October 18, 2009
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Year B)
Job 38:1-7; Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b; Hebrews 5:1-10;
Mark 10:35-45
In the Serious Book Group we are reading and then discussing for four weeks “The meaning of Jesus” by Marcus Borg and N. T. Wright. The chapters we will discuss today deal with the whether or not Jesus knew he was to die for all of our sins or not. Did he know he was the Messiah as he set out for Jerusalem and encountered the religious and the Roman power brokers? Did he know he was the Messiah and that what he did would forever change the fate of human beings? Did he die knowing he would be resurrected in three days?
N. T. Wright says, “Yes.” Marcus Borg says, “No.” Today we will talk about who we think is right.
But I find it ironic that it is today we are talking about this when the gospel lesson has Jesus telling his two would be right hand men, James and John, that they must be slave of all, servant of all, that it is only in servant hood that power lies. I also wonder how “powerful” he felt when standing before Pilate?
The ultimate irony of Christian faith is that death means life, eternal life, and that the most powerful leadership comes from serving others instead of ourselves. It comes from putting the good of others above our own good, by choice, our deliberate choice, to serve instead of grabbing power for ourselves.
James and John were mired in a different understanding of power when they asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left hands in the coming kingdom. Now we don’t know if they had the presence of mind to grasp that the kingdom they were talking about was in eternal life, or in the one they thought Jesus would bring about in the immediate future when they overthrew Rome and the Jews once again gained their rightful place as the people of Jerusalem. N. T. Wright and Borg don’t agree on that either!
But we do know, from this twenty-first century hindsight, that Jesus wasn’t talking about any worldly kingdom, that he was a power broker in a much different kind of kingdom. And it is in that kingdom, that knows no bounds of time, of this world and of the next, that Christ is king and we are all subjects.
This is another reason why I am liking the book by Wright and Borg. They both think they have it right. They are both faithful people. They both studied with the same professors. They are both recognized historians and theologians and both highly respected, sometimes by the same group of people! Both are Anglicans, one by birth, the other by choice. And they disagree on almost every essential element of the historical life of Jesus. They even disagree theologically. But they deeply respect one another, and they agree to disagree. But I do find it interesting that they do agree absolutely that Jesus understood himself to be a servant that spoke for and about the poor, the need of universal political change, transformation of the church (Judaism), and that Jesus actually lived and died in the first century.
This common ground, both declaring that Jesus spoke for and of the poor, that he demanded justice in politics and religion for all people – not just the power brokers who had always had the power in both institutions, is a powerful place to start from. And it is absolutely affirmed in today’s gospel reading. “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all.”
I want to talk a bit about slavery and servant hood. In this passage the words are used interchangeably. But I wonder if slaves and servants would agree that their status is interchangeable. One who is a slave is a piece of property that can be bartered and sold. One who is a slave has no choice about what he or she does for others. They take orders and do as they are told. They “give of themselves” because they have no choice; they do not have a “self” to give, their “self” belongs to their owner.
On the other hand, those who serve others voluntarily give of themselves because they can. They choose to put the “other” first. I often tell couples during the marriage homily that they are to put the needs and desires of their mate before their own. That is the kind of servant hood I believe Jesus is talking about in this passage today, the kind that makes a deliberate choice to serve, to put the good of the “other” above one’s own good, and, for Jesus, above even his own survival
Hopefully we are not called to that kind of servant hood, any of us, to the kind that requires our death either literally or figuratively – when we must give up our identity or ego or values because others demand it. And yet, hopefully, we all love someone enough to be willing to give our life for them, though I would argue never our soul! That is the kind of servant love that Jesus modeled for us.
I think where this all becomes tricky – and I look forward to reading more of Wright and Borg to see how they deal with this – is when institutions and organizations, yes, even churches, take on a fervor about how others should serve. It seems to me that when they do, they are more likely to prevent servant hood rather than encourage it.
Let me give you an example. We know that in American History slaves were promised salvation in God’s kingdom. Their slavery was seen as not only approved by scripture, but endorsed by scripture because of passages like this one.
Good people, we have certainly figured out how wrong we were. When we dictate what sacrifice someone else must make, then we are enslaving them, taking away their ability to truly serve. We have taken away their ability to give of themselves. Their “self” has been taken away. We may no longer endorse slavery, but we certainly endorse the practice of telling others what their faith calls them to do or not to do in Christ’s name. And I think we need to be careful about doing that.
And that is tricky because we are all called to passionate servant hood in Christ’s name – that we can probably all agree on! Serving others is a sign of our faithful following. But when we say that one person’s way of following or being is not the right way, or tell someone else what they must do as a sign of their serving God, or if we demand service of someone else, then we are not setting them free to be God’s servant. We are enslaving them to a doctrine or a whim or an ideal we hold and are not allowing them to freely be God’s own.
This is tricky, this difference between servant and slave, as tricky as knowing whether or not Jesus knew he was the Messiah or not. We might not agree. These are all questions that we as the faithful should be asking, talking about together, and listening to each other about. But I hope always, in the tradition of Wright and Borg, we will be ones who respect each other and recognize a kindred spirit in each other. Borg and Wright see each other as a beloved of God though they passionately disagree, even vehemently disagree.
We are blessed because we can talk to each other about these things. We are blessed because we are free to be servants and not slaves. We are blessed because we know that the right and left hand sitters beside Jesus will be determined by God. We are blessed to be part of community that dares to differ and dares to love each other anyway.
So, my friends, serve others! Serve, but do not enslave. And when you encounter ones who are enslaved, free them! Serve others in the way God is calling you to serve and then come and gather here as a community of faithful who belong all together in the kingdom of God, now and forever.
Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd