Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Honored Through Service

Mark 10: 35-45

October 22, 2006

Honored Through Service

The award that most interests me in the Miss America contest, the award that always piques my curiosity, is the Miss Congeniality Award. The Miss Congeniality Award is given to the contestant who is judged to have been the kindest, the most thoughtful, and the most helpful to the other pageant contestants.

Now, I find this to be a contradiction. The Miss America Pageant is a fiercely competitive contest. It is a winner-take-all competition. The fame and the prizes that come with the title of Miss America, and the possible acting career and endorsements that often follow go to only one girl. The other 50 receive virtually nothing. Kindness, thoughtfulness, and helpfulness seem alien to the competitive environment. It would be a little like giving an award to the defensive football player who made the least number of tackles.

Call me a cynic if you must, but I have questions here. Why is there such an award and why would a contestant aspire to it? Is it there like some consolation prize to the least attractive and least talented? Is it there to give the contest respectability? Is there an award for congeniality to keep some semblance of peace and harmony among the contestants? Do girls aspire to it because, unknown to me, there is a prize that goes with it? And why is it that the girl chosen as Miss America is never Miss Congeniality as well? Does this prove that, while nice girls might not finish last, they will never finish first? Or is all this just the product of too little information on my part and too much imagination?

It just seems to me that at any level of competition the primary goal is to win. And in the higher levels of competition winning is the only goal.

At the elementary level, children are often times compared to each other based on academic skills. If you are smart, you are, by implication, better than someone who is not smart. If you can run and kick you are better than someone whose motor skills are not as well developed.

In middle school and high school, who receive-the glory? The good students have their names published. The athletes have their pictures plastered all over the place. Class officers are held up as examples.

We measure success not by how kind, thoughtful, or helpful as person is, but by whether a person is a winner or loser. Coaches who do not win are fired. Corporate managers who not produce have no future in the company. Americans are appalled by the caste system in India but we do the very same thing by identifying the winners and losers, the powerful and the weak. It is to this human longing for success and recognition that Jesus speaks in this morning’s reading from Mark.

James and John 2000 years ago measured success in very much the same way we measure success today. They came to Jesus with this request: "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." These two certainly weren't going for any congeniality award. Mark tells us that when the other disciples heard of this they were indignant. But they didn't care what the rest of the disciples thought. If Jesus was about to establish a kingdom and personally reign over it James and John wanted the fame and power associated with sitting in these privileged places.

We know even before Jesus opens his mouth that these two are off base. Jesus was not going to establish that kind of earthly kingdom. But Jesus' answer doesn't even address that misunderstanding on their part. He doesn't take time to correct their misunderstanding of the nature of the kingdom. Jesus, rather, goes right to the heart of what matters. It was not the nature of the kingdom that was crucial. What was crucial was the nature of honor and greatness in whatever kind of kingdom Jesus would establish. Honor and greatness would be found, not in privilege, but in service, "...whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all."

It is so typical of Jesus. Jesus takes earthly laws and reverses them. All worldly assumptions are inverted. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Honor goes to the servant and greatness goes to the slave. Power is made known in weakness. These are the threads that weave themselves through our Christian faith and give Christianity its unique form. When Jesus said, "By this all men shall know that your are my disciples, because you love one another” he had in mind the kindness and thoughtfulness and helpfulness which are natural expressions of love. “The primary aim of Christianity is not personal gain but to love and serve others.

Ask the average believer why he/she is Christians and he/she will answer, "So that I can go to heaven." Analyze the prayers of a typical Christian and you will find that they differ very little from a child's Christmas want list. It's true that health and security might replace an Xbox or the latest Nintendo game, but the bottom line is "Gimme". Ask the typical church member why he belongs to a church he will most likely answer in terms of what the church offers him: sound preaching, meaningful worship, good Sunday school, lively fellowship. You would wait a long time before you heard an answer like, "I belong to this particular church because it has a ministry toward which I can invest a significant percentage of my money and because it provides me a number of opportunities that I can involve my time and my energy towards its purposes." The rebuke with which Jesus chastened James and John speeds across space and time and burns in our hearts as well. Christianity is not so much privilege and personal gain as it is loving service.

A shepherd in Judah searched the dark night for firewood. He stumbled onto an outcast in the moonless waste. As he got over the jolt he invited the outcast to his fire. The man wavered, and then agreed. But as he walked he kept faltering and finally demurred. "You do not really want me at your fire."

The shepherd reassured him. They walked on. But as they edged toward the firelight, the outcast stopped and turned. "As you wish," the shepherd said. "You remain welcome."

The shepherd moved into the warm light and the outcast followed slowly, eyes on the ground. His face was ghastly. He was a leper.

The shepherd looked directly at him and smiled: "Over here is warmth and no smoke." The leper gazed at him for a moment. Then he said: "Yes. Thank you." And he smiled for the first time in long years.

I think if we put ourselves in this story at all it is our pride that places us in the place of the shepherd. "I should be as caring and accepting as the shepherd". But before we see ourselves as the shepherd, we must see ourselves first as the leper. We come to Jesus contaminated and disfigured with self-serving motives. We are attracted to Christ by what he offers us. We are not worthy to stand in his presence and still he calls to us, "Follow me". He calls for a life of perfection and then lives that life in our stead. He calls for lives of service and enslavement to others, and then lives that life as our example. "For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve."

In one of the post-communion prayers we confess that Jesus is both a sacrifice for sin as well as a model of the godly life. Jesus forgave James and John their foolish request, and then showed them the path to his kingdom. He does the same for us.

There is a beautiful word in Greek that is used in Hebrews 6:20. There the writer of Hebrews calls Jesus our forerunner. In those days when a heavy ship was coming into a harbor a smaller ship would go into the harbor first, checking out the conditions: the depth, the strength of the currents, the positions of the rocks. All the hidden dangers would be revealed so that the large ship could come in safely. The little boat was the PRODROMOS, the guide, the forerunner. That is the word Hebrews uses to describe Christ. He is the one who goes before us showing the way.

"For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve." Jesus came to serve as savior, dying on the cross for our sins. But in his life he served as an example of what are appropriate responses to God's call. We come into the Christian faith, not for what God will do for us, but because of what he has already given to us. We pray not just for ourselves, but for the needs and well-being of others, even for our enemies, and even when it might mean less for us. We come to the church not looking for what is in it for me but rather for what I have for it. It is not for privilege and personal gain that we follow Jesus, but rather for kindness, thoughtfulness, and helpfulness - signs of Christ's kingdom. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.