Serving Each Other

I have always found today’s Gospel reading to be kind of funny. I imagine James and John sidling up to Jesus when they think the others aren’t paying attention and hoping they won’t notice. Trying to get Jesus to commit to granting their request before telling Jesus what it is they want. When pushed, a little embarrassed, but still bold enough to ask for the very best seats in the kingdom. You have to admire their ambition!
 
Predictably, the others are outraged when they realize what James and John were up to. Again as I imagine it, the others are angry at least partly because James and John had the nerve to actually ask for what they all wanted.
 
As I say, I find it kind of funny. Until we remember what Jesus has just said to them. Jesus has just said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man [that’s Jesus himself] 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” (Mark 10:33-34).
 
It’s a lot to take in, so we should have some sympathy for the difficulty the disciples have with that. Still, this is the second time they have heard about Jesus’ coming suffering. And it is immediately after hearing about that suffering that James and John are angling for thrones right next to Jesus in the kingdom. James and John could not possibly have missed Jesus’ point more completely. And I don’t think the others are doing much better.
 
So, Jesus tries again to get the disciples to hear what he is saying. The rulers of Gentiles lord it over their people. Great ones among the Gentiles are tyrants over them. That’s how people normally do it, then and now.
 
But, says Jesus, “it is not so among you.” Don’t be asking for thrones. “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
 
Those are strong words, especially the part about being slaves to each other. The Roman Empire was a slave society, so the disciples knew exactly what life was like for slaves.
 
But strong words were necessary because Jesus was trying to establish a different kind of community than what anyone had seen before, with a different kind of leadership than anything they had ever known or imagined.
 
In the community of his followers, Jesus wants to do away with damaging competition for power and wealth, to do away with exactly the kind of behavior James and John are engaged in. Instead, Jesus wants his people to serve each other. In so far as they compete, they are supposed to compete in mutual service.
 
The disciples obviously weren’t getting it.
 
As always, I enjoy poking fun at the disciples for being foolish. And then comes the unpleasant realization. I am not any different.
 
I know what Jesus says about humble service. And, out of all of us here today, I am the one up front. I am the one wearing the fanciest clothes. I’m the one doing most of the talking. Meanwhile, a lot of other people do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that I can be up front wearing fancy clothes and doing most of the talking.
 
You could make a very strong case that out of everyone involved in our service this morning, I am the one most like James and John in our reading.
 
We in the Church, especially people in leadership in the Church, are still struggling to absorb the lesson in our passage for this morning, just like the disciples were two thousand years ago.
 
But I think we may be learning. Two weeks from Friday, our new Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will be officially installed in office. In an effort to reduce both cost and the carbon footprint, he insisted that his installation be the smallest and simplest in years. That means less pomp and circumstance for him, and more money saved for Christ’s mission. Not quite so much lording, and more service, just like Jesus says.
 
How about in our culture more generally?
 
As we all know, less than a week after the installation of our new Presiding Bishop, the American people will elect a new President. Both major candidates are busily making the case that they are the right person for the job. But neither candidate exactly qualifies as a model of humility and service along the lines that Jesus is teaching.
 
It’s fun to imagine Harris and Trump in place of James and John in our passage.
 
Their ask would probably be a little different than James’ and John’s. Like James and John, they want the best seats in the kingdom. But they are definitely not looking to share the best seats in the kingdom with each other.
 
I imagine both candidates saying, “Teacher, grant me to sit at your right hand. And cast my opponent into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, there to suffer an eternity of torment.”
 
Now, I don’t fault candidates for campaigning. I expect any serious candidate to claim to be the best qualified person for the job. I wouldn’t vote for someone who admitted that they were unqualified or said their opponent might be a better choice.
 
Still, I take American political discourse to reflect how we tend to think about power and authority in our country, and it’s a lot more like James and John than it is like what Jesus calls for. Political candidates aim for authority and power because that’s what we value as a culture.
 
In a culture that on this point resembles the Gentiles in the first-century Rome, Jesus calls us together as his Church. Jesus shapes us as his body, into an alternative community modelling a different way, modelling his way.
 
I think we actually do a decent job of that, here at Saint David’s. For a parish of our size, we do a lot. And the many people who make it possible for us to do the many things we do are, as best I can tell, doing it in the right way and for the right reasons.
 
I think again about all the people who make it possible for me to stand up here, wearing my fancy clothes and leading us in worship. I may be a problem. But our worship service is a model of the kind of community Jesus is talking about.
 
More than twenty-five people are involved one way or another in preparing for and helping to lead worship on any given Sunday. That’s true week after week. More people are involved in our various ministries and week-day activities.
 
We aren’t perfect. Our egos get in the way sometimes. We sometimes have a little more of James and John in us than we should. But I am grateful for the examples of faithful discipleship that I see in our parish every single week.  
 
And so I give thanks for the faithful service of so many in our parish, for all the people who serve each other and the wider community. And I pray that we all can absorb more and more Christ’s lesson to let go of our egos and embrace lives of loving service. In Christ’s name. Amen.