Title: Defining Greatness

Scriptures: James 3:13-4:8, Mark 9:30-37

9/21/03 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

Early last week I attended a panel discussion with a few others at a downtown church in Seattle.  As we sat down towards the back of the room which was set up in traditional lecture style format, one of my friends pointed out to me the presence of a mutual friend across the aisle.  I looked across the room and saw no one I recognized.

As the panel discussion went on I would occasionally look time and again in that direction, unable to see the friend she had tried to point out.  I found myself feeling a little silly.  

About ½ way through the discussion I looked over again and realized that our friend was sitting almost directly to my left, just a short distance away.

It felt so very odd that I had looked and looked for him, unable to see him - when there he was, practically right next to me.  I laughed to myself at my own “blindness”, and thought what a simple metaphor it was.  How often I miss something - whether it is beauty or wisdom, an opportunity or a solution - expecting it to be located somewhere far away or to materialize in a particular way, when all along, it is there, right in front of me.

The writer of Mark portrays the disciples as having moments like this one, often. Jesus tries to point out something for them to see and they look right past it to something else.

Today's passage from Mark is a good example of this.  It is a continuation from last week when Jesus was asking the disciples who they think Jesus is.  After finding out the various thoughts on his identity, Jesus tries to explain his identity from his own perspective.  He tells them that he is bound to suffer and be killed, but that he will rise again on the third day.  The writer then says quite clearly: “But they did not understand what he was saying.”

Jesus points something out - and they look right past it - their minds are already on to something else.   

The idea that this man Jesus, the one they consider to be the Messiah, is going to suffer and be killed, does not fit their concept of how things were supposed to look, so instead of trying to understand or question, they just look right past him.  In fact not only do they look right past him, but they start a conversation amongst themselves about who might be the greatest among the disciples.  For in their image of Jesus as Messiah, as the King of Israel, they seem themselves as royal-courtiers-in-waiting!  (Tom Wright)   

Jesus had tried to point them in a direction, but they already had another one in mind.

So then Jesus tries again to get through to the disciples; he is a patient teacher - because he wants us to get it.

He looked at his disciples and said, “Whoever wants to be first, must be last and servant to all.”  And then in the midst of what was most likely an inner circle of men, Jesus goes out amidst the crowd and finds a child.  He embraces that child in his arms and brings him or her into the inner circle and says: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

As we imagine this scene, it is vitally important that we keep in mind that in this time and place, a child, though cared about by his or her family, was basically INVISIBLE.  In the ancient world a child had no status or prestige whatsoever.  By doing this, Jesus was trying to get the disciples to see and understand a few things about leadership and God that were virtually invisible to them -

That to lead is to serve, not in order to gain status or prestige or to enhance our own sense of self-worth, but to affirm the worth of all, AND that to see and embrace the invisible - the discarded - the ignored - is to see and serve God.  

I sympathize BIG TIME with the disciples here.  It is hard to understand and to live these teachings in our society.  This kind of thinking runs counter to so many things that we hold up as signs of success and greatness.

In reflecting on this issue I will admit that my perspective is very much a by-product of the generation in which I have grown up.  I was born in 1959, the tail end of the “baby-boomers”.  Though I was quite young, I do remember the assassination of President Kennedy and his brother Bobby.  I remember watching the names of those who died in Vietnam, shown on national television, night after night.  I grew up with older siblings and was very aware of the challenges of the 1960's and its emphasis on personal freedom.  These challenges triggered a greater emphasis on the individual and individual gain as we then moved into the 70's and scads of self-help books and programs were produced.  We became almost obsessed with personal rights and needs.  There began an ever-growing tendency in our society to emphasize that greatness and success were associated with wealth and prestige.  Through the years we have watched the middle class become smaller and smaller while the homeless population continues to grow and include more and more women and children.

Employment in the service sector of our society can no longer pay salaries that can even begin to give to us what we think we want materially, and so they have lost not only further financial support but status as well.

While the 60, 70 and 80's helped us make great strides in areas of equality, I believe that over these last 40 years we have become overconsumed with individuality and our right to consume.  

On the one hand it would be nice to find a church and/or a spiritual leader that could insure our need for comfort and security and by following him or her, might even increase our status, BUT -

Instead, we have Jesus.  And instead of affirming our understanding of success or promising us a comfortable chair by his side, he challenges us both individually and globally, to go to the back of the line and to take a good hard look at the impact this way of living is having on our well-being.  How it is impacting the health of our bodies and our psyches, and the health of the planet as a whole.  He challenges us to see who is being lost in the dust of our so-called “success”.

In the letter to James that we also heard-read this morning we know that these struggles are in no way unique to any one generation. The central thrust in James is a challenge to consider what drives the activities and choices in our lives.  Are we driven only by our own individual ambition and material needs or are we motivated by the desire to give back, to work with others, to serve?  

We are an amazing nation - I am humbled by the abundance our country enjoys while I question the motivations behind some of our actions and the painful consequences that follow.  The blessing of our abundance demands humility and responsible stewardship.

I believe that God longs for us to find a balance between the joy and excitement of individual freedom and creativity, and the commitment to create communities that benefit the whole.  It means being diligent in being conscious of our motivations and our actions and being willing to admit that we might not have all the answers.  

It means being diligent in nurturing a relationship with the God made known to us in Jesus that invites us to look deep within our own hearts and souls to reconsider the meaning of success, self-care and care for the whole.

Like the disciples, it is hard to see and understand this Christ-led worldview through the maze of our society - but perhaps it is not as difficult as we often think it is.  Last Monday night it was so strange that I could not find our friend, and then all of the sudden, there he was, practically in front of me all along. Perhaps all the guidance and encouragement we need is right in front (or perhaps within) us all along.  Let us pray…