Downward Mobility
This is the message I preached on Mark 10:35-45 at Bethel Lutheran Church in Portville, NY, where I have the prprivilege of being the pastor.
A few years ago, Monster.com had an advertising campaign featuring children saying:
A few years ago, Monster.com had an advertising campaign featuring children saying:
When I grow up,
I want to file all day. I want to claw my way up to middle management…be
replaced on a whim. I wanna be a yes man…yes woman…anything for a raise sir.
When I grow up I want to be underappreciated…paid less for doing the same
job. (Monster.com, You Tube, 1999)
From the world’s
perspective, who would want to strive to be or do any of these things? It is
not the American dream. How often do we hear people tell children, “You can be
anything you want to be! You may even be President one day!” Our human nature
causes us to want to get ahead, be successful, and have the biggest, the
brightest and the best. We desire upward mobility and we want recognition! -- So
did Jesus’ disciples—at least the two of them that owned up to it.
After
all, James and John were part of the inner circle of disciples. They were the
only disciples, besides Peter, who were with Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration. They were special. Weren’t they entitled to preferential
treatment?
James
and John clearly “demonstrate their failure to grasp what Jesus [been teaching
them]” (Preaching the Revised Common
Lectionary: Year B, after Pentecost 2, 99). Naturally, the other disciples
got angry with James and John about this end run around them trying to set
themselves up in positions of power in Jesus’ kingdom and leaving the others
out of the picture. However, I cannot help but wonder if James and John just
said what the other disciples were secretly thinking. They were the ones with
the nerve to verbalize it.
Last
Sunday after church, I sat in on part of the confirmation lesson. I arrived
just in time for a question about Luther’s teaching on the theology of glory
and the theology of the cross. Simply put, a theology of glory is about me and
a theology of the cross is about Jesus. Who is the center of attention? Who is
doing the acting? Who is getting the glory? Given the nature of the discussion
we had in confirmation class last week, I would say the disciples should have
been in class.
Have
any of us ever worked with people like James and John? You know the kind of
people who are always talking to the boss privately about some scheme to
promote him or herself. James and John approach Jesus on the sly to see if they
can get the biggest promotion ever—to have prestigious positions of power when
Jesus comes into his kingdom. Where have
they been? Haven’t they heard the message Jesus had been teaching
repeatedly about suffering and death and service? Jesus spoke of the agony of
crucifixion and they talk about getting glory. Were they punch drunk from
earlier successes? Could they imagine only an outcome of triumph and glory? And
they were not even considering the rest of the disciples! No wonder the others
were angry with James and John.
From our 21st century perspective, it is easy
to find fault with James and John. Surely if we had the opportunity to hear the
gospel straight from Jesus and see the miracles, we would have reacted
differently, wouldn’t we? Our human
nature tells us to look out for ourselves. There is not enough money or time to
help others. We can hardly get by on our own.
If we read a newspaper or magazine, watch TV, or listen
to the radio, we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us to look out
for number one. Whole hosts of products guarantee to make us happier, healthier,
wealthier or younger looking. We pay professional athletes and celebrities more
than we pay our President, teachers, nurses or other public servants. The siren
song of our culture lures us into thinking we just have to be like these idols
it has created.
Jesus’ teaching is completely the opposite of this! It
was counter cultural in his day and it is counter cultural in ours. Society
promotes a theology of glory and upward mobility, while Jesus lives the
theology of the cross, the way of downward mobility.
For some, Pax
Romana or Roman Peace was anything but peaceful. Caesars had been killed.
Generals vied for power. Herod married his brother’s wife and then killed John
the Baptist because of his message. The gentile means of exercising leadership
was tyrannical. Is it possible that by living under this empire, the disciples
would be tempted to operate like the gentiles? Would it be a case of the abused becoming
abusers? Exercising lordship and authority was the way greatness was measured
in the worldly society of Jesus’ day.
“But it is not so among [Christians]” (v. 43) according
to Jesus. How many times have we succumbed to the idea that we are incapable of
making a difference in our own world? After all, that is just the way the world
is today. Jesus’ answer to us is the same as it was to his disciples then, “But
it is not so among you” (v. 43). Jesus’ upside down kingdom is one of greatness
through service. It is driven by the downward mobility of the theology of the
cross. Being a servant is not just a matter of what you do. It is who you are!
It is our identity! This is how we are to behave with one another. Those who
are leaders in the church are servant leaders. Servants in Jesus’ time waited
on tables and were pretty low on the totem pole. Our word deacon comes from the
Greek word for servant. The way to be great in God’s church is to be a servant
of Christ and of each other.
As though that is not low enough, Jesus says his
followers need to be slaves of all—not
just the people we like, not just other Christians, but people we do not like,
who are different from us, who do not even care about Jesus and the church! One
becomes great by being a servant,
but one becomes first by being a slave of all. A slave was much lower on
the social scale than a servant was. In first century society, you could not
get any lower than a slave could. This involved total submission and was
downward mobility at its best. Author and mystic Henri Nouwen explained it like
this:
The way of the Christian leader is not the way of
upward mobility in which the world has invested so much, but the way of
downward mobility ending on the cross. . . . It is not a leadership of power
and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the
suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest.
Did you catch that last
phrase, “Jesus Christ is made manifest.” This is not about people walking all
over us, but about revealing the love of Jesus in our lives to a dying and
desperate world.
Jesus cites his own exemplary life of service, but we are
not Jesus. How can we be expected to live lives like his? Jesus died on the
cross to pay the ransom for our sin. The key is in that word “ransom.” What is
a ransom? We think of it as something paid to set a hostage free. In ancient
times, it was the payment to set slaves free. By his death, Jesus set us free
to serve. In baptism, we are set free from sin, death and the power of the
devil. We do not have to be enslaved to this world’s way of upward mobility,
but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to follow the way of the
cross.
I wish you could see what I see and hear the stories that
I hear about our community of faith at Bethel. So many of you really “get” what
it means to live in service to God and others without looking for recognition
for your efforts. Each of us has had times when we have experienced the truth
of Jesus' words—when we have put someone else's needs before our own. Each of
us has volunteered, helped a friend, encouraged someone down in the dumps, or
lent a hand to someone in need, and when we did so experienced the joy of
giving ourselves to another. Each of us, has overcome our concerns about not
having enough by making ourselves open to the needs of another and found that
openness rewarded not simply by the gratitude of the recipient but by our own
increased sense of purpose, fulfillment, and courage. (David Lose)
A number of years ago Christian singer/songwriter Michael
W. Smith wrote a song called “Secret Ambition.” The words of the chorus are:
Nobody knew His secret ambition
Nobody knew His claim to fame
He broke the old rules steeped in tradition
He tore the Holy Veil away
Questioning those in powerful position
Running to those who called His name
(But) Nobody knew His secret ambition
Was to give His life away.
Nobody knew His claim to fame
He broke the old rules steeped in tradition
He tore the Holy Veil away
Questioning those in powerful position
Running to those who called His name
(But) Nobody knew His secret ambition
Was to give His life away.
What is our secret
ambition? Amen.
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