Sermon - "Can I Help?", by Pastor Ruth L. Foss, Suncook United Methodist Church, Suncook, NH, April 5, 2009, Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1-10

Can I Help?

The Lord be with you

And also with you

Let us pray,

Gracious Lord, Almighty God, we thank you that we are able to assemble in you temple this morning to worship you. We pray that you would be with us as we hear your word. Pour out your Spirit upon us gathered here today. May we hear the word that you have for us this morning. I pray that your word would be heard through me or in spite of me. May the meditations of our hearts and the words our mouths be pleasing to you Lord our Rock and Redeemer. Speak Lord, your servants are listening.

(Scripture reading according to the Gospel of St. Mark)

This morning we are really working with that Spiritual Discipline we talked about last week. We are Celebrating Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Can you imagine what it must of like to have been there? The person, that you have deemed to be the Messiah, is coming into town. You are all excited because you are about to be freed from the Government. This Messiah is going to fight for you and bring about change in your world. You are there Shouting “Hosanna…Hosanna to the King. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna!” You’re waving your palms and throwing you coats on the ground as if they were Rose petals before the one that would liberate you. What a sight that must have been.

During Lent, we have been talking about many things that are Spiritual Disciplines. We have talked about listening , worship, simplicity, prayer and celebration. All of these work together and causes us to do what I want to talk about this morning. All of this leads us to want to serve God, be in service to Him, in whatever capacity that he has gifted us for. It is our act of worship and obedience to God.

Have you ever thought about what service really is? What defines service? If you are in service to God, does everyone look at you and think you are saintly or a “holy roller”? Can I just do the service that I feel like doing or do what I have to do +anyway? Will what I do make a difference? I can’t do much of anything so will it really matter? Well…the definition of service is employment in duties or work for another, work done for others as an occupation or business, it’s an act of assistance or benefit, it’s also an act of assistance or benefit, but is also means an Active devotion to God, as through good works or prayer.

In the Scripture from Mark this morning, we have a scene of service that we might not readily notice. You see, Jesus was just about to come down from the Mount of Olives and he sent two of His disciple to fetch him a colt. Now you might think that this is not much of anything to do. All they were doing is getting Jesus a “ride“ into the city. But…this little, ordinary act of fetching a donkey takes up most of Mark’s account of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He told these disciples what to do, where to find it, what type of colt, what to say, and so on. This was important to Jesus. What these men were doing had a great importance to Jesus’ entry into the city…This small act of obedience.

Now…we don’t know what these disciples were thinking when Jesus told them to do this…and we don’t even know which two it was. They may have been thinking…”Ok…we have been with you all this time. We have been arguing which one of us was the greatest. We should be put up on a pedestal because we are following the Son of God. And you want us to do what…get a donkey!” It is ironic and makes me stop and think because on one of Jesus’ most glorious day on earth, these disciples were told to muck around in the a stable…looking like a couple of horse thieves…tangling with a untamed colt, trying to get it back to the Mount of Olives for Jesus. I can just see the picture now…they’re racing and running around to try and catch this unwilling participant in their plan, maybe even falling and being covered with mud and Lord knows what else. Thinking to themselves “ We left our fishing nets to follow this guy…why?”

Why does Mark portray these disciples in this way? This is seems like a delegated chore…something like the worship committee planning Psalm Sunday worship…one of those mundane chores, one of those things that needs to be done within the church but there is no real action, no notoriety with it. I mean we are called to serve God with all our heart, and soul, and energy. These types of things…like making the bulletins…cleaning the bathroom…cleaning up after a Saturday night dinner…are not the most “glorious” things that are done but…without them, the church would not be able to function as it should…reaching out to the least, the lost and the forgotten. Jesus needed a donkey for His ministry to function the way God intended it to run. Jesus entered the city as a King but left as a criminal. But this was God’s plan at the start. And it all began with a ride into the town on a donkey.

So why is it that Mark puts these disciples in this light? Well I…being a Seminarian…would like to share my insight to this piece of scripture with you. You see…I believe that what Mark is showing us that even the mundane things are considered service. The Disciples I Mark get a boat ready for Jesus, find out how much food will be needed to feed the multitude, get a room for the Last Supper, and even find a colt, a donkey, for Jesus to enter into the city. It is the mundane that we need to reach down and bring forth that Spirit of service, no matter how hard that may be. These disciples, as well as us, were handling the “every day”, the nitty gritty chores of everyday life. We are called to prepare the way of Jesus’ ministry, His not ours. We are to be those donkey fetchers. But we are also called to do those mundane things that keeps His church alive and by doing so, we are taking part in His redemptive work in the world. So Beloved, there is no service too small that the Lord can’t use.

The gospel of Mark talks about the “great” things God calls us to do. The disciples cast out demons and healed the sick but he also talks about the other less glorious things that the disciples were called to do. One of the things that we can all do, whether we are great or small, young or old, is to take the light of Christ into the world and let our light shine before man and in turn they too may come into the light…into the sheepfold of the ever loving Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to share that light, that candle of Christ within us, and light the dark places of the world no matter where it may be.

(Video, Go Light Your World, by Kathy Triccoli)

Rejoice…the King has come…the prophesy has been fulfilled! Go out and light your world in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
AMEN

As a child’s hands

The cluster of clover
as a child’s hands, small, living
in miniature the tuft of green
the large plant they will become
nascent, but perfect in miniature
yearning this cold dreary spring day
for the rays of sunlight, the warmth of summer
the flowering and the bees pollinating
the lush color foretold in the tiny leaves
pushing up through the playground mulch

April 7, 2009
Pembroke Village School
Suncook, NH

In Miniature

The tiny clump of clover,
a drop of rain a pearl
nestled in the triune shapes
in miniature the bouquet they will be
the woodchips framing this miracle
this movement of spring
a tiny clump of clover
there especially for me

April 7, 2009
Pembroke Village School
Suncook, NH

With Palms Waving

They danced, we listened
with palms waving, bodies swaying
entering into the presence, centering our worship
feeling Christ, riding on a donkey,
in our midst, in the sanctuary,
made holy ground, in this moment
With palms waving, voices singing

With the joy of the morning
the triumphant entrance invoked
the hands of the servants, clapping,
waving, moving to the Spirit
rising with our “hosannas!”,
singing, celebrating, worshiping the king
with palms waving!

April 5, 2009
Isaiah 43:10-13
Mark 11:1-10
Palm Sunday
and sermon, “Can I Help?”,
by Pastor Ruth L. Foss,
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
April 5, 2009

New Life

Under the leaf litter
the matted grass
green shoots
new life, pushing skyward
out of the awakening earth
the cycle of life,
the turning of the seasons
all part of the master’s plan.

New life, in its time, our of the dead
the still-wet decay of last year,
our of winter hibernation
the perennials rise
new-green lilies, irises,
grasses, all in the newly raked garden
continuing the dance, rebirth
choreographed by the creator
For this, and so much more,
we give You our thanks.


March 22, 2009
Spring 2009,
and Alive Now assignment for 3/20/09
and
Luke 11:1-13
and sermon,
“Are You Listening Lord?”
by Pastor Ruth L. Foss,
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
March 22, 2009

Find Him There

Here, right where I live
where I work, where I toil,
where we worship,
where my wife, my girls are with me,
where we live
in this place where I am planted
as if by living streams of water
this tree planted here.

May I find him here, not some distant land,
standing beside me in my struggles
walking with me on this journey
holding my hand when I step out in faith
cheering with me in my joys
in those moments when I notice,
when I am present, when I feel his grace
(not that his grace is ever lacking),
when I am aware,
May I find his face, his presence, here
with me now, right where I am


April 2, 2009
The following poem was posted to the www.christianpoetry.org site on April 1, 2009, my 49th birthday. I received a comment about seeking Christ in the holy land when we should seek him where we live. The poem above came from this.
----
Traveling Far

Unlike the shepherds,
on a nearby hillside, watching their sheep.

Not called by a choir of angels,
a chorus of heavenly host.

Reading the signs, as they did in Jerusalem,
traveling far, following his star.

By a faithfulness, greater than the people
the chosen ones.

Bringing gifts, these gifts,
in fulfillment, the birth, their gifts.

Believing where the select, the chosen did not,
traveling far, with real faith.

Following the star, the signs,
the coming of the newborn king.

January 2, 2009
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12

All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 30,800+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.