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The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost September 20, 2015

This Weekend's Readings (click each reading to view the passage)

Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54; James 3:13-4:3; Mark 9:30-37

Pr. Steve's Sermon - The Question of Greatness

Children's Sermon - Welcome

Choir Anthem - It Is Well with My Soul

Sermon Notes from Pastor Steve...

Although all the Gospels tell the same basic story of Jesus, there are certain characteristics that stand out in each one of them. For instance, in John's Gospel, there's a big emphasis on the Spirit. Matthew's Gospel emphasizes how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecies. Luke, the physician, makes a big deal about how Jesus cares for the poor and heals the sick.

And Mark, you may have noticed, more than any other Gospel, points out how really, really, dense the disciples of Jesus are! They're at it again in today's Gospel reading. Jesus has just told them that he's going to be betrayed into the hands of sinners and killed. They don't know what to make of that.

But no matter, they retreat into their own little world and start having an argument/discussion about which one of them is the greatest! And so it's really easy, as we read this story, to simply think that the moral of the story is that the first disciples of Jesus were really selfish, petty and dumb. What a bunch of idiots they were!

But if we do that, we're really missing the point of the story. After all, Mark has already made it clear that the disciples are a little slow on the uptake. And if you read the story carefully, Jesus DOESN'T criticize the disciples for engaging in discussion. He doesn't even reprimand them for discussing who's the greatest.

Instead, the problem with the disciples' desire for greatness is that their idea of "greatness" is focused on self. "Self" is what their idea of greatness is focused on, and their focus on self has caused them to completely ignore:

One another (they've stopped caring about one another's growth and spiritual health; each of them cares only about how great he is...)

The wider community Jesus calls them to serve (there were often crowds of people who followed along as Jesus traveled, but the disciples aren't, at this point, interested in anything that's going on with the crowds...)

Jesus himself (Jesus has dropped a bombshell on them, but their not talking about how they can help and support Jesus; they ignore the real issues at hand by focusing on the org chart...!)

So the point of the story is that Jesus took even the opportunity of the disciples being dense to redirect their thinking. He doesn't criticize them for having a discussion about greatness, but he does try to redefine their definition of "greatness". To be great in God's sense of greatness, is to live in a way that you can give up your focus on self.

And that's a lot harder to do that it may seem. So before we get too smug about criticizing the dense disciples for being so focused on self, consider how hard it is for each of us to really, truly focus our words and deeds and attitudes in ways that aren't at least a little affected by a sense of self-interest.

For us, too, the concept of "greatness" is often as much tied to "self" as it was for those first disciples. In fact, it may even be harder for us that we like to admit. And that's often because we:

Live in the age of Donald Trump (where narcissistic megalomania cause a rise in the polls; and like "relative depravity", where I think I'm poor because I see so many other people with more wealth than me, every time I open my news feed - especially during election campaigns - I see so many self-aggrandizing people that I think, "I'm really pretty humble by comparison!" But am I really not hung up on self, or am I just in as much denial as the disciples were practicing...?)

Cloak our own desire for greatness in piety and altruism (I gotta win one for the team! I need to work harder and smarter so that things will work out; I'm really doing this for my family and kids. I sort of ignore the idea that it would be really cool if other people realize that "I" was the one that made it all work out. Am I really being altruistic, or am I being motivated by how good I might be able to look...?)

Have an image of ourselves to uphold! (Even if nobody notices or cares, I have this self image that I need to maintain of myself and my abilities; and after all, good self-image is important, right?! But if I step back and watch myself, am I really seeking greatness for God in my life, or am I just violating the First Commandment again - where I think it all depends upon me instead of God...?)

And the big problem for me with some of these questions is that in my life, the answer is often "both". It's hard to completely get away from "self" in my concept of greatness. It's a daily struggle for me. It was a daily struggle for the first disciples. It's probably a daily struggle for you, too.

And wrestling with the question of greatness is the point of this story. The question of whether my idea of greatness is God's idea of greatness, or really just self-centered greatness is always a messy one. The boundaries between what I want and what God wants for me can often be a lot blurrier and harder to distinguish than many of us would like to admit.

So Jesus actually encourages the disciples to continue to have discussions with one another. He gives them an idea of what God's idea of greatness is all about when he sets this child in their midst, and then he calls them to continue to wrestle together with the questions about whether their words and deeds and attitudes are focused on God's greatness or on self.

There are no easy answers, and no quick litmus tests for some of the questions Jesus gives us. But in the end, Jesus points out that in his suffering and death for us, even God's greatness isn't focused on himself, but on others. Indeed, God's greatness isn't about God's size or glory or accomplishments, but about how God's love and power and concerns are always focused outward on his people and his creation.

Jesus' call to his first disciples, as well as to us, is to wrestle each day with the question of greatness. It's a call to struggle against a focus on self. It's a call to remember God's definition of greatness. And most of all, it's a call to live our lives each day in the light of the greatness of God's love, which God is always directing outward towards us.

Amen.