Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Can you drink this cup... as a slave to all?

NOTE:  Here are my worship notes for this coming Sunday, October 21st 2012.  They are grounded in the Common Lectionary Texts for the day - Isaiah 53/53 and Mark 10: 35-54 - and offer another non-Lenten pass at two important texts.  Let me state for the theological record that the "Servant Songs of Isaiah" were not originally intended to refer to Jesus. I know, however, that Christian tradition has seen some clear Christ-like truths in Isaiah 53 and these have played an important role in our spirituality. 

My take - in a teaching mode - would be the following:  a) place the four Servant Songs of Isaiah in their historical context in Israel's history; b) note that a deep understanding of Isaiah suggests that the servant was wounded not to vicariously "atone" for the sins of others, but rather suffered because Israel  sinned the. That is 53:5 does not say, "He was wounded FOR our transgressions" but rather that he was wounded and crushed BECAUSE of our sins" and c) that this turns traditional atonement theology in new directions.  I affirm the importance of Christ's atoning love on the Cross but believe it is more nuanced, complex and liberating than some substitionary theologies allow.

But this is NOT a teaching mode (I've done that in classes before and will do so again.) Rather this is a sermon - a proclamation of the good news in worship - and requires a different agenda. I pray, therefore, that it both strengthens true faith and helps in the cause of healing in our broken world. 

Introduction
Late in the afternoon last Sunday, I was lying down on the sofa for a snooze as is my regular practice at the end of the Lord’s Day.  It had been a full and blessed time:  the Jazz Ambassadors had shared their songs of peace and beauty with us, Eser and Ahmet from Turkey had joined us for worship, fellowship and conversation and later some of our church leaders had gone to South Church to meet with their counter-parts for the first in a series of discussions about how we might share common ministries. 

·       I had walked the new puppy, flipped through the NY Times and was about to drift off into an eagerly anticipated nap… when I made the mistake of turning on the TV.
 
·       Sometimes before my siesta I like to see what the other churches are putting on so I flip through the schedule of PCTV and listen to other choirs, evaluate other sermons and see what it is our friends and neighbors are presenting to the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

And what I heard not only stopped me in my tracks – and destroyed any hope of a nap – but also offended and frightened me.  No lie, I heard one of my colleagues in our town say:  “If there is more than one holy book of truth in the world, then everything we do here is a lie and a waste of time.  Everything!”  O Lord, have mercy I said out loud…

·       Hadn’t we just welcomed two guests from Turkey into our Sanctuary – shared with them a proclamation from our beloved Mayor – and exchanged gifts and hospitality with them in the name of the Lord who seeks peace for all God’s children?

·       Didn’t we just witness on the news how the Taliban in Islamabad had gunned down a 14 year old girl, Malala Yousufzai, because she had refused to be intimidated by their narrow spirituality and fear-based religion and was now being flown to London for surgery with a bullet in her neck?

·       Weren’t we in the midst of planning for our CROP Walk to Fight World Hunger – raising funds and consciousness in our town about the way we can help our neighbors in need all across the world – as a part of our love and dedication to the Lord?

At this time in my life, beloved, when I hear words of pious religious fear-mongering sincerely spoken in the name of Jesus – or Allah or Moses or Krishna or any other deity – before I even know what is going on I find that I am weeping.  I mean it – weeping beyond my control – because in their zeal and commitment to God, so many of the Lord’s servants become God’s enemies.

·       Protestants have been taught to hate their Catholic neighbors in Northern Ireland by their clergy and Roman priests have been all too willing to return the hatred in thought, prayer and deed.

·       Christians have been taught for millennia to hate and persecute the Jews as “Christ killers.  Jews have been taught to hate the followers of Islam.  And those who honor the prophet have been taught to hate the Jews – and most of their friends – with equal venom and violence.

·        Hindus in India and Muslims in Cairo burn Christian sanctuaries to the ground in fear and sacred self-righteousness.  American GIs urinate upon and burn the holy Qu’ran in Afghanistan.  And Friday prayers throughout the Middle East that begin with the words, “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious and Most Merciful” often result in rampage and carnage with regularity.

Apparently we never really grasped St. Augustine’s insight when he taught us:  “Never fight evil as if it were something that arose totally outside yourself.”  The late William Sloan Coffin of Riverside Church in New York City put it like this:

When it comes to God’s love there are really one two things we can say:  it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God’s love doesn’t seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value.  Our value, you see, is a gift – not an achievement.

Insights
That is what is at the heart of this morning’s lessons from Scripture:  we are God’s beloved – not because we have earned this love or deserve it in any way, shape or form – but rather we are God’s beloved because God is the essence of love and aches to make us whole.  There are NO favorites, there are NO insiders, NOBODY has exclusive rights to God’s grace nor does any tradition, religion or nationality have a monopoly upon God’s loving presence.  And while there is only ONE source of God’s love – the Lord – there are countless ways that sacred and healing love is expressed.  

Think, for example, of what the story we’re given today about James and John asking Jesus for special favors tells us from Mark’s gospel.  “Whenever your glory comes, Lord,” they say “we want the best seats in the house, ok?  We want to be your favorites who get to sit with you on your left and right side: can you make that happen whenever it is that you are glorified?”

·       Now I don’t know about you, but I love our tradition for keeping this story in the canon:  it shows us something about the human condition – how selfish and dim we can all be at times – especially when we think we deserve religious advantage.

·       James and John – the sons of thunder as they’re known – have been with Jesus since the beginning.  They were founding members of the movement and have watched Jesus as he healed and embraced lepers, welcomed those on the periphery of society into the center of his loving embrace, shared deep and profound respect for women and children and kept emphasizing that in the upside down kingdom of God the first shall be… last.

And still these two act with self-righteous impunity:  cut us a deal, Master they beg in secret and give us a special edge over the other of the disciples.  Let us always be seated at your right and left side when you are glorified. But to appreciation the audacity of this request – and the integrity of Christ’s response – we need to be clear about two other truths.   

·       First, what does it mean for Jesus to be glorified?  Not transfigured and bathed in light as took place when Jesus mystically met with Moses and Elijah for their mountain top retreat, but glorified:  any ideas?

·       Jesus is glorified in his resurrection.  He is shown to be fully conformed and renewed by God’s grace as he accepts the Cross, surrenders himself in love and is raised beyond death in a way that defies human reason but rings true to those who have been touched by his love.

What James and John are really asking for, you see, is to be given special honors in sharing Christ’s resurrection – special permission to bask in God’s grace and advance God’s healing in the world – but they have no comprehension of what they are requesting.  That’s one truth – their arrogance and spiritual immaturity blinded them to the true way of the Lord – and the other is this:  as he lay nailed to the Cross who was given a special place of honor on his left and right side? 

·       Two thieves, right?  Two sinners who didn’t recognize or respect Jesus as they mocked him but were humbled by his mercy and came to faith by his love.

·       “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” one said as he hung on the cross.  And Jesus replied:  “Truly I say unto you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Not because he deserved it – or earned the right to be embraced by grace – or knew the right people or belonged to the crowd with the one and only true sacred book of truth.  No, the blessings of heaven were offered purely out of God’s love that is always a gift and never an achievement.

This truth became clear for those who followed Jesus after his passion and resurrection – on the other side of Good Friday and Easter those who were closest to the Master had the scales fall away from their eyes – but Jesus had been trying to clue them in all along.  Already in Mark’s story, Jesus has given his closest friends three predictions of his death on the Cross – and they turned a deaf ear to his pleading - so in our reading for today he unpacks this further.  “Those who come closest to God’s heart and live in the radical grace of the Lord not only drink the cup that I drink… but act as a servant to those in need.

Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all: for the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Servanthood, it would seem, is what glorification looks like for you and me:  caring for others in a deep and generous way is how our lives conform to the spirit and truth of God in this life.  Now notice two insights here, ok?

·       First we are being told that if we want to have an honored place in the community of Christ then we must practice living as a servant for all; there is what is called a parallelism here:  whoever is called to be a servant leader in the group must live as a slave for all.

·       The Greek text suggests that the diakonos – the servant leader— of the community must live as doulous – slave – for the world.

The way of James and John is not the path of a servant leader – and they won’t get the places of honor on the left and right side of the Messiah – no, the honor goes to the most humble and unlikely among us – the servant leader who practices sharing mercy for all.  That’s one insight – and the other is this:  Christ on the Cross shows us what it looks like whenever we choose to selfishly ignore his grace.  We wound one another – we crucify the Savior – we disfigure God’s world.

Over and over Jesus makes it clear that his way of grace – God’s way of mercy – has been shared with the world to set us free from captivity. 

·       Think of the woman bleeding for 12 years who was restored to health and released from her captivity of isolation, disgust and pain.

·      Think of the young man wandering the tombs – cutting himself repeatedly – who was restored to a sound mind, clothed and fed with affection and then returned to the love of his family from the captivity of the graveyard.

·       Think of the prodigal child who was released from the captivity of sin and shame and embraced by the feast of his father’s forgiveness.  Or the woman at the well who was set free from her bondage to promiscuity.  Or the man born blind from birth was liberated by the light of sight and God’s grace. 

Conclusion
Over and over, as preacher Richard Jensen tells us, the stories of Jesus make it clear that he has come to show us the consequences of our captivity – and to set us free.  Without equivocation, Jesus tells us:

I have come to fulfill Isaiah's dream.  I have come to bear your infirmities. I have come to be wounded for your transgressions.  I have come to bless your life with the blessing of God.  You may not want my blessing.  You may wish to condemn me.  You may wish to kill me. Alright, have your way.  Push me out of the world and onto a cross.  I will go through the cross to bless you.  I will go through hell itself to bless you.  For I have come to ransom your life from sin.  I have come to ransom your life from the powers of evil.  I have come to ransom your life from death. I have come to suffer and die that you might live and serve under the sign of the cross. For I have come to give my life as a ransom for many. (Richard Jensen)

Beloved, this is the good news for today:  let those who have ears to hear, hear.  Amen.   

2 comments:

Peter said...

Hope you got that nap later...

RJ said...

Me, too...

getting into the holy week groove...

We FINALLY got our seed and wildflower order in! By now we've usually had seedlings started but... my new gig at church, Di's health...