October 21, 2018

2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who came to serve. Amen
 
The disciples in the gospel of Mark,
bless their hearts,
 are particularly dense
 and I’ve got to say I love them for that
 
 because as exasperating as it is
 to watch them throughout the gospel
stumbling along as they follow Jesus,
 never quite fully understanding his teaching,
 often turning around
 to do the opposite of what Jesus just told them to do
 what we are witnessing is the disciples’ humanity,
 
a humanity that mirrors our own.
how many times in following Jesus
 have we never quite fully understood his teaching?
 And how many times do we hear Jesus say one thing
and turn around and go do the exact opposite?
More often than we’d like to admit.
 
 The gift of the disciples’ humanity in the gospel
is that we get to see how Jesus responds to them,
 in all their density and contrariness,
 giving us an idea of how Jesus will respond to us
in all of our density and contrariness.
 
Actually we should probably give the disciples a break
because in Jesus they are encountering not only new teachings
 but a way of looking at the world
 that is completely counter to the way they are used to.
 
 The Kingdom of God is very unlike the world,
and the way the kingdom of God comes about
 often runs against the common sense of the world.
 
Take for example what it means to be a savior.
 According to the world
 a savior is someone who is heroic,
 one who is more powerful than average
 and who uses that power to defend the little guy
against some other powerful force,
which generally increases the power of the hero.
 And yet, according to the kingdom of God,
 a savior is one, the one, who serves others in suffering.
 
We heard in our first reading from Isaiah
 part of the suffering servant passage
 that we as Christians view as a prophetic description of Jesus
 and it is not pleasant,
 
struck down, afflicted,
wounded, crushed, oppressed
 and yet God says “The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous.”
 
This is how God has chosen to save,
 and we wonder at that,
why is suffering necessary? we ask
 
we are confused because suffering on behalf of others
 goes against the common sense of the world,
 the sense that says we protect ourselves and honor the strong,
 common sense that tells us to avoid suffering at all costs.
 
But Jesus doesn’t live by the way of the world,
had Jesus lived according to common sense
 he would have tried to befriend the most powerful rather than the lowly,
 
 if he had lived according to common sense
he would have avoided the sick and the poor,
 he wouldn’t have touched lepers
or eaten with tax collectors
and he certainly wouldn’t have talked about a kingdom of God
 more powerful than the kingdom of Rome.
 
but Jesus did all those things,
 Jesus lives by un-common sense,
 and his un-common sense leads right to the cross
because the world moves swiftly
to remove anything that upsets the way things are
 
Jesus knows this,
 and he’s tried to teach his disciples this,
by the time we get to our gospel for today
Jesus has already made all his passion predictions to his followers,
 he’s sat them down and told them look:
 this is what is going to happen,
 I’m going to be arrested, put on trial and crucified.
And three days after that I will rise again.
 
And he heads toward Jerusalem.
the disciples continue to follow him
but they don’t understand,
 
today James and John come up to Jesus
and ask him to treat them according to the ways of the world.
They understand that something is going to happen soon
and they believe Jesus to be great, the messiah even
and they want to assure their places in the new order,
and so they make their request,
They want to sit in the highest worldly places of honor
when Jesus comes into his glory.
 
And Jesus looks at them and says
 “You do not know what you are asking.”
 because Jesus’ glory is the cross
 
“are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” He asks them,
referring to his suffering,
and they with all the confidence of ignorance reply
 “we are able”
 
and Jesus grants them what they ask
 “The cup that I drink you will drink and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” Jesus tells them,
but the positions of honor at the right and the left are not Jesus’ to give out,
 that is determined by God
and those places will be filled by the two thieves
 who will be crucified on either side of Jesus.
 
And while we might wonder at Jesus
granting James and John’s request
 without their understanding,
 
 
what Jesus is doing in that granting
 is offering a moment of grace,
 what they will understand later
and what we as listeners hear
 is that the moments of failure in the lives of the disciples
 do not determine the final outcome.
 
Yes, James and John don’t understand,
 but they are earnest in wanting to follow Jesus,
yes they along with the rest of the group will run away
 when Jesus is arrested,
but we know, as Mark’s audience knows
 that they went on to play vital
 roles in the spread of the message of the good news of Jesus Christ,
 
Acts 12:2 tells us that James is martyred,
 killed because of his witness for Jesus.
 James and John spoke the truth,
they were able to follow Jesus in his glory.
 
To be dense, confused, contrary and fail is to be human,
 to not let it get in the way,
 that is the way of God,
 
 our reading from Hebrews this morning
 in speaking of Jesus says
 “He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness”
 
Jesus, son of God,
knows what it’s like to be human
since he himself is human,
 
he understands suffering
because he has experienced it,
 
 he knows how we mess up
even with good intentions,
he knows common sense would say
do not to rely too heavily on humans to get things done,
 
and yet Jesus with his un-common sense,
 calls us, humans,
to be his disciples,
to live in the world according to the way of the kingdom of God.
 
We are to love and forgive our enemies
and those who hurt us,
befriend those cast out by society,
 share our food and resources
 so that all have enough,
 speak truth to power
even and especially when that truth is not what power wants to hear.
 
 and yes living in this way
will probably result in some suffering,
 but it will also make the world a better place,
 more like the kingdom of God brought near in Jesus.
 
and yes we will make mistakes
and fall back on common sense,
 and that is when Jesus brings us to the table,
 to share in his cup,
 the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins
 poured out by Jesus on the cross
as he gave his life so that we could be righteous
 and could dare to live un-common lives. Amen