SERMON James and John, Call 'Shotgun! October 18, 2015 The Nearly Reverend Paul Griego
A few weeks ago, I was sitting at the breakfast table with my parents and beautiful girlfriend having breakfast in Sonoma, California. As it normally would, the conversation took a leap into something a little more deep. My mother, notorious for asking deep meaningful questions, asked: what do you know for sure? This question was first asked publicly of Oprah Winfrey by Gene Siskel and it is my favorite question. Initially, I was taken aback by the question. My internal conversation went something like: What do I know for sure? Nothing well maybe something I don t know? In an effort to save any intellectual grace, I blurted out two things: the only finite thing in life is death and that human beings must live in relationship. Feeling somewhat satisfied I turned to what I think I do best, listened to my mother. She said, It is my favorite question because it gets right to your core. What you know for sure -- has to be consistent with who you are and how you live your life in the world. What I know for sure is that love is the most important thing. Putting yourself in the stance of love is to treat others with thoughtfulness and loving kindness. Love allows you to attend, to really SEE the other. And for those of you who value love and who are lucky enough, you may have a small circle of persons who might or might not be family --but are certainly friends of the heart --whom you are lucky enough to REALLY LOVE. Unconditionally in the way that you want to always be with them, to know what they think about certain topics, whose honesty you value and depend upon, in whom you have complete trust, and most of all, because their happiness is more important to you than your own.
Well, that is Love with a capital L. You can t extend Love with a capital L to everyone because it takes so much to love in this way. But when you do have persons in your life who are love with a capital L: Love comes back to you a thousandfold. It is life s greatest joy and holds life s greatest meaning. I know that for sure. Whew. What a response huh? There are many things that you can take away from this but there are two main points I would like to highlight: one always listen to your mothers, and two is-- What you know for sure -- has to be consistent with who you are and how you live your life in the world. James and John, or as my friend lovingly calls them, the two knuckleheads just don t get it. Just before this teaching, Jesus just interacts with the rich man and tells him to get rid of his worldly possessions and then tells the twelve about his death and torture; yet here the two knuckleheads come to Jesus with a clear vision of how they think things work. They call shotgun in the Kingdom of God. For those who do not know what shotgun means, it s a game many of us played as children to see who got the privilege to sit in the front seat. Once the car was in vision the first person to yell shotgun was awarded the front seat. So James and John come to Jesus and explain to him that they had talked things over between the two of them and James would sit on the right while John would sit on the left. James and John did this because they wanted the power that they were accustomed to watching during the period in which they were alive. Who could blame them, I like getting rewards for good deeds that I do and I also like
control. As a college basketball point guard, control and confidence in that control were essential to my success as a basketball player. Jesus quickly nips this little proposition in the bud; telling James and John and then the rest of the disciples that things will be different for them. The power they are accustomed to witnessing is different from the power that comes in relationship and compassion, which is the power he is challenging them to take part in. Their power will come in serving each other not ruling over. What a concept huh? This is an important passage because Jesus is reminding us of some very important qualities to keep in mind that still apply today. Jesus is asking us to take an active role in relationships, in loving each other, in holding the messiness of relationship and to check ourselves so that we are humble and compassionate. To serve each other and walk with each other. Not to just expect these things to happen for us. These things I know for sure, Jesus came to this place to challenge the status quo, to break the mold and bring a new way of living that focused on love, compassion and grace by upholding what Jesus knew to be true. It fundamentally shaped how his ministry unfolded and how he lived his life. Jesus alludes to that purpose in the final sentence of the teaching. Jesus says, For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. I ll give you another translation from the Common English Bible, for the Human One didn t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people. Jesus didn t come into this world to gain power over people, he came to liberate people with a message of truly loving and serving
one another even to the point of unjust suffering and death. To create a better world. How do we live these qualities of love, compassion and grace in our lives now? When that friend of yours posts on Facebook that super left leaning or right leaning article, both apply, do you enter into a conversation with them? Do you hold the messiness of relationship? Do you make an effort to understand and then challenge? Do you ignore it? Do you post a rebuttal article that affirms your line of thinking more? (raise hand) I m guilty of that one... How exactly do we serve our fellow humans as Jesus called us to do? I, more than most, love social media. I love that as a human race we are probably more connected than we have ever been. At any point I can look up a long lost friend that I haven t spoken to in years and have a conversation. We have infinite amounts of information at our fingertips, I can finish any argument instantly with a little fact checking or looking at IMDB to see what female actor played that part in that movie. I worry we are moving into an age of instant impersonal communication. What I mean by that is there is no time for people to think out what they are saying, have meaningful interaction, to breathe and then respond, it s typing and push enter. Seconds. Then poof, an argument has been launched. I believe that is much easier to say hurtful things behind the protection of a screen. Again, I ask you, how do we serve our fellow humans?
As I mentioned before, there is so much good that can happen from technological advances we ve made. For one, I am able to hear because of technological advances and able to share each delicious plate of food I get to consume. But, in my short life that I ve lived, I find that sometimes our greatest gift also can be our greatest weakness. Constantly taking pictures, being on Facebook, reading articles can get into the way of my relationships that I treasure and am called to be in. I am going to take a technological Sabbath, within reason once a week. That means getting off the phones, getting off the computer, turning off the tv and going to have a meaningful conversation with someone face to face. Have a cup of coffee, experience the power of face to face conversation that includes little nuances, body language and raw emotion. Hold the messiness of disagreement and challenges in this politically charged time of the year. Even though I am one of the most connected and active participant in social media and technology I think it is important to hold onto something that does not deal with media, technology or electronics. Want to know how to serve your fellow human beings? Make an effort. See them. I mean really see them. Hear them. More than just listening, Touch them. Let them know you are there. Hold the tension. Creative tension is the concept that seems simple but takes lots of practice and self awareness. At the top we have a vision which Jesus has laid out for us of serving one another. A life full of compassion, love and forgiveness. And at the bottom we have our current reality, a world with plenty of potential but stuck in the midst of instant impersonal interaction and relationships. The depth between them is our creative and dynamic tension. (hold up a rubber band). The anxiety produced is like the tension within this rubber band. The tendency is to not want to stretch any further because it s uncomfortable and we may have seen in the past when things seem to go horribly wrong. We are used to a structure that is
centered around problems and reacting. What we end up doing is compromise our vision because we don t want to hold that tension. Or we distort our current reality to move our current reality closer to our vision. Both these are ways of staying in the problem-reacting model. Truly creative people seek out that tension and refuse to trap themselves in the fear of the problem and reactive model. They become students of their fears and trust that the tension will lead to the best outcome if they just wither the storm. They thus move from a problem reactive model to an outcome creating model focused on that vision and resilience. One of my favorite outcome creative vision focused quotes is from Ram Dass who said, When all is said and done, we are all walking each other home May all of you step into the dynamic tension of your life. May you live in dialogue not monologue. May you love each other and yourselves with as much grace and humility as possible. May you serve in a beloved community and break the mold. May we all walk each other home. Amen.