Change of Plans ~ Lenten Wednesday Sermon Series ~ Mark 10:32-34

When Elizabeth and I first met, she had a sign in her dorm room that read: “Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape.”

I should have heeded that advice, especially this winter…

The snow and bitter cold temperatures have wreaked absolute havoc on my schedule—and on First’s events schedules.  In February alone, we cancelled seven of a total of fifteen scheduled events (that do not include Sunday worship!).  There were a few things we did not cancel, but the weather wreaked havoc on the attendance: like our annual congregational banquet and our pancake brunch.  So much time and energy went into planning and preparing for these meals, but so many could not participate. 

It’s so aggravating to make plans and those plans don’t work out.  But that’s life.  Usually, they say “rules are made to be broken.”  This winter, I’d argue that “plans are made to be broken…”

Jesus’ disciples certainly experienced this fact firsthand…  It didn’t take much time following Jesus and witnessing his miraculous deeds of power for the disciples to make big plans for the future.  They had few reasons to doubt that Jesus wouldn’t raise up an army that would kick King Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Romans, and the corrupt religious leaders out of the Holy Land, so to firmly establish the Kingdom of God.  They were so confident that Jesus was going to do this that they began arguing amongst themselves as to which of them would be the greatest, and get to sit to the right and left of Jesus’ throne once their big plans came to fruition.  They couldn’t get it through their heads that this wasn’t Jesus’ plan, even after he foretold of his death and resurrection a total of three separate times…

Simple common sense would affirm that Jesus’ arrest and death were the culmination of a spectacular failure in the cosmic battle of good versus evil.  What else was there to believe about a dead Jesus?

The cross was a catastrophic failure of the disciples’ plans—but it was the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  There is no greater love than the love of Jesus, to lay down his life to take away the sin of the world.  His resurrection from the dead marked the beginning of the end for the powers of death and sin.

So when your best-laid plans crumble to dust, remember the cross.  We all have plans that don’t work out—but God’s plan for your salvation always works out.  We will never know the reasons why bad things happen and why we suffer.  It’s never part of God’s plan to afflict us, anymore than it is part of God’s plan for us to sin against God and one another.  But God can take even the worst of heartbreaks and our most spectacular failures to reveal God’s works in you.  When everything falls apart, God’s grace rebuilds your life so that you can live more fully into God’s plan.  There is Easter grace for every cross we bear—and we never bear any cross alone…

Something amazing happened after all those snowed-out church meals—opportunities came along for us to prepare two meals for two Christian groups in the community.  None of that food or that hard work went to waste—because God had a plan.

You can be just as confident that when your best-laid plans fall to pieces, there will be grace to bring you into God’s great plan.  You can trust God to take you through every high and every low to bring you at the last into God’s glorious Kingdom.