The Uncertainty of Obedience
TRANSCRIPTION:
Welcome to Dearborn First UMC. I am Pastor Suzy Todd. Whether you are joining us online or in person, I am glad to have you here on this final Sunday of the Lent season.
Holy Week: from Jubilation to Mourning
This is the day known in church lingo as Palm Sunday OR Passion Sunday. And there IS a difference between the two, that divides the pastors!
Since most Protestant churchgoers only attend worship on Sunday, the question that pastors disagree over is how much of the Holy Week events we cover on this Sunday before Easter. If we only talk about the events of Palm Sunday, then most people will go from the joy of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem to the joy of his resurrection without ever visiting the fear, grief and uncertainty of Thursday and Friday. But those emotions are important because they are a big part of human life, AND they help us to better understand the deep-rooted joy of the Easter resurrection.
But, if we journey through the whole week on this first day of Holy Week, the Thursday and Friday services lose some impact. And more importantly it dampens our ability to fully experience the hope people had as Jesus entered Jerusalem.
So, I want to plug the weekday services. Thursday’s service is at Good Shepherd – Go if you can! And I want to plug our Good Friday service here at 7PM – on Friday, of course. It is a solemn service. It gives you a place to sit with your own grief and fear and uncertainty. Sometimes it is important to do that in a world where we’re always pushed to put on a happy face. I hope to see you there so that you can experience the fullness of the emotions that lead to the joy of next Sunday’s Easter celebration.
World Travel and the Real World
If you ever take a Holy Land tour, you will have an opportunity to walk the path that Jesus took on Palm Sunday. I’ve had the opportunity twice.
I love to travel. I’ve been to something like 23 countries. And I’ll be hosting a Footsteps of Paul trip in May of 2026 – to Greece and Turkey. Let me know if you’re interested in joining me on that one! I’m hoping to take a dozen or so people.
Paris; Photo courtesy of Suzy Todd.
I think the travel bug was planted within me when I was in high school. My freshman year, I took a French class and the teacher told us that every two years the French Club took a summer trip to France. As luck would have it, the next trip was scheduled for the summer after my sophomore year.
I immediately joined French club, signed up for French my sophomore year, and went to France in June of that summer.
In the intervening 20ish months between learning about the opportunity to go and actually going, I had a lot of dreams about what it would be like.
I dreamt that I would speak French and people would flatter me on my mastery of the language.
I imagined sitting on a café patio sipping wine and watching people walk down the cobblestoned streets.
I fantasized about meeting a handsome young French boy and walking hand in hand through Les Jardin de Tuileries.
Instead:
I ended up being one of only 2 people on the trip who were not yet 16 – the legal drinking age in France at the time.
We stayed in an old “European style” hotel where the bathroom was in the hallway and shared with 5 other rooms.
Two years of high school French does not give one a mastery of the language. No one was impressed. Actually - very few people were able to understand my accent. I got asked several times whether I was German…not sure that was a compliment.
And on the way home, we missed our connecting flight in NYC and got stranded in the airport for 24 hours… and I was out of money, hungry and cranky!
Managing Expectations: the Messiah
Have you ever had expectations for something only to discover it was something else entirely?
The first century Jewish people had some pretty specific expectations of what would happen when their Messiah arrived. Much like the subset of modern Christians who comb our scriptures for evidence of an impending end times, the first century Temple leadership had extracted from their scripture a very specific idea of how they would know when the Messiah arrived.
From Jeremiah 23: 5-6, they expected:
The Messiah to serve as their political and sovereign king.
Judah and Israel, the home of the Jewish people, to become militarily secure.
All injustice to cease.
From Jeremiah 23:8, they expected
The city of Jerusalem to be restored to its former glory
From Isaiah 2:3-4, they expected
A Jewish government to rule in Israel and become the center of all world governments
God to settle all disputes, so there would be no need for weapons.
Peace to reign.
From Isaiah 11:12, they expected
All Jewish people from around the world to return to Israel
But instead…
this was the messiah they got:
21 When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. 2 He said to them, “Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them.” He sent them off right away. 4 Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, 5 Say to Daughter Zion, “Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey’s offspring.”[a] 6 The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.
8 Now a large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. “Who is this?” they asked. 11 The crowds answered, “It’s the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
This event is also recorded in Luke 19 and John 12 with some slight variations.
But there are plenty of similarities between the accounts of Jesus’ final arrival in Jerusalem.
One, Jesus came into town in a humble manner. In Luke on a colt. In John on a donkey. In Matthew, on both!
Two, a crowd gathered to greet him. In John– waving palms. In Luke laying their clothes on the road before him. In Matthew – both.
But the thing that matters most, and the thing evident in all the Gospels is that people came out looking for their Messiah. They came out with great hope that he was going to slay the dragon of the Roman Empire and they would follow him into a new life with more justice, more peace and more esteem in the eyes of the world.
Uncertainty despite obedience
They had no idea what they were actually getting themselves into. Do we ever? Life has so much uncertainty, even when we do all the “right” things. Even when we are obedient to all the things that are supposed to make life predictable and keep us safe.
Maybe you stayed faithful to a relationship, but your partner didn’t
Maybe you loved your kids the best you knew how, and still they struggle
Maybe you worked hard, had great reviews and still got laid off.
Even in obedience to the rules of life, uncertainty abounds. Pain and fear find us. We spend a lot of time avoiding uncertainty. Maybe it would be better developing our resilience and grit.
The people who lined the route Jesus took from the Mount of Olives to the heart of Jerusalem, came looking for the certainty of a savior who would conquer Rome and lead them unimpeded to a new life.
Instead, they found a savior who said things like:
Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
Blessed are the peacemakers (and the meek, and the grieving, and the poor)
Those excited folks along that road thought they knew what to expect. They thought they knew how Jesus’ arrival would play out. But when they saw this itinerant rabbi, not a warrior, but a teacher; not on a steed, but on a small, less powerful animal, surely they were uncertain about whether this person would be able to save them. They let that uncertainty control them.
They abandoned him within the week. Because they didn’t have the ability to see the gift of Jesus, because it wasn’t packaged the way they expected. Many gifts come from the places we least expect.
I learned a lot from that trip to France that went nothing like I had hoped. I LEARNED:
Even when things go nothing like planned – there can still be joy. I have a fear of heights but climbed the Eiffel Tower. My camera shutter got stuck, so I got no pictures. But I have the memories!
Joy is not a product of what happens, but a product of what we notice. Decades later recounting the stories of that trip with fellow travelers, I was reminded not of the inconvenience of a shared bathroom, but of the beauty of the hotel’s enclosed courtyard.
I can adapt to things that are uncomfortable, even painful when I first encounter them. I no longer shy away from visiting places that use languages I can’t speak. I try my best. I laugh when they laugh at me. And I can always count on Google translate.
A life worth living involves risk. I fell down the stairs of a Metro station. I climbed the steps to the Sacre Couer Cathedral. I lost my orthodontic retainer. I saw the lace makers of Brittany. My jealous boyfriend broke up with me when I got home. I walked through the Hall of Mirrors in Versaille. I would do it all again.
We’ve all experienced things in life that we do not want. Some of them far more painful than a vacation gone awry. Sometimes the pain far outweighs any lessons or redemption that we might glean from it. And we would never choose that route. But if we’re on it; if we have to take it; we may as well mine something of value from the wreckage.
“When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.”
We cannot be certain what tomorrow is going to hand us.
This Lent we’ve talked a lot about uncertainty.
Wendell Berry, a poet and essayist; environmental activist and cultural critic says:
“When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.”
Like those people who lined the streets from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, we do not know where this journey is headed. But we know that with God by our side, with a community of folks like this – who have walked hard roads before and love us enough to walk them again with us - we can make that journey through uncertainty, through fear, through grief.
PRAYING FOR STRANGERS #6:
This last week of Lent, let’s pray for people who stand on the precipice of great uncertainty. People who face big changes, whether of their own choosing or not.
Pray for strangers who struggle to break old patterns. When you visit a bar or even drive past, pray for people who face addiction. When you pass a school, pray for those students who will graduate in the next couple months and don’t yet know what the future holds.
Let our adventure begin today. Let it persist through the trials. And let joy take root because we journey in community and God is with us.
PRAYER:
God of our lives, six weeks ago we gathered here to begin our Lenten journey. We reflected on our mortality, on our need for each other, on our need for you.
Since that day of ashes, we have journeyed through the uncertainties of our mortality, the uncertainty of our forgiveness, the uncertainty of our worry and of our surrender. We have placed our faith in your presence, your power to redeem and your love for us.
It has not always been an easy journey. We have been stretched and challenged. We are grateful that we have had each other as companions on this adventure.
Thank you for this sacred community, cast in your image, shaped by your love.
As we follow Jesus together, help us to broaden our concept of community, to include not only those we already know and love, but also strangers both near and far.
Capture our hearts and minds with a dream of your kin-dom and inspire us to work to bring it to reality in this world.
In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, you show us what is right and just. We see what it is to live lives of radical obedience, radical humility, and radical love.
We pray today for all the strangers whose names we do not know, but whose stories we have offered up to you in our Praying for Strangers project. May they know your great love, even as we forget to pray for them.
We pray for people in our community who seek solace and healing, strength and perseverance in you.
God, you call us to be a part of your kin-dom. So hear us now as we pray for the coming of that kin-dom, in the words Jesus taught us long ago:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Benediction:
Christ enters Jerusalem on Sunday
All: We cheer
He gathers his friends for a final meal on Thursday
All: We are hungry
On Friday they arrest Jesus
All: Crucify him
They crucify him
All: Darkness comes over the land
On Saturday
All: We wait
We waited
All: We waited.
