Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 24B]

Isaiah 53.4-12 Psalm 91.9-16 Hebrews 5.1-10 Mark 10.35-45

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart,

that I may rightly and truly proclaim His Holy Word. Amen.

What does it mean to serve? In looking at this question, let’s look first not at someone in a humble station, but at somebody who is in charge, the boss. Those of us who have worked in larger organizations of any kind all have had experience with who’s in charge, whether we call him or her C.E.O., president, superintendent, commanding officer, or whatever. Regardless of how effective a C.E.O. may be in executing the mission of the company and in maximizing shareholder return, how he or she is known in the company can be revealing. Let’s imagine a C.E.O. whose name is David Copperfield. He may be known, by people who do not know him personally, as “the chairman” or as “Copperfield”. There may be a number of nicknames, which in the nature of business nicknames are unlikely to be complimentary. “Dave the knife” or “Copperhead” may speak of a certain competitive admiration from members of other businesses, or even form shareholders, but if someone who works for the company calls the C.E.O. by such a nickname we get an immediate signal that employee morale may bear closer examination.

In my corporate career I had my share of good bosses and ones who were less good. One thing I learned was that regardless of other behavior, the most reliable test for whether or not someone was a good boss was who he or she thought you worked for. If the person in authority ever starts thinking and acting as if you work for him or her, rather than for the company, that’s as big a red flag as you can find, and it’s a flag that’s accompanied by such other signals as the executive secretary who refers to the boss–when you’re talking to her to get to see him–not as “David” but as “the chairman”.

Well-run enterprises are managed by people who recognize and practice that each person in the organization is an asset dedicated to a purpose which is separate from the personal interests of the managers. In today’s Gospel lesson, James and John don’t quite get that. They are focused on their own perks, on what’s in it for them. And they’re a little cocky about it, answering Jesus that they are able to drink of the cup of which He will drink. He doesn’t condemn them. He simply points out that while they will drink of the cup of martyrdom from which He will drink, they are asking for something which they should not ask for.

Jesus doesn’t condemn them, but the other disciples do, because in their minds any advantage that James and John might gain is one gained at their expense. They think of the kingdom as a sort of zero-sum equation. And so now Jesus addresses all of them, to teach once more about servanthood, about discipleship. He says that whoever wishes to become great must focus on service. All truly successful managers know that accomplish the mission, to maximize the return, the focus must be on the objective, with management skills being brought to bear to allow the team members to best contribute what they each have to offer, and to allow the contributions of the many to be coördinated for the greatest good. Jesus teaches that disciples must not seek to “lord it over” others, but must be ready to serve, just as one C.E.O. I knew was ready to pitch in loading trucks when we had a deadline to meet.

When we think of someone pitching in, of working as another member of the team, the image is positive. But what about when we use Jesus’ imagery, when we speak of being “slave” of all? That’s the word He uses, slave, meaning one without an independent will, without power or status. This seems pretty shocking, but let’s put it in the context of Jesus teaching about discipleship. We need to “rewind the tape”.

Jesus is in the midst of journeying to Jerusalem. He has told His disciples that He will be betrayed and killed, to rise again, and that they must deny themselves to follow Him (Mark 8.31-34). They don’t understand, even after Jesus has been transfigured before them (Mark 9.2-8). Again, He predicts His death (Mark 9.30-32), and what do they disciples do? They argue with each other who is greatest, and Jesus places a child–someone without any power or status, and lacking independent will–in their midst, and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” (Mark 9.36). He teaches about radical choices, and then, when children are brought to Him, He teaches that we must receive the kingdom of heaven like a child, or not receive it at all (Mark 10.15).

Last week we heard Jesus address His disciples as children. He said “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10.25). He’s trying to push the point home, switching from the example of a child to addressing the disciples directly, and what do they do? Even after Jesus for the third time predicts His death, they’re focused on who gets to sit on His left and right, on what’s in it for them! It’s no longer enough to say “Children!;” it’s now necessary to be as direct as possible, to say that if you can’t and won’t get your own will out of the way you are not following, and so He uses the example of a slave.

And it’s an example; it’s an example of the removal of personal will, of the denial of self. But this denial is not just “being a doormat for Jesus;” it is serving others for the sake of something beyond self. And what is this “something”? We are called to serve others for the sake of Christ, to witness to God’s righteousness and to His mercy. In serving others we seek to focus on God’s will for all those whom we are called to serve.

When the C.E.O. I knew became one of the loading crew, what was he doing? He was working to accomplish something, to get product shipped to meet a launch deadline. He was mission-oriented, but in being mission-oriented his service served as an example to others in the company that none of us worked for him, but for that greater enterprise of which we were all a part, and in which we each had a stake. It’s the same in discipleship. When we serve, when we place God’s will before our own, we are mission-oriented as well. We are focused on the mission of reconciling all people to God and with each other through Jesus Christ. We are focused on the mission of testifying to the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. The mission and the goal are the same.

Jesus testifies that the mission and the goal are the same. In the fifth chapter of John says that He is doing the work which the Father has given Him to do (John 5.36), and when He dies on the cross He says, “It is finished” (John 19.30). The work is finished; it is accomplished, the reconciliation of the world to God by and through the sacrifice of the Christ.

Serving others for the sake of Christ is not passive; it is not being a doormat. It is work, work which involves self-sacrifice and often even messiness. If it were up to each of us to choose what work we would do for our own ends, there would come a time when each of us would say “enough,” and either quit or figure out how to hire somebody else to do the dirty work. But Jesus is telling us that there’s no one else to hire. The work is God’s work, and God will provide the grace to allow it when we get our own interests out of the way. Go will empower us to serve when we are but willing to serve, and the servant will then become great; great in God’s grace; great in the kingdom.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was

in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.