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Sermon


Palm Sunday
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Heathsville, VA
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, April 1, 2012


The Roller Coaster of Life


Text: Mark 11:1-11a

We serve an amazing God. We are loved by an amazing God. I am in awe of Him as I look around me this morning and contemplate all He has done to bring this day about. We the people of St. Stephen’s are profoundly grateful to all of you, the leaders and people of First Baptist Church. Your hospitality, your generosity and your love are truly humbling. Thank you for the sacrifice and the hard work you have put into preparing the space you are making available to us. And thank you for the patience I know you will show us. I cherish the many friends I have here at First Baptist Church, starting with your pastor, John Fountaine and His wife Dorothy. We are excited about the opportunity God is giving us to be together. Who knows what the Lord has prepared for us?

We were blessed when Pastor Fountaine asked that we begin this day together. Palm Sunday is a special day. It is our tradition as Anglicans to celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the blessing and waving of palms. These crosses you were given were made by a small group of our women. Our deacon, Mary Swann, brings this tradition to us from a church where she served in California. The palms represent the honor that was paid to Jesus as He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The fact that He rode on a donkey was a symbol that He was a king. And truly He was and is: King of kings and Lord of lords. The people shouted that day, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” What a high point that was for Jesus.

But the second half of our Palm Sunday observance has a very different tone to it. Later this morning, we will read the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as written by Mark. There we will recount Jesus’ ordeal beginning with the Garden of Gethsemane, His betrayal by Judas, His trial, His torture, His excruciating walk to the cross, and the horror of His crucifixion.

What a roller coaster ride it is to go from the exaltation of Jesus as King of kings to His execution on the cross as if He were the worst of criminals. You might well ask why we would do that to ourselves on Palm Sunday. I never gave it much thought until I was ordained, and had to lead the congregation in worship. And I came to see that this roller coaster is very much the reality we face in life. It is very much the way things go in this world. And it is very much the life of the believer, whom Jesus calls to pick up our cross daily and follow Him.

Let’s look for a few minutes at our family album and talk about the roller coaster life of God’s people. Let’s think together about the people in the Bible whom God has called His children. You remember the story of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph was a handsome and capable young man. He was his father’s favorite son. His mother even made him his own many-colored coat, which uniquely set him apart as the favorite son. Everything was perfect. But then one day, the jealousy of his brothers became too much. They plotted against him, and they sold him off to a caravan bound for Egypt. He went from favorite son to slave, and his brothers hoped never to see him again.

In Egypt Joseph became a servant to an important man. And there he went from the bottom of the roller coaster to the top. His master loved him and trusted him so much that he put him in charge of all his family affairs. Everything was perfect, until the master’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. And then, because he rejected her advances, she accused him of coming on to her. The master, of course, believed his wife, and Joseph was thrown into prison.

But in prison, the roller coaster began to climb again for Joseph. He made some friends, who knew he could interpret dreams. And after a couple of years, Pharaoh summoned Joseph to interpret two dreams he had been having. One thing led to another, and Joseph became top man in all of Egypt. And in that position, God used him mightily to save the world from famine.

Or think about the life of Moses. He was born at the bottom of the roller coaster. He began life as an obscure Hebrew baby who was supposed to die. Pharaoh had ordered the murder of all the Hebrew boy babies so that their population would stop growing. But Moses not only survived; he ended up being raised in the Pharaoh’s own household. So he became a prince of Egypt. But one day, he saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew slave, and in anger, he killed the Egyptian. Suddenly, Moses found himself a fugitive from justice. He ran away and hid in the mountains. But there, at the bottom of the roller coaster, God found him and gave him the important assignment of setting God’s people free from slavery in Egypt. And what a roller coaster that was, with all the negotiations and the plagues and the broken promises. And when God’s people were finally free, imagine how high they all felt on the far side of the Red Sea, as God closed the waters over the pursuing Egyptian army. It is hard to imagine a more dramatic demonstration of God’s power.

But what was it, just a few days later? The people began to grumble about how bad things were in the desert, and how they missed the comforts of home. It was like that for this man whom God had exalted. The people gave him fits. And for 40 years, he held them together as God prepared them to enter the Promised Land. That was another high point on the roller coaster, the day they crossed the Jordan into Canaan. But Moses was not with them. He died and was buried in the wilderness of Moab.

Or think about one more of the Bible’s luminaries: David. Here was a humble shepherd boy watching his father’s flocks out in the field. And God sent Samuel to find him and anoint him to be king. He went from the bottom to the top in no time flat. Except that, it took him years to become king. And in the meantime, he was up and down. He was a great hero after killing the giant, Goliath with a slingshot and a stone. The people wrote songs about his prowess as he led armies in successful battles.

But King Saul was jealous of him and afraid David would displace him. So Saul plotted to kill David, and David had to run. He was on the lam for several years. And then, in the fullness of time, Saul was killed in battle. David became king. Things were very good for Israel when David was king. But the seeds of conflict had long since been sowed. And so David was embattled, even when his roller coaster was at the peak. His own sin of adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba caused immense pain in his family. The greatest of all the kings of Israel did not have smooth ride.

David, Moses and Joseph are all people on whom God had His hand. They all had special assignments from God. And look at the roller coaster ride their lives were. The fact is, that kind of ride is inevitable for the people whom God calls to be His own. We really don’t want to know that. But it is a reality. And the reason for that is painfully clear. God created this beautiful world and declared it to be good. And it was good. It is good. But early on, God’s children disobeyed Him, and sin crept into the world. That kicked over the whole apple cart. And now, the way the world goes is up and down, up and down, between the highs of God’s good creation, and the lows of human sin. It makes life hard for us. But it is not a problem for God.

The bad news is that life is a roller coaster ride. The good news is that God’s plan cannot be defeated. And the reason is that God’s plan accounts for human sin, and turns it to His purposes. He takes the things His enemies do and turns them to His advantage. He takes the stumbling, intermittent faithfulness of His friends and makes it the stuff of victory.

As we think of the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, we see that same thing. Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, ought to be held up always and forever as King of kings and Lord of lords. But because of the sin of Judas and the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate and the crowd and the soldiers, God’s dear Son hung dying on a cross. And in fact, it was the sins of the whole world, yours and mine included, that were heaped on Jesus that day. And it was God’s plan that prevailed.

The shame of that cross was God’s glory.

What looked like a defeat was God’s victory.

The death Jesus died on that cross opened the way to eternal life.

God had a plan and a way, and nothing could defeat it. And God raised Jesus again from the dead on the third day.

My brothers and sisters, when you turn to Jesus, when you seek God’s plan, when you submit yourself to His will, you will find true life. It will be a roller coaster, no question about it. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) There are going to be days when you can see God’s glory so clearly you can scoop it with a spoon. And there are going to be days when you say, “How could God let this happen to me?” But God is always there, with His plan and His way. And He cannot be defeated: not by the mistakes and stumbling of His friends; not by the impudence and opposition of His foes; not by any plan Satan can dream up.

Consider what today represents for our two congregations. In the eyes of the world, one would have to say that St. Stephen’s Anglican Church has been defeated. Three months ago, a court ordered us to vacate our church property and surrender a lot of goods and money. You’d have to call that the bottom of a roller coaster. Meanwhile, First Baptist Church was still reeling from a flood that swept through the beautiful rooms that you had built for the Family Education Center. You’d have to call that the bottom of a roller coaster. And look where God has brought us this morning. How can you not love a God who works like this? He’s been preparing for this day for nine years. I remember when it all started with the “Save the Community Crusade” in 2003. God has nurtured our friendship and deepened our trust in Him and in one another. He has a plan, and He has a way, and nothing can defeat it. I don’t know what all God will do with this partnership. I know people are talking already. “Did you hear about those white folks moving in with those black folks over in Heathsville?” “Baptists and Anglicans? What’s that all about?”

We don’t know the rest of God’s plan.

Yes, pick up your cross and follow Jesus, and you will have found the key to life. And it will be a roller coaster. But you know, I am convinced that God planned it that way in order to draw us to Himself.

In the end, what binds us together is our love for Jesus. As we walk with Him through the ordeal of Holy Week, let us give Him all our thanks and praise. As First Baptist Church and St. Stephen’s Church walk together, let us walk with Jesus. And let us love Him with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Jeffrey O. Cerar 2012

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