Mark 11

Our faith influences the world not in the orderly, dominant fashion we hope for, but more often in a makeshift fashion. At least, makeshift from our point-of-view. I wish it didn’t. But it does. And if Palm Sunday is any indication, it always has.

Ideally, there is some master plan, some grand strategy by which we, God’s creatures, can finally have such significant influence that the world will bend the knee to God. Of course, we know the whole world will indeed bend the knee to the name of Christ when he comes again to judge the living and the dead. But, for now, by our human powers and abilities, will there be a plan that is hatched, like a business plan, where a proposal is made, a 10-year financial plan is developed, and staff is hired to execute the plan? And the whole world will agree with us and worship Jesus? Well, that would be ideal. But it is not reality. I’m sorry to report that many well-meaning efforts of such domination have come and gone without the hoped-for success.

In this thing we call reality, the spreading of the Gospel is a pretty messy enterprise. And it often looks and feels like failure. Try as we might to organize and even institutionalize the processes of evangelism and discipleship – efforts that are not without merit – God’s Kingdom spreads in ways we can’t always predict or control.

Perhaps jazz music is a good example of how the work of the Church actually gets done. There is a structure in place – some boundaries and truths and authorities that are beyond reproach that provide a roadmap – but the exact notes are made up on the spot. The path from the beginning of the song to the end will never be replicated. It’s a messy, unpredictable process. Perhaps the work of the Church is much the same.

And as much as the Type A’s of the world hate that, I think it just is reality. After all, when the Christian Church has institutionalized this community we call the Church, it hasn’t gone very well. The toxic mixture of political, economic, and church power for centuries in “Christendom”, or the mostly ubiquitous presence of Christianity in medieval Europe, was fairly disastrous. Much good came from the prevalence of Christianity, but, if we’re honest, it barely resembled what we consider Christianity.

Entire generations were baptized and taken to church barely even knowing the Lord’s Prayer. Priests were mere functionaries who administered the sacraments to nameless masses. The entire system of penance, indulgences, and sacramental upkeep was more a measure of control than a life-giving gift from God. Princes and bishops were rivals for power, not a cooperative unit dedicated to improving the lives and souls of the faithful.

So, speaking of makeshift, the Reformation was about as makeshift as it gets! From a backwoods town came an obsessive monk who refused to take “Yes” for an answer. The combination of the right issue at the right time by the right person coupled with the right technology gave birth to the Reformation. It was not part of the plan. Heck… there was no plan.

But in the decades to come, Bibles were printed in the common languages of Europe. Real, living faith was preached, rather than mere institutional participation. And missionaries shared the Gospel around the world. That’s how an effort to reform the Catholic Church in Germany led to there being more Lutherans in Ethiopia than Germany. Well, at least, practicing Lutherans!

Indeed, while working on this sermon on a beautiful day in front of the church, a young lady stopped by to visit. It was clear she was a Christian. When I asked where she went to church, she indicated she was done with “Churchianity” and was part of a house church collective. The institution had proven to be about the money, the power, and the personalities. She wanted something real. A makeshift opportunity presented itself, and maybe, just maybe, an off-the-grid version of Christianity will become part of a miniature reformation in our own day.

I hope the connection to Palm Sunday is clear. Jesus’ procession was makeshift. It was spontaneous and unplanned. It wasn’t the plan of those in power; quite the contrary! But it was demanded given who Jesus was and what his entry into Jerusalem signified. The time had come for Jesus’ passion, so he had to enter Jerusalem, the seats of power for both Israel and Rome.

By this time, his ministry had reached a controversial fever pitch. He was either the long-expected Messiah, which many believed given all of the miracles he performed and teachings he offered. Or he was a dangerous fraud, whose army of supporters represented a threat to the Hebrew and Roman powers.

Given the nearness of the Passover, many, if not all, seemed to understand the gravity of the moment. So those who were hopeful, those who shouted “Hosanna!” looked around for whatever they could find to line the path for the procession of Jesus. Cloaks and palms strewed the road, a peasant’s only way to communicate the Lordship of Christ. They were essentially acting as evangelists, spreading the message of Jesus’ divine rule by turning his donkey ride into a kingly entrance. But none of them had a lick of power. They could not stop the trial, the cross, the death.

Things were not going according to plan. The makeshift procession was a testament to who Christ was. It was the best they could do at the time. And it was good enough.

We cannot prevent hardships in this life, either. The grand plans we have can fall apart. The investments, the buildings, the denominations, the 10-year plans… given enough time, they almost always falter. We can easily be discouraged. We feel like we are constantly putting out fires, building makeshift solutions. We never get around to our grand plans for life. As Allen Saunders said in an oft-quoted line: “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”

Meanwhile, out of the blue comes something new, something unexpected, something put together on the fly, out of necessity, with few resources except the Spirit of God. Yes, Jesus is crucified by those in power, by those who can make and enact plans. But God has an Ace up his proverbial sleeve. It’s called resurrection.

The point is this: do not despair! When your plans fail, you will be one in a long line of failures who had grand plans for the Kingdom, too. The Gospel is spread in a makeshift way by those who love Christ and prepare the way, often with nothing but the Holy Spirit. God can work with whatever you’ve got, so long as you have faith.

And rejoice in this: the plans of the powerful often fail, too. Institutions grow corrupt and collapse under their own arrogance. Their lack of virtue shortens their lifespan. Their quest for power creates infighting. Give it time and the behemoth will fall of its own weight. If you don’t believe me, look what happened to Jerusalem in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed it, and then not too long after that, Rome fell and Christianity took its place.

So hold fast. Jesus faced the religious and political powers of his day and they had a plan: crucify him. Spoiler alert, God had a makeshift response: resurrection.

Our calling is to soldier on, even when plans fail, even when institutions collapse, even if the world is at war. For what looks like failure to us may just be God’s makeshift plan to advance His Kingdom. Amen.