MCC St. Louis - Check Us Out!
Get your own, Free HomepageThis past Tuesday morning, I was in my parents’ home in Delta, Alabama when, like most of you, I was shocked and saddened to hear the news of the plane crash that took the lives of our Governor, Mel Carnahan...his son Randy and aide Chris Sifford.
Whenever sudden, unexpected news like that arrives – not only when it’s some celebrity figure but even more so when it’s someone we actually know and love – it always seems to jolt us into a renewed awareness that "reality" is not the simple state we take for granted day to day but is actually multi-layered and always on the brink of a change. Life is unpredictable...fragile...precious to us because of our slippery hold on it.
Because life it not something we can control or harness or possess, all the more reason that it needs to be used wisely and with as much understanding as we, in our humanness, can muster. We need to remember this hard lesson because it’s so easy to get caught up in the false reality of our surface "living" and in the world’s illusions of what is real. The truth is that all of "this" is fleeting.
On Thursday morning’s "Today" show, Katie Couric was interviewing a child development expert on the challenges of parenting, and the woman made a statement that I thought was incredibly profound. She said, when it comes to raising children, parents need to remember that "the days are long but the years are short" and, so, they must make the most of the time they have.
I think that’s a great thing for any of us to remember: in life, "the days are long but the years are short." That’s why I often use my vacation time to go and visit my parents; although the days there can be long...I know the years are short, and I don’t want to look back with any regrets when they are no longer here.
As we’re living, as we’re working, as we’re loving and learning and searching, we need to remember that "the days are long but the years are short."
This is what God – using the Holy Spirit in us and around us -- is always trying to teach us. This is what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples 2000 years ago. We heard one of those attempts in our Gospel reading from Mark.
Today’s particular attempt comes as one part of a long day of travel and teaching toward what would be the end of 3 short years of ministry for Jesus. He was on the way toward Jerusalem: a literal journey to a town and a figurative journey, "on the way" to the cross that awaited him. Jesus had tried to explain to the disciples what kind of journey he was on – one with long days of ministry but short years that would culminate very soon. Immediately preceding the verses we heard read this morning, Jesus tries – for the 3rd time in the Gospel of Mark – to tell the disciples, clearly, what was coming.
Hear these words, in Mark chapter 10, beginning with verse 33: "‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ Jesus said, ‘and the Child of Humanity (Jesus) will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’"
Now I don’t see how that could have been explained much more clearly. And yet...the very next verse is where our reading today picks up – with the 2 brothers, James and John, saying, essentially, "Yeah, whatever. Now Jesus...here’s the deal. We want to you make us your number 1 and number 2 guys once you’re in power, O.K.?!"
Hello???? These guys hadn’t listened to a word Jesus had said. He’d tried to explain that their fantasy of an earthly kingdom and military might was not the plan. But they weren’t listening...or they didn’t want to hear! They preferred to build their castles in the air on the banks of denial!
Jesus takes this opportunity to try and teach the disciples – and us – to examine the motives and desires that they, and we, operate under. For James and John, their long day’s journey of misunderstanding and false expectations would lead them, in just a few short years, to experience fates very similar to that of Jesus. James, we learn in Acts 12:2, would be the first of the disciples to be put to death for preaching the gospel. John would die an old man, living in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. Interestingly, for all his earthly ambition as he followed Jesus on this long day’s journey, in his later years he would leave the letters that we have in the Bible as 1st, 2nd & 3rd John, which mostly focus on the need for us to simply love one another...before and above all else, love one another.
But today...with John and James aching for high rank in the anticipated new kingdom...Jesus sees their need – and ours – for a lesson in reality: not the world’s short-term illusion of what is real...but God’s eternal reality...where the concerns of the world are turned upside down: where "downward" mobility is to be sought, where greatness is a commitment to last place, where people mean more than power, where money and possessions mean nothing and love for one another means everything.
All of the disciples needed to examine their motive and desires – they needed to carefully assess what they wanted Jesus to do for them. Notice the Scripture said that the other disciples became "indignant" when they heard about James and John’s request to Jesus? Not because they knew it was wrong, though; they were mad because they hadn’t gotten to him first! If James and John became #1 and #2, anyway you sliced it, they would be #’s 3 - 12! And they didn’t like that. Obviously, they all needed a lesson in God’s reality.
And so do we...always. As individuals and as a church, we always need to be reminded to examine our own thinking and see if we are truly following Jesus...or if we are using Jesus to try and get what we want!
We need to examine our ambitions. Now ambition is not necessarily a bad thing. It takes a certain amount of ambition to get out of bed each day. But the ambition for power, prestige and control has no place in the dominion of God...and that kind of ambition can be deadly in a church.
There is a parable told in the Old Testament book of Judges where the trees of the fields decide that they want to anoint a king from among themselves. When the call for a king goes out, the productive trees...the olive, the fig, the grape vine...all refuse; they’re content to be of service to humankind. As it turns out, the fruitless thorn bush, that catches fire easily and brings destruction to the other trees, is the only one that aspires to power. The church – the body of Christ – needs to be reminded that we are not to hunger for power over others.
Likewise, we must always examine what our definition of greatness is. Is it the world’s definition? Fame...notoriety...prestige...winning? Or is greatness to be found in being our truest selves and using our true selves to serve God by serving others?
I know I’ve shared this quote before but it bears repeating. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know Plato and Aristotle. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." Jesus made it clear that greatness in God’s eyes is something very different from what the world views as greatness. We must constantly examine our definition of greatness to see if it resonates with God’s...and then try to live the way that God’s definition describes.
On this long day’s journey of following Christ, we also need to examine what it is we want Jesus to do for us. As a church...and as individuals. I read recently about some people in a prayer group who computerized their petitions to God, listing the request, the date when it was made, and the date when it was answered. The list of requests included promotions at work, new jobs, nice new cars, bigger homes, and dates with people they secretly liked.
What would it look like if each of our prayer requests were generated on some network printer and made public? Would we look like "followers" of Jesus – seeking the things of God’s dominion – or would we look like shameless gold diggers? Maybe, if the truth be told, it would be a little of both. Jesus said to the disciples...and still says to us today... "What do you want me to do for you?" Perhaps we need to examine exactly what that answer really is.
Today’s Gospel lesson on true greatness and servant leadership and the costs of following Jesus comes straight from the assigned lectionary readings for today...and yet the timing couldn’t be more perfect. This week, Wendy Foxworth, will be arriving. Wendy is the Church Development Consultant who’s coming in to teach us about church growth and do a complete assessment of our ministry progress and help us determine specific strategies that will enable us to keep growing and moving toward the kind of team-based, participative organization we want to be. And in the midst of all the analyzing and praising and assessing and discussing that will go on for the next two week, we need to constantly re-examine what our purpose, motivation and desires for all these things are.
Our purpose in working with Wendy must be to assess the realities of our ministry here and to determine what is consistent with building the dominion of God and what is not. Our motivation must be to build a church of people who love each other...who work together as teams – without selfish ambition or the desire for power over others. Our true desire must be to live out our mission: to manifest, communicate and celebrate God’s surpassing love. Every day. Throughout the long days of working together. And throughout the short years we have to love each other...and others yet to come.
The years are going to be short, you know. Even though many of our days – working for God and following Christ will be long and challenging and will take us to points and places we may not think we signed on for – still, the time we have together here is short and precious and without any guarantees. But here’s the good news. Unlike James and John and the rest of the twelve with Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, we are living post-Resurrection! When these short years are done, we will only be getting started on the real journey -- that never-ending day when we are together with God.
Think of "right now" as a long day’s journey in the light. As the old man John would write, "God is love. Dear friends, let us love one another.... In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence.... There is no fear in love. Those who love God should also love one another." Amen.
Get your own, Free Homepage