"Climbing the Ladder of Success"
Mark 10:35-45
March 8, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
Muhammad Ali, the former Heavy Weight Champion of the World, is known for the things he has said. In his early years, those sayings had to do with how great he was. Now the sayings have to do with life. In those early years, Ali said things like, "Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee, no one is greater than Muhammad Ali. He also said this about greatness, "I'm not the greatest. I am the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round."
Who is the greatest? Well, that's a question that I'd like for us to consider this morning in our sermon.
What I know is this, being the greatest and being the best is something that we teach our children from a very early age. Kindergarteners know the value of being the line leader. As early as the first grade there are honor assemblies. I'm proud to say that I've been to a few for Annie Grace. There are A Honor Rolls and Perfect Attendance Awards and Citizenship Awards. Later for our kids, there are All-Star teams. When they are in high school, there are class rankings based on their grade point averages. At least that is the way it was lo these many years ago when I walked the halls of my high school. By the way I was number one hundred in my class of three hundred. You don't have the smartest pastor, but the top third is all right, I guess.
The adult world isn't all that different from that. By the time we graduate from high school and hit the real world there are rankings. There are Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers in companies. The church has a hierarchical structure to it, too. After all, I am the Senior Pastor of this church, which probably meant more when an Associate Pastor was appointed to be here. Being the Senior Pastor is better than a couple of things I was called when I was the Associate Pastor at First Church Little Rock. One lady once referred to me as the pastor's little helper. One of the volunteers called me Boy Boss. I didn't want either to appear on the name plate on my office door.
Now it is the spring of the year when appointments are being made across Annual Conference in Methodism. I understand that there is a sheet that ranks pastor's based on their salaries, what their average worship attendance is, and whether or not they paid their apportionments. Who is the greatest?
I spoke with a friend last spring. He had been in his new appointment for less than a year. He said this to me, "The grass is not always greener in another pasture, pastor."
I even know a pastor who rose to the heights of his career, was elected a bishop in the church, but wished he was still the pastor of that first church he served, right out of seminary. His fondest memories were of them.
Who is the greatest? Well, that's a question the disciples wanted to be clear on. They weren't immune to the ladder climbing mentality. Jesus, of course, taught against this kind of thing. Two of those lessons are our scripture lessons for this morning.
By now I hope you know that Mike Smith and I, during the weeks leading up to Easter, are using a devotional guide as the basis for our sermons. The book's title Watching the Disciples. Learning from Their Mistakes is written by Mary Jane Gorman. The book notices the mistakes the disciples make as they walk along with Jesus towards Jerusalem. This week's mistake is that the disciples thought there was a pecking order amongst them. It is a mistake they make as they walk along the road with Jesus to Capernaum.
Just after they arrived in the city, they went to a house. Inside Jesus asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way." I want you to see this. The idea of who was the greatest among them wasn't a fleeting thought or temptation. It lived in all of them and evidently was strong enough to start an argument.
Jesus turns to them and asks what their argument was about. As far as I can tell, none of them, not one of them answered. Mark tells us that they were silent. Let me ask you this, what did the disciples see in Jesus? Did they see a charismatic leader, in the best sense of that word, who was able to draw people to himself? The disciples had heard Jesus' prediction about his arrest and his death and his suffering and his resurrection, but they tried not to pay attention to Jesus when he said things like that.
Perhaps the disciples thought that one of them could be Jesus' go to guy. As his popularity got stronger, someone would need to take on leadership and be second in command. They all wanted that role. Maybe that is what they thought.
I want you to see what Jesus does when he knows they have been arguing about greatness. He doesn't scold, he teaches. In that house he calls for a child to come over and sit with him. Church, I want you to remember that in the days of Jesus children didn't have the place they now do. The world didn't see their cuteness and potential. In the days of Jesus children were just a bit lower than slaves, so for Jesus to put a child in his lap and say that receiving the kingdom like one of them must have been inconceivable to the disciples. Jesus said, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me and the One who sent me."
If you want to be first, you have to be last of all and servant of all.
I am wondering, church, have you ever made a mistake, learned the lesson, but then made the same mistake again and did the same thing again? Sure you have. Maybe that is what happened between our two lessons for this morning. Between our lessons Jesus spoke about temptations and divorce, he blessed little children, and talked about how hard it is when we put riches above our relationship to God.
With all that said, and the last of the three predictions of his arrest and death before them, Jesus and the disciples walk along. Two of them walked a little quicker than the others, James and John, the Zebedee Boys. These two caught up with Jesus and whispered a request. For sure they did not want their fellow disciples to hear what they were asking of Jesus. "Teacher, they said, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
I hope you can see how uncomfortable they are. If they were altogether comfortable with what they were doing, they wouldn't have walked ahead and they wouldn't have whispered. They also would not have said, in essence, "Say yes, Jesus, to whatever we want."
They ask for prestige. They ask for the same thing that they had argued about with the others. Again I like what Jesus did. He did not lose his cool. He didn't say, "I can't believe you still don't understand greatness." Jesus simply asked, Can you drink the cup that I drink from? Can you be baptized with the kind of baptism that I have been baptized with?" They say they can, but they cannot. They think that what waits for them in Jerusalem is a celebration. James and John wanted to be seated at the head table for that.
Jesus tried to explain it, but it's hard to grasp. What Jesus was really asking was this, "Are you able to suffer with me?" It is about now that the other ten disciples catch up and catch wind of what James and John have just asked for. Mark says that they are angry. I think they are because they didn't first ask Jesus for the same thing. Right there on the road Jesus teaches again and in essence says, "The really great ones in the world are the ones who serve."
Now, let me bring this a little closer to home for us this morning. The mistake the disciples made and made and made again is that they equated greatness with power and a place of honor. It's not that way. Jesus said that if we want to be great, we must receive his kingdom like a child and that we must serve someone.
He taught that by putting a child in his lap and he showed it on that night in the Upper Room when he got up from the table, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a basin, and began to wash his disciples' feet. That was the task of a servant. In that moment, Peter and all the rest of the disciples must have realized how low a position they really had.
Let's not make the mistake those disciples made. Let us realize that greatness has nothing to do with power and everything with putting the wants and needs of others above our own.
I shared this story with you some time ago, let me share it with you again. It's the story of one of the first hospital visits I made after I moved to Little Rock some eleven years ago. I didn't know the hospital well, but one of our members was there, in the Emergency Room. I found the elevators, but if you've been in the hospital, you know that one set of the elevators doesn't go down to the Emergency Room. I was lost.
That is when a young doctor saw me. He happened to be a member of the church I had just been appointed to. He recognized me, but he also recognized that I was lost and needed some help. He pointed the way to more elevators and then later he came to make sure that I had found who I was looking for. I've never forgotten what Dr. Gordon Newbern did that day. I later learned that he was and is one of the most respected orthopedic doctors in Little Rock.
When I came back up on my way back to the church, I saw a plaque that told who the nurses and doctors of the year were, those who had been honored and there printed, for 1998, was Gordon's name. I'll have to say that I wasn't surprised.
Great people are the ones who put others first. They are our fathers who drive old cars and wear old clothes so we can have the things our hearts desire. They are the ones who say, "I'll be right there when we need them the most. They are the ones who serve families who are homeless at the Interfaith Hospitality House and at soup kitchens and when we try to thank them, they'll have none of that.
Beloved, be great this week.