Sunday, October 18, 2015

Sermon: Radically Dissimilar Hearts

Mark 10:35-45
Radically Dissimilar Hearts
James Sledge                                                                                       October 18, 2015

Our gospel reading this morning would probably benefit from a bit of context. It takes place shortly after Jesus’ encounter with a rich man who works hard to keep God’s commandments yet feels there must be something more. But Jesus’ call to sell what he owns, give the money to the poor, and become a disciple, is too much.
Then Jesus and his followers hit the road again, headed to Jerusalem. The disciples don’t come off all that well in Mark’s gospel, repeatedly misunderstanding what Jesus teaches. But that is not to say that they are total idiots. They have clearly begun to grasp that danger lies ahead. The gospel says that as Jesus walks ahead of them, They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. To these amazed and frightened followers, Jesus explains for a third and final time what will happen to him in just over a week.
Then James and John come to see him. Their request seems the epitome of the disciples’ cluelessness. James and John, along with Peter, form Jesus’ inner circle, a privileged trio who’ve seen things the others have not. Now they take advantage of this. They appear to realize there is something unseemly in their request, but they make it anyway.
But perhaps this is not merely arrogance or an attempt to turn their inside connection into special favors. What if this is simply two terrified followers trying to save their own skin? They’ve started to understand that this trip to Jerusalem is not going to end well. Jesus is not going to overthrow the Romans. In fact he keeps saying people will kill him. In some ways it’s amazing that the disciples stay with him as he leads them toward Jerusalem and the cross.
Maybe because they’ve followed him this far, they decide to see it through. Maybe because he keeps talking about rising again, they hope there might be something beyond the horrible events that await. If there really is something after Jerusalem, maybe they can be part of it. “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

If you are anything like me, you do some of the things you most regret when you are afraid. There is a reason that politicians on the right and the left try to make you afraid of someone of something: the one percent, the media, gays, immigrants, Muslims, liberals, conservatives, religious folk, secular ones. People will do things when frightened that they wouldn’t otherwise. At times this can unify people against an enemy, an other to hate. But even this often leads to regrets. Consider how this country treated Japanese Americans during World War II. Or look at our recent willingness to permit spying on fellow citizens or use torture to keep us safe.
Being afraid also creates real problems for living the Christian life. It is difficult to love our neighbor when some of those neighbors are the ones we fear. And then there’s that thing about loving our enemy.
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I think you can see fear at work when the other disciples learn of James and John’s request. They get angry. “What do you mean trying to get to the front of the line? What about us?” I wonder how far this argument might have gone if Jesus hadn’t stepped in? Would they have duked it out to see who was first and who was last?
But Jesus does step in, ever the teacher, ever the mentor, seeking to help disciples, including us, get it. They, (we?) are still caught up in the ways of the world, the ways where those with money and power get their way, where power and wealth are used to gain an advantage, to get ahead. But Jesus has entirely different ideas about power and greatness.
Servant and slave are the two images Jesus uses to picture greatness. Embracing such a model is not a recipe for success. Donald Trump attracts large crowds in part because is his the antithesis of this, and in a day when many people are worried and afraid, this bluster has its appeal. Donald Trump is certainly over the top in embracing a non-Jesus-like image of greatness, but it’s mostly a matter of degrees. Despite the popular term, “public servant,” rare is the politician, CEO, or power broker who thinks of himself as a slave, who puts the needs of everyone else ahead of her own.
When James and John make their request, they aren’t thinking or acting like servants either, and Jesus says they do not know what they are asking. They still think that being beside Jesus is about privilege and prestige. But in just days those at Jesus’ left hand and right will be criminals on their own crosses. Not at all what James and John had in mind.
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“But it is not so among you.” That is what Jesus says to his followers after describing the world’s understanding of greatness. The disciples and the church are to model a different way, the way of costly service to others, the way of the cross. Karl Barth, the great 20th century theologian, put it this way. “The church exists … to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world’s own manner and which contradicts it in a way that is full of promise.”[1]
“Radically dissimilar to the world…” “Not so among you…” However you phrase it, Jesus clearly expects his followers, expects the Church, to live in ways that are different and askew from the much of the world. That’s something  that happens when we open our doors and invite people who are hungry to join us for supper at Welcome Table. That just doesn’t happen in many places or groups or organizations.
It also happens when we do stewardship, at least when we get it close to right. Asking for charitable contributions is hardly unique to churches. Countless charities solicit me for funds; probably you as well. Charities that work to fight disease, give communities clean water, or help abused animals, often appeal to our compassion. Non-profits like NPR or PBS may appeal to a sense of fairness, asking us to support programming that we enjoy. Churches sometimes use both methods. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what I mean by stewardship.
Christian stewardship reorients a person’s finances and time and energy so that they take on the “not so among you,” “radically dissimilar to the world” manner Jesus teaches his followers. Christian stewardship is where our lives reflect the way of Jesus, who comes not to be served but to serve. It’s not a calculation, not an insurance policy. It is a new way of living that points the world toward a new and better day.
I’m not certain this sort of thinking lies behind the Stewardship Committee’s theme of Giving from the Heart, but it certainly fits. Our hearts and the things we love have a huge impact on how we use our finances and time and energy. Think about the efforts and the sacrifices people will make for the person they fall in love with, for their children, for their careers when their hearts are devoted to these things.
Jesus is clear about his heart’s devotion. It is to God and to neighbor. Jesus can give as he does, give his very life, because of the depth of his devotion and love. And he calls his followers, calls us, to discover his sort of “greatness,” where transformed hearts turn us into servants for the sake of God’s new day.
Imagine the possibilities if enough hearts got caught up in the same passion and devotion that captured Jesus’ heart. Imagine the difference we could make and the message we could send if our hearts were more devoted to God and neighbor, to being Christ to the world. Imagine hearts not motivated by worry or anxiety or fear, but by God’s love and grace in Christ, filling us to overflowing, and overflowing with generosity and service to the world.


[1] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.3.2, quoted by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in Resident Aliens, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), p. 83.

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