September 20, 2009

Have you ever thought about what your parents did for work and how that affected your life? My dad was an insurance salesman and then he managed the insurance office. That wasn't very interesting to me but he was great with numbers and probabilities and he had a nice salary which meant that we had a nice house with a pool and a college education that was paid for. My mom was a physical therapist and mostly worked in a hospital rehab center. That meant that dinnertime conversations centered around her patients that day - either older folks who had strokes who were re-learning how to walk; or young men who had motorcycle accidents and had head injuries. Those were the hardest ones to hear about and I hated hearing all the stories of people who were hurting. But, my mom also knew all kinds of doctors and surgeons so when we broke a bone and needed to see someone, we had an appointment that day with the best doctor she knew. Now, some people's parents had really cool jobs - they worked as pilots and flew their families all over the place; or they worked for the studios and always had extra tickets to tapings or celebrity events. My son has a friend whose dad is a Police Officer. Whenever we are at a high school sporting event that threatens to get out of hand, he calls his buddies who just swing by in uniform and walk around; talk about the feeling of power and safety. Another mom is a doctor and has really interesting stories to tell. By far the favorite dad growing up was the one who was the pilot and flew us all over St. Petersburg, Florida when we went to visit for spring break. I was talking with Jake this week about the kinds of jobs parents do and he said, "Yeah, our jobs mean that out kids get constant invitations to serve food to the poor, think about others, and spend more time cultivating your inner life than your outer appearance!" We aren't in the running for coolest job.

Being a Christian isn't always glamorous. Oh, we have tried over the years as church folks to offer incentives for being a good Christian- you get a front row seat in heaven, assurance of forgiveness for your sins, sometimes even the promise that if we follow God, our lives will fall into place and we will experience abundance financially. I think that works for some folks, but truly the reason that mature people of faith seek out God and a religious community is that they don't want a "goody"; they want meaning, a sense of purpose for their lives, and a relationship with their Creator. Baubles, goodies, and seats on the victory train aren't really enough when you are looking for something deeper.

Well, Jesus gives us something to think about. Mark's Gospel has plunged us immediately into the ministry of healing and teaching. Mark wastes no time introducing us to an adult Jesus who is on a mission. A favorite word in Mark is "immediately," and is used to give us a sense of action and urgency that this Gospel brings to our life. The section we are reading today spans from the 8^th chapter to the 11^th chapter and is about Discipleship. It is full of healings, encounters and teachings. Sometimes the teachings are lofty and other times they are very pedantic. Today we start with Jesus discussing with them that he will be betrayed and killed. He wants to prepare them for his ultimate death so that they will continue their discipleship whether he is with them or not. We are told that they didn't fully comprehend what he was saying and were afraid to ask.

Then the reading shifts to something more human and ordinary - an argument that the disciples were having amongst themselves as they walked along the road. We can imagine the content - twelve young man, walking along, boasting about who is the "best disciple."

- I'm the favorite one, you know.

- What! You must be kidding! Jesus just needed to round out the number to twelve and that is why we have you.

- Pleeease. Do you see the way he looks my way when he needs someone to go ahead and broker a place for us to meet or eat?

- Yeah, but when he wants us to gather for bread and wine, who does he motion to sit next to him and start the opening prayers? Me.

- Oh, he only wants to shut you up and get you focused on God instead of what your next meal will be.

- When his mother was at the wedding in Cana, who did he ask to sit next to her and take care of her? Me? his main man.

- Hah! He just didn't want you dipping into the good wine before he served it! I'm the one he asks to preach when we go into a new town. I have the voice of a beautiful baritone cantor.

And on it goes, as they bicker and banter and argue about who is the greatest, the favorite one, the one to be picked if Jesus is pushed to choose just one great disciple. Jesus lets them finish their friendly arguing but when they have arrived in the house, washed their feet and greeted their hosts, he says to them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"

Silence. Suddenly their petty wrangling seems even pettier when paraded in front of a man of substance. Yet Jesus is patient with them. He takes the time to instruct them on true greatness. He tells them that it is not about an eloquent voice or fabulous biceps, great social skills or wealth; it is not about beauty or intelligence, it is about being willing to put yourself last and care for the needs of others. The more you serve, the greater you are, says Jesus.

And then he takes a child, perhaps a small child in the house where they were staying and says, "If you welcome a child such as this, you welcome me; and when you welcome me, you welcome the God who sent me."

Jesus let them have their time on the road to argue and be full of bravado. And yet, he also wanted to disabuse them of the notion that greatness was what the world defined for us. True greatness has a different definition, says Jesus. By giving them an example of welcoming a child, he also told them that it is not about catering to the wealthy or the important or the socially well-connected. It is about seeking out the most marginalized folks in the world - and children were right down there with the others who were of no value. Now, in the ancient world, children were truly considered a blessing from God. It was almost a curse to not have children since your land and work was passed down to them. However, children weren't useful until they were grown, so they were not valuable commodities while they were young - just another mouth to feed and person who had needs that someone else had to attend to. They were of low rank and the original hearers of this Gospel would have easily identified with the fact that he meant the lowliest of people is whom we are to serve. Jesus uncovers their self-aggrandizement and states clearly that this is not true greatness and it is not something that God would want them to cultivate!

Professor Brita Gill Austern of Andover Newton Seminary once said in a lecture that most people have a problem having a sense of their right size and right place in the world. She was a professor of pastoral care and she had studied and met with many many people throughout her career and she had a sense that most people got it wrong. They were either too self-important and puffed up, thinking they were better than everyone else; or they were too unimportant and didn't feel that it mattered if they were alive in this world - they didn't value themselves enough. She said that both types were problematic. Both types of people didn't have a true handle on how God viewed them and needed to do a little adjustment to teach them their right size and right place in this world.

Jesus is trying to teach the disciples and us how we are to approach the world. It is not a message that a lot of folks want to hear: spend less time on yourself and more time on others. Argue less, listen more; buy less, give more. One begins to see why most people are not in church on Sunday morning. It's a discipline to live as Jesus asks us to live. And yet, what a world we could have if our priorities were shifted. None of us likes to hear of the despair and pain that people live with. All of us would love to hear a different statistic about how many children go to bed hungry each night or how many folks are out of jobs or victims of violence. And the way that happens, the way those statistics change is a change in our priorities. The Mennonite Church in the U.S. is considering a shift in how they provide medical coverage to their clergy. They will vote on October 1^st on the Corinthian Plan (named after a reference in 2 Corinthians 8 in which Paul urges that "the abundance of some should be used to provide for the needs of others," from Christian Century Sept. 22, 2009, p. 28). Under their medical plan for their pastors, "every pastor will receive the same coverage and larger, wealthier congregations will subsidize smaller congregations in order to make premiums affordable for all." (Ibid) It is not a slam dunk that this will pass with a high enough percentage to move forward. The Mennonite Church has sent 100 ambassadors throughout the country to speak with people, help them understand what this will mean and to answer their questions about the plan's details. So far, � of the needed churches have indicated their support. "Whatever the outcome of the Corinthian proposal, every Mennonite USA congregation in the country will have grappled with the problem of health insurance in a concrete way. Each will have considered the tension between self-interest and care for neighbor. Each will have decided on what sacrifices it is willing to accept for the greater good." (Ibid)

It isn't always fun or glamorous or exciting to follow Jesus. But at the end of the day, when you lay your head on your pillow at night, it is deeply satisfying to have participated somehow in God's glorious vision - of a world of access and peace, abundance and care for all. What have you done this week to participate in this divine plan? Thanks be to God for your contribution. Amen.