Sermon: Help Me, Jesus

Mark 10:35-45
Help Me, Jesus
James Sledge                                                                            October 17, 2021

Study, Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples,
Henry Ossawa Tanner, ca. 1905

   Many years ago, I had my one experience of hobnobbing with political upper crust at one of those $500 a plate dinners. It was back during my time as a corporate pilot. I was flying for a businessman in Georgia who had gotten politically connected during the time that Jimmy Carter was in the White House. He had a construction company that built subsidized, low-income housing complexes, and so he saw political connections as critical to keeping his business going.

The event was a 1983 Atlanta gathering of Democratic hopefuls for the 84 election. It included Jesse Jackson, John Glenn, Gary Hart, Reuben Askew, eventual nominee Walter Mondale, and others. They were there primarily to curry favor with deep pocketed supporters, including the businessman I was flying. He had a block of tickets for the event, and he invited me to tag along rather than hanging out at the airport.

This businessman had spent a lot of time at the White House during the Carter years, and he had gotten to know Mondale fairly well. He liked him and considered him a friend, but he didn’t think Mondale would be able to defeat an incumbent Ronald Reagan. And so he decided to take a seat at Reuben Askew’s table. He thought that Askew, the relatively conservative governor of Florida, had a better chance against Reagan.

The disappointment from the Mondale table was palpable. He clearly had expected to get support from my boss. He had counted on their relationship to give him an advantage. But for my boss, the relationship mattered much less than a connection with the eventual winner. It was a purely business decision for him. He also had his doubts that Askew could win, and so he eventually began to send money to the Republicans.

There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this story. Any savvy, political observer might have predicted the decision my boss made. It wasn’t personal. Political connections were important to his business, and so he had to do what he had to do.

I wonder if James and John had a similar thought process when they approach Jesus to ask for important roles in his upcoming administration. Mark’s gospel makes clear that none of the disciples really understand what is going on. Jesus has just told them for a third time that he will soon be arrested, humiliated, and executed. But Jesus also said he would rise again in three days so perhaps James and John are focused on that.

James and John are already part of Jesus’ inner circle. They were there on the mountaintop with Peter to see Jesus transfigured and talking with Moses and Elijah, and they had heard a heavenly voice proclaim Jesus my Son, the Beloved. And everyone knows that you are supposed to use this kind of connection to your advantage.

The other disciples are ticked when they learn about James and John’s little power play, but I wonder if they might well have done the same thing had the opportunity arisen. Maybe they were even a little jealous that they hadn’t thought of it first.

But Jesus, as he most always does, uses this as a teachable moment. Yes, this is how the world works, he says, but not so among you. Rather than seek your own advantage, you should aspire to be servants. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The term “servant leader” gets bandied around a good bit, and elected officials are sometimes referred to as “public servants,” but I’ve not seen many elected officials who remind me much of Jesus, not looking to be served but to serve. For that matter, I don’t know that my own first inclination is to look for opportunities to serve.

It’s been a long time since I looked for a church to join, but because I didn’t go to seminary until I was in my mid-thirties, I have had the experience of being a young parent looking for a church for the family. The sort of things that helped my wife and me make up our mind about what church to join were things such as whether or not we liked the worship and the preaching. Was the music good? What about the programs for children? Was the nursery attractive and inviting? Were there interesting events and activities to get to know people? Did we like the people we met?

It’s been quite a few years, but I’m reasonably certain that I did not ask the question, “What sort of opportunities are there for me to serve others?” I was mostly interested in what the church could provide me and my family.

My calculations about church were not so different from the ones made anywhere else in life. What was in it for me and mine? Do I like it? What will my family and I get out of it? Perhaps there is nothing wrong with asking such questions, but if they are the only questions I and most other people in a church ask, how likely is it to be a place where people learn to be like Jesus, to be those who come not to be served but to serve?

I should add that there were indeed people focused on serving rather than being served in the church my wife and I ended up joining, and some of them had a lot to do with me changing my understanding of church and myself, and eventually heading to seminary.

I wonder if James and John, along with Jesus’ other disciples, were still asking “What’s in it for me?” questions as Jesus prepared to enter Jerusalem. They’d been with Jesus for a long time, but they struggled to emulate him, or even to understand him. Perhaps they couldn’t until the cross and the resurrection.

I think most of us struggle to understand, much less emulate Jesus. People talk about America being a Christian nation, but I wonder if that’s mostly a matter of affiliation or habit. Surely it’s not because most Americans have figured out how to follow Jesus and be like him.

I don’t suppose that’s any big surprise. After all, much of what Jesus says is completely contrary to how the world works. Jesus says exactly that when he speaks of how the Gentiles act. Gentiles was a term that covered anyone who wasn’t Jewish so it can basically mean the world. The world does it this way, says Jesus, “But it is not so among you.”

Ah, but it is so among us, just like it was with James and John. At least that puts us in good company. We’re a lot like those first disciples. We just can’t quite believe that things like being a servant to all, loving our enemies, or being last of all are a good idea. We’re just not sure we can trust the way of Jesus.

I wonder if we don’t do well simply to admit that, to cry out with a father in Mark’s gospel who longs for his son to be healed, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Because we’re never going to get talked into or explained into following the path of Jesus. We can’t do it without help. We need Jesus to keep teaching us. We need the Spirit to empower us. We need God to open our hearts to a way that feels wrong, but that Jesus assures us is the way of life.

Jesus, I hear you calling me to a way the world doesn’t recognize, a way the world thinks foolish. I want to follow. I truly do. But I struggle. I believe; but help my unbelief. Help me, Jesus!