Finding Courage: Obedience

Function statement:  Obedience meaning the courage to do something hard out of love. Obedience meaning the, courage to be faithful even in the midst of resistance. Obedience meaning the courage to live for a higher purpose even though it means sacrifice. ________________

In this season of lent we continue our sermon series entitled,  Finding Courage.  We journey with Christ towards the Cross and in His journey we look to reflect on our own lives and how we might find courage in and through Christ. Like a train journey, we will have stations where we will pause and reflect.  We have already stopped at the stations of wilderness, Vulnerability, Presence Solidarity, Surrender And today…Obedience Our hope is that by journeying with Christ, we might find courage as well in our lives. Especially on this Palm Sunday.  Today, we see Christ’s obedience to a higher calling and I wonder what that might teach us?  Maybe how it might inspire us to courage to keep walking.  Hear now the word of the Lord John 12: 12-16

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—     the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming,     sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Let us pray. Lord, thank you for your faithfulness, your obedience to a higher calling.  Give us the strength and the courage, To keep walking, even when we feel resistance.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you. You are our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

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Outline:

Going on a Bear Hunt.  Do you remember this children’s book story?

Call and response… I need your participation this morning.  Repeat after me…Going on a Beat Hunt, Gonna Find a Big One, I am not afraid, Look some wavy Grass, Can go over it, can’t go under it, Gotta go through it.

Gotta go through it - have you ever had a season where life just through you something and you just gotta go through it?  You would love to go around it, or just go back… but the only way, it to go forward through it.

Doctors call:

Cancer, it turns your life upside down.  You would love to go back, or find some alternative, but after exhausting resources, you know the truth.  You just gotta go through it.  

I know the song says, “I am not afraid” but that is not true.  And it is in that moment, that all you are trying to do is find courage to keep walking. To keep going from radiation, to chemo, to doctors appointment, to surgery.  How do you find the courage to keep going. To keep walking.

Jesus kept walking.  He could have gone around Jerusalem but he was obedient to a higher calling to a mission of life.  He knew what awaited him.  And somehow he found the courage to keep going.  

Garden of Gethsemane - Jesus struggled with is own fear.  “Father if you are willing ot remove this cup from me…. Please do it… but not my will be done but yours.  

And he gets up from his knees praying and he finds the courage, and this commitment and obedience to a higher calling to keep walking.

In the chair as he is being interrogated by the High Priest - who do you say you are…. And in the corner of his eye he see Peter, his disciple and friend staning in the courtyard.  A servant sees him hiding in the shadows…MAybe he can even hear Peter as she asks him

“Were you not with JEsus teh Nazarene”

“I do not know the man”

A crowd comes back up, Your accent betrays you…

“I do not know the man”

And he began to swear and oath and I wonder if Jesus could hear him sitting in that chair:

“I do nont know the man” and the cock crows three times and Peter weeps.

But Jesus finds the courage to stay in that chair.

As he is before Pilate

 Is this your King?  Do you want me to save him?

I will make you a deal.  Pilot was a deal maker “Jesus or Barabbas”

They shouted Barabbas… and what is it you want me to do with Jesus?  Crucify hiim, Crucify him.

And as he is hanging on the Cross.

As he could have gotten down but he says these words

“Father Forgive them for they know not what why do.”

On this Palm Sunday we are invited to see Jesus again.

To see his courage, obedience and faithfulness to a mission of love.

To a higher calling.  

To the one who keeps walking because he is obedient to a higher calling, and in this higher purpose he finds the courage to keep going.

He keeps going 

In the face of his own fear

In hte face of betrayal from his friends and from the crowd

In the face of anger of hte crowd

He finds the courage to keep going.

Obedience, commitment and faithfulness to a higher purpose.

Long obedience in the same direction.

I see you with that courage.

Caring for a loved one who is sick.  It is so hard.

I see you wit that courage to keep going:

Even when you feel alone.

Do not be afraid:

Because he has always walked this path.

The path that you are on.

He is with you.

This is a king worthy of our praise, and we can’t always see it in the moment.  Just like the disciples but later they will be able to see that that this is a King worthy of praise

not because  we first loved him but he first loved us.

He is our king worthy of praise not because we are faithful to him but because he is faithful to us.

He is our king worthy of praise not because we chose him, but because he chose us.

And he finds strength and I pray you might find strength as well if you are in this season because he knows the journey but he knows the destination.  

That his ultimate destination is one of new life.

And that is your destination as well.

Yes, you gotta go through it, you can’t go around it, can’ t go under it.

But ultimately this destination leads to new life.  

Thanks be to God.  

Many of you probably remember the children’s book, We are Going on a Bear Hunt.  You know it… So a little call and response Call and response for the start of htis sermon.

Going on a beat hunt…. Repeat after me. Going on a bear hunt. Gonna catch a big one. Gonna catch a big one. I am not scared. I am not scared. Look some wavy grass. “Can't go over it, can't go under it. Can't go around it,

Gotta go through it.  What - “ got to go through it.”  Gotta go through it.  Have you ever had a moment when you have no other option but to go through something?  You would love to go another direction. You would love to go around it. Or even stop the journey all together.  

But you know the only way.  The only way is through it.  

I know so many of you know what I am talking about.  You met with the doctor. And they give you the test results.  And it says cancer. It throws your world upside down. And all you want is a plan. And you wish there was another way around it. But you have to go through. And the book says “I am not scared” but that is not true.  In your heart and mind, You are scared. And you are trying to find courage.  To find courage to keep going toward your destination of life again.

This is what we see in Christ as he journeys into Jerusalem.  He knew what was coming and what awaited him, and it was certain arrest, beating, crucifixion, and death.  And yet, he kept going.  How did he do it? We can see his agony as he prays in the garden of Gethsemane and he prays, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.”  As Christ is being interrogated by the High Priest, we see the juxtaposition of Jesus and his obedience to Peter, who when confronted, Peter turned away.  He says these words, “I do not know the man.”  And runs off.  Even though three times Pilate stands before the crowd and he says, “Is this your King?  

Do you want me to save him?

He says, I will make you a deal…”Jesus or Barabbas?”  

And the crowd shouts in unison Barabbas! 

Followed by these words, 

“Crucify him! 

Crucify him.

Even in the face of his own fear,

Even in the face of betrayal by one of his closest disciples Peter,

Even in the face of the anger of the crowd.  Those who had loved him just days before and now have turned against him. Jesus has the courage, and obedience to a higher calling to keep going towards the Cross. And from the Cross.

When he says, “Father, Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

On this Palm Sunday, We are invited to see Jesus again.

To see the courage, obedience and faithfulness of Jesus.

Who keeps walking. He keeps going. 

not because we first loved him 

but because He first loved us.  

A King who saves us 

not because of our faithfulness to him

but because of His faithfulness to us.

A king who loves us not because we chose him but because he chose us.  

And in seeing this King.

We hear his words.  Do not be afraid. In his courage and obedience to this mission of love. Maybe I too can find the courage to keep going. Maybe I can have the obedience to this mission of love which demands something of me as well.  

Pastor Eugene Peterson has a wonderful book entitled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. I have always loved that title because it seems to describe our journey as Christians.

And yet, the word obedience is not one we use or talk about much in a modern context. We like to do our own thing and go our own way, What does this kind of obedience look like:

It looks like commitment to a higher purpose.

It means a faithfulness to a higher love. It is not about control, but rather a connection to a deep truth. 

You can see it in heroic acts like the fireman and women running up the stairs in the midst of fire, and chaos of on nine eleven. But I also see it here. I see it in Mary Joe’s life.  A long obedience in the same direction towards Christ. A long faithfulness to God in all the seasons of life.  

And I saw it in her family.  In Mollie and Beth Calhoun caring for their Mom - Mary Joe Worth.

It is not easy, but it is the right thing to do.

But most of all in our text I hear the invitation to be inspired by the courage of God.

Because this King will keep going.  

He will have the courage to keep going. To ride on.

He had an obedience, a faithfulness, to a larger mission.  And his obedience to his calling is not out of control but it is out love.  who’s all in for you and me in this world.

For this is a King who is fighting for life and love...

Even if he has to endure the hardest of things.

And I think Christ invites us to learn from Him. To find courage in his obedience. To keep going. Palm Sunday courage.

No matter what we have to face, or endure Christ invites us to keep going.

To endure. To push through.    

Remembering a King and a God who is obedient to a higher calling.

One who says to us 

Do not be afraid, 

For we know the ultimate destination That his courage triumphs over fear and death.

Yes, Gotta go through it.  

But you are not alone.  

Jesus says, “Do not be Afraid… your King is coming.” 

Amen.