James
\nand John don’t get it – they’ve managed to miss the whole point.
\nFurther, in the remaining 10 disciples’ responses to James and John,
\nwe learn that they don’t get it either. \u00a0They’ve ALL missed the
\npoint. \u00a0In the Gospel of Mark, the closest followers of Jesus, the 12
\ndisciples, are absolutely clueless about \u2026 well, everything. \u00a0Jesus
\nand the disciples are talking past each other. \u00a0I think it is meant
\nto be amusing. \u00a0It might be a little bit more successful in aiming
\nfor amusing, however, if it didn’t feel so very close to home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James
\nand John are scared, and as scared people do, they are seeking
\nsecurity. \u00a0They were on their way to Jerusalem, they had some sense
\nof what might be coming, and it was terrifying. \u00a0Scared people often
\nbehave in suboptimal ways. \u00a0This fact feels relevant TODAY. \u00a0Michael
\nMoore’s 2002 film \u201cBowling for Columbine\u201d discussed our nation’s
\n\u201cclimate of fear.\u201d \u00a0He claims we’re taught to be afraid, and to
\nseek solutions to our fear, even when the reasons we’re to be scared
\naren’t articulated. \u00a0His movie was the first time I’d noticed that
\nphenomenon, and it was very helpful in insulating me from its effects
\n\u2013 for a while.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Then
\nit gotten harder. \u00a0The recent news on climate change is terrifying,
\nand I think even validly so. \u00a0In recent years I have been forced to
\nreckon with the fact that the values I hold most dear, the ways I
\nthink the common good is achieved, and the society I wish to be a
\npart of building are NOT as widely shared as I thought, and that has
\nbeen scary too. \u00a0Maybe it is only scary to know it \u2013 since it was
\nalready there before, but it has been scary nonetheless. \u00a0 While this
\nhas been normal in my life time, it also scares me \u00a0that the United
\nMethodist Church at large and each individual UM church I have loved
\nwill someday cease to exist and that day will likely be sooner than I
\nwould choose.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These
\nlarge scale things exist on top of the normal day to day fears of
\nhuman existence: that one day I will die, that one day all those I
\nlove will die, that illness or injury could come at any moment to
\nmyself or those I love, that among those I care most deeply about
\nthere are ones struggling because they don’t have enough, that a day
\ncould come when I don’t have enough, that maybe nothing I do matters,
\nand universal fear that no one really likes me after all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\ndon’t think those fears are unique to me, but they also exist in me.
\nThe normal day to day fears also existed back in Jesus day, and James
\nand John were likely quite familiar with those. \u00a0They were also
\nfacing some large scale concerns \u2013 they might lose Jesus, and the
\nRoman Empire might be interested in eliminating their whole
\ncommunity. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At
\nthe same time, they clearly believed that Jesus was going to \u201cwin.\u201d
\n I say that because of how they respond to their fear. \u00a0They’re
\nafraid everything is going to get destroyed, so they try to seek
\npower within the system as they understand it \u2013 and by doing so
\nthey display just how much they believe that Jesus is the source of
\npower. \u00a0They ask to sit at his right and and his left. \u00a0We, the
\nreader, are supposed to be thinking of the insurrectionists who will
\nbe crucified on Jesus right and left. \u00a0However, the brothers are not.
\n They lived in an honor-shame society, the ultimate hierarchical
\nsystem. \u00a0Honor was a zero sum game. \u00a0They thought Jesus had it, and
\nthey were trying to gain more honor by getting closer to him and
\nacknowledged by him. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However,
\nbecause it was a zero sum game, IF two members of the inner circle of
\n12 gained honor, then it meant the other 10 got moved further away
\nand lost honor. \u00a0The other disciples seemed to believe as James and
\nJohn did: that things were scary, that this was a time to try to gain
\nsecurity, that Jesus was the best bet they had, and that Jesus was so
\nhonor-filled that the closer they got to him the better they’d do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It
\nseems to me that they DID have the faith of a mustard seed, they just
\ndidn’t have it in the right thing. \u00a0While the disciples, led by James
\nand John, are vying for honor in a zero sum game that permeated their
\nsociety, Jesus is talking about an entirely different system. \u00a0They
\nask for a favor, and Jesus says, \u201cYou don’t get it. \u00a0I’m not the
\nhonor-source you think I am. \u00a0I’m here to upend the system, not to
\nbest it. \u00a0Are you able to pay the price for upending the system with
\nme?\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This <\/p>\n After \n<\/p>\n \nHe \n\u201cThe \n<\/p>\n Ched \n<\/p>\n \nBy \n<\/p>\n \nThey \n<\/p>\n \nJust \n<\/p>\n \nThis <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1<\/a>C. 2<\/a>Charles 3<\/a>Ched <\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n Pronouns: she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n
\nis one of those places where people are talking past each other. \u00a0I
\nappreciated the scholar who pointed out, \u201cIn the Old Testament ‘the
\ncup’ is an ambiguous image, which can connote joy and salvation (Pss.
\n23:5; 116:13) or woe and suffering (Ps. 11:6; Isa. 51:17, 22).\u201d1<\/sup><\/a>
\n \u00a0The same scholar points out that there are reasons to think of
\nbaptism as suffering or as blessing, as well. \u00a0Jesus seems to be
\ntalking suffering, but the disciples, still hearing things in the
\nways of the world around them, hear their honored leader as talking
\nabout blessing.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe remaining 10 disciples proof they’re missing the point too, Jesus
\nmakes another attempt to do general teaching. \u00a0What he speaks seems
\nto me to be central to Christian faith itself. \u00a0\u201cYou
\nknow that among those-who-don’t-know-our-God, those whom they
\nrecognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are
\ntyrants over them. \u00a0But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to
\nbecome great among you must be your servant,
\n and
\nwhoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.\u201d \u00a0In the
\nhonor-shame system, servants and slaves were at the bottom. \u00a0But
\nJesus is twisting up all expectations, and putting servants and
\nslaves at the top. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nfinishes this teaching saying, \u201cFor the Son of Man came not to be
\nserved but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.\u201d \u00a0This
\ngets interesting. \u00a0Charles Campbell, professor of Homiletics at Duke
\nDivinity School says:<\/p>\n\n
\nWay of the Cross, Jesus affirms, is the way of resistance of the
\nDomination System, which is characterized by power exercised over<\/i>
\nothers, by control by<\/i>
\nothers, by ranking as the primary principle of social organization,
\nby hierarchies of domination and subordination, winners and losers,
\ninsiders and outsiders, honored and shamed. \u2026 Jesus calls the
\ncommunity of faith, in its life together, to offer an alternative to
\nthe ways of the Domination System \u2013 and to bear the suffering that
\ninevitably comes as a result. \u00a0Jesus resists the domination system
\nthroughout his ministry \u2013 even unto death on a cross \u2013 so he sets
\nus free (ransoms us, v. 45) from that system, so we might become
\nfaithful disciples and take up his way of resistance.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nMyers, author of Binding
\nthe Strong Man<\/i>
\nexpands on the final point. \u00a0He explains, \u201cThe term referred to the
\nprice required to redeem captives or purchase freedom for indentured
\nservants. \u00a0Jesus promises then that the way of ‘servanthood’ has been
\ntransformed by the Human One into the way of transformation.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a>
\n \u00a0In this model, instead of leadership being about gaining power
\nover, leaders are being trained in the ways of nonviolence, to serve,
\nto resist, and if necessary, to suffer as well. \u00a0Leaders aren’t
\npeople who have, gain, or seek status, at least not as Jesus saw it.
\nThat’s how the world works \u2013 how it worked then and how it works
\nnow. \u00a0Jesus presents an entirely different system: servant ministry,
\ntaking care of each other.<\/p>\n
\nlifting up the role of servant, Jesus inverted the entire hierarchy.
\nFurthermore, he established an expectation that his community of
\nfollowers would teach each other as extended kin, and as people
\ncaring for the needs of each other. \u00a0In the old system servant did
\nthe care giving work, but in Jesus’ system, everyone did. \u00a0The
\nfollowers of Jesus weren’t to be in competition with each other, they
\nweren’t in a zero sum game<\/b>. \u00a0They were to live by entirely
\ndifferent rules.<\/p>\n
\nwere to LIVE the imagery of Isaiah. \u00a0They were to become the
\npreparation for God’s way. \u00a0They were the ones lifting up the lowly,
\nAND pulling down the mighty, to be in equal relationships with each
\nother! \u00a0The followers of Jesus were to BE the glory of God revealed
\nin the world, visible for all.<\/p>\n
\nlike the disciples though, we don’t do our best work when we’re
\nscared. \u00a0I was reminded recently that the limbic system, which is
\nwhere our emotions live in our brains, is soothed relationally and
\ninterpersonally. \u00a0It is MUCH easier to feel good when we’ve connected
\nwith those we love and trust then it is to talk or work our way out
\nof our fears by ourselves. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nidea of radical equality with each other, of deep relationship, of
\nkinship without competition \u2013 this is really key. \u00a0It isn’t just
\nfor the long term well being of the sake of the kindom. \u00a0It is ALSO
\nhow we make it through the day to day, and how God helps us overcome
\nour fears and enact our roles as part of the glory of God. \u00a0We
\nbaptized Anna today, and we welcomed her as our sibling in Christ.
\nNow we teach her what it is to be loved in a radical community of
\nfaith committed to twisting the world’s expectations into something
\nfar better \u2013 the glory of God. \u00a0May we do it well! \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tClifton Black, \u201cExegetical Perspective on Mark 10:35-45\u201d in
\n\tFeasting
\n\ton the Word, Year B, Volume 4<\/i>,
\n\ted. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, KT:
\n\tWestminster John Knox Press, 2009).
\n\t 191<\/p>\n
\n\tL. Campbell \u201cHomiletical Perspective on Mark 10:35-45\u201d iin
\n\tFeasting
\n\ton the Word, Year B, Volume 4<\/i>,
\n\ted. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, KT:
\n\tWestminster John Knox Press, 2009),
\n\t193.<\/p>\n
\n\tMyers, Binding the Strong Man<\/i>
\n\t(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998 and 2008), 279.<\/p>\n