Sermon 4/4/2021 “All In”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, 2800 Hope Way, Alexandria, VA
Text: Mark 16:1-8
Day: Easter Day II 2021
(photo credit: Andrea Blackford)
Five years ago, when it became clear we would have to build a new church to accomplish the housing mission God had given us, I envisioned this day differently. I saw, in my vision of today, a joyous reunion of us in our little corner of the Promised Land, together much as in the past, albeit closer together in this smaller space. Five years ago, I saw us today, everyone who was here when we left, together again, saved for a new mission on our journey toward death and rebirth.
Five years ago, when we committed to tear down our 50-year-old church to build affordable housing, I heard the organ and a brass ensemble playing today and us singing joyously. I heard birds chirping outside in blessing. I heard God say to you, Church of the Resurrection, “Well done, good and faithful servants. In you I am well pleased.”
We have much of this vision today, a miracle in this time of pandemic. We even have the joy of knowing we already have at least 16 new neighbors, 16 new families who moved into The Spire last week. When you add THAT joy to the JOY of Christ Jesus’ Resurrection, what a marvelous Easter Sunday this is. Easter Sunday 2021 will surely be a banner event, a highlight in the narrative that is our Church of the Resurrection story.
Guess what? Our closest neighbors are no longer three high-rise retirement communities. Instead, our closest neighbors are three high-rise retirement communities AND a building full of young families (beloved neighbors all, each God-sent). Our narrative has changed, drastically.
Each year I marvel that three women set out at daybreak to anoint Jesus’ dead body with no means of getting into the sealed tomb. They went anyway. These women were “all in.” They said, “Who will roll away the stone?”, confident that SOMEONE would be there to get them beyond this barrier to Jesus.
Here’s another example of being “all in” for Jesus. There is a church here in our city whose history tells of 12 people mortgaging their homes to move their church from the center of this city to what was then the city’s new West End. I wonder what could have inspired so many people to risk all to fund a new venture. But when you take out a loan on your HOME to begin something new, something God has called you to do, you are “all in.”
Jesus was “all in” when he resolutely traveled to Jerusalem for Passover in HIS banner year. Jesus knew and told his disciples that he would be killed in Jerusalem. By the time Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem for hat fateful visit, the disciples had experienced a dawning recognition that Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior foretold of old. The disciples didn’t understand why or even how the Messiah could die, how he could be killed by the very forces and the very people the Messiah had come to liberate.
We people have our own agendas that can divert our commitments. We-the-People substitute OUR commitments for the commitments God nudges us to make.
Christ Jesus’ disciples were with him in Jerusalem in HIS banner year, a year that turned out to be THEIR banner years, as well. The disciples didn’t understand how the Messiah could be killed but they also didn’t understand what he meant when he told them he would “rise again in three days.” Resurrection was completely unchartered territory; no one before, or since, has ever achieved a return to life after being three-days-dead.
Jesus’ disciples were clearly not “all in” with him in Jerusalem. Oh, they THOUGHT they were “all in.” They were the ones who accompanied him all the way to Jerusalem. The disciples even had resolutions to stand with Jesus NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED, to go with Jesus “all the way.”
We sing about the disciples’ resolve to follow Jesus “all the way” and we join in their resolution,
Where he leads me, I will follow.
Where he leads me, I will follow.
Where he leads me, I will follow;
…
That’s what Peter said to Jesus, more or less, when he told Jesus he was “all in.” But you know what happened: Peter denied Jesus and ran away, afraid that “all the way” was beyond his commitment. But, when you think of Peter denying Jesus, denying his commitment, think of this: After Jesus’ Resurrection, Peter and also the other apostles changed the world FOR ALL TIME by picking up Christ Jesus’ Cross and carrying that Cross to their own executions for confessing that Jesus is the Christ. Peter followed Christ Jesus “all the way” and beyond.
Today, though, is Easter Sunday. We aren’t focused today on the “beyond-all-the-way” aspect of Jesus’ witness. Our vision TODAY, our focus today, is on the commitment involved to go “all the way” with Christ.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead once famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, [people] can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” This saying reminds us that people who are “all in” can accomplish great things. And this is true. Human history is full of examples of how a few people, totally focused on the same objective, have accomplished what they determined to do.
Not every group of committed people succeed, though. And if you study what made some groups of committed people successful and others fail, what we discover is groups succeed when they stayed focused on the goal and see things that appear to be negative outcomes as disguised opportunities.
People with this type of mindset see a pandemic as more than just a world-wide life-changing event. Instead, they understand that God is at work, using this terrible awful virus to show us new ways of being church in a changed world. For example, we might begin to think about coming to church via Uber of Lyft or even by bus instead of driving.
I would add one more successful practice of “all-the-way” all-in people: They stay connected with each other via the “ground” of their inspiration. In other words, while our personal connections with each other are important “glue” that hold us together, what truly binds us is our connection to each other THROUGH Christ Jesus’ Spirit, the Spirit that lives on in each of us and which unites us and urges us to commit “all the way.”
Five years ago, when it became clear we would have to build a new church to accomplish the mission God gave us, I clearly wasn’t visioning this day, today, adequately. Today’s reality is so much more than what the eye can see and the ear can hear. What’s available now in our little corner of the Promised Land are the tools and experiences needed to truly go “all the way” with Christ Jesus and each other. We now have the tools and experiences to travel together to the end and beyond, transforming this new West End of Alexandria into the Kingdom of God in the process.
I’ll go with him, with him, all the way.
