Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

    Apr 09, 2017

    The Unknown

    Passage: Matthew 21:1-11

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: Gospeled Lives

    Category: Discipleship

    We are led on a journey into the unknown when we draw near to Christ. We step out of the crowd and begin a unique and personal journey with Christ.

    Many of us tend to think that Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen when he rode that donkey’s colt into Jerusalem that day. There are hints in the gospels – but remember that those hints were written in hindsight and good writing always includes foreshadowing.

    Brian Wren, one of the most thoughtful, theologically sound hymn writers of the 20th century came to Wesley Seminary when I was a student. I couldn’t wait to hear him speak, as his hymns are biblical, provocative and fresh. He wrote This is a Day of New Beginnings, and one of my favorites, which is in our hymnal but not sung very much, is Woman in the Night:

    Women on the hill, stand when men have fled;
    Christ needs loving still, though your hope is dead.
    Women in the dawn, care and spices bring,
    earliest to mourn, earliest to sing! 

    Refrain:
    Come and join the song, women, children, men.
    Jesus makes us free to live again!

    Dr. Wren asked a question during his presentation, and I responded – wrongly, it turns out. I don’t remember the question nor my actual response. What I DO remember is the important part. I had said that Jesus knew he would be resurrected. Dr. Wren said – NO! If he knew he was going to be raised again, wouldn’t that make Good Friday a terrible farce?

    Holy Week reduced to Jesus going through the motions – an act. Jesus may have known that it was likely that he would die. But in order for him to become a sacrifice, there were many unknowns that faced him as he rode that little colt. Beloved, discipleship often presents us with unknowns – never with a neat, tidy package.

    Step out in faith. It’s not step out, knowing exactly what is going to happen. Faith is a risky business, but I can witness to the fact that high risk brings high reward – maybe not the rewards we think we want or deserve, maybe not rewards as defined by financial success or recognition or instant gratification.

    Our Lenten author begins the last chapter of our devotional book by pondering the nature of gospeled lives, raising the question is stepping out in faith the end of the story, or is it the beginning? Jesus stepped out on that Palm Sunday morning, beginning his final journey, convinced only that he was willing to lay down his life for you and for me. And it was in that faithful, loving, self-giving stepping out that Jesus opened doors for you and for me – doors to new life and faithful choices.

    In another day, another time, another genius of hymn writing, Isaac Watts, penned one of the most powerful faith responses to Jesus’ self-sacrifice:

    Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small;
    love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.

    Draw near to Christ and listen for the doors opening and choices beginning. Step out!