20 October 2015

Sermon 18 October 2015 Mark 10:35-45 Proper 24 Year B

Sermon

May my words be your word and my heart rest in you as I speak, O Lord. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

“You don’t know what you’re asking.” That’s what Jesus is saying this morning. This is what he says to James and John when they decide they need to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand when he comes into his glory. Jesus answers, “You don’t know what you’re asking. You have no idea. I’ve been talking but you haven’t been listening. I’ve been teaching but you haven’t been learning. I’ve been walking a road that leads to death and you missed the road signs.”
         James and John are interested in power and so is Jesus. But the power of Jesus as we have learned from Mark’s Gospel these last few weeks is the power of weakness. Jesus has taught us that
·      Power is dependence on God alone
·      Power is being God’s friend and companion to the least and the lost
·      Power is the ability to give freely out possessions and money to God
·      Power is being the person God created us to be

Jesus has taught us these last weeks that who we are and what we do as followers, as disciples, is an inverted and upside view of the power the world dangles in front of us each day. Jesus taught us to say no to the power that corrupts so we can say a deeper yes to his power: the power of weakness.
         I think I can hear some brains buzzing out there. Some of the buzzing sounds a low hum like this: The power of weakness is something I’m not interested in at all. I want to be strong, not weak! Weakness gets you nowhere. I want to be bold and powerful.
         And today, two of the disciples, James and John, ask Jesus for power: the power to sit at his right hand and at his left when he comes into his glory. They ask him this because they have either forgotten or ignored what Jesus has been teaching them.
Since we know the rest of the story, do you remember who really gets to be on the left and right of Jesus? Two bandits. Call them thieves or terrorists if you like. Who was on Jesus’ right and left hand when he died? Not the disciples who ran away when things got tough and they were in danger of losing their own lives. Not Peter who denied Jesus three times. Not Mary Magdalene and the other women who followed Jesus. Two thieves. Two deadbeats who’d led lives of crime and do doubt created suffering for others. And the power they received was to be hung on a cross on either side of the suffering savior. This is power?
         Yes, this is Jesus’ power. It is the power of willingness. The power of being willing to say no to the power the world asks us to seek and saying yes to the power of weakness. When we claim the power of weakness we claim the power of a Lord who gave his life as a ransom for many. He gave his all, every bit of himself from first to last, left to right, body and soul, to give up all so we might have all.
         And the ‘all” we have is the power of weakness. This is the power that if we are willing to claim it, is God’s to give and ours to give away. It is the power to retitle what we own as God’s, not ours. It is the power to give so our doors can be opened to an even wider world. It is the power to give so the mystery and majesty of our worship and the tenderness of prayer can be shared with those who need it. It is the power to give so children may learn and grow into God’s creation in joy and light. And it is the power to follow our Lord wherever he leads, not asking or denying but following.
         Can we drink the cup Jesus offers? Can we be baptized with his baptism? Can we embrace the power of weakness? You know as well as I do that what Jesus says is true. That among those whom we recognize as our rulers of the world lord it over us, and the great ones are tyrants over us. And yet Jesus calls us together to the power of weakness with these words: “But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”[1] AMEN.

The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2015





[1] Mark 10:43-45 (NRSV)

No comments:

Post a Comment