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October 20, 2024 "Vocation of Serving"

22nd Sunday after Pentecost

Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalm 91:9-16

Hebrews 35:1-10

Mark 10:35-45


Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you from the one who came to serve. Amen.

 

For the last two weeks

we have been spending time with the vocation verbs

 that the Vitality Team has heard

 while listening to God, the congregation, and our neighbors.

 

Remember vocation is the intersection 

between the unique gifts that God has given us as a congregation 

and how God wants to work in the world

 through us using those gifts. 

 

Two weeks ago our theme, our vocation verb was: welcoming. 

God welcomes all, stranger and friends;

 God’s love is strong and it never ends. 

 

Last week our verb was connecting,

we thought about how we are connected

in communities small and large

by the love of God

 

 and used the image of a quilt frame

 that holds multiple layers of cloth together

 so that they can be joined together.

 

 Here we are called to hold multiple peoples

 and communities together

so that God can join us with stitches of love.

 

This, our final week, we have one more vocation verb: serving

 

God has given Grace the gift and calling of serving,

 serving God,

serving each other,

and serving our neighbor

 

and looking around it’s pretty easy to see examples of how we live this out,

we serve God by gathering together

to listen to the word of God in worship and study,

and these opportunities are made possible

 by individuals coming together to serve God and each other

through the planning of worship,

offering music, reading, setting up the altar, and ushering.

 

 Giving offering is a way of serving God,

one another and neighbor

as is the giving of time and talents.

 

This building is cared for and maintained

through dedicated service,

and with it we serve our neighbors

 by providing a safe and welcoming space

 to be and learn and support one another.

 

We serve our neighbors outside our walls in many other ways,

 providing and serving food for The Gathering Place,

peanut butter and towels for The Peoples City Mission,

 school supplies and holiday meals for Prescott school,

 

 and we serve our neighbors farther away

through Lutheran World Relief,

 in money for food and quilts for warmth.

 

And we do this and more not because we have to,

 not because we’re trying to earn points

to get into heaven or to get on God’s good side,

no we serve because we have been saved and set free

 by the service and grace of Jesus Christ,

 the Son of Man who come not to be served but to serve,

and to give his life a ransom for many

 

 as our gospel reminds us this morning.

This is what Jesus has come to do,

to serve and to call others to follow him in service

 and he is willing to go all the way to the cross

for the way of servanthood-

 a way which ultimately cannot be defeated by death.

 

This is what Jesus has been trying to communicate to his disciples

 with his passion predictions and teachings.

 For the last month we’ve been in a section of Mark

where Jesus has told the disciples what will happen to him,

 

 that he will be handed over,

 mocked, and be killed

and on the third day he will rise again,

all because he has come to serve and set us free,

 

and each time Jesus tells them what is going to happen

the disciples don’t understand

and Jesus has to offer corrective teaching to their actions.

 

Three times this happens,

yes that number is not an accident on the part of Mark the author

 who bookends these three episodes

with Jesus healing people who are blind.

These three episodes

are Jesus attempting to open the eyes of his disciples

 to what he is doing.

 

The first time Jesus tells the disciples what is going to happen

Peter thinks he’s been possessed

 and tries to perform an exorcism,

 

 Jesus rebukes him and teaches the disciples

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it.”

 

 Here he rejects the image of military might

- that’s what Peter is thinking of when he proclaims Jesus as the messiah-

but Jesus rejects military might in favor of sacrificial service.

 

The second time Jesus tells the disciples what is going to happen

they don’t understand but are afraid to ask.

Instead, they argue among themselves

over who is the greatest

and try to stop someone outside of their group

from doing deeds of power in Jesus’ name.

 

To which Jesus tells them not to put any stumbling blocks

in front of anyone who is trying to follow him,

and that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”

 

The disciples clearly don’t get it

because today,

 just after Jesus tells them for a third time

what will happen

James and John the sons of Zebedee

ask Jesus to sit at the places of highest honor

 when he comes into his glory.

 

Are you able to do this? Jesus asks them

knowing that his glory is not a kingly throne but the cross.

They say yes

clearly not understanding what they are agreeing to,

 

Jesus tells them that they can follow him

 but he cannot offer them the places of honor that they seek.

 Then the other disciples get upset with James and John,

still thinking in human terms of greatness and honor

and Jesus lays it all out for them one more time:

 

“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but 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.”

 

Once more Jesus emphasizes humble service

as both the way of life

and mark of greatness among the disciples

 

because that is his way,

 one that he will give his life for

 and not for his own benefit but in service,

 for the benefit of others,

or in Jesus’ words as a ransom.

 

Now as one commentator noted “a ransom is something of value given for the sake of liberating a captive--and in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does indeed come as a healer and liberator. But what particular ailment, what particular captivity is highlighted here in this section of Mark, again and again and again, three times in a row? It’s not captivity to demonic forces; nor is it captivity to an unpayable debt owed to God. On the contrary, it’s the disciples’ captivity to self-centeredness, and to conventional notions of power, prestige, and supposed ‘greatness’…In other words, following Jesus means liberation from the cell of self-absorption, opening us up to God and neighbor in humility, generosity, and love — which is to say, opening us up to true servanthood.” (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/salt-project-lectionary-commentary)          


This is what we are called to

 as followers of Jesus Christ,

 to put aside our own notions

 of what is powerful or proper or great,

 even to put aside our own sense of self-preservation,

 for the sake of others,

 

especially the little ones,

remember messy sticky powerless child that Jesus put in the midst of the disciples?

 The last and the least,

 that’s where we start,

not with ourselves

nor with those who have something to offer us,

but with those who have nothing.

 

And yes,

Jesus knows that this is difficult,

impossible for us to do on our own even,

which is why Jesus gave his whole self to this on the cross.

The ultimate symbol selfless service,

 

and because he rose from the dead three days later,

the ultimate promise

that the powers of this world

 including the power of death

do not have the last say,

God does,

life does.

 

This is what we are signaling

when we place the cross in the midst of our worship,

this is what we are committing to

 when we wear a cross on our chest,

 

 this is what we were called to

 when at our baptisms

we were marked by the cross of Christ on our foreheads.

 

We were marked by the cross of Christ

 and sealed by the Holy Spirit,

forever.

  

We are not alone,

we don’t have to figure this out on our own.

 

 The Holy Spirit is with us,

goes before us,

gathers and welcomes us into community,

 

binds us together

connecting us with stiches of love,

 

and turns us outward from ourselves

sending us to serve

 even as we have been served.

 

 This is who we are,

this is who we are called to be,

 by the grace of God. Amen

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