Here's my Sermon from the 22nd of October (I'll post the one from the 24th next week).
Isaiah 53:4-12, Psalm 91:9-16, Hebrews 5:1-10, Mark 10:35-45
There is an elaborate interplay between this morning's scriptures, all of which point to different aspects of today's gospel reading. We start with Isaiah's hard and stinging words that seem so familiar to us as we reflect on the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. In his words, we get a picture of what Jesus must have understood his role as messiah to be – ultimately to be punished, stricken, beaten, and killed in order to save God's children. Juxtaposed against Isaiah's words we have the Psalm, giving more accurately a picture of what the disciples expected from Jesus – that he would be protected by angles, blessed in all that he undertook, not so much as stubbing his toe on a rock! He would trample the forces of evil, including the forces of Rome and be brought to the place of honor on the throne in Jerusalem. Hebrews draws the two disparate pictures into a clearer focus for us, describing Jesus' life on earth as a time of prayers and supplications, loud cries and tears. He called out to the one who could save him from death and was heard because of his reverent submission. But being heard does not necessarily mean getting what we want. Where the two pictures from Isaiah and Psalm 91 meet is in a spiritual understanding of Messiah that the disciples had not yet grasped, but which Jesus understood and tried to explain to their deafened ears. This is where we enter in today's gospel. Jesus, in the two verses preceding today's reading, has just told the disciples for the third and last time before coming to Jerusalem that he would be condemned, and killed, and that he would rise again after three days.
At each of the previous two tellings of this same prediction, the disciples have immediately changed the subject, not understanding and not wanting to hear what Jesus' idea of messiah is. They know better. The first time, Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that he would be killed. He had just confessed that Jesus was the messiah, which seemed like a moment of clarity in Peter's usual haphazard way of reactive thought and action. But in the next instant he rebukes Jesus for betraying what he believed messiah to be. Although he believed Jesus to be the messiah, he insisted that Jesus be the messiah he was expecting. At the next telling, the disciples did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask – instead, they argue the rest of the way home about who is the greatest.
Now at this third and final telling, Jesus has just said that when they get to Jerusalem, the "Son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again." No sooner had he finished saying this than James and John stroll up next to him and ask him let them sit at his right and left hand when he comes into power.
They blithely suggest that they can drink the cup Christ drinks and be baptized with the baptism with which Christ is baptized, but they have closed their eyes and ears and heart to what Jesus has been trying to tell them. They are asking to be seated in the places of honor next to Jesus when he takes the throne in Jerusalem after their military victory over Rome. They wish to be set up as leaders directly under Jesus when he becomes king. Jesus relents, telling them they will drink the cup he drinks and that they will indeed be baptized with the baptism he endures... had they been listening, they might have understood that this meant persecution and agonizing death. He then tells them that these places of honor – which ironically we recognize in the Calvary image of the thieves on either side of Jesus as he is crucified – is for God to decide and then calls all of the disciples together to tell them again (as after the discussion on the road about who was greatest) that to be great, they must become the servants of all... that the reign of God is not like the reign of earthly monarchs where power and riches separate the leaders from those they lord it over, but rather that they should take Jesus as an example. He came to serve, not to be served, to lift up others, not to be lifted up, to forgive and draw into community, not to pass judgment and ostracize. And to heal and love, not to overthrow with the sword.
So often in today's world, we become like Jesus disciples, wanting to make Jesus into OUR image of what Christ should be. For nearly two millennia we have taken Jesus' words and other words of scripture out of context to validate our own human ambitions. We fight wars in Jesus name, we shun and marginalize people in Jesus name – whether it be lepers, heretics, and Jews in the middle ages (and in frighteningly more recently history), or people living with HIV/AIDS, the GLTB community, and Muslims today. We have and we continue to condemn others who don't believe the same things we believe in the same way we believe them because we insist that we know what is required for salvation. Even between and within different sects of Christianity we can't seem to find a way to open our ears and eyes and hearts to what Jesus has been trying to tell us since the time of his own personal followers. The world at large still seems not to be ready for the kind of Messiah that Jesus was and is.
I certainly won't claim to have the answers. I have spent much of my life struggling to better understand what Jesus was all about in his life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Are their scientific explanations for his miracles? Does he really expect us give everything we own to the poor? Did he have to die for his purpose to be fulfilled? Was his resurrection simply spiritual or did he really bodily rise from the tomb? Would any of the easy answers to these questions change who Jesus was and is? As far as these questions, it has come down to a far more fundamental question for me... Do I believe God is capable of these miracles – even to the point of saving us when we do everything we can to ignore the divine? The answer to that question is yes. There is one certainty in the life and ministry of Christ, and that is that everything he taught, everything he did, everything he stood for turned the system of domination and oppression on its head. Not the least of this system was the belief about what messiah would be.
The Jews had waited for centuries for the coming of the messiah. He was to be a great king, conquering the oppressive forces that dominated Israel, and sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem as a victorious and resplendent king. In his glory there would be peace and prosperity on earth and all the nations would come to Jerusalem and worship him. The image of the suffering servant from Isaiah was never conceived to be a part of the messianic vision. The certainty of that promise permeated the hopes and dreams for the future of the children of Israel. Jesus disciples may not have been Pharisees, but as Jews they still knew the stories from their childhood. All of Jesus closest disciples had now voiced similar visions of the coming greatness of Christ. Peter just before the transfiguration, all of the twelve on the way back home after the transfiguration, and now James and John along the road to Jerusalem – too caught up in the anticipation to hear Jesus' most detailed description of his immanent fate.
Father Rector touched on our own messianic delusions last Sunday as he discussed the rich man's dilemma. Does God want us to be rich? Why do so many Christians believe that God intends for them to experience material riches, comfort, power, and glory in this lifetime? Mark the gospeller is masterful in his writing of the disciples journey over the course of their friendship with Jesus. From great beginnings, they become Jesus inner circle, privy to his explanation of parables, to his calming of the sea, walking on water, healings, feedings, they themselves were sent out and were able to cast out demons in Jesus name. But as they became more and more sure of who Jesus was, they became more and more blind to who he really was. From the moment Peter proclaims Jesus to be the messiah the disciples have endured a downward spiral in their walk with Christ. They (through Peter) rebuke Jesus for saying he would be arrested, condemned, and killed, they begin to argue amongst themselves about who will be the greatest in the coming kingdom, they stop a man casting out evil spirits in Jesus name, they themselves find that they are unable to cast out a demon that previously they had power over, they turn away children from Jesus touch, and today they ask for positions of power when Jesus comes to glory. Today Jesus for the second time struggles to bring them back onto the correct path... through them, Mark struggles to bring his community, and us with them today, back to Jesus true teachings. "Look at who I am" says Jesus... "I am a servant to the lowest ranks of people in this already oppressed and dominated community." Have you learned nothing from our three years together? I'm about to be handed over to be crucified and you lot will have to carry on this ministry. I will be resurrected for your sake, but I won't be with you forever. You have to get this right! If you want to be great in the reign of God, you must become a slave to all. You must be willing to devote your life to the service of God's children. You must never think yourself better than anyone else or think yourselves above any act of service.
One of the most amazing things about Mark's gospel is the structure that keeps drawing us back from Jerusalem. The original ending of Mark's gospel gives us no further resurrection appearances than that to the women at the tomb. They leave and tell no one for they are terrified. The last message we receive is that Jesus will meet his disciples in Galilee – which is back at the beginning of the story. It's as if Mark is telling his community and us, "now that you finally understand that the messiah is not about Jerusalem and an earthly reign of God, start over and appreciate the true importance of the journey."
I've had my ideas, about what and who Jesus was, challenged more times than I can count over the course of my life. In my childhood and adolescence, my brother, Bro-head, and I struggled with the inconsistencies between what was preached at church and how supposed Christians lived their lives, in my later teens I struggled with what and who God was and meant in my own life and what faith meant to me, most recently and most consistently over the past several years, this has happened at seminary. Liberation theology challenged me to look more closely at the systems of domination and oppression that Jesus railed against. Queer theology challenged me to look more closely at the people with whom Jesus associated and the root of his message in love, compassion, raising up, drawing in, incorporating the marginalized, healing, and acceptance, and never giving into the systems that strive to exclude and dominate, especially when they claim to do so in the name of God. Ethics taught me that the systems and powers of domination and oppression are still in charge of the world despite the fact that Christians are now in charge of many of them. And my wife, Jane continues to challenge me to open my ears, eyes, and heart to different nuances of Christ's message that keeps my faith fresh, ever questioning, and ever striving. Where I find myself currently on the journey is with a radical Christ whose kingdom lies within each of us just waiting for us to pick up where he left off in order to bring the reign of God to those who most need some sign of hope and compassion in this life.
Each of us stands to learn something very important from James and John today. Part of the Good News of Mark's gospel is that the disciples are us. They are human, they lose sight of what is important while they make their grand plans, often forgetting themselves and their purpose along the way. Yet through all of their misunderstandings, through all of their foibles, through getting lost in their own pride and selfishness, they remain Jesus closest companions along the way. He does everything possible to prepare them for their ministry after he is no longer with them, yet all he can hope is that after his resurrection they will finally reflect on their time together and get that the kingdom of God is within them – all they have to do to claim it is offer it to those around them.
As Christians in today's world, we have access to the rest of the story. We have the opportunity to learn from the disciples wayward and head-strong ways. Even as the disciples found themselves frequently missing the point along the way, we too find ourselves frequently struggling for understanding and clarity. Jesus teaches us today through James and John, that in those bleak moments when we finally realize that we've been so busy seeking our own destination that we've missed the point of the journey, the quickest way to find ourselves is through reaching out to those around us and offering whatever we have in service to them.
In the end, the author of Hebrews draws out the Good News for us in that when we do forget ourselves and seek to be put at the right and left hand of Christ in the glory of his kingdom, we won't be cast out of God's divine presence for our human pride, rather we'll simply be told no and then be reminded that the reign of God is already within… it is our responsibility to bring it to fruition through sharing it with others in love and service.
Lord open our hearts to the understanding of what following you as Christians really means, give us the strength and courage to reach out to others in need, and bring us back to your way when we, certain of the destination, take the lead and stray from your path. Amen.
