What is greatness? sermon preached at St Mary's Garsington 20th October 2024.

 Sunday 20th October Garsington.

 

How do we become great?   What does your mind picture when you ponder the question.  If I am brutally honest, I am influenced by models of earthly success.  During this week England have appointed a new Football Manager, rightly or wrongly he will be judged by the press and by the fans on his success, there may well be a honeymoon period, but he will need to have a winning record and hopefully some silverware to show for it.

 

I last preached here a few weeks ago and the lectionary invited a similar sort of reflection on the nature of greatness. These questions are floating around because we are reading through Mark 9 and 10.  Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and is teaching the disciples on the way.  If there is a lot of repetition, I get the sense this is because for the disciples (and perhaps for us all) this is hard teaching.  Jesus, you see turns any idea of earthly greatness on its head.

 

There are many hard passages in the gospels, broadly speaking I think they fall into two categories.  They can be hard to understand for me some of the more apocalyptic teaching falls into this category.  I find It hard to understand much teaching that talks about the end of the world in such vivid terms.  For the disciples (and perhaps for us) today’s gospel is hard not because we don’t understand but because we do not like what it has to say!

 

This passage is another one where we are shown the counter cultural nature of God’s kingdom.   James and John come to Jesus asking to be glorified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Despite all that Jesus has said in the preceding verses they want Jesus to be an authoritarian Lord, and they want to bask in that glory by being granted a place at his left- and right-hand sides.

 

The disciples keep missing the point. Jesus explained to his disciples that he would be mocked, tortured, and then killed by the imperial authorities. It seems that James and John were unable to hear this. Perhaps they ignored Jesus when he foretold his death; perhaps they misunderstood him, perhaps they were in denial. Whatever the case, in this scene, they come to Jesus assuming that his glory entails power. Jesus, however, shows that glory is found in weakness and humility: “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

 

 

As Christians we believe not despite the cross but because of it.  It is perhaps the ultimate paradox that God is at his most powerful at that very moment on the cross.  Who was on his right and left hand at that momentIn Mark’s gospel it was two bandits.

 

25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. "26 The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’" (“Mark 15:26-27 - BibleGateway.com”) 27 And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left  

 

 

In this morning’s passage we are confronted with a completely topsy turvy model of leadership and power.  It is one that transforms leadership by identifying leadership more with humiliation and vulnerability than with traditional ideas of wealth and status. Our gradual hymn sums this up beautifully. ‘This is our God the Servant King, he calls us now to follow him, and to give our lives as a daily offering of worship to the Servant King.

 

Not all power is bad, we still need structures and authorities, sometimes we do need to exercise this power.  There is a lesson here though about how power is exercised. "Lordship and authority are shown through acts of kindness and service not through claiming unwarranted power over people." 

 

One commentator put it this was Jesus’ way is to ‘lord it under us’, not to ‘lord it over us.  I rather like that! We do not lord it over others but instead try to find ways to lord it under them: to be the servant and the slave of all rather than trying to become an authority figure over them. That is the way of Christ. That is the way of Christian discipleship.

 

 

Methodists hold an annual Covenant Service, at which they celebrate all that God has done and affirm that we give our lives and choices to God. There is a beautiful prayer which is central to this service.  Many other churches have also adapted the prayer. It speaks to the readings we have heard this morning and I would like to close with it.  There are also some copies should you wish to take it home. 

 

 

 

 

“Lord God, I am no longer my own but yours.

Put me to what you will,

rank me with whom you will;

put me to doing, put me to suffering;

let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

exalted for you or brought low for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty,

let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal. Amen.”

 

 

 

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