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Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
October 22, 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Isaiah 53:4-12
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:35-45
James and John, two of Jesus’ disciples come to Jesus with a request: we have been with you a long time and we want to be sure that when you become ruler of your new kingdom we are the disciples to sit on either side of you. Now, it’s not too hard to imagine them asking Jesus this question is it! After all they’ve left everything they had to follow Jesus – their friends, their families, everything – very few of us could say the same thing. These disciples have risked their lives to follow Jesus and now they want their reward!
It reminds me of the great feeling you get when you're part of a team that practices and practices and works and struggles and finally wins the tournament. As the trophy is handed over to the captain and raised up high for all the fans to see, everyone who has played that day wants to touch it. They want their share of the glory. When we won that little trophy for our bell on the float, all the kids wanted to take their turn at holding it up for their friends to see. It's human nature to want a share of the praise and glory.
But Jesus turns this desire upside down. He's not happy to see his disciples jostling for position in the kingdom of love. Instead he asks, "Can you drink the cup that I will drink - the cup of suffering? Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I will be baptized - to die with me so that you might be raised to new life?" Disciples who are focused on the rewards they hope to receive when God's kingdom comes in its fullness are likely to miss the gift they have already received - that of being among those who are chosen to spend their lives with Jesus.
"Don't waste your time asking what you will get out of this journey we are on" said Jesus. "Simply be grateful that we are together - walking together, eating together, laughing and weeping and journeying together." When you are more focused on what you can get out of life than being thankful for the good things you have already received, you will miss the simple joy of experiencing God's presence here and now. To follow Jesus and walk the path he walks is to choose to be a servant rather than one who is served. In fact, he not only lived his life in service of others, he so completely identified with the suffering of this world that he himself was wounded, struck down, crushed for our sins, and the suffering he experienced he accepted silently, like a lamb who is led to the slaughter.
Jesus makes it very clear to James and John that his very calling, his total identity is that of a servant, emptied of self, his whole life given to glorify God and serve the needs of those among whom he walks.
Have you ever considered seriously our call to be servants, following in Christ's footsteps? We are called to serve the world as Christ served the world, by loving those who are alone or afraid, by searching out those who are imprisoned by sin or addiction or fear. We are called to reach out our hands as Christ does to those for whom life isn't working very well, and lead them by the hand - through the door, down the aisle, to join those who have gathered at the table of the Lord.
I have often heard David tell a wonderful story about Abbot Benedict, the Abbott of the monastery at three rivers Michigan where David he lived for awhile as a young man. At the time of the offertory Abbott Benedict would stand behind the altar with his hands outstretched, and tell his monks and the people gathered for Eucharist that God wanted them to put everything they were into the bread, their whole selves into that loaf of bread as it was carried from the back of the church and placed on the altar.
As the ushers bring the bread down the aisle God wants each of us to bring everything that we are together at this moment and place it all in this bread - our joys, our pains, our sorrows, everything that's been hard about this week, our gifts and skills, our triumphs and defeats, our relationships and our loved ones, the things that are broken in our lives, the places in our lives that are desperate for forgiveness. God wants us to put our whole selves in this bread - the bread that will be broken for the sake of the world.
The part of the service that is called the offertory is the moment when we take the work of our hands - bread and wine that has been made out of the fruits of the earth- God's gifts for us, money for which we have worked all week. We who are the body of Christ in our little part of the world become the bread that is broken for the sake of the world. It is the Spirit life of this community that will be restored and given back to us healed, restored, made whole, to take back to the world in Christ's name.
There is a picture on the wall in the hallway downstairs that depicts this movement of bringing the world to Christ in the bread we offer at the table. A little boy and girl are happily carrying a basket full of bread while God's hands reach out overhead. Soon there will be a little shelf on the wall nearbye with a basket just like the one in the picture. Next to the basket will be pencils and small pieces of paper upon for children to write or draw their prayers before placing them in the basket. Every week that basket will be brought to the altar along with the gifts of bread, wine, and our offering of money for the ministry of the church. We are each called to take our part in bringing the needs of the world to Christ so that they can be healed and restored. We are then sent out forgiven, healed and restored to take Christ's love to those who are broken and alone.
It is our responsibility to keep the doors of this church open, so that we continue to break bread and pour wine and make Eucharist together as Christ commanded us to do. For only the presence of the love of God can heal the brokenness of our world.
I think I realized just how important the church is on Tuesday September 11th, 2001 as David and I finally able to make our way out of New York city and back to Connecticut having been trapped in New York in the midst of the horror of the attack on the World trade towers. We had finally managed to hitch a lift back to Connecticut with a kind person who drove us and several other people in a hot, stuffy little car with no air conditioning . David and I were both in deep shock that night. We were covered in white ash, parts of pulverized buildings that had covered us as we had walked from Trinity office building to the Staten Island ferry. To me the world seemed a very different place on the evening of September 11th than it had when we had climbed on board the train for New York many hours earlier that same day. As we drove down Putnam Avenue I noticed that the lights were on at Christchurch, the church I had served for ten years. The front doors were open and the car park was overflowing with cars. Then the church bells began to ring, a signal to the world that in the midst of their suffering and pain, the people of Christ Church were at prayer. In the midst of the hell that had broken loose in our world, the Christian church was at prayer. Thanks to the hard work of some of our faithful members past and present, our bell at St. Peter's will soon ring again and whenever it rings the world will know that the Christian church is still at prayer, that the doors of our church is open to the world.
It is our job as Christ's chosen ones to keep the doors open, to continue the prayers and the breaking of the bread so that Christ's presence is continually being made manifest to those who would come in time of need.
Next week is Commitment Sunday. You should by now have received letters with pledge cards in them. If yours haven't yet arrived you can pick one up at the back of the church or at the end of your pews. It is extremely important for every single person who considers themselves a member of this community to make a pledge of commitment to God through the work of St. Peter's. We need your support to keep the doors open, to support the lively ministries we have recently begun, and to continue our work together as God's people in this place. It's really not enough to say "well we give anyway, we really don't need to make a pledge." It's your commitment to the work that counts, however small your offering might be. There are many people who come to church because of what they or their families get from it. God is looking for faithful servants who are willing to give their lives to see that the doors of this church are flung wide open to the world. Don't ask what rewards you will receive for your faithful service. Instead be grateful that you have been called to walk with Christ and ask yourself what more you can give to support the works of ministry at St. Peter's.
In Christ's name
Amen |
