Sermons
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first to discover Jesus’ empty tomb. After suffering the disorientation and fear of watching their Lord and friend killed, they were further confronted by an earthquake and an angel “whose appearance was like lightning.” What was their response?
They went where God called them, “afraid yet filled with joy.” Fear and joy are not binary opposites. They coexist, but because of the empty tomb, our joy outweighs our fear.
Palm Sunday is a day filled with tension. We rejoice that Jesus our King enters Jerusalem triumphantly, yet he is only days from being sentenced to death. Why would God allow worship to coexist with suffering, and how can we reconcile the two?
Jesus teaches us to spurn anxiety about our physical needs, but in the middle of a virus outbreak, that seems difficult. How do we avoid anxiety?
Jesus tells us to shift our focus. “Do not seek after those things, but seek God’s kingdom.”
What does it look like to seek his kingdom? Does that mean we shouldn’t think about the virus at all?
The COVID-19 virus has emerged as a sudden and unavoidable part of life, and many of our life rhythms have been thrown into chaos. Although we are only at the very outset of this outbreak and do not know how severe it will be, many of us feel anxious about both the present and the future. How ought we to think about anxiety? This morning we look to the example of Job, who found a way, in profound suffering, to insist, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
