Sermon: Year B, Proper 24, October 21, 2018 Church of the Nativity-Episcopal The Rev. Susan M. Smith, Ph.D. Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45 EGO or SERVANT LEADERSHIP? Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Job 38:1-7, (34-41) The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? [ Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, Here we are? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind? Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together? Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert? Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food? ] Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b 1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; * O LORD my God, how excellent is your greatness! you are clothed with majesty and splendor. 2 You wrap yourself with light as with a cloak * and spread out the heavens like a curtain. 1
3 You lay the beams of your chambers in the waters above; * you make the clouds your chariot; you ride on the wings of the wind. 4 You make the winds your messengers * and flames of fire your servants. 5 You have set the earth upon its foundations, * so that it never shall move at any time. 6 You covered it with the Deep as with a mantle; * the waters stood higher than the mountains. 7 At your rebuke they fled; * at the voice of your thunder they hastened away. 8 They went up into the hills and down to the valleys beneath, * to the places you had appointed for them. 9 You set the limits that they should not pass; * they shall not again cover the earth. 25 O LORD, how manifold are your works! * in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 37b Hallelujah! Hebrews 5:1-10 Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, You are my Son, today I have begotten you ; as he says also in another place, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Mark 10:35-45 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, What is it you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They replied, We are able. Then Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink you will drink; and with 2
the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Replace your winning-addicted ego with Servant Leadership, and follow Christ In the women s Bible Study this week, we studied Jephthah, who wanted God to give him something: specifically, victory over the Ammonites. But instead of just asking, he tried to manipulate God with a little bribe (or, in nicer terms, a bargain ): God, I ll sacrifice something for you if you ll do what I want for me. Trying to bargain to get what you want is not uncommon in the Bible. Jephthah reminded us of Herod, who loved Salome s dancing, and so in return, promised her whatever she wanted and wouldn t you know, she asked for the head of John the Baptist; and to keep his promise, Herod killed the one who prepared the way of the Christ. There are lots of such unfortunate God-bargainings in Scripture. And here are the disciples, like Salome, like Jephthah, saying, Lord, give me what I want. And what is it that you want? Jesus asked them. We want to have the places of honor at your side, from now unto eternity. Oh, really?! In your ego, your hubris, your arrogance, YOU want to sit at the Messiah s right hand and left hand?! If Jesus was angry at their puffed-up sense of ego, he didn t show it. Instead, he tried to lead them to see that the place of honor does not go to the winners. Not to the strong. Not to the rich. Not to the victors. No, the place of honor goes to the servant: the one who can drink the cup. They and we have a very hard time grasping this. Jesus, however, in great patience and care for them, takes this teaching moment to help them. Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? Because they had no clue, and they weren t perhaps interested in understanding, they did what we all do so often: they assumed they understood, in order to assert yet again what they wanted: So 3
They replied, We are able. Then Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but I m not the one who determines the places of honor because status is not what I m here for. Baptism, of course, is dying with Christ to be reborn with Christ. And there is a lifetime between those two things. Baptism is union with Christ that gives the greatest freedom possible the freedom to do as Jesus did, and to give yourself in service to others. When Jesus pointed out it was not his call who sat at his right and left hands, then the other disciples egos got all bent out of shape, and they couldn t believe the brothers James and John tried to manipulate Jesus in to giving themselves more status than the rest. In-fighting ensued. EVERYBODY s ego is out of joint. Winning and status are still in the center of the discussion. So Jesus calls them together to calm them down, and try to gather them into the community he was on earth trying to create. He said to them, You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. SERVANT LEADERSHIP The way to live is to empty the ego. The way to live is specifically NOT to try to win, NOT to manipulate others, NOT to seek status and wealth and victory for your self. The way Jesus calls us to live is the way of servanthood. Following 2 nd Isaiah, Isaiah chapters 40-55 extols the servant to frees people and enables love among humans and peace on earth. And this is what Jesus is showing the disciples and trying to teach them that the way of freedom and life is through servant leadership. The leader is the servant. The greatest leader is the servant of all. There have been great examples of this throughout history. But sin is rampant, and even in our own nation, where winning and egos abound, we are at risk of losing this central Christian principle. The person in the place of honor at the heavenly banquet, is Jesus, the Christ, and those who follow and imitate him. They are not weak or wimpy; but their strength is not shown forth in winning. Their strength their strength is not shown forth in ego. Their strength is not shown forth in manifesting power over others. Their strength, their power, is manifest in caring for others, in serving them, in leading them as a servant. It is in living out the ministry of all baptized persons: that is, the ministry of DIAKONEA, service, servanthood. Submission. Humility. Forgiving. Reconciling. 4
--and it is not intuitively obvious how to be a strong servant, a moral leader who cares more for others than self. That s why God came to earth as Jesus Christ to SHOW US. Because this way of living defies description or explanation. And that is why we have a sacrament of servanthood in our midst. Our deacon is here to embody servant leadership for us, and to be an example of how we are to be with one another. Like Jesus, a walking mediator, advocate, healer, and servant in the flesh, our deacon embodies servant ministry in the flesh. DRINK THE CUP: And every week, we drink the cup, don t we?! We don t always think about the fact that this is the cup of baptismal ministry; the cup of self-giving love; the cup of servant leadership. But it is. It is our participation with the self-emptying ministry of Christ. It is a sacrament of our participation in Christ s particular, counter-cultural servant-leadership. SERVANT LEADERSHIP. God in the whirlwind, speaking to Job: strong, yet always caring for Job and every creature on earth. Servant leadership: Jesus loving his enemies so much that he would rather give his own life than take theirs. Servant leadership: What enabled the separation of Pakistan and India without a war in 1947. Leadership in service to principles: What enabled Abe Lincoln to proclaim Emancipation to the Slaves. Leadership in service to principles: What enabled Erin Brockovich to tell the truth and build (and win) a case against Pacific Gas and Electric illegally polluting the water supply of residents in California in 1993. Servant leadership: What led an Episcopal priest in Nashville, TN, to start a community so that women in prostitution could have a safe place to live and raise their children and because she realized if she didn t find another way for them to make a living, they d be back out on the streets and so she started Thistle Farms, when the women make body products to sell for Christmas, with the motto Love heals every body. Servant leadership: What led some Episcopalians in Indianapolis to see the vulnerability of women convicted of non-violent crimes who, sent to prison, could not raise their children and thus started a home where they can be safe, productive, and live in community with their children. We support this ministry at Nativity, especially at Christmas and Easter for the sake of the children. Job was a good example of strength and endurance, on the one hand, and humility and servanthood, on the other. We, too, are called to such servant leadership. Pope Gregory, at the end of the 6 th century, was called The Great because of his humility. He referred to himself as a servant of the servants of God: servus servorum dei. (His successors took this as a title of status, and have used it ever since. But Gregory had a real sense of servanthood, perhaps because of his life as a Benedictine monk.) Servus servorum dei. That is, for example, what deacons are what priests are what bishops are--and just as Jesus came to show us what servanthood is like, deacons are living symbols, embodying the call of ALL OF US who are baptized into Christ, to be servants. 5
I ve been reading a book on prayer by one of our earlier Archbishops of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey. He clarified something for me when he wrote, Our God is a loving and compassionate God who uses the cooperation of human wills to fulfill his purpose. Be Still and Know that I am God, p. 12. --God uses the cooperation of human wills to fulfill his purpose. This is why it is essential that we pray. And this is why it is essential that our intention, our attitude, be one of humility and servanthood, not ego, not winning, not status-seeking. When we ask God for what God would like us to pray for, and then we pray for that, we are aligning our will with God s. We are, as Thomas Keating, the Trappist teacher of Contemplative prayer, puts it, consenting to God that we will follow him, consenting to his presence in our minds/hearts. We are cooperating with God s plan, God s desire. --and the cooperation of our wills is what God uses to bring peace, and change, and healing, and joy, and unity, and justice, and mercy, and all the things that make living in this world so beautiful and wonderful. It s interesting to me, that one of the questions asked of the rabbi in the Adult Forum last week, was about his view of Jesus. The rabbi responded that Jews did not believe that the Messiah had come for when the Messiah does come, our life together on earth would change. We would have shalom, that peace and well-being that we believe God intends for every one of God s creatures. But as I reflected on that this week, I thought, For those of us who read and study Jesus, and live within his baptizing community, it s clear that what Jesus taught and did is exactly what would bring shalom on earth. --It s that he invited us to partner with him. If we, you and I, do what he did, teach what he taught, serve as examples for one another, bearing one another s burdens and serving in his name both as leaders and as followers that is exactly the world we would be living in. We may. We can. We have Job and all the examples we need just look around. This, my friends, is our CALL. We are called to be servant leaders, like Jesus. Why wouldn t we? whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. May it be true for each of us, and for all of us. Thanks be to God. Amen. 6