“DONKEY WORK”
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A sermon preached at the Reading: |
“Our master has need of
it” (Luke
19:31)
Jesus is
going to Jerusalem – he needs a donkey
His
disciples go to get one –
when the owner asks why they are taking his donkey,
the answer they give is “The Master has need of it”
Jesus
work of salvation –
his journey of suffering love for the salvation of the world –
has always involved us –
from borrowed stable to borrowed tomb, Jesus relies on those around him.
And here
he borrows an ass, a donkey.
The
question fir us is this: What is our donkey?
For what
does Jesus come to us and say – I have need of it?
And, most
importantly – how do we respond – do we say
“leave my things alone”?
Or do we
say
“Yes Lord, it is my honour and privilege to help you in your work”?
I was with our District Chair, John Carne, on Friday
at a committee interviewing candidates for the Methodist Ministry.
Before we began, John led devotions
shared by the candidates and the interviewing panel.
He read the Palm Sunday story, and then asked whether
we shouldn’t call it not Palm Sunday but “Kagoul
Sunday”!
He reminded us that in the Palm Sunday story,
people wave palm branches,
but they also put their coats down in front of the donkey –
your cloak was a very important thing in 1st C Palestine –
Jewish law said that if you borrowed a cloak,
you had to get it back by nightfall –
because the owner would rely upon it.
People on the Jerusalem road threw down their cloaks –
one of their key possessions – to carpet the road for Jesus.
And what
is our cloak?
And do we
keep it hung up safely in the wardrobe
or do we risk it getting dirty and torn in the service of Jesus?
There are
of course many forms of service –
on Friday it was a real privilege to interview
candidates for ordained ministry –
one wanting to be ordained as a Presbyter, the other as a Deacon.
To hear
of their call, hearing them describe
their wrestling to find out what God wanted them to do –
This is
always extremely humbling
seeing how people give themselves in God’s service
Always it
makes you ask – what does he call me
to do?
·
What
road does he want me to walk right now -
is it to Jericho or Emmaus or Jerusalem?
(of course our journey with Christ
will take us on all those roads and others).
·
What
does he want me to give the Lord -
what is my donkey my cloak?
For some
the call of Jesus will involve a huge change of life
(I think of those offering for a full time commitment of ordained ministry)
- for others it may be less dramatic
For some
the call involves a high profile and very public act of service,
- for others it may be much less seen –
maybe even seen by none but God himself.
BUT – we
all have a cloak and a donkey –
we just have to ask –
what is my donkey my
cloak?
In 1
Corinthians Paul says
that we are all members of the Body of Christ –
but we all bring different gifts and graces –
as with the human body –
some parts (the head the hands)
are on public display and have a prominence.
Others (particularly below the waist)
are traditionally hidden from view –
But says
Paul, that doesn’t make one part of the body
more important than the rest – they all play their part.
You recall Elisha sending Naaman
to wash 7 times in the Jordan –
and Naaman says
“Why didn’t he ask me to do something really difficult and spectacular
?
You feel that if Elisha had asked Naaman
to abseil down a mountain gorge
and go white water rafting on a foaming torrent,
he would have done it in a flash –
but bathe seven times in a muddy provincial river – the Jordan –
Naaman needed a lot of persuading.
But there
is no hierarchy of Christian service –
On Maundy
Thursday we remember again
how Christ washed the feet of his disciples –
we read that story every year,
and yet somehow it is so easy to think that the person
who presides at the Lord’s Supper is doing something more important
than
the person who washes up afterwards – not true!
Both follow in the footsteps of the Lord
who broke bread and took a bowl and towel.
There is no hierarchy in Christian service.
George Herbert in his hymn talks about service “for thy
sake” and goes on
“A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws
Makes that and the action fine”
[Which is
not to say that we should be complacent
about the quality of life of those who
work in factories and sweat shops forced to do unnecessarily
dull and repetitive work –
but it is to say that where drudgery is necessary,
then it is as important, honourable as the headline catching act of genius.
In every
area of Christian work and witness there are the high profile leaders
and the quiet followers - all a part of the Body of Christ, all equally
important -
·
Yes
we need people to lead prayer in big Church services -
but where would we be without a prayer for the steward in the vestry,
the sharing in worship by all the congregation
and the quiet prayers of preparation by those who are housebound
yet offering our worship to God?
·
Yes
we need surgeons to operate on the sick,
but we also need the next door neighbour popping in to put the kettle on
and find the sick friend and ring for the ambulance -
the surgeon can’t do that bit!
·
Yes
we need the Martin Luther Kings to follow in Christ’s example
and preach the prophetic word of peace and justice -
But whether we are in Tibet or Trafalgar Square,
how much of the prophetic witness is actually to be found
not in the oratory, but in the crowds of ordinary folk
just walking the walk, standing up to be counted for justice?
·
Yes
we need aid workers and agriculturalists
to feed the hungry in the developing world -
But we also need the money in the Christian Aid envelope and
the shopping list of fairly traded produce…
I
sometimes ask people about the Palm Sunday story -
with whom do you identify - Jesus, the Disciples, the donkey’s owner, the crowd?
Some of us may sometimes feel that we are
not even on a level with the guy who lent the donkey –
if we identify with the characters in the story –
we are actually the donkey itself!
You know the phrase “doing the donkey work” –
meaning the boring, heavy, preparatory work,
normally involving lots of sweat and precious little recognition.
In the Middle Ages, donkey were sometimes used to turn
Donkey Wheels –
the Church at Stanmer near where I went to University
in Sussex
still has a Donkey Wheel House built next too it –
the donkey was harnessed and used his power to turn a big wheel
which brought up water from the well.
Jesus is
the water of life, and he wants all his children to drink –
but sometimes it needs a donkey to turn the wheel.
Jesus is
the King of Glory, the Prince of Peace –
but sometimes he needs a donkey on which to travel and claim his Kingdom.
So I
finish with the familiar words of GK Chesterton:
When
fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
Order of Service
6.30 p.m. Holy Communion led by Rev Andrew Sails
Call to Worship
Leader: Children of God, Rejoice!
Sing out in celebration, God's people!
Your King is coming to you, humble, riding on
a donkey.
People: Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in the Lord's
name.
Glory to God! Hosanna!
Hymn 258 “Jesu thou joy of loving hearts”
Prayer of Praise
Prayer of Confession
[Silence]
People:
Have mercy on us,
O God,
Do not cease to come to us and to call us to
life.
Help us to embrace the way of the cross
And to live in the
power of your death-defying love.
in which we put our
trust.
For Jesus' sake. Amen.
Reading:
Luke 19: 28-40 (p.1054)
Hymn 173 (vv.1,3,5,7) “My song is love unknown”
Sermon: “Donkey Work”
Hymn SOF 120 “From heaven you
came”
Affirmation of Faith
In God we trust.
In the One who comes humbly among us,
taking on our humanity and breaking our idols,
in God we trust.
Riding a donkey and
weeping over Jerusalem,
receiving shouts of praise from the
common people,
gaining the enmity of the proud and
the powerful,
in God we trust.
Riding to face a
destiny foretold by prophets,
entering the holy city but with no
where to lay his head,
coming to his own but his own not receiving him,
facing cruel death for the sake of those who love him
not,
in God we trust.
This Palm Sunday Man,
this Passion Sunday God,
in God
we trust.
Prayers of Intercession
Leader: O
Lord our God,
We bring You the
needs of our world,
People:
broken by division and suspicion,
by hatred and war.
Leader: We bring You the
needs of our land,
People: the hungry and homeless,
the wounded and despairing.
Leader: We
bring you the needs of ourselves and our loved ones,
People:
seeking Your peace and healing,
Your
wisdom and protection.
Leader: Hear us, O God, and come to us. In compassion and love
rescue and restore us, and
make us a people in whom your
gentle reign is seen. Amen.
The Peace
Offering
Hymn 271 “None other Lamb”
The Communion (Methodist Worship Book p. 153-159)
Hymn 209 “The
head that once was crowned with thorns”
Blessing