February 5 SERVE

How can we grow more fully into community worth sharing?  Last week I gave you the word salt.  For us to be worth sharing we need to be in places that are short on flavor.  At the same time, we need to return to the one who gives us our flavor.  You are salt Manitou.  This morning I offer the second word.

Mark 10:35-45

 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." 36 "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. 37 They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." 38 "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" 39 "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to these for whom they have been prepared." 41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The way in…

          Do you want to be great?  Were I to venture a guess most, if not all of you, are thinking, ‘Not really, I’d be happy with being good.  Shoot, I’d be happy with just being okay.  But great?  That sounds like too much for me.’  I’d venture to guess that the ethos of this congregation is better expressed by Jon Conlee who sang, “I’m just a common man, drive a common van, my dog ain’t got no pedigree.  And if I had my say, its gonna stay that way, cause high-brow people lose their sanity and a common man is what I’ll be.”  Am I right? 

          So, what are we to do with the request of James and John?  If ever there were common folk it was them.  They were brothers who grew up in the region of Galilee which was like growing up in South Tacoma.  They worked as fishermen which is like, well working as a fisherman or a longshoreman or at the foundry or as a logger or any other blue collar job that is rapidly disappearing.  They, and most of the other disciples, were the common man of the 1^st Century.  Yet, here they are coming to Jesus and requesting something very uncommon.  “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks.  “Let one of us sit at your right and one at your left in your glory.” 

          How do you feel about this request of these brothers?  I will admit that my first feeling is that of disdain.  All this time Jesus has been talking about the nature of the kingdom of heaven and what he is going to go through yet James and John don’t seem to have heard any of it.  Here they show just how little they understand, how immature and foolish they really are.  They go asking Jesus to be the greatest thing they can be in the coming kingdom.  This is my initial inclination, but perhaps it is not quite right.

The good of the request to be great

          For all of their missing the point about the nature of Jesus’ kingdom, there is something wonderful about the request of James and John.  They want something more.  They recognize that this world is not as it should be.  They recognize that they are not as they should be.  They have signed on with Jesus because they hope that both of those; this world and themselves will change.  This is a good thing, right?  Is that not what we hope for?  Well, do we?

          Jim Collins wrote a book about business that though I have never read, I like the title.  It’s called, Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t.  Good to great.  James and John are seeking to go from okay to great, or perhaps even bad to great.  And there is something right about this, isn’t there? 

What do you think God wants of you?  What do you think God wants of this world?  The parable of the talents indicates that God expects us to use what he’s given us wisely.  In his letter to the Corinthians Paul tells them to ‘desire the greater gifts (12:30) Later in Colossians Paul tells us that when Christ appears ‘then you also will appear with him in glory.”  We are not what we will be, and God will not be satisfied until we become that.  As George MacDonald wrote, “Easy to please is God, but difficult to satisfy.”  Why is this?  The same reason that a mother is overjoyed when her infant says ‘mama’ yet still wants her to keep learning words.  Just like we don’t want our children to be satisfied with crawling, God doesn’t want us to be satisfied with just getting by.  God wants us to be great?  What about us?  Do we want to be great?  As a person?  As a congregation?  Our sign on the door is a good one.  It reads, ‘These doors must never close.’  This is a good reminder to us, but is it great?  Does God want more than for us just to keep our doors open?  Does God want more for you than just to keep your eyes open?  I think so, but do you? Until we can answer yes to these questions, the rest of the message will have little power.

James and John weren’t wrong to desire greatness, they were just wrong about what it really was.  One wonders if they were still interested in it after Jesus was finished teaching

The World’s Greatness

As would be the case in most small groups, word travels fast and when it reached the rest of the disciples Mark writes that they ‘became indignant.’  Said another way, ‘they were ticked.’  I imagine they felt like brothers who worked all day in the field looking forward only to their mother’s apple pie but when they show up the pie is gone and two of their other brothers are sitting their reclining with full bellies.  As my kids would say, “Not fair.”  Jesus, ever the teacher, sees a teaching moment and gathers the family together.

He begins by talking about what they all know, how great people functioned in their day.  They ‘lord it over them’ and ‘exercise authority over them.’  Now, it is important to note that Jesus is not saying it is wrong to be a ruler or exercise authority.  Were that the case he would be contradicting himself as he invites the disciples to call him lord and he exercised authority.  Society needs leaders.  Classrooms need teachers.  Schools need principles.  Cities need mayors and so on.  But look again and you’ll see the problem that comes in two words; ‘over them.’  Over them.  In the first century greatness was measured by how far a person could be above others.  Life was a big pyramid with the emperor at the top and the slaves at the bottom.  Everyone could feel a measure of greatness as long as there was someone else below them.   It is a good thing our society doesn’t struggle with this anymore. 

Albert Pujols will only sign a contract that makes him the highest paid first baseman in major league baseball.  His greatness was measured by how many other players were under him in pay.  A financial consultant was happy with their office until they saw that their co-worker had a bigger one with another window.  Immediately after getting his test back the kid began to ask around and ask what others got and only after hearing that no one else got higher than a B was he happy with his A-.  After walking her well dressed kids to school on time a mother shakes her head smugly when a beat up old van pulls up and three kids spill out in ratty mis-matched clothes.  A pastor measures his success by how many more members his church has then his colleagues.  Over and over and over again we measure our worth against one another’s.  The more people we are over in income, in style, in wit, in house size, in car quality, in number of facebook friends, in languages spoken or whatever, then the greater we are.  But what does Jesus say about this?  “Not so with you.” 

Not so With You Greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven

“Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first, must be slave of all.”  You know that pyramid?  Jesus takes it and turns it upside down.  More accurately, he leaves the pyramid as is but calls the disciples to dig a tunnel so that they might get underneath those lowest on the hierarchy.  Jesus thumbs his nose at the whole system of ‘lording over’ by just telling the disciples to ‘serve under.’  You know those people who have no one to look down upon, the addicts who have burned every bridge, the mentally unstable, the hookers and the lepers; place yourself under them.  Jesus doesn’t tell them to do this because he wants them to be abused.  No, he knows that the only way to get rid of the pyramid is to destroy the foundation.  If we get enough people to dig under the lowest of the low; if we get enough people to refuse to play by the game of comparisons then maybe, just maybe the pyramid will crack and even crumble.  This is where the true power lies, not in lording over, but in serving under.  Not so with you, Jesus says.  What about with us?

Manitou the Great

          This is where I get excited because this is something we can do.  This is actually something in our wheelhouse.  If greatness were dependent upon high status, flashy services, impressive PowerPoint slides, powerful programs or any other typical manner of things, then we would be out of luck.  But look here, Jesus has pitched us a soft one.  To be great, he says, you don’t have to do any of these things.  To be great…serve.  We can do that.  We can.  Right?

          A member has lost her ability to drive.  You serve by picking her up.  A person in the church has a flat tire, you go and fix it.  A person in the community passes away and even though they can pay nothing, you help host a memorial and reception.  Someone is in the hospital and you send flowers.  People struggle with funds and so you offer food and clothes.  Kids need some help with school work and so you offer to tutor them.  A woman in the community has cancer and five young children so you fix meals and deliver them to her.  A neighbor is sick and getting sicker but she has no family so you others rearrange your life to sit with and care for her in her last days.  Do I need to keep going, or do you get the picture?  The more we serve, the greater we become.  The more we serve the more we become the great that God created us to be.

What do you want me to do for you

          So Ken, are you telling us we’ve already got this service thing down and can move on to something else?  To answer that, I repeat the words of George MacDonald, “Easy to pleas is God, but hard to satisfy.”  I think God is pleased with you Manitou, but not satisfied.  God wants more from us.  So what, how can we serve more?  How can we serve better?  To this I will say two things.

          Let me start with a confession.  I am not a very good servant.  Yes, I can talk about it.  Yes, I think it is central to following Jesus.  But when it comes to actually serving, I am still in kindergarden where as many of you are working on your graduate degrees.  Here’s how I know I have a lot of room to grow in serving.  As I was writing this sermon on Thursday morning, Erin returned from working out at the Y and see asked me, “Can you make the kids lunches this morning?”  Now I said yes, but I felt no.  Why?  I had the time.  I had the ability, but I didn’t have the desire.  I have not fully embraced the belief that greatness comes in serving.  I have a ways to go.

          The second thing I will say is what Jesus said.  James and John come to Jesus and ask for his help.  Notice Jesus’ reply.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  Keep in mind, this is Jesus.  He already knew what they wanted, but he still asks.  If you read the next story you will notice that Jesus asks this same question of Blind Bartimeaus.  Why this question?

          Yesterday I was making pancakes and the kids got excited.  Janie asked, as she often does, “Can I help?”  This is a good question, but not great.  When I replied, “Yes, you can help by setting the table,” she became disappointed.  What she wanted was to mix the ingredients and pour the batter.  Which I will tell you at that moment would not really have been much help.  We do this sometimes don’t we?  We offer to help someone, but only in the way we want to help them.  Your neighbor’s yard hasn’t been mowed in weeks and its driving you crazy so you offer to mow it, but your neighbor doesn’t care about the yard, what he really needs is someone to talk to.  Often our service of others is really a way of serving ourselves, which is not necessarily bad, just not great. 

For Janie’s question to be great, she would have only needed to add one word, “How?”  “How can I help you?”  On Wednesday Erin and I went to pick up a dresser for Will we bought on Craig’s List.  When the couple showed us the dresser I began to try to figure out how to pick it up and move it.  The guy selling it, his name was Carl, waited as I tried to figure out whether to remove the drawers or not and then he said, “How can I be of service?”   Do you notice the difference?  Carl allowed me to be in charge.  He put himself at my service.  This is honoring.  Visit our food bank and you’ll now see the same thing.  People come to get food and then one of the ladies escorts them into the room and says, “What would you want?”  The guest gets to select what they want, we do not do it for them.  This is great service.  I looked around as I began to pour the batter on the grill and smiled when I saw the table was set for breakfast.  Is it too much to say that in that moment she moved from good to great?  If we want to serve as Jesus served then we will find ways to ask our family, our friends, our neighbors and even our enemies, “How can we serve you?”

[Take a moment right now and think.  Is there anyone of whom I might ask this question?  And then the other side, if someone were to ask me what would I say?]

The way out

Raymond was a fixture at high school basketball games.  He’d gone to my high school about 10 years before me and started serving as the manager for the team then and as far as I know still does today.  Raymond was very emotional and excited and loved Cherokee basketball.  He wasn’t a man capable of many words, but the ones he knew, he said over and over.  “Raymond, what do the Cherokees need to do to win tonight?”  He would lick his index finger, hold it in the air and say, “they gotta want it.”  “Raymond, why didn’t the Cherokees win last night?”  he would shake his head while looking at the ground and say, “They didn’t want it.” 

What about us Manitou, do you want it?  Do you, do we want to be great?  Let me ask it another way, do we want to be the best Manitou we can be?  Do you want to be the best you that you can be?  Do you want it?  Do we want it?  Let us pray.