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
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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