Mark 10:35-45Defining Greatness - PaTH Sermon Hypothesis 1 (Me, Myself & I)
Pastor Nancy Gowler Johnson
First Christian Church of Puyallup (Disciples of Christ)

October 22, 2006
 

Perhaps this has happened to you before.  You’re in a strange city, and you’re holding in your hands one of those visitors informational maps - you know the ones, with major streets marked, landmarks and tourist attractions indicated.  But as you survey the map you see no mention of the two street signs actually facing you on the street corner.  What do you do?  Do you wander around a block or two trying to get your bearings?  Do you ask for directions?!

As a congregation we’re in the midst of trying to get our bearings, too. 

• Looking at our situation with different eyes. 
• What’s happening out in our world? 
• What’s happening in our church life together? 
• What’s happening in our homes?
• What’s going on in our individual lives?

This time of congregational transformation has been compared to a wilderness time - everything seems up in the air, uncertain, unfamiliar - and the most reassuring thing would be to hold a complete road map in our hands.

That is not to be…

We’re beginning the hard work of transformation - as a congregation and as individual followers of Christ.  Over the next several weeks, we’ll

• Reflect on scripture together;
• Examine ourselves and our community;
• And pray hard, very hard,

as we consider God’s leading in our future.

Each week for the next several weeks we’ll be considering a hypothesis presented to us by our PaTH team.  Now a hypothesis is an idea that is put up for consideration and study.  You test hypotheses to see if they hold up to investigation. 

And that’s where you come in. 

We want you, no, let me restate that, we need you, each one of you, to be a part of this process.  We invite you to read over the hypothesis each week and ask yourself the following questions.

• Does the hypothesis fit with your experience? 
• What emotions, if any, does it stir in you?
• What concerns does it bring up for you?

We’re sifting through information right now, and it may seem a bit overwhelming at times.  Have patience with the process.  We are not at a decision place now.  We’re still trying to figure out what all the signposts mean!

Which leads us to our gospel story today.  James and John, two of Jesus’ inner circle of friends, come to him by themselves, and they say to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Now those of you who are parents can already tell that Jesus’ answer should be no!

Jesus, however, plays along, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’

Emboldened, they blurt out, ‘We want to be right there with you when things really start going with this whole Messiah thing - so we want you to give us the top places of power with you.’

Now this is not the first time we’ve had this conversation in Mark.  Earlier in the gospel, Jesus catches the disciples arguing over who’s the greatest.  And Jesus has this long talk with them explaining that the one who wants to be first must be the servant of all.  This time James and John leave the other disciples behind and take Jesus aside to see if they can get special status for themselves alone.

Now, before we’re too hard on them, let’s stop and think for a moment - they’ve got faith in Jesus, don’t they?  They know he’s something special.  They want to be a part of his future.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to understand who Jesus is and who he is asking them to become.

Oh, how we humans want to be important - looked up to, respected, powerful.  Everybody wants to be somebody.  Drive for five minutes on the interstate and you will witness firsthand our self-centered nature, won’t you?  Everything revolves around us. 

It is the underlying theme of our contemporary American culture and our hypothesis that the PaTH team is presenting to us that you can find in your bulletin this morning.

We live in a culture of self-centeredness, instant gratification and convenience.

It reminds me of those L’Oreal advertisements:  “Because I’m worth it.”

In his 2006 commencement address at Northwestern University Barack Obama, senator from Illinois, told those very privileged students of that prestigious university, “The world doesn't just revolve around you.”  How’s that for a celebratory commencement speech?!  

Senator Obama went on to say, “There's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit.  But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us - the child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room… we live in a culture that discourages empathy.  A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained.”[i]

In their now famous book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and others looked at a cross-section of middle America and found what we already know, that Americans have embraced individualism as the “first language” in our public discourse, as a common value held above all others.  Middle Americans moved away from home and left the church; now many folks ground their own self in whatever current fad holds sway.  They found that the emphasis in our culture has become much more focused on "feeling good" rather than on "being good."

Too often we in the church end up reflecting our culture’s value of hyper-individualism, too.  We look more and more like success as the world defines it and less and less the servant leaders Jesus calls us to be.

In this encounter Jesus has with James and John, notice he doesn’t shut them off immediately.  Instead he replies, “Are you sure you know what you’re asking for?   Are you able to drink the cup I’m about to drink?  Are you willing to share in my baptism?”

Their heads are filled with glory… little do they know the bitter cup that Jesus will soon drink in Jerusalem.  Three times in this section of Mark’s gospel Jesus stops what he’s doing and tells them what the future holds for him: rejection, suffering, and death.  His glory will not be a king’s glory, but a crown of thorns marking his execution by the Roman authorities.

As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Jesus simply is not in it for the reward.  He is in it for the love of God who had promised his own Son nothing, except the opportunity to give himself away.”[ii]

Are we able?  Jesus asks.

The video this morning asked, “Where do you invest yourself?”  The answers to that question help us name our priorities, our values.  “If your life were a dollar, where does that dollar go?”

As we reflect on our hypothesis for this Sunday, what are the things standing in the way of us living as authentic followers of Christ?

We live in a culture of self-centeredness, instant gratification and convenience.

Henri Nouwen reflecting on the story of Adam and Eve taking fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil says that ever since then, humankind has been tempted to replace love with power.  The church is no exception.  "The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led."

Jesus calls each one of us to a life lived in the promise of love, not in the pursuit of power and glory.  Are we able?

Fred Craddock tells it this way in one of his more famous stories, too often a sermon has as its illustrations Albert Schweitzer, Mother Theresa, and some courageous unknown missionaries who had their feet frozen off while working in the far reaches of Alaska.

Craddock says he remembers thinking as a child, “It’s a shame I can’t be a Christian in this little town.  Nobody is chasing, or imprisoning or killing Christians here.”

Then one summer Craddock had an experience at evening worship during church camp.  He says, “That night as I lay in my bunk, I said to God, ‘I am able.  I will give you my life.’”  He thought of the ways he might live out that promise:  running in front of a train and rescuing a child.  Or even more nobly, standing against a gray wall and with a soldier saying, ‘One last chance to deny Christ and live.’  Defiantly Craddock would yell out his loyalty to Christ, and the words would come, ‘Ready, Aim, Fire!’

His body slumps.  The flags are lowered to half-mast.

Years later a monument is built there, and the people visit with cameras and say, ‘Now come over here, Johnny, stand where Fred gave his life.  Let’s get your picture.’

Craddock, reflecting on that time says he was sincere all those years ago.  He did give his life to Christ, but not the way he had dreamed about.  He says, “I didn’t write one check.  Instead I’ve written a lifetime of little checks:  87 cents here, 21 cents there, forty-three cents.” [iii]

Usually giving our life as Jesus asks us to isn’t glorious, and it certainly isn’t the way of power.  Listening to a neighborhood child who needs a friendly ear. Spending time with a man who is all alone in a nursing home.  Nothing glorious, yet Jesus asks, “Are you able?”

Where do you invest yourself?  How are you giving your life away?  Jesus invited those first disciples to join in something bigger than themselves.  To join in the kingdom of God in which all of our cherished understandings of the world are turned upside down.

• Where the rich are poor,
• The mighty brought down low
• And the lowly exalted
• Where those who weep will laugh
• Where peacemakers are blessed
• And the hungry are fed
• Where people of all races, creeds, persuasions become one in Christ.

I invite you to take a few moments and consider the hypothesis this morning.  What does the hypothesis move you to pray for?  Take a moment and reflect on it.  Write down your prayers on the sheets of paper provided.

Hypothesis:  We live in a culture of self-centeredness, instant gratification and convenience.  These cultural expectations affect our participation in church activities, programs and liturgy.

What this hypothesis causes me to pray for is:

(Pause for reflection)

One last word.  Jesus never told James and John not to wish for greatness.  He simply asked them to see greatness in the kingdom as the power of love, not the love of power. 

Are you able?