FLUMC Lay Leader Update

April 8, 2022

We are nearing the end of our Lenten journey as this Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  Of all our holy days, this is the one that I approach with truly mixed feelings.  I love that the crowd takes the opportunity to welcome Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna”.  And I love the humility of Jesus riding in on a simple beast of burden, a donkey.  But we know how the story ends and what is to come in the days ahead.  There won’t be crowds shouting praises, there won’t be joy; there will be sadness, betrayal, disappointment and profound sorrow.   

I actually have thought a lot about the donkey Jesus rode that day and what it might have been like to see Jesus’ triumphant ride through the donkey’s eyes.  If we follow scripture, it was tied to a tree just hanging out doing what donkey’s do when they aren’t working.  Then two of the disciples come and untie it, next a stranger gets on his back and off they go - sort of a donkey Uber.  The closer to town they get the more people start to gather; they start cheering and waving palm branches. In my mind the donkey starts to think, “What’s all this?  This guy on my back, he must be someone really special the way they are acting!  I must be carrying someone important.  This is kinda fun!”.  Finally they stop, Jesus gets off and we don’t hear anything more about the donkey other than he had one great story to share at the local watering hole.  

The donkey’s role was not accidental.  It was scriptural - Zechariah 9:9 - “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”   The donkey played a key role in fulfilling prophecy and in the story of Palm Sunday by simply being a donkey and doing what donkeys do.  

That’s the way it often is for us as laity.  We have no idea where we may be needed or why.  And often we find ourselves in life’s spaces and places that become “God moments” without warning or our knowledge.  The catch is that we have to make ourselves available to the moment.  And friends, these days it seems there is no shortage of moments that call us to be available.  Truth is, just like the donkey, we don’t need to be especially “gifted” to do God’s work.  Each of us is already blessed with all the gifts and graces God needs.  All we need to do is simply show up - make ourselves available.  Live a life that invites the Holy Spirit to fill, guide, and use us as humble servants for God.

Alice Williams - Co-Lay Leader of the Florida Conference