Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
October 4, 2015 – World Communion Sunday
Scriptures: Isaiah 25: 1, 6-8 and Mark 9:30-37
Those disciples got it wrong so often. They are a kind of object lesson, Mark’s way of teaching us what not to do, what clueless looks like, right? There’s Jesus, explaining to them that his journey would lead him to the cross, that instrument of Roman torture and execution, and it’s like their brains short circuit. They are overcome by confusion and fear, left temporarily tongue-tied. And what should we expect, really? Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah – the Anointed One, called by God to overthrow the Roman oppressors and re-establish a homeland for the Jews. None of which could happen if Jesus was killed so… he must be speaking in metaphors, right? He did that sometimes. The disciples changed the subject: “So anyway: which one of us will Jesus choose to succeed him, do you think? Every King needs a close advisor AND a succession plan, right?” “Well, he’s obviously going to need someone strong, to protect him from his enemies,” says brawny Peter, known to his buddies as ‘Rocky.’ “No, he’ll want someone smart, a deep thinker,” chimes in Thaddaeus, pushing his glasses up his prominent nose. “No, no, he obviously has a thing for fishermen,” says James (elbowing his brother John out of the way). And so it went, each of them flexing their muscles and snapping selfies. Until Jesus called them over and sat them down for a stern talking to: “So, just to be clear,” he says, “It’s not about you.” This whole enterprise? Not remotely about whether you get to be first, or even second or third. In fact, you are asking the wrong question altogether. It’s not: “Who will be greatest,” but “Where is God speaking?” “To whom do I need to listen?” “What have I got to learn? – from the others at the dinner table, from a young child, from folks without power and status?
We are used to being at the center of our own narrative. On some level, how can we help but view the world through our own eyes, right? They are the only lenses we’ve got. That first-person perspective shapes us and our contributions to the world. Just as every artist has a distinctive point of view, from Van Gough to Escher to Frida Kahlo, so do we.
But ours is not the only view, not even the primary view. And that’s the bit that we can forget. When Jesus told the disciples they must be servants to all, the word he used for servant was diakonos – a word that has come to be associated with ministry, as in ‘deacons.’ But at the time, the word diakonos referred to a particular category of servant: the one who served the meals, the one on the lowest rung of the ladder, and the person who always ate last – only after everyone else had had their fill. This is doubly interesting, because on both occasions when I’ve studied this text with members of Saugatuck – with our worship writers and in our weekly Bible study – someone has brought up the point that a leader (the host) should always eat last. Among the Boy Scouts, for example, older scouts responsible for preparing the meals are expected to eat after everyone else – which is, after all, the best way to learn whether they have planned appropriately and brought enough food.
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” How often do we live our lives like that, stepping to one side, relinquishing to others the floor, the spotlight, first place in line? Sometimes we do – perhaps within our families, or in our social circles – to be polite, or to make a good impression. Women, in particular, are often taught to put our needs last, to the point of self-denial. To be clear, that is not what Jesus was prescribing (After all, he also said, “Don’t put your light under a bushel.”). Jesus lived in a culture preoccupied with power and status – maybe not so different from our own culture, come to think of it. Among folks who threw parties to curry favor, in a culture in which you chose your friends based on where they could get you, Jesus insisted on welcoming those who had no capacity to return the favor (people like waiters and children) – welcomed them not for personal gain, but for their own precious sakes.
In an article that inspired this week’s response to the question, “Why come to church?” Writer Adam Copeland says that what he needs – from his pastor, from his church, is “a reframing of community that moves away from me and my wants as central.” … (Let me say that again.) He is looking for a “A reframing of community that moves away from me and my wants as central.”
Look around: there is a world just beyond our line of sight: people and cultures dramatically different from our own, and differently impacted by the choices we make and the way we live. What would it mean to extend our gaze, shift our view, until their needs, and not ours, became central?
Right now, there are islands in the South Pacific at risk of being submerged because of climate change,[1] while I continue to drive my car two blocks to get to the CVS. In Mexico, there are farmers who can’t make a living because imported American corn (subsidized by the U.S. government) is cheaper to buy than local Mexican corn. In our own country, there are families whose hearts are ripped open this week, because their children have been slain in another college campus shooting. Meanwhile, some Americans continue to resist any gun control laws that might curtail their freedom to buy any gun at any time. I look back on this week: so full of pain, so full of tales of human struggle, and I wonder: how would my view of these headlines shift, if I had grown up in Fiji, or in Atlacomulco, Mexico, or in Roseburg, Oregon? The only response I can summon is, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.” I have forgotten, again, that my needs, my wants, are not God’s only concern.
This forgetting, this very human tendency to put our own needs first? It’s one of the reasons we include a prayer of confession in our worship. I sometimes hear folks say, “Why include such a Debby-Downer moment? It’s kind of a kill-joy, and who is anyone to say whether I have sinned?” Well, who hasn’t? We are human, and – I’ll speak for myself here – easily caught up in my own desires. I choose worship based on whether I like the music; I eat quinoa because it’s good for me, even though its popularity here has made it unaffordable to indigenous communities in the Andes Mountains, for whom it has always been a staple; I choose a neighborhood because of the resources it offers my children.
I don’t know whether these are bad choices. But they are fraught with consequences. I once knew a family – white, middle class – who chose to live in a primarily black neighborhood, to support the economy of that community and teach their children the value of diversity. But it was a struggling neighborhood. The schools were poor. When that family’s kids reached school age, they reluctantly moved out. And that’s how it goes, so often: those who can, leave, and those who can’t, suffer the consequences of living in an increasingly less sustainable neighborhood.
This is why I come to church – to be reminded that I am part of a bigger picture, to confess the ways I have overlooked my neighbors, to ask God to stretch my heart and expand my view.
Surrounded by other faithful folk on the journey, I can ask: What would it look like to live as Jesus instructed, to move to the back of the line? To eat last, once everyone else (on the planet) has had their fill? To refrain from burning any fossil fuels, until we are certain that no more island communities will be lost? To choose food that’s not only good for us, but good for the farmer and for the planet? To relinquish our own ‘right’ to bear arms, in order to ensure that not one more child is shot and killed?
What would it mean, in our own community, to make choices based not just on what works for me but on what might just inspire, bless or serve someone on the other side of the room, or someone who’s not even here yet?
This weekend, we began the process of building a labyrinth on our property. Marty Cain, who helped us to discern the location and layout, has built scores of labyrinths around the world, some for use by one or two people, some that are open to any who pass by. She talks about finding the entrance to the labyrinth that will work for everyone, and in her prayer of blessing, she asked that the labyrinth serve all those who enter in. This is a powerful prayer – the opposite of a me-first prayer. May this sacred space be for the well-being of all people.
We come to church to make space, to name out loud the ways that we are connected, one to another; to advocate for the welfare of all God’s children, and so, bit by bit, to shift our own needs off-center – to stand with our sisters and brothers at the periphery, where we might all join hands. This shifting takes practice, no doubt. It starts by asking questions, like: “How’s the view from where you stand?” When something’s not working for us, to ask, “How is it feeding you?” and when it DOES work for us, to ask, “Am I doing someone harm?”
Jesus does not wish for anyone to be trampled underfoot. On the contrary, he tends to hang out with the very folks who find themselves at the back of the line: this is the radical kin-dom inversion about which he preaches: the first will be last and the last will be first…
So come down to this end of the table. Come hang out in the kitchen, or on the playground where five-year-olds play. Stream the speech given at the U.N. this week by Fiji’s Prime minister. Ask to be mentored by a child in Bridgeport.
Be last, but not left out. Never left out. Because, beloved people of God, this is the good news: there IS room at the table for everyone. For the first and the last and the in-between. God, our host, has planned an extravagant banquet. In the words of Isaiah:
6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
So step aside, make room, grab a hand! This we can trust: God is at the center, and God’s gifts do NOT run out.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Scriptures
Isaiah 25: 1, 6-8 – New Revised Standard Version, adapted
O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you, I will praise your name;
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure…
6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And God will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
8 God will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of God’s people God will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Mark 9:30-37 – New Revised Standard Version
30They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
[1] 30 September 2015 – Speaking today at the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister of Fiji, along with the leaders of other small island developing States, warned of the existential threat of climate change “It is simply not acceptable for advanced economies to build a high standard of living based on the degradation of the Earth and the seas,” he said. “The time for excuses is over.” http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52081#.VhCNqZeUJ-8