No Short Cuts To Glory
Sermon
SPECTATORS OR SENTINELS?
Sermons For Pentecost (Last Third)
The disciples were not good listeners. But then, neither are we. Three times on his journey to Jerusalem Jesus told them about the dangers that awaited him and the suffering he anticipated. Three times! And after the third repetition here are James and John waving their resumes in his face and fantasizing about cushy jobs in some glorious kingdom. All the cross talk of Jesus doesn't seem to have registered.
Why not? Could it simply be the all too human propensity not to hear what we do not want to hear? All of us can at times be conveniently deaf. It is common enough for any of us to block out the words we do not want to hear.
Listen! Cross talk is not comfortable for us either. The evidence for saying this lies in our worship attendance records. Which are our two most heavily attended services during the year? We all know they are the Christmas Eve candlelight service and Easter. Which are the two least attended? They are Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. In fact, traditional community services across the country have just about gone into eclipse. Doesn't that tell us something? A major weekly television ministry now calls its music prior to Easter not Lenten music, but pre-Easter music. There is something much more preferable to an empty cross garlanded with lilies rather than to a rough crucifix. It is more exhilarating to sing of a Christ throned in heavenly splendor than to ponder the mournful words of the hymn, "Throned Upon the Awful Tree." Thomas 'a Kempis reflected in The Imitation of Christ, "Jesus has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few followers of his cross."
Mark hits the church of his and every day right in the solar plexus with his telling of his interchange between Jesus and James and John. Friday comes before Sunday. The crown and the cross are inseparable. The cross illuminates Easter and Easter illuminates the cross. Recognizing the way we bypass the cross in our worship, the latest Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ designates the Sunday before Easter as Palm/Passion Sunday. The service opens with a procession recalling Christ's entry into Jerusalem and then turns to focus upon his passion and suffering.
Mark consistently thumps down hard on the 12. He has his reasons. In the church of his day there were a lot of preachers peddling cheap faith; preaching a Jesus without a cross, a divine wonder worker. Then as now there was a ready market for easy promises. During the 1992 political campaign there was a distinct avoidance on the part of candidates during the primaries and later during the campaign to avoid the painful issue of the national deficit. It seems to be a temptation in politics to sugar coat hard truths. There were Jesus traditions circulating in the early church that contained only miracle stories with no mention of the passion. Mark would have none of this marketing of cheap faith that short-circuited the Lord's strenuous call to follow him in his servanthood and obedience.
Believe me, friends, there is more ultimate comfort for you, and care for you, and love for you in the cross talk of Jesus than in facile platitudes or sermons that reduce the teachings of Jesus to a bag of mental tricks to manipulate God or promise neat short cuts to a happy state of mind. The slick talk of carnival pitch-men is directed to people understood by the speakers to be nothing more than easy marks ripe for manipulation. The hard commands of Jesus are directed to people understood by the speaker to be capable of becoming indeed, sons and daughters of God.
And what shall we say of the comfort in his words? Platitudes fall flat spoken in the terminal ward of a hospital. Cheap promises can hardly address the human chaos in so many places on this planet. Sugar-coated answers say nothing to our fears and anxieties. What words can match those of the crucified and risen Lord who comes to us in the name of that costly love that will never let us go and forever calls us to stand with him in the fellowship of his passion.
Jesus gave James and John a cryptic response with some strange questions. You would think they would ask him to explain his words. If they had any questions they did not get a chance to pose them anyway. The other disciples had overheard the conversation and were furious. They had ambitions and fantasies of their own. Any elevation of James and John to high office would not be joyfully celebrated. How green was their envy.
There is an old legend about a holy man who lived in the Egyptian desert. The demons tried their best to seduce him from the path of holiness, but to no avail. All their tricks failed. One day the Devil passed by and noted the consternation of his servants. "Children, what is the problem?" They explained their many failures to succeed in tempting the holy man. "Watch me," said the Devil. He walked up to the holy man and said, "Greetings, friend, have you heard the good news? Your brother has just been appointed bishop of Alexandria." The countenance of the holy man fell as his face turned green with envy.
You can color the other disciples green at the thought of James and John enjoying some preeminence in their midst. Ego tripping and empire building was in the air even among the first followers of Jesus. It was rampant in the church in Mark's day. Read Paul's letter to the church in Corinth if you want a straight forward picture of the ambitions, jealousies and competition running rampant in the church. Let's not pretend we are unfamiliar with such things in the church or in whatever vocational circles we travel. How green can our own envy be when the promotion we believe we deserve goes to another, or someone else is appointed as a full professor, or another gets the nod after the auditions.
All of the gospels make it patently clear that servanthood is the name of our calling and the style of that servanthood is defined by the crucified Lord who came not to be served but to serve. Back in the 1950s a major national magazine did a feature story on The Ten Greatest Preachers. The focus was the American scene. Later that feature was followed by another. The Ten Greatest Churches. It was immediately apparent that none of the 10 greatest preachers was associated with any of the 10 greatest churches. The author of the report suggested this possibility, "Maybe the great churches had been served by ministers more interested in building a great church rather than a big name."
Mark had church leaders clearly in his sights as he wrote, but the model of servanthood touches all fields of endeavor. The late Senator Fulbright wrote about The Arrogance of Power in political life. Voters often take aim at those who in public office seek special percs and privileges. During World War II a number of skilled business people left lucrative positions in industry to serve in Washington for a dollar a year. When their job was done they returned to industry and stayed there. Now such public service is often seen as a stepping stone. One leaves government service and becomes a well-paid consultant to and door-opener for special interests. The past decade of wheelers and dealers has witnessed the eclipse of any idea of servanthood.
But, thanks be, there are still hosts of servants in public and private spheres of life. The real servants may well be anonymous. I have always resented the way people who work for governmental agencies are often snidely referred to as bureaucrats. The pews of our churches are filled with people who work for city, state and federal agencies and loyally plug away to do a fine and decent job for all of us. Their sort of servanthood is certainly part of the work of the church. We could go on to mention folks in so many other vocations and walks of life.
In choosing illustrations for sermons preachers are prone to extol figures like Albert Schweitzer or Mother Theresa. Well, they are shining lights in this century. But as models for us, the average pastor and church member, they can only leave us frustrated. We will not act out our lives on such a stage. But Jesus came to leave behind a community of alternate agendas and values to the acquisitiveness and greed in the world at large. Our little congregations and the small stages on which we will live out our lives are not insignificant to the Lord's enterprise. Among us, things are to be different. It is not out of reach for any of us to reply to the questions of our Lord, "0 Master, let me walk with thee, in lowly paths of service free."
Why not? Could it simply be the all too human propensity not to hear what we do not want to hear? All of us can at times be conveniently deaf. It is common enough for any of us to block out the words we do not want to hear.
Listen! Cross talk is not comfortable for us either. The evidence for saying this lies in our worship attendance records. Which are our two most heavily attended services during the year? We all know they are the Christmas Eve candlelight service and Easter. Which are the two least attended? They are Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. In fact, traditional community services across the country have just about gone into eclipse. Doesn't that tell us something? A major weekly television ministry now calls its music prior to Easter not Lenten music, but pre-Easter music. There is something much more preferable to an empty cross garlanded with lilies rather than to a rough crucifix. It is more exhilarating to sing of a Christ throned in heavenly splendor than to ponder the mournful words of the hymn, "Throned Upon the Awful Tree." Thomas 'a Kempis reflected in The Imitation of Christ, "Jesus has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few followers of his cross."
Mark hits the church of his and every day right in the solar plexus with his telling of his interchange between Jesus and James and John. Friday comes before Sunday. The crown and the cross are inseparable. The cross illuminates Easter and Easter illuminates the cross. Recognizing the way we bypass the cross in our worship, the latest Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ designates the Sunday before Easter as Palm/Passion Sunday. The service opens with a procession recalling Christ's entry into Jerusalem and then turns to focus upon his passion and suffering.
Mark consistently thumps down hard on the 12. He has his reasons. In the church of his day there were a lot of preachers peddling cheap faith; preaching a Jesus without a cross, a divine wonder worker. Then as now there was a ready market for easy promises. During the 1992 political campaign there was a distinct avoidance on the part of candidates during the primaries and later during the campaign to avoid the painful issue of the national deficit. It seems to be a temptation in politics to sugar coat hard truths. There were Jesus traditions circulating in the early church that contained only miracle stories with no mention of the passion. Mark would have none of this marketing of cheap faith that short-circuited the Lord's strenuous call to follow him in his servanthood and obedience.
Believe me, friends, there is more ultimate comfort for you, and care for you, and love for you in the cross talk of Jesus than in facile platitudes or sermons that reduce the teachings of Jesus to a bag of mental tricks to manipulate God or promise neat short cuts to a happy state of mind. The slick talk of carnival pitch-men is directed to people understood by the speakers to be nothing more than easy marks ripe for manipulation. The hard commands of Jesus are directed to people understood by the speaker to be capable of becoming indeed, sons and daughters of God.
And what shall we say of the comfort in his words? Platitudes fall flat spoken in the terminal ward of a hospital. Cheap promises can hardly address the human chaos in so many places on this planet. Sugar-coated answers say nothing to our fears and anxieties. What words can match those of the crucified and risen Lord who comes to us in the name of that costly love that will never let us go and forever calls us to stand with him in the fellowship of his passion.
Jesus gave James and John a cryptic response with some strange questions. You would think they would ask him to explain his words. If they had any questions they did not get a chance to pose them anyway. The other disciples had overheard the conversation and were furious. They had ambitions and fantasies of their own. Any elevation of James and John to high office would not be joyfully celebrated. How green was their envy.
There is an old legend about a holy man who lived in the Egyptian desert. The demons tried their best to seduce him from the path of holiness, but to no avail. All their tricks failed. One day the Devil passed by and noted the consternation of his servants. "Children, what is the problem?" They explained their many failures to succeed in tempting the holy man. "Watch me," said the Devil. He walked up to the holy man and said, "Greetings, friend, have you heard the good news? Your brother has just been appointed bishop of Alexandria." The countenance of the holy man fell as his face turned green with envy.
You can color the other disciples green at the thought of James and John enjoying some preeminence in their midst. Ego tripping and empire building was in the air even among the first followers of Jesus. It was rampant in the church in Mark's day. Read Paul's letter to the church in Corinth if you want a straight forward picture of the ambitions, jealousies and competition running rampant in the church. Let's not pretend we are unfamiliar with such things in the church or in whatever vocational circles we travel. How green can our own envy be when the promotion we believe we deserve goes to another, or someone else is appointed as a full professor, or another gets the nod after the auditions.
All of the gospels make it patently clear that servanthood is the name of our calling and the style of that servanthood is defined by the crucified Lord who came not to be served but to serve. Back in the 1950s a major national magazine did a feature story on The Ten Greatest Preachers. The focus was the American scene. Later that feature was followed by another. The Ten Greatest Churches. It was immediately apparent that none of the 10 greatest preachers was associated with any of the 10 greatest churches. The author of the report suggested this possibility, "Maybe the great churches had been served by ministers more interested in building a great church rather than a big name."
Mark had church leaders clearly in his sights as he wrote, but the model of servanthood touches all fields of endeavor. The late Senator Fulbright wrote about The Arrogance of Power in political life. Voters often take aim at those who in public office seek special percs and privileges. During World War II a number of skilled business people left lucrative positions in industry to serve in Washington for a dollar a year. When their job was done they returned to industry and stayed there. Now such public service is often seen as a stepping stone. One leaves government service and becomes a well-paid consultant to and door-opener for special interests. The past decade of wheelers and dealers has witnessed the eclipse of any idea of servanthood.
But, thanks be, there are still hosts of servants in public and private spheres of life. The real servants may well be anonymous. I have always resented the way people who work for governmental agencies are often snidely referred to as bureaucrats. The pews of our churches are filled with people who work for city, state and federal agencies and loyally plug away to do a fine and decent job for all of us. Their sort of servanthood is certainly part of the work of the church. We could go on to mention folks in so many other vocations and walks of life.
In choosing illustrations for sermons preachers are prone to extol figures like Albert Schweitzer or Mother Theresa. Well, they are shining lights in this century. But as models for us, the average pastor and church member, they can only leave us frustrated. We will not act out our lives on such a stage. But Jesus came to leave behind a community of alternate agendas and values to the acquisitiveness and greed in the world at large. Our little congregations and the small stages on which we will live out our lives are not insignificant to the Lord's enterprise. Among us, things are to be different. It is not out of reach for any of us to reply to the questions of our Lord, "0 Master, let me walk with thee, in lowly paths of service free."
