Pentecost 19

By the Rev. Martha Frances+

Year B, Pentecost 19, Proper 24

18 October 2009

Text:  Mark 10: 35-45

Others: Job 38: 1-7, (34-41); Psalm 104: 1-9, 25, 37c; Hebrews 5: 1-10

      James & John are two of Jesus' closest disciples.  They & Simon Peter make up the trio whom Jesus takes with him up the mountain to view the Transfiguration & to the Garden to pray after the Last Supper.  So James & John are used to being the chosen ones of the disciples.  Is it any surprise that they ask Jesus—as they realize things are changing in Jesus' life & their own—to reserve a place for them at the banquet table?  He's continually described the reign of God as a banquet, & James & John figure they might as well get the best seats for eternity.

      The other 10 disciples are really ticked at James & John, probably because James & John have beaten them to the draw.  Why didn't they think to ask for places of honor first?  Further, would we behave any differently?  We don't trust change any more than the disciples did.  When we're nervous about things changing, we try to carve out our own niche in the new order. 

      Jesus shows patience with these closest disciples, these brothers who come to him like children.  Reminds me of my boys.  "Do me a favor!  Do me a favor!  Huh, will ya?  Huh, huh?" they would plead to me, all-powerful person in their eyes.  I would have said, "Yeah, right!  You've got to be kidding!"  I could already see an unreasonable request coming.  When they were little, it was, "Tell Ken he can't ride the bicycle; it's mine for today."  Or, when they were older, "Michael can't use the car tonight; I have a date.  I have to have the car.  It's important!"  Jesus asks James & John, "What is it you want me to do for you?"  And their request is just as childish.  They want to sit at his right & left hand when he becomes king. 

      Here they are, walking along on the road to Jerusalem on which we've been accompanying them the past few weeks.  Jesus has just predicted his death for the 3^rd time; he knows death awaits him in Jerusalem.  He's given them every opportunity to see he is not to conquer the city militarily but rather to be put to death.  Some of the disciples think finally Jesus is going to quit just teaching & healing & stuff, shift into action, & establish his reign on earth.  And they want to have the places of honor.

      It's easy for us to make fun of James & John, to laugh or cry at how little they understand what Jesus' victory is all about.  But then, we know the rest of the story.  We look back at this scene through the lens of the crucifixion & resurrection.  We know that Jesus did go to Jerusalem, that Jesus did rise after his crucifixion to reign in glory.  We know that James & John actually fled when Jesus was captured, & their faithfulness was certainly in question during those horrible days of Jesus' passion.  But we also know that James & John became pillars of the early church, James martyred early in the Christian era, & John living to a ripe old age & establishing one of the earliest Christian communities. 

      However, neither James nor John nor any of the disciples knew then what we know now.  And Mark again points out that the disciples just don't get it.  They don't have a clue what Jesus is telling them about the cost of discipleship.  It's easy to make fun of James & John & their childish request.  But I have to confess that I might not have behaved any better.  At times like when Bill was becoming weaker, it was tempting to try to bargain with God for Bill not to have to suffer as much.  Have you ever been similarly tempted?

      Jesus tells James & John that they don't know what they're asking.  Jesus asks if they're able to drink the cup & be baptized in the baptism that he's going through. Here Jesus uses the language of the primary sacraments of the Church—baptism & communion—to express the price which the disciples must pay to sit at his right & left hand.

      Remember, we enter the Christian community through baptism.  In Mark's Gospel, it is clear that Jesus' disciples must sacrifice for their faith just as Jesus did, & Jesus warns James & John they might have to give their lives.  Baptism means laying our lives on the line for Christ, one aspect of the baptisms we will celebrate week after next on All Saints' Day.  New life in Christ grows out of the symbolic death at the baptismal font, & we participate in that death & rebirth each time we join others in renewing our baptismal covenant.

      Jesus also reminds James & John that their commitment to him is strengthened & sustained by drinking of his blood in what we call the sacrament of communion, or the Holy Eucharist.  We celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a family of faith at almost every service in the Episcopal Church.  We are invited to the table to receive Christ's body & blood so that we may grow in our discipleship.  Each of us is welcome at this Holy Table to receive the food Jesus gives us for our journey as disciples.  And, as in all celebratory meals, we join our community for we are not Christians by ourselves.

      Jesus continues to teach his disciples about their calling as his ambassadors to the world as they walk toward Jerusalem.  He reminds them that his brand of leadership is very different from the rulers they know;  Jesus' way is counter-cultural.  Jesus tells them whoever wants to be great must be a servant & whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.  Mark doesn't tell us how the disciples reacted to Jesus' announcement.  I can imagine, though.  I can hear ole Peter say, "Wait a minute.  I left my job as a fisherman to do what?  To be a servant?  You've gotta be kidding!  I don't even ask directions!"  Perhaps we don't hear the disciples' response because they are speechless.  They simply can't believe that Jesus' idea of leadership is so different from theirs.  James & John are the sons of Zebedee, the boat owner; they are the boss's sons, by golly!  This servant stuff doesn't sound so great after all. 

      How many of you grew up looking forward to being a servant when you were an adult?  Not on my top ten list of ways to spend my adulthood, I'll tell you for sure!  Darn it; Jesus' standards are just plain different from the values of the rest of the world.  Yet Jesus' actions throughout his ministry modeled his commitment to serving others, culminating his washing the disciples' feet the night before he was crucified.

      When Myrna & I serve on Kairos Prison Ministry teams, we prepare for several months & then spend a long weekend in service to the women in white who are doing time in medium or maximum security units.  As we work as a team, having developed a community over several team meetings, God's love pours from us to them.  Then, I'm always moved by the fact that, once their weekend is over, they want to come back 6 months later to join the free-world team to act as servants for the next group of people who attend Kairos.  One group of inmates serves another in a prison where no one does anything for anyone without an ulterior motive!  It's pretty amazing what our awesome God can do to the hearts of even the most callous person through someone's being a servant to them. 

      God's power for love never ceases to amaze me. Many of you remember our late Suffragan Bishop, Leo Alard. Bp. Leo told of his first experience serving on a Kairos team in Florida before he came to Texas.  The first day of the weekend, as the team & the inmates introduced themselves to each other, he realized that the man at his right hand at their table family was Ted Bundy, a rather famous murderer.  Leo's difficulty was not Mr. Bundy's fame but rather that one of the women he had murdered was in the youth group in Leo's own church.  He had watched her grow up, suffered through her death with her parents, & officiated at her funeral.  Now he was seated next to her killer, & part of his job for the weekend was to help this killer accept God's love & forgiveness.  Bp. Leo at first thought he would ask to be moved to another table, but that night he prayed about this situation.  The message he received was that God loved Mr. Bundy & that Leo was to let God's love be enough.  Leo chose to let God's love flow through him that weekend, & both he & Mr. Bundy learned the boundlessness of God's healing love on that Kairos weekend.  God's ways are definitely not our ways, are they?

      Jesus completed this teaching by saying "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, & to give his life a ransom for many."  "Ransom" is only used here in the New Testament.  "Ransom" is money paid to redeem a slave or a captured relative or to reclaim a firstborn who has been given in service to God.  Jesus predicts his own behavior when he explains that we will be free because he buys our redemption with his own life.  If someone is redeemed, that means that person is freed from bondage.  How many of you received Green Stamps with groceries or gas, licked them & put them in redemption books &, when we had enough, took them to a redemption center to trade for items we wanted.  Jesus says he is trading himself in exchange for our freedom.  Do we have to earn Jesus' love so he will pay the ransom?  No, Jesus' love is a gift; it's already been given for us; we don't have to do anything to earn that love.

      Jesus does tell us, however, what we need to do if we want to be disciples.  Jesus says we need to find ways to be servants. 

As we consider what financial offering we can make to God through the ministry at Hope to help Hope fulfill our financial obligations through the rest of 2009 as well as what we will commit to for 2010, I urge you to look for opportunities to offer your time & talent to our church community so that you may strengthen your own discipleship.  Need some ideas?  Please see me or a member of the vestry.  Perhaps you will be willing to serve on the vestry for next year.  Or periodically provide coffee hour refreshments after the 10:30 service.  Perhaps you will volunteer to chaperone a youth activity & actually give their parents a break. 

      All of us get chances to be servants in our daily lives.  Sometimes we ignore those chances & hope they go away.  Perhaps this week you'll open yourself & respond to Christ's gift of love & freedom by choosing to behave as a servant.  As we travel toward Jerusalem with Jesus & his disciples, we can choose to practice being disciples.  What will we get out of it?  We've already received it; we've received Christ's love.  All we give, we give in gratitude for what Christ has already given us.  Thanks be to God for that undeserved love.