Children's Sabbath
A sermon by the Rev. Sue Singer
October 19, 2003
Mark 10: 35-45
Those brothers of mine! Typical James and John, getting themselves in trouble again. They were always like that, even back in the schoolyard - "We want to be first, we want our turn now, we're the best" - always pushy, always getting into fights. We used to call them "the thunderers" because of all the noise they made. You know people like that?
It sure was hard to be their big sister ... but wait a minute, you're all still standing up! So sit, sit. That's right. And you don't even know my name yet - how rude of me. My name is Susannah, daughter of Rachel (that's our mother); though if I was a boy, like my brothers James and John, you would say, son of Zebedee (that's our father). So I'm Susannah, the big sister of James and John, the boys you just heard about in your Gospel reading.
That was a day! So exciting, so scary, so puzzling - and my brothers throwing their weight around in the middle of it all. I thought you might like to hear a bit more about what happened - that's why I came this morning.
Well, it was quite a time. Jesus had been on the road for months, and we'd all been with him, travelling around, and the things we'd seen and heard - you wouldn't believe it! People who were so sick, incurably sick - healed! Miraculous food for huge crowds coming out of nowhere! Teachings that made us feel that God was this close, that God might come to meet us just around the next bend in the road. James and John even told me that one day, on top of a mountain, when Jesus was praying, they saw him shining white and heard the voice of God talking to him - the voice of God!
So my brothers were both with Jesus right from the start, and I was with him a lot too, even though your gospels don't say much about the women, because we had to come and go quite a lot. Every time Jesus and his followers came through our home town they stayed with us, of course, and then if I could get away, even for just a few days, if it wasn't harvest time, if none of the children were sick, I would go on the road with them, for as long as I could. It was like going on a pilgrimage - I learned so much, I felt so close to Jesus and to all his friends; it was a wonderful time, I wish I could be back there now. So that's how I was there that day.
We were getting near to Jerusalem and everyone was getting scared. And why? Well, when someone like Jesus comes along, and they can heal and teach and feed people like he did, and when they inspire people to change their lives, like he did, and when it starts to look as if God's own power might be working through him - well, then the religious people and the political people start getting hostile. The religious people were worried that their power would be taken away; the political people were worried that there might be a rebellion against the Romans and the comfortable coexistence they'd achieved with the occupying army would be upset. That's what they were thinking, and now they were joining forces; we were beginning to be afraid that if Jesus went to Jerusalem they would kill him.
The funny thing was, he seemed to know, and it didn't seem to worry him. He would talk as if being killed was something he had to do, that dying would be the final and greatest way he would serve us - we didn't understand ...
And it was right after he had been talking about all this that my two brothers, James and John, came barging up with their request - "Teacher, arrange it so that we can sit one on each side of you in your glory." The nerve of it! No wonder the others lost their tempers with them!
I think that what James and John were hoping was that Jesus wouldn't be killed, that somehow he would make God's kingdom come right there and then, put everything right in the world, no more war, no more hunger, no more sickness, for ever and ever. I think that's what they were hoping, and they wanted to get in quickly to get the best places, right next to Jesus.
It was just like them - they always rushed right in, spoke up and acted without thinking it through.
When Jesus first met them, the same thing happened: there they were fishing in the boat with our old father Zebedee, and Jesus calls out, "Hey, come and follow me," and they were off, didn't even stop to say goodbye or change their clothes, they were off on the road with Jesus. They saw something in him ... something wonderful, something good, something from God. I think he made them feel like they could climb any mountain, do anything, no matter how difficult, for God's sake.
And of course Jesus took the good in what they were saying that day and used it - he was always doing that, helping people to be better than they knew how to be. So when they asked for the places of honor, he gave them a challenge: "Are you able to drink my cup, and share my baptism?" They couldn't resist that one! "Absolutely," they said, "Lead us to it, we are able."
And once you say yes to Jesus like that, anything can happen, you know. "All right," he said, "I can't promise anything about the places right next to me - that's for God to decide - but yes, you will drink my cup, you will share my baptism. And," he went on, "If you're willing to have that happen, there are some things you need to know about being truly great. You're thinking that the great ones are the rulers, the top dogs; but if you're with me, that's not true. With me, if you want to be great, you have to be a servant, if you want to be first, you have to be a slave. I've been trying to show you how to do that, because that's what I'm here for - to serve you, and in the end, to give my life for you."
Well! No-one could say anything after that; we just went on to Jerusalem with him. But you know, it all happened for James and John just as Jesus said. They had said yes to him, and so they did drink his cup - the cup he gave us the last time we had supper together, the cup that he told us was his blood and the bread he told us was his body. And they did share his baptism - when we started baptizing all Jesus' followers, after he rose from the dead.
But even more amazing, James and John were changed by those things, changed into just the kind of servant that Jesus was. My two little brothers, they rushed off all over again to tell the world about Jesus, to invite people everywhere to follow him, to share the good news that he was risen from the dead.
Oh, they still thundered, they still made a lot of noise - even Jesus couldn't stop them being loud and impulsive and sometimes pushy. But everything they did was to serve Jesus, and to serve other people for his sake; and in the end they even shared in the same kind of death - yes, they were killed too because they were servants of Jesus, and now they really are with him in glory.
You might think that kind of thing could never happen, that people could never be changed so much just by saying yes to Jesus, by sharing his baptism and drinking his cup. I know it sounds incredible - but it still happens, all the time. You young people who went on your own pilgrimage - yes, I know what you were doing this summer!
You went up to the Colorado mountains to build a labyrinth, a holy prayer place, in memory of a man - Herb Thompson, wasn't it? You didn't know him when he was alive, did you? But you saw his paintings, you saw his Bible, all marked and worn, you saw his prayer cards, all the things about his faith that he didn't show off to anyone. You heard about him teaching painting in places of desperate darkness, in prisons, with parents whose children had died, with children who had seen terrible sadness. And when you were hauling the rocks to build the labyrinth I know you kept having visitors - people who stopped by and said, "Do you know what Herb did for me? Do you know what a friend he was to my child? Do you know what a great letter he sent me when I really needed it?" He was never known as a great painter, never famous, he was just a regular person. But he was like my brothers James and John - he said yes to Jesus, he lived out the promises made at his baptism, he drank Jesus' cup, and he became a truly great person, because he was a servant of all.
And it can happen to you too, so watch out, old ones as well as young ones! Because it still works - saying yes to Jesus, being baptized, drinking his cup, those things still work to change people's lives. If you will do them, then Jesus will take everything you are, all your gifts, all your talents, even the things about yourself that you don't think are so great (like the way my brothers always wanted to be first) - he'll take you just as you are and transform you.
When you remember Jesus at the altar by eating his bread and drinking his cup, you become members of him - not just members as if church was like a club, but members like members of a body. You have the chance to become working parts of Jesus, to be his arms and legs and hands and feet, to live the kind of life he led by being a servant of all. Everything about you - everything! - the things you have and the things you are, your time and money, who you are as a person, your whole life - all those things come from God, and Jesus gives us the chance to use them all to serve others in the same way he did.
It's the most wonderful life, it's a life that will make you truly great, and Jesus is inviting you to live it. I hope you all respond the same was my brothers did, and say, "We are able!"