TRUE GREATNESS

A Sermon for 20th Sunday after Pentecost
By Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 10:35-45

There they stand before Christ, the two sons of Zebedee, James and John—the same ones who had zestfully thrown down their nets and left their father to answer the call of Jesus. They are devout followers of Jesus. No one would question that. And in this scene from today’s Gospel lesson, they place an important request before him: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” This is such an audacious request that in Matthew’s Gospel, this question is attributed to their Jewish mother, as if Matthew is too embarrassed to admit that Jesus’ own disciples would make this bold request themselves. It had to have been their mom (mothers say those kind of obnoxious things, you know). But the way Mark tells it, James and John, themselves, ask Jesus for glory.

Of course, they are still under the expectation that Jesus is going to be a great military leader who will lead the Israelites to political victory, and they are eager to be a part of this glory. I imagine Jesus just shaking his head in disbelief that these two still don’t get it. He’s just explained to them the painful torture and death about to befall him, and these two knuckleheads are still talking about a military takeover. They’ve missed the point entirely. The frustrated Jesus looks at these misguided disciples and replies, “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?”

These seem like random questions for Jesus to ask. And this is because the references he lays out here would make a whole lot more sense to his ancient audience than to us. So let’s look at each of them for clarification.

His first question is: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” In biblical times, it was the custom for kings to hand their banquet guests a cup of something—and the guests would simply accept what was handed to them. Today when you attend a party, you are usually given a choice as to what kind of beverage you want. But that was not the case for the ancients. As the guest, you were expected to happily accept and drink whatever you were given.

Jesus uses this concept as a metaphor for life. God is like the king and you are the guest. You don’t get to choose your lot in life, that is given to you by God. So in this context, Jesus is using “cup” to mean your set of circumstances. In his prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus himself pleads with God for his cup to be taken away from him. This cup for Jesus includes his death on the cross. Of course, he would like for this cup to be taken away, yet he knows that he must endure this for the sake of the world.

So Jesus is asking James and John: Do you REALLY want to take on the mission I’ve been given? Can you follow me even though that means following me all the way to the cross?

And then he asks them: “Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” The Greek word used here refers to being dipped in or submerged. It is likely that Jesus is not describing the sacrament of Holy Baptism here, as we might suppose, but simply asking: are you willing to be submerged in the experience in which I am submerged? And just what was that submersion? Well, Christ left the riches of heaven to be submerged in poverty, he left his throne to be submerged in humble service, and in the end, he allowed himself to be submerged in an excruciatingly painful death to win eternal life for a largely ungrateful humanity. That’s quite a humbling experience in which to be submerged.

These are difficult questions Jesus asks James and John: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you willing to be submerged in the experience in which I am submerged?”

“We are able!” they quickly reply. The way Mark writes it, it almost sounds like they answer in unison like a couple of Double Mint twins. “We ARE able!” You can almost picture them grinning awkwardly as they say this. Whether they really know what they are getting themselves into or not at this point, we don’t know. In any case, they do accept his challenge—they do drink from his cup, and they willingly submerge themselves in a life of humble service. We now know that James will go on to lose his life in this submersion. Even though they were originally asking for glory, they get redirected by Jesus and instead, take Jesus’ path of humble service and suffering.

But this cup, this submersion—is not the popular choice. Most people don’t answer, “We are able.” Who wants to choose the life of service instead of the life of glory? As humans, we naturally prefer glory.

I remember when John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife were tragically killed in a plane accident. There was a massive outpourings of candles, flowers, and cards springing up in make-shift shrines all across the country. On the news, there were a lot of “person on the street” interviews where I recall people say things like, “I am so sad about this tragedy. What I loved about John is that he was so humble and so kind.” That answer made me laugh. That is not why the world loved him! There are millions of humble and kind people all around us who go unnoticed. When they die, there aren’t shrines all over the country. While JFK, Jr. may well have been an extremely kind and even a humble person, that is not what made him a worldwide obsession—it was the legacy of his family name that gave him notoriety, power, wealth, fame, and loads of glamour. It’s not the death of this man we mourned—we didn’t even really know him. What we mourned was the death of the glorious myth he embodied. His death reminds us once again, that earthly greatness is fleeting—even though that’s what the world continues to strive for.

I supposed I don’t need to tell you that we live in a power-crazed world. Everyone wants to be great. We want to get the right education and a profession or at least the money that gives us power over others. We want to surround ourselves in possessions that prove our status. We want to launch that successful business or buy that winning lottery ticket that will finally set us free from the bondage of being a humble servant of the working world so we can finally tell our boss where to go like in the lotto commercials. All the advertisers know that’s what we secretly want so they spend billions continuing to market this myth of earthly power and domination to us. But Jesus tells us that this is not the way to attain true greatness. It’s not at all the way.

In the face of this striving for glory, Jesus comes out with the question: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you willing to be submerged in the experience in which I am submerged?”

Jesus did not come this earth in the form of a Kennedy. He was born in a dusty stable to a poor carpenter and his wife. As the God-become-man, he painted a living portrait for us of what humanity ought to be. And the example he provided was one of love and humility; one of service, of foot-washing. In this scene from Mark’s Gospel, he tells his followers directly that: whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be a slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43-45)

You see, to be a follower of Jesus, means to be radically countercultural. Some of you remember just a short time ago when mainline Protestantism was in the height of it’s heyday in this country. To be a Christian did not mean to be radical. Being a Christian just meant being an American. Everybody who was anybody went to church. It was just the thing normal people did. And with that kind of “it’s the status quo thing to do” mind-set about Christianity, it is easy to forget how countercultural Jesus’ message really is. To follow Jesus means to reject the striving-after-glory life that is the norm of our world. It means we stop trying to get things for ourselves; and seek instead, to give of ourselves. This is the only way to attain greatness. John Kennedy Senior put it so well when he gave that stirring line, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

That’s the spirit of this call. Jesus is saying: “Don’t ask for glory, ask to drink from my cup, ask to be submerged in a life of service. Ask what you can do for the kingdom of God.”

This reminds me of Princess Alice. She was the second daughter of Queen Victoria. She had a four-year-old son who contracted the disease known as “black diphtheria.” Alice was devastated. The disease was highly contagious, and without modern medicine, it was deadly. The nurses continually warned the Princess, not being in the best of health herself, to stay away from her son. And so she tried. She really did.

But one day as Princess Alice was standing in the far corner of her son’s room, she heard the child whisper to the nurse, “Why doesn’t my mother kiss me any more?” That was more than Alice could bear. As tears streamed down her cheeks, she raced to her son’s bed, held him in her arms, and smothered him with kisses. Tragically, this turned out to be the kiss of death. Princess Alice contracted the deadly disease and in a matter of weeks, both mother and son were buried. A foolish thing to do? Crazy? Yes, of course. But who ever said love was logical? To love as deeply as the cross: that is a calling so high it flies in the face of common sense.

That’s the calling Jesus gives his disciples: to drink from his cup even if the price is death, to be submerged in a life that abandons itself in loving service. That is true greatness. And we don’t even have muster up this love on our own. We are able to freely love and give of ourselves in humble service because God first loved us. We are held in the arms of a loving God who didn’t get fed up with our relentless search for glory and throw us out as we deserve. No, this is a God who actively seeks us out as a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to go find the one who has strayed away. In a ridiculous act of selflessness, similar to that of Princess Alice’s, Christ gave his life to redeem us. And in response to this lavish outpouring of love, we are called to throw out our personal aspirations for fame and glory and humbly stand with James and John with the answer: “We are able!”

RE-PRIORITIZE NOW

A Sermon for 19th Sunday after Pentecost
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 10:17-21

Sometimes when you are driving along, road signs can be quite funny, especially when they seem to be stating the obvious, like: “Caution: Water on road during rain.” Gee, I didn’t see that one coming.

Some road signs confuse, like one I saw that said: “Keep Right” and next to it was an arrow to the left. Or another one: “Entrance only. Do not enter.” Hmmm?

Other times, there are signs that can be taken either way like: “Lane closed to ease congestion.” And you are saying to yourself: But my nose isn’t congested at all. I am breathing just fine. Why should they close a lane for me?

One that stopped me dead in my tracks was a sign on a busy highway where an interchange was coming up. The sign read: “Re-prioritize now.” It meant that you should get into the lane you want for the interchange, but I read it’s deeper meaning. In fact, it sent me into a state of metaphysical dread. I thought: HOW does this road sign know me so well? How does it know my priorities are all out of whack? What can I do to re-prioritize now? Needless to say, I was so engaged in this line of thinking that I missed my exit.

Re-prioritize now! That is what Jesus is inviting  the man in today’s gospel reading to do. This guy approaches Jesus with a question and instead of a simple answer, he is given an amazing but demanding invitation. This is a man with great spiritual passion, he runs up and kneels before Jesus. He asks: "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He sounds pretty serious. We can imagine his longing eyes peering up at the teacher with anticipation. Clearly, he is filled with a spiritual hunger that he needs satiated. He's been a follower of God all his life and he has followed the law. Yet somehow, he knows he's not yet at peace. It reminds me of the U2 song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." So now he has come to ask for advise about how he can find that inner peace for which he is searching. It stops Jesus in his tracks and forces him to acknowledge the question.  

The answer Jesus gives him is filled with love.  "You lack one thing," he says. "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven."

This is radical claim that Jesus is making on the man. He's showing him how much he needs the mercy and grace of God. Working to earn salvation on his own is futile. He can never do it. Only with God is this possible. Can he put all of his material wealth behind him and cling to God first and foremost? An exciting opportunity to re-prioritize has been presented to him!

Do you remember the old “Nestee Plunge” commercial where they showed happy people holding a glass of iced tea falling backward into a pool? It was as if to demonstrate that the flavor of the tea could take you away—it would make you want to absolutely surrender to it. As kids, we spent long hours at the pool trying to reenact this scene. You know, it’s really hard because you have to trust that the water will break your fall, will hold you up and keep you safe even when you can’t see where you are falling.

In a spiritual sense, that’s what Jesus was inviting the man to do. He understood the Savior's absolute call to take the plunge and fall into the arms of God’s grace. But he just could not trust. He couldn’t let go of his own control and place himself fully into God’s care. Yet the man slumps down with grief because his things have a higher priority in his life than the call of Jesus.He is to encumbered by the cares of the world. So he walks away without accepting the invitation. What about you? Do you accept the invitation? Are you ready to re-prioritize now?

The famous author Henri Nouwen wrote a story about an incident that happened to him. He was walking along the road and then found himself on the ground. It happened so fast he didn’t know what hit him. When a man man came to his assistance, he realized that he’d been hit by the rearview mirror of the man's van. At the hospital, Henri thought about the accident further. He writes: “Faced with the possibility of dying, it came to me that the mirror of the passing van had forced me to look at myself in a radically new way.” It was a metaphor for him to consider how God may be calling him to re-prioritize his life.

Henri found it difficult to be in a position in which he was not in control. He had to let go and trust the doctors to perform surgery on him and get him back on the road of health. And on a spiritual level, he had to trust God in a way that was deeper than he had ever trusted before. He writes of this: “What I experienced then was something I had never experienced before: pure and unconditional love. Better still, what I experienced was an intensely personal presence, a presence that pushed all my fears aside and said: ‘Come, don’t be afraid. I love you:’ a very gentle, nonjudgemental presence; a presence that simply asked me to trust completely. It was not a warm light, a rainbow, or an open door that I saw, but a human yet divine presence that I felt, inviting me to come closer and let go of all fears.”

For Henri, death then lost its power and shrank away. He allowed God’s love to surround him and keep him safe. He felt it was a homecoming. Jesus was saying: come home to me. And Henri came home.

You and I are being give the same priority: re-prioritize now. Whatever is standing in the way of your intimacy with God has to get out of the way. Let it go. Take the plunge of faith. Let go of your fears and come home to God. This alone, offers you absolute freedom. As baptized children of God, we know that we can trust God to carry us. May you say yes to this call today.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, we give you praise that your promise is strong enough, your love faithful enough that you will not let us go. Whatever our life's circumstances, I pray that your presence would be tangible, your promise uplifting that we can let go of our old lives completely and fall into your arms of limitless love. Amen.

LOOK WITH AWE

A Sermon for 18th Sunday after Pentecost
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Psalm 8 

During our trip to Chile last month, William and I saw the constellation known as the Southern Cross for the first time. It is one of the most distinctive constellations because it is in the shape of a cross. Reportedly, it has been easily visible from the southern hemisphere at practically any time of year, since the time of Christ. You can see it from the northern hemisphere, but only in tropical latitudes and only for a few hours every night during the spring months.  It was pretty awe-inspiring to look up at the infinite night sky from a totally different place on earth to behold a constellation we’d never seen before. It gave us a sense of the vastness of the universe.

Perhaps you’ve gotten than sense too, gazing up into the night sky or just looking out a beautiful scene in nature. Some of my relatives from Germany were visiting and they had just been at Yellowstone. It was the third time they’ve visited the national park and they say they believe it is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Many people report having religious experiences when they are in nature. Drinking in the beauty of a natural scene can be overwhelming. It can fill you with a feeling that is hard to describe because it is so powerful. You can call it “awesome” but these days, that word is so overused it seems inadequate to simply say that it is awesome.

Well, that’s the sense that the Psalmist had when he wrote the Psalm we read today. The 8th Psalm expresses amazement: “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” God’s glory is overwhelming—it is above the heavens. Clearly, he is looking at Creation with awe.

When the astronauts were returning to earth from their first trip to the moon in 1969, there was a radio broadcast. In it, Buzz Aldren, the second man to set foot on the lunar surface, put his experience in a Biblical perspective.  He quoted Psalm 8: “When I consider Your heavens, the works of Your fingers, the moon and stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visited him?”  

And among the items left at Tranquility Base on the moon, there was a silicon disc carrying statements from Presidents Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower and leaders of 73 other nations. The Vatican was invited to place a message on this disc too. What was chosen included the words of Psalm 8. So when you look up at the moon, you should remember that this Psalm is there. These powerful words have been placed there.

Yes, God created the whole universe, of which the earth and our moon are just a small part. It’s rather mind boggling to consider the work of God’s creation. Even scientists can’t fully explain this amazing universe. It is so vast and wonderful that it remains largely a mystery. 

And yet, as the Psalmist declares, God created us in God’s image and is mindful of us. It seem rather bold to make this statement. I mean, why should God even be mindful of us? After all, the universe is so big and we are so small. 

Furthermore, there are so many of us. How many people live on Planet Earth? I went to a earth population calculator web site to find out. Using mathematical principles to estimate the births and deaths of the planet, this calculator has numbers that are constantly in motion as it displays how many people are on earth. Last night, for example, the number was: 6,948,161,486 and this morning at 6:32 a.m. it had grown to: 6,948,327,953. That’s 166,467 people more than there were just last night!

Now how in the world does God have time to be mindful of that many people? If God spent just one second paying attention to each person it would take God over 220 years! Fortunately for us, God is able to pay attention to each one of us simultaneously. Only God could handle that job.

Yet the amazing thing is that God seems to love the job. God is apparently delighted with creation. Remember that in Genesis, God declared every part of creation God and people were declared “very good.” God has created each one of us in God’s very own image and loves us. God wants to have a relationship with us.

Now if that doesn’t cause you to be enthusiastic, I don’t know what will. The God who created our expansive universe knows YOU and is excited to spend time with you. God has crowned you with glory and honor. This is remarkable news, indeed!

But with this good news, there comes a great responsibility. Our Creator is mindful of each one of us. So that means that we, who have been made in the image of God, are  called to be mindful of one another. This is more than just a hymn of praise, this is an imperative. We cannot say that we love God and then go around dismissing our neighbor. We must attempt to view our neighbors as God does.

While this may sound daunting, I think it is best approached through gratitude. You didn’t have to wake up this morning. In fact, you didn’t have to have life at all. But you you do have life and you did wake up! That in itself is a blessing that deserve gratitude. When we really acknowledge all that we’ve been given by God, we are filled with the joy of thanksgiving. Count your blessings, it will make you feel great. And then give God thanks for your blessings because it will make God feel great. Gratitude is music to our Lord’s ears. The theologian Meister Eckhart once wrote: "If the only prayer you say in your whole life is 'thank you,' that would suffice." Thank you is THAT powerful.

As we ponder our place in the universe and our identity as human beings, we must first and foremost give thanks. When we do, it opens us up to the gift that we have in one another and we begin to find more and more gratitude for those with whom we share the earth.

Gratitude will also give us deeper appreciation for earth-home God has given to us. It will make us more mindful about the ways in which we pollute and harm this good earth.   In Lynn White's now-famous essay, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" (1967) he argues quite persuasively that Christianity bears a "huge burden of guilt" for the environmental problems that now face us. He explains that we have interpreted God’s imperative that we have dominion over the earth to mean that we are free to destroy it. The worst environmental problems, it has been pointed out, have been caused by those countries that are predominantly Christian. 

Today, however, Christians of many different denominations are coming to see that having dominion may mean just the opposite—that we are to be good stewards of  God’s creation and do what we can to take care of it. Christianity, many argue, is actually an eco-friendly religious tradition. 

Yes, this psalm seems like a simple little song of praise that we could easily read and then forget. But when we look at it in this way, we realize how meaningful it is. Simply to follow the indications of this single text presents work enough for a lifetime. May it inspire us to look at God’s creation with awe and deep gratitude so that we will look upon our fellow human beings with love and respond that together, we may work to preserve and protect the awesome world we’ve been given by our Creator. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord.  Amen.