C. Kutz-Marks
Mark 9:31-37
Well, friends, you’ve probably missed another chance to celebrate Texas. I am betting that most of you missed the display that closed down last week at the Bob Bullock museum. You will remember that there was a program at the museum when it opened in 2001 entitled " It ain't Braggin if it's true." That presentation was so appreciated that there was a second presentation that just closed down last week called “STILL Ain't Braggin' ,” and like the original it explored the qualities of Vision, Friendship, Perseverance, Pride, Showmanship, and Swagger through the one-of-a-kind objects and the stories they tell. For example, by popular demand from the original exhibition, visitors were once again were able to see the magnificent rhinestone studded Cadillac covered with symbols of Texas.
Now, I don't think it will be a surprise to you, but as a new transplant to the Lone Star state, I can tell you with great assurance the rest of the United States of America looks to Texas and spots here a certain pride, one might even say arrogance, that sets Texas apart.
In fact, if we're looking for some affirmation that we are the greatest, we missed a wonderful opportunity last year. You remember that the Discovery Channel on how television set out to find out who were the 100 greatest Americans? But they didn't ask a bunch of historians, instead in true democratic fashion, they let anyone send in their emailed votes, there to the Discovery Channel. The results? Texas didn't fare too well. Neither did sanity.
Who would you say was the greatest American? Of course Presidents jump to mind. Of the top 25 Americans, 8 were Presidents. But it might shock you to know that on that top 25 list, George W. Bush was #6 and Thomas Jefferson only rated a #12;
Elvis Presley @ #8 edged out Oprah @9 who beat Franklin Delano Roosevelt @10;
Walt Disney @13 beat out Albert Einstein @14;
Muhammad Ali didn’t jive with public opinion because he rated #21 but thought himself the Greatest. He was bested at @#20 by our own Lance Armstrong, who, thank God, takes a much humbler demeanor.
Some in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) might find special pride in that one our denominational related colleges, Eureka College in rural Illinois, provided the college education of the #1 rated American in this very unscientific Discovery Channel poll…. The winner is….. Ronald Reagan.
By now I hope you are have beginning ask the question, “how do you tell who is the greatest?” Well, friends, that is exactly the question that Jesus is answering for his disciples in our morning’s passage from the Gospel of Mark.
9:33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"
34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
Jesus statement is powerful and pointed, and one might think hard to misunderstand. However, it seems to me that over the last two millennia we have done a magnificent job of misunderstanding exactly what he meant.
First, Jesus is not advocating a “doormat theology.” Jesus is not calling upon us to submit to whatever influence and power anyone attempts to foist upon us. There is no virtue in that.
Second, Jesus is not trying to hint that we and our happiness are somehow unimportant to God, or that what happens to us is not important to God. Clearly, the message that Jesus brings over and over is one that we are exceedingly important in God's eyes, even more important than Texans can imagine! We take on the role of servant not because it debases us, but because properly understood, the role of servanthood that Jesus offers us will ultimately provide us the very finest experiences in this life.
Bennett Sims, an Episcopal bishop, writes in his wonderful book Servanthood, “The paradox of greatness is true not because Jesus said it. Jesus said it because it is true.” Jesus teaches the truth…. the truth that lies at the heart of the created order. This matter of servanthood is true not just for some people some of the time; it is true for all people in all settings at all times and in all relationships.
I know that this is counterintuitive. We wouldn't ordinarily believe serving could be so satisfying. But let us delve a bit deeper to see what we find. Perhaps the best examples of such caring, committed servanthood that might come to mind are the those of mothers and fathers who regularly give so much themselves for the welfare of their children, in big ways and in small.
Let me share one such small instance. One of my close clergy friends while in Michigan named Joe LaDue had served in the Flint area. About 12 years ago he moved to serve a congregation in Boston. Soon after arriving there, he was called upon to officiate at the funeral service of Jay Leno’s mother. So this story of her and her husband are especially meaningful to me.
Since he has become famous and rich, Jay Leno has astounding personal antique car and motorcycle collections. But in younger years, the Lenos weren’t flush. Jay Leno's prized possession as a teenager was an old Ford pickup he had bought with his own money. Many days after school, Leno would sand and paint and buff that old truck. "As a present,' Leno fondly remembers, "my parents got me brand-new naugahyde upholstery for the seats."
Well, one day Jay slammed a door a little too hard on his precious pickup, and the window shattered. Now, he didn't have any money to replace it but drove it anyway, including to school. One day while Jay and his truck were at school, it began to rain. Leno sat in class and watched his prized truck and his new upholstery get drenched through the broken window.
Suddenly he saw his parents tear into the parking lot. They screeched up next to his truck and dragged a huge piece of plastic out of their car. Then in the pouring rain, they covered up his truck and tied it in place. Jay’s dad had left his office in the middle of the day, picked up Leno's mom, and bought this sheet of plastic to save his new seat cover. He watched them do this through his classroom window and like the sky itself, began to cry in purest thanksgiving for their love and their care for him.
This serving wasn’t some chore for his parents. They loved him, and the serving came naturally. You’ll have similar stories in your own life. Don’t they teach us that in serving those we love, we find the very richest blessing?
On a Sunday when our Reconciliation Offering calls to confess the sin of racism, to admit the walls of separation we have allowed to stand, and on a day when we are able to rid the world of racism, the great spiritual challenge is to see how far beyond our little nuclear families we will allow that “family love” to grow.
Sometimes it will astound us. I love the story about John Lewis, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives serving the Atlanta area, and a civil rights worker in the company of Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., who was known as the marcher most often beaten by hostile whites. Lewis was asked how he developed his great compassion for the poor and outcast. He pointed to an experience in his childhood. Like many other blacks in the rural South, he was raised in poverty on a farm with no plumbing or electricity in a shack with a dirt yard.
His parents put him in charge of the family's chickens, and it was not long before John, a gentle person, found himself advocating for the chickens, trying to persuade his parents not to kill them for food.
He said that “they seemed so defenseless. There was a subtle grace and dignity in every movement they made, at least through my eyes. But no one else saw them that way. To my parents, brothers and sisters, the chickens were just about the lowest form of life on the farm - stupid, smelly, nuisances, awkward, comical birds good for nothing but laying eggs and providing meat for the table. Maybe it was that outcast status, the very fact that those chickens were so forsaken by everyone else, that drew me to them as well. I felt as if I had been trusted to care for God's chosen creatures.”
Who are we chosen to care for? This morning, like almost every morning in the months I’ve been here, I’m betting there were homeless men sleeping under the roof our church’s courtyard. The homeless are the particular ministry of Micah 6 that is empowering so many important mission efforts, so many servant efforts. I thank God for the dedicated ministry so many of you are committing to it. That ministry brings us back to earth, the simple call to humble ministry, especially in Micah’s words to us of the calling God has given us:
“God has told you what is good; what does God require of you?
To do justice, to love kindness and
to walk humbly with your God.”
Well, we’ve come a long way from Texas braggadocio, from Nat’l partying championships and rhinestone studded cadillacs… but perhaps here we can just begin to sense how wide our circle of concern might grow and how rich the blessing of spiritual humility can be.
God bless us as we embrace the challenge to embrace all of God’s world.
Amen.
1.) I find it fascinating that this passage is not included in either Matthew or Luke, though they pattern their gospels on Mark’s. I don’t know what good explanation for this omission can be offered.