, what could the Creator of the cosmos need from any one of us? What could the Architect of the universe possibly need from our parish family? The colt is a poignant reminder that relationships with God are not passive, whether they be personal or communal.
Genuine relationships demand that all parties are actively engaged, with real give and take. God is not a spiritual soup kitchen dishing out enough spiritual soup for us to get by until next week. God is living and breathing and engaged with us, even when we are tuned out. Our Creator yearns for us to be fully present with God and our community.
Think of one of the most valued and important relationships in your life. What makes it work so well? What makes you feel seen, loved, valued, and cared for in that relationship? How can you tell the other person feels the same? Healthy relationships require all parties to show up, to be there for one another through all the joys and challenges of this life. There is give and take, and it is beautiful when done well.
This darn colt is a reminder that God needs and wants us as much as we need God. It also means we each have something of value to offer God and her Church. Which begs the question, what does God need from us, right now?
And when we ask this same question in the context of community life, it is even more powerful.
What does God need from James & Andrew, right now?
In the coming week, you’ll be hearing from the clergy and vestry about when we hope to begin resuming some limited in-person worship. Meaning we are on the cusp of another transition, and transition is a holy time for collectively leaning into God and simply listening.
What does God need from James & Andrew, right now?
What might God need from our community at this particular moment?
We might begin exploring this question by simply noticing.
As a community of faith, we are uniquely poised to help the wider community during this tender moment, and there are any variety of ways the Spirit may call on us to engage.
As we make this journey through Holy Week, and prepare in the coming month to resume some limited in-person gatherings, I invite us to engage in the pregnant pause of this very moment and ask God:
What do you need from me right now?
What do you need from James & Andrew right now?
Amen.
As preached at Saints James and Andrew in Greenfield, Massachusetts
* This connection was first drawn for me in the Spreading Our Cloaks: Preaching Palm Sunday episode of Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community Podcast.
** Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan, in The Last Week: What the Gospels really teach about Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem cover this topic thoroughly.
- Leafy branches waving in the air and scattering the path.
- Jesus riding on a colt.
- The energetic crowd cheering and singing ‘Hosanna’.
The procession probably felt similar to when we have watched floats and marching bands pass by the church for the Franklin County Fair parade; or the parades held in Boston after one of our regional teams won a national title; or like the crowds gathered for a presidential inauguration. We know what that energy and fun feels like in our bones. This kind of procession has an air of triumph and provides a common bond amongst the gathered people.
Yet we know where this journey through Holy Week will take us. It will be this same crowd, or a very similar one, who days later will be crying out, ‘Crucify him’. After the storming of the capital on January 6, we know all too well how a crowd’s purpose can shift in an instant, from boisterous enthusiasm to deadly violence.* Maybe because of our own recent experience, it is easier for us to imagine how the crowd could have shifted from one extreme to another so suddenly.It is also worth remembering the larger power dynamics at play in the wider culture. Just as Jesus is making his own triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the Roman governor is arriving into the city with all of the pomp and circumstance of a royal parade.** The governor did not normally hang out in Jerusalem, but it was clear to those in the city why he was there that week: Passover.
Passover is one of the most significant holy days for the Jewish people, where they remember, and tell the sacred story of how God saved them from a similarly oppressive empire. The best way to squash any potential revolutionary ideas was to make the empire’s presence overwhelmingly known. And that is exactly what the governor was doing.
While there is much to reflect on with regard to these competing processions into the city (and I will post a link to Molly’s sermon from last year which covers this subject more thoroughly) or even to play with the dynamics of the crowd, I’d rather spend the rest of our time today focused on a different, maybe more subtle, part of the story.
What drew me in this year was that darn colt. After Jesus and his disciples arrive in Bethphage and Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, he sends two disciples ahead of him to collect something he needs. A colt. Jesus says to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately’” (Mark 11:2-3).
When the two disciples arrive, they find a colt tied up outside on the street (Mark 11:4). When some bystanders notice what’s happening they ask, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” (Mark 11:5). The two disciples told the bystanders what Jesus had said, and “...they allowed them to take it” (Mark 11:6).
This section of today’s gospel lesson begs the question:
What does God need from us right now?*
Surely, Jesus could have provided his own colt. After all, we know that earlier in Mark’s gospel, Jesus:
At this point in the game, present day readers and disciples alike have a pretty good sense that Jesus of Nazareth is somehow God’s love made incarnate. Jesus seems to be able to do things the rest of us could not even imagine trying. So why on earth does he need his disciples to commit the antiquity equivalent of grand theft auto?
The gospel lesson begs us to consider:
What does God need from us right now?*
For many this question might be a tinge uncomfortable. Maybe it pokes at the outer edges of our struggle to understand our own self worth. After all, what could the Creator of the cosmos need from any one of us? What could the Architect of the universe possibly need from our parish family? The colt is a poignant reminder that relationships with God are not passive, whether they be personal or communal.
Genuine relationships demand that all parties are actively engaged, with real give and take. God is not a spiritual soup kitchen dishing out enough spiritual soup for us to get by until next week. God is living and breathing and engaged with us, even when we are tuned out. Our Creator yearns for us to be fully present with God and our community.
Think of one of the most valued and important relationships in your life. What makes it work so well? What makes you feel seen, loved, valued, and cared for in that relationship? How can you tell the other person feels the same? Healthy relationships require all parties to show up, to be there for one another through all the joys and challenges of this life. There is give and take, and it is beautiful when done well.
This darn colt is a reminder that God needs and wants us as much as we need God. It also means we each have something of value to offer God and her Church. Which begs the question, what does God need from us, right now?
And when we ask this same question in the context of community life, it is even more powerful.
What does God need from James & Andrew, right now?
In the coming week, you’ll be hearing from the clergy and vestry about when we hope to begin resuming some limited in-person worship. Meaning we are on the cusp of another transition, and transition is a holy time for collectively leaning into God and simply listening.
What does God need from James & Andrew, right now?
What might God need from our community at this particular moment?
We might begin exploring this question by simply noticing.
As a community of faith, we are uniquely poised to help the wider community during this tender moment, and there are any variety of ways the Spirit may call on us to engage.
As we make this journey through Holy Week, and prepare in the coming month to resume some limited in-person gatherings, I invite us to engage in the pregnant pause of this very moment and ask God:
What do you need from me right now?
What do you need from James & Andrew right now?
Amen.
As preached at Saints James and Andrew in Greenfield, Massachusetts
* This connection was first drawn for me in the Spreading Our Cloaks: Preaching Palm Sunday episode of Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community Podcast.
** Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan, in The Last Week: What the Gospels really teach about Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem cover this topic thoroughly.
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