Transcript
Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. Please be seated.
Who doesn’t love a good party? Okay. Actually, maybe those of you who are introverted don’t. But let’s pretend we are all extroverts and we love a good party. The laughter. The dancing, if that’s your thing. The food. Parties always have really good food. The company. Even the parties that require a lot of work beforehand.
I mean, I planned my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party last year and that was quite a bit of work. But an actual wedding. That’s a lot more work. Or I used to be involved in professional event planning. Talk about months of work booking the venue, booking the caterer, making the guest list and then the seating chart.
Now when I was doing seating charts, it wasn’t squabbling in-laws or distant cousins. It was corporate competitors. Even if you haven’t made a seating chart yourself, I’m sure you’ve seen it joked about on TV or in movies, trying to decide exactly who gets to sit where. When it’s a wedding, or there is a special or honored guest, then not only is about making sure everyone at each table gets along with each other, it’s also about making sure the correct people, as in the most important people, are closest to, said special guest. Heaven forbid you accidentally sit someone who is supposed to be important over by the bathroom door, or even worse, by the kitchen door.
It seems our dear apostles are having squabbles over just this. A seating chart. Granted, their seating chart isn’t for a fundraiser or a wedding. Although we have all heard the analogy of God’s heavenly kingdom as a banquet. The apostles squabbles are over where they will be in that heavenly kingdom. And clearly, James and John think they are really important because they don’t just want to be near the most important person. No, they literally want to be sitting at the same table next to him. Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory is what they specifically want.
Unfortunately, our gospel reading kind of does a disservice because it starts about three verses too late. If we go back and begin with verse 32 instead of verse 35, which is where it starts today, then we get Jesus telling the apostles what will happen to him. Again. It reads, The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. And 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. That’s the last couple of lines before today’s gospel reading begins.
So it basically goes like this. Jesus says about himself, they will mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise again. And then James and John say, cool, dude. Like, yeah, sure. Hey, can we have the most honored seats next to you? You know, when you do rise again?
So needless to say, I think James and John are perhaps a bit out of touch, or at least still not quite getting Jesus’s message. Also, I would like to point out that James and John are two of Jesus’s most inner circle, with Peter as the third. It was, after all, James and John and Peter who witnessed Jesus raise the daughter of the Roman official. And it was James, and John and Peter who witnessed the Transfiguration. And it was James and John and Peter who joined Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, me just before his arrest. And if we follow lore, it was John who was the beloved disciple who, and I quote, was leaning on Jesus’s bosom at the Last Supper. So yes, it does kind of make sense that at least these two would want those seats of honor, and would think that those seats of honor possibly even belong to them.
But here’s the thing. As you all know, this isn’t the first time our poor apostles get it wrong. This is actually the third time in Mark’s gospel in a row. Chapter eight. Chapter nine, and chapter ten of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus predicts his own rejection and vindication. The apostles misunderstand and reject Jesus message. Jesus immediately corrects them by teaching them what genuine discipleship is. Three times that exact pattern.
And what does it really mean to follow Jesus? What is genuine discipleship? Jesus says, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Whoever is not against us is for us. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. And those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it. In other words, serve. Welcome. Support. Follow. Serve. Welcome. Support. Follow.
I think overall we are doing a really great job at this. I have seen and experienced the welcomeness and servant mentality of this congregation. I have seen you all choose to follow Jesus, even in some of the hardest ways. And today I am witnessing your support, your willingness to give in a way that belies simply giving and goes beyond to supporting, to serving not just with your time and gifts, which of course are very important.
And I’ll keep preaching on those. I promise. Also, all of you are serving with your money, with the hard work you do outside of this church building, essentially making all that you do sacred. Because knowing that everything you do, everything you are, everything you have, is not because of you, but because of a God who gives to each of us way more than we could ever ask or imagine. Knowing that hopefully makes this a little easier, knowing that all we have and all we are is because of Jesus. Hopefully makes giving to Saint John’s, giving to the church, giving to God a little easier because it’s not ours to give. It’s simply borrowed by us.
In a moment, I will invite everyone up to place your pledge cards in the basket here at the font. There’ll be no order. Ushers aren’t going to dismiss or anything. Ushers, you’re off the hook. Don’t worry. Instead, it will be as you feel called. Just as filling out a pledge card was based on how you feel called to give.
And if you don’t have a pledge card, if you don’t receive a pledge card, if you forgot your pledge card, or if you’re unable to fill out a pledge card at this time, you’re still invited to come forward and place an envelope in the basket. A chance to say thank you, and you’re welcome. No one will know what you put in the envelope except you and God, and maybe the pledge keeper, because she has to keep track of those kinds of things. Not for judgment, though. For gratitude. And no matter what you do, put in the envelope. You are welcome here. You belong here. You are wanted here.
God’s heavenly kingdom hasn’t arrived just yet. We can read revelation to know it’s not quite here, but in its absence, we can be as close as possible to that place. A place where all are welcome, where the last shall be first, where the least shall be greatest, and where all we have is from God, and for God. A loving God who loves each and every one of us for being exactly who we are. What a glorious God. What a glorious life for each of us. What a glorious reason to celebrate. Hallelujah!
Amen.