Isaiah 53:4–12
Psalm 91:9–16
Hebrews 5:1–10
Mark 10:35–45
Year B
I.N.I (In the name of Jesus)
Jesus says: 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 a ransom for many.
Today I bow to you and invite you to bow back. It is an act of honoring service, saying by the gesture I see Christ in you. Ready to try it?
Two weeks ago, after worship at a potluck in the Sophia Room out in our Gathering Space, youth from Christ the King presented testimony on their summer trip to New Orleans, the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. We heard and saw pictures about the mass gatherings each night in the Superdome with Guest Speakers and the Skillet concert. We heard and saw pictures about the yummy cuisine of poo’boy sandwiches, gumbo, and etoufée, beignets at Café du Monde, walking along Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. We heard and saw pictures about the interaction center and the learning center, where we connected with many of the other 37,000 Lutherans that were there in July. But for many, the single most lasting memory, their most significant experience while being there was (and I speak the truth) reading to school-age children at risk, at a summer program in a public school.
Imagine, our bright and polished youth from Christ the King full of adventure, Mel Graves flying in a plane for the first time, Andrew Voss giving everybody he met high fives, Kayleigh, Corinne, and Kaitlyn wanting to stop in every trinket shop we passed, in the end, finally giving witness to glorious service. Who would have thunk it? Think of Ryan Blecharczyk and Tom Spohn, stooping down with a first grader, drinking in each page of Margaret Wise Brown’s classic, The Important Book, and then with them helping them write their own Important Book.
Dare I say that our promising youth were great in their serving?
Did I catch them acting in the place of Christ on their knees with little ones?
Were they in truth living out their baptismal and cross-shaped identities?
The answer to those three questions is, three times, yes. [Bow]
In today’s Gospel, James and John were living by a different Important Book. They jumped to snag a place at the top, a place where they might sit with royal robes on either side of the king they called teacher. They may have heard Jesus speak about the kingdom with wide-eyed anticipation. They may have dreamed of some future good life where they could dole out wisdom, live off the fat of the land or their 401K’s. They may have dreamed of basking in the sun on the beach in the city called glory. There everyone would come to them, and sit under their feet.
In today’s Gospel, James and John missed Jesus’ pointed descriptions of the way of the cross as the way of life, three times in all.
Just before today’s Gospel reading, it is mentioned that Jesus is on the way up to the holy city of Jerusalem, and Jesus huddles up close with his twelve and faces them eye to eye, and describes his way to glory through his arrest, condemnation, mocking, and death, and after three days to rise again.
You can see the faces of the disciples getting all serious and then nodding their heads gravely.
And then in the next moment James and John say “hey Teacher, we’re going to ask you a question. Just say yes, okay? We want to sit with you when you’re at the top.”
Do you think they were in the state of “deNial”?
Jesus, deliberate and straightforward, presents an alternative to the ways of power over by flipping it on its head. In the place of narcissism, hedonism, nihilism, or having it my way-ism, the important book that’s all about Christ says try serving as the way of life. [Bow]
Coming to Christ the King in the year 2000 I marveled at the way this community in Christ offers people opportunities to give and serve. I was grateful for the privilege of participating in the area CROP Walk for Hunger, pointing out the significant projects funded by the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, and getting at the root of hunger issues through the advocacy of organizations like Bread for the World.
Now in 2009, we are still at it. In a beleaguered economy, while job losses cause severe consternation, while giving to Christ the King is sputtering to meet our goals for 2009, we are still about proposing giving and serving on behalf of the great server Christ.
We have become a Bread for the World congregation, focusing on advocacy from time to time to encourage policy changes in hunger as an issue of faith, this year supporting legislation to make Foreign Aid more effective, making alleviating poverty as a primary goal. In solidarity with those who use Bread for the World’s collective organizing of faith communities, we honor today as Bread for the World Sunday.
Next week is the annual CROP Walk for World Hunger. We use our feet to speak to the Nashua Area about the plight of the world’s poor. By walking the streets of Nashua, we with others from faith-based communities will funnel money and awareness toward worldwide relief agencies and local agencies like the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter.
When someone asks me about this congregation, what makes it special or unique in its place among others, I quickly say that the level of serving is a remarkable and joy-filled experience in our lives together as church.
And if I were asked why it is that we are this way, eager to use our time and our resources on behalf of others, why it is that our youth have captured the heart of serving as a driving force for them, I would suggest that deep in our heart of hearts we recognize Christ in others, especially those who serve and those whom we serve.
Try it this way: Here at Christ the King we offer Christ, crucified and risen, who shows God’s power in human weakness, even as a slave, to rescue a world bent on itself.
Here at Christ the King we are eager to share central acts of eating and drinking so that we might take Christ into our way of life, and live as Christ’s broken body for others.
Here at Christ the King we are immersed in washing waters that do not grant any other status then child of God, brother and sister in Christ.
Here in our cross-shaped community, we live by and are continuing to write our own Important Book, which reads like this:
the most important thing about being alive is being alive in Christ. And the most important thing about being alive in Christ means we get to give our lives over to others, and invite them to walk, to share bread, to love and to serve. The most important thing about being alive is being alive in Christ
Isn’t it incredible? Isn’t Christ with us amazing? I invite you to find a face near or around you. Look at that face and imagine Christ in that person and in you. Now to honor the servant of servants here today and in one another, give one another a little bow.
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 a ransom for many.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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