St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – 20th Sunday after Pentecost - Oct.18, ’09
“The New Kingdom of God; Ambition In Reverse!”
Text: Mark 10:44,45
Over the years I have seen some pretty beautiful, pretty thoughtful, pretty challenging banners hanging here in our church. But there are two banners I don’t think you’ll ever see hanging here.
The first is a banner with the seven “last” words on it. What are the seven last words? They are not Jesus seven last words from the cross but seven challenging words for most conservative, comfortable, con-tented congregations; the words: We never did it that way before!
The second banner you won’t see are the six terrible words coaches hate to hear; community leaders hate to hear these words! Priests & pastors hate to hear them too! Even conscientious parents hate to hear these six terrible words coming from their children as the children grow older & become teenagers. The six terrible words are: “What is in it for me? What’s in it for me?”
Not that personal ambition is bad but personal ambition gets in the way of what our true mission & ambition in life ought to be as Christians when personal ambition becomes selfish ambition.
Consider what’s going on in the Gospel reading for this Sunday from Mark chapter 10. James & John come to Jesus with this seemingly ordinary, all-to-common proposition, “Teacher, we want you to do for us, whatever we ask of you.” What they wanted Jesus to do was to grant them to sit one at Jesus’ right hand and one at Jesus left in His glory.” Or simply stated without trying to oversimplify what’s going on here. James & John come to Jesus asking, “What about us? What glory, what power, what authority, what’s in it for us?” And Jesus’ short reply is: “Others first!
Listen again to the upside-down nature of believing in Jesus and following Him in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus called the disciples to him, not just James & John, but all 12 of them, and Jesus said to them:
You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you.
But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“Turning things upside down”, Jesus speaks to His disciples about the matter of authority & priority & how in the Kingdom of God being great, being first, being ambitious is a good thing only when it involves being a servant, being slave of all.
It really is turning things upside down isn’t it? No being first! No pushing to get to the top! No climbing the ladder of success! No living for recognition! No sharing the glory! No wanting to be in control! No giving the orders! Servant of all; slave of all!!! Is this a turning things upside down we need to hear about or is it what we don’t want to hear about?
After all, everybody wants to be somebody. “What about me? What’s in it for me? Am I going anywhere depending on you, waiting on you or trusting you? I’ve got to think about me!”
Where does this come from? It comes from the very beginning of time. In the beginning, God made man out of the dust of the ground. God made man to be ambitious, creative, dedicated. But God did not make man to be self-oriented, to live for self. God made human beings, male & female, in His own image, to be for others, to be self-less, to live open, generous, caring lives putting others first.
In the beginning Satan knew this and this is what he used to tempt Adam & Eve. If I can paraphrase Satan tempting Eve & Eve getting Adam involved, Satan said to Eve,
You want to be somebody, you want to be important, you want to be like God and be in greater control of things? When you eat of (the tree of good & evil), your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Gen.3:5)
French author & priest Father Henri Nouwen says that ever since the fall Adam & Eve, all people are tempted to replace love with power. Father Nouwen goes so far as to say, “The long, painful history of the church is the history of church people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led, being served over serving.”
Listen to what some noted authors have said about the down side, the dark side, the “What’s-in-it-for-me” side of human ambition.
From T.S. Eliot! “Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.”
From Henry Wordsworth Longfellow: “Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled by great ambitions.”
And for those driven to climb ladders of success; for those who long for a share of glory & power over others, someone has said: “You may get to the very top of the ladder and then find it has not been leaning against the right wall.”
Is “What about me? What’s in it for me?” climbing a ladder not leaning against the wall!
How does one get this turned around? What’s the right ladder to be on? What’s the right wall to have your ladder leaning against?
In a parallel text in Philippians, chapter 2, the apostle Paul is on the right ladder leaning against the right wall when he writes, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others.”
And the way to do this writes Paul is to, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus . .”
What does Jesus tell James & John & the other disciples about greatness, glory, power, authority in the Kingdom of God? Jesus doesn’t tell them to “go for it.” He tells them “serve, be servants, be slaves of all!” And Jesus doesn’t leave it there, end of sermon. Jesus is the sermon! Jesus IS the Good News! For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Not only is Jesus the Son of Man whose mission is to save mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil, but Jesus in offering up Himself; in obediently, steadfastly, willingly offering up his life as a sacrifice for the sins of all, slave of all, Jesus’ sacrifice sets free all those who are locked in & held captive to doing things their own way, lording it over others, wanting what’s in it for them.
It’s worth remembering where this strong statement of Jesus on serving occurs in the Gospel of Mark. At this point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus three predictions of his suffering, death & resurrect-ion are past! Jesus; teaching & training for discipleship are past. Jesus is on the verge of entering Jerusalem and soon after that be-fore the week is out Jesus will be crucified on a hill outside Jeru-salem called Calvary. For Mark, Mark 10:45 means Jesus’ past teaching and Jesus’ impending sacrifice on the cross are joined in one state-ment about Jesus fulfilling his purpose: and Jesus purpose is to serve all mankind, to die, to set free!
In other words, Jesus enters, Jesus endures, Jesus surrenders Himself to what we must all struggle with every day.
Listen to the apostle Paul. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5:14,15) It works.
Being servants of all, slaves of all is not about what we can do for Jesus, but about what Jesus has done for us! “Serving others does not begin with a do, but with a done. It is Jesus who died once & for all for all of us, and it is Jesus who teaches us to pray our Father in heaven, “Your Kingdom come, now Your will be done in us on earth as it is in heaven.”
Every time you leave this sanctuary and pass through those back doors, it’s no nice decoration; it’s no pious after-thought, it’s no coincidence that not the 7 last words, not the 6 terrible words, but 4 good words are over those doors. The same 4 words are there every Sunday. If you look up to see them as you pass beneath them, the words do not say “We Depart to Succeed!” They do not say: “We Depart to Satisfy!” or “We Depart to Suffer”! They say, “We Depart to Serve!”
Of course, you can choose to be served, to keep asking, “What’s in it for me?” But every Sunday you are here, as upside down & backward as it may sound, what you hear read from the Word of God, what you hear preached from this pulpit, what you celebrate & receive in Holy Communion, is to this end, that whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”
Like James & John we may come to church thinking that being Christians is something we do or something we gain, but church really begins & ends with Jesus, with his 2 words, “Follow Me.” Or for us, the same 4 words, every Sunday, “We Depart To Serve.” Amen
