Sermon for 10/9/2009 - The Rev. Stan Coppel

Mark 10 35-45  \

James Hewett writes, “God did not save us to be a   sensation. God saved us to be servants.” 

       Today’s gospel reading provides a remarkable contrast between sensation and servant. In this reading we hear the story of two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, who make the request to Jesus to receive a position of prominence in the Kingdom: “Let one of us sit at your right, and one at your left in Glory” they ask of Jesus. The disciples’ impudence and lack of understanding is beyond belief. How could two people who are so close to Jesus miss the boat so completely? Did they forget the encounter with the rich man that occurred just before their request? Or the encounter with the little children? And have they not heard Jesus’ own prediction of what was soon to happen to him? In light of all of this, their request is truly astounding.

        And it angers their fellow disciples. But what seems to anger the other disciples is not so much that James and John have misunderstood Jesus’ teachings – which could perhaps be justified – but that James and John went to Jesus requesting a place of power ahead of the rest of them.

        The other disciples do not seem to be acting out of righteous indignation; rather, it appears that they are jealous. And Jesus’ loving response to them all is to take the opportunity to contrast earthly greatness with divine greatness. Earthly greatness is defined as having power over, whereas divine greatness is defined as being servant to. 

       Today, there are examples all around us of the secular quest for greatness and its often accompanying spectacular fall. Bernie Madoff is an obvious example of the quest for monetary power, but our country’s growing credit-card debt hints at how widespread the problem is. 

     In contrast to worldly greatness, to be great in God’s eyes is to be a servant modeled after Jesus’ own life of service. For many listeners, the story of James and John is disconcerting because if James and John, who knew Jesus personally, couldn’t incorporate his teachings into their lives, how on earth are we to do so? 

       These stories are a reminder for many of us that, try as we might, all too often our actions are more reflective of motivations of the secular world than the divine. 

So how do we become better servants?

      One way is by making sure that the motivation for our service is love. Eighteenth-century Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Secker said, “God has three sorts of servants in the world: some are slaves, and serve Him from fear; others are hirelings, and serve for wages; and the last are sons [and daughters], who serve because they love.” 

       In the week ahead, as you seek to serve God, check your motivation. Divine servanthood is always motivated by love. 

       Another way to become better servants is by being mindful of who it is that calls us to serve. We should remember that in all things we serve God, and God alone. By becoming more aware of God’s presence in everyday life, we can strive to understand that all we do is somehow of God. With this approach, even the most mundane tasks that might not usually be associated with our spiritual lives can be viewed as service. 

      One young mother recalls her difficult transition from paid employment to being a stay-at-home mother after the birth of her first child……

……A spiritual director assisted her in the process, instructing her to walk with the baby each day, being acutely aware of her surroundings and being alert to where God might be. She recalls seeing nature and the created order, as well as the frenetic pace of those around her, in a new way during these walks. She also began to see her tasks, such as the endless piles of laundry that had to be washed, as a service of love. 

      A third way to become better servants is by ensuring that our church is a “servant church.” Theologian Karl Barth discusses such churches in his book Dogmatics in Outline. Barth describes the living church as one that: 
……………“proclaims the Gospel to every creature. The Church runs like a herald to deliver the message. It is not a snail that carries its little house on its back and is so well off in it that only now and then it sticks out its feelers and then thinks that the claim of publicity has been satisfied. No, the Church lives by its commission as herald. Where the Church is living, it must ask itself whether it is serving this commission or whether it is a purpose in itself.”

 

       Is our congregation a living servant church?   Does it have a clear understanding that it exists in service to Jesus? Do all actions stem from Jesus’ commission to proclaim the gospel? Do our worship services, community outreach, and activities all have the possibility to transform those they touch? If not, then perhaps it might be time to begin a conversation about refocusing on Christ’s divine purpose for our congregation, because, after all, the mission of the church is the mission of Jesus Christ. 

        The story of James and John is disconcerting because even the most pious listeners can see a bit of themselves in the story. How many of us are able to truly base our lives and actions on the divine definition of greatness – servanthood? 

       Fortunately, this story closes with a message of hope. Jesus proclaims that the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus promises us that although we will all fall short, through his death we are redeemed. 

And that is the Good News.

Sermon for October 4, 2009

Mark 10: 2-9  ‘Divorce/Relationships’

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," says Adam in today's reading from Genesis. He immediately recognizes his deep connection to the new human being standing before him, a connection that God has woven deeply into the fabric of their lives. For us in the West today, it's very easy for us to focus only on the individuality of Adam and Eve….the union of a single man and a single woman that the ancient story seems to represent.

And it's easy for us to carry that individualistic notion of marriage into Jesus' teachings about divorce, too. When Jesus talks about the dissolution of marriage in today's Gospel, our cultural and legal perspective tempts us to hear him talking only about a man and woman: two individuals who entered into covenant with each other-and we are tempted to hear that the pain of divorce involves only them, at least for the most part.

But in Jesus' time, marriage and divorce were not just about the man and the woman. They were about two families representing many generations, property, honor, and status. Divorce was not just an individual life event; it was a risky break of confidence that could lead to family feuds, shame, and hardship for numerous people.

The hardness of heart Jesus speaks of seems not only to point to the potential suffering of the woman, who must return in shame to her family of origin; but it also points to the suffering of two entire families and the greatercommunity.

For those of us today who have lived through the pain of divorce or separation, whether our own or others', this ancient understanding of marriage and divorce seems to ring more true than we might think at first. Even today, marriage, divorce, and separation, affect many more that just those who sign the forms and enter or dissolve legal contracts. They often affect our parents, friends, and siblings, who can wrestle with the part they played or failed to play in a marriage or relationship that didn't work; and they certainly impact our children, if children are involved, as their schedules and lives must be forever altered.

Jesus' hard teaching about marriage and divorce, then, isn't just for a man and woman.   Likewise, the recognition of Adam when he sees Eve is ultimately not just about Adam and Eve.    Being "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" is a profound statement about how interconnected the wholehuman family really is…

…….and how divorce and separation, as painfully necessary as it can sometimes be, ultimately tears at the fabric of this human family, and affects all of us, and the world around us.

And here is where today's teaching about divorce and separation touches ourworld and our Church.  Divorce is not just about a man and woman.  It's about all of those places where we have become hard of heart and have failed to recognize each other as "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;" places where we tear and unbind, sometimes mercilessly, the ties between us that God made at the foundation of creation.

It's that hardness that we struggle with as we watch the painful realities ofconflict between Palestinians, Iran and Israelis and so many other peoples in the Middle East; as we reckon with hunger and disease in so many parts of the world, as wealthy and poor become further divided; as we suffer fear from the cold heartedness that brings war and now terrorism to our country’s soil….. and to our sisters and brothers abroad; and as we struggle, too, withabuse that we often heap on the natural world, divorcing ourselves from our deep ties with the natural order and the heritage of a healthy planet we ought to be leaving for those who follow.

………And it is also this hardness that we must be wary of in a time when some in our greater community of the Episcopal Church, and now the Lutheran’s…… engage in actual and intended schism and breaking away…..In a word…’Divorcing’ the Church……

Of course, the reality is that there will continue to be divorce, separation, and schism……in our society and in the World……As there always has been, and probably will be.  All divorce, separation, and schism can be, and usually are,  painful and hurtful experiences……In the case of schism, it is a form of ‘separation’ that has touched us all here present, in different degrees, and in different ways……

…..No contract, lawsuit, prenuptial agreement, certificate of dismissal, or any other carefully crafted parting of the ways can get us off that hook……it never gets ‘easier’.

But Jesus holds up to that pain, to the Pharisees, and to us today. the longing for the deep connection that God intends for all of us…. It is that hope that we celebrate together when we gather to pray and when we break breadtogether as a sacred community….. It's a hope that Jesus witnesses to in hislife, and that Christ brings to us through the resurrection. And that hope is the good news that runs like a thread through today's readings.

We are a family, a people, and a world that suffers from divorce of all kinds. But it is precisely that world that God in Christ enters……and not just with a hope to ultimately end divorce, but with a mission to heal all of us who suffer from it; to heal our hardness of heart, and to help us recognize once again that we truly belong to each other, we belong to the world we call home…… and we belong ultimately to a God who has, for all eternity, refused to divorce us.