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The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost October 18, 2015

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

Isaiah 53:4-12; Psalm 91:9-16; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

Pr. Steve's Sermon - Accepting Discomfort

Children's Sermon - Being the Leader

Choir Anthem - How Majestic Is Your Name

What Makes Us Uncomfortable Might Be Just What We Need (NPR / All Things Considered Article from Oct.11)

Sermon Notes from Pastor Steve...

Last week, there was an article on NPR's "All Things Considered" entitled, "What Makes us Uncomfortable May be Just What We Need." The impetus for the article was an interview with the Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, who is this year's Nobel laureate for journalism.

Like many journalists, Svetlana Alexievich has written about many topics that make people uncomfortable. What's been particularly notable about her work is her continued writings on the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and its continuing effects even today. As the writer of the NPR article points out, "this has not endeared her to Russian authorities"!

But more than that, her work has often brought her criticism even from people outside the government, who claim that her work "shows that she hates the Russian people."

Her writing has made a lot of people uncomfortable. And in turn, that's made her life uncomfortable, too. Because even when you know you're doing right thing, it's never fun and exciting to be disliked and uncomfortable.

The NPR article goes on to say that Svetlana Alexievich isn't saying uncomfortable things for the sake of being uncomfortable. Nor does she hate the Russian people. Instead, it says "Alexievich knows she makes people uncomfortable. But her purpose, she says, is that she loves her country and wants it to be better, instead of comfortable with where it is."

And often, saying and doing uncomfortable things, and being willing to be uncomfortable yourself, is the only way to move forward and affect positive change. And in the NPR article, the author wonders whether or not, as a society, we've often elevated comfort, "not truth, not efficiency, not what's optimal or best - to our highest aspiration."

The article points out that it's common for us to elevate "comfort" (or at least the lack of discomfort) as the highest goal. And so, we try to get out of doing things we'd rather not do by saying "I'm not comfortable with that" instead of "I don't feel like it". And I justify my preferred political solutions because they're the ones that cause the least discomfort to me and my "group."

But what would happen, asks the author, "if, instead of demanding comfort for ourselves when we face our biggest problems, we accepted the discomfort as the price of living in a dynamic but complex world. What would that look like?"

In a sense, that's the same question Jesus is asking James and John in today's Gospel reading. James and John are looking forward to the final reign of Jesus at the end of time, and they want to have the most comfortable seats in the house. "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Wouldn't that be cool and comfortable?

And so Jesus asks them, "are you willing to do the uncomfortable work - and be VERY uncomfortable - in the journey to get to the glory you're looking for?" "Oh sure!", say James and John. "Bring it on! How bad could it be and how long could it last?" Clearly, they're not taking the discomfort seriously.

So Jesus goes on to tell them that they're going to share in the discomfort, not because the discomfort will be fun or somehow "character building", but because enduring the discomfort is the only way to serve the truth. Enduring the discomfort is the only way to change lives for the better. Indeed, enduring the discomfort of pain and death is the only way to move from the darkness of the world into the light of God's glory.

Now in some respects, James and John get all the negative attention for wanting glory and comfort. But in fact, the rest of them become angry at James and John, because deep down, they all really prefer comfort and glory to pain and suffering, too.

And really, who can blame them? Deep down, none of us prefer to suffer. None of us enjoy being uncomfortable. And most of us don't enjoy making others uncomfortable, either.

And so Jesus called his disciples together, and he talked to them about enduring the discomfort by being servants to one another. And in so doing, Jesus encouraged his first disciples - and he encourages us - to understand enduring the discomfort as a way of following Jesus by serving:

The glory of God instead of our own glory ... even Jesus came to be a servant and to endure pain and sacrifice for the sake of others; it wasn't because it was fun or exciting. It was because it was the only way to show the depth and intensity of God's love...

Others instead of ourselves - it's easy to sit on the throne after the kingdom is established. It's a lot harder to work to build the kingdom. But that's what Jesus calls us to help do. And it can't be done without inconvenience and discomfort (often the way Jesus endured the discomfort by refusing to treat people like Gentiles, Romans and tax collectors as second class citizens in the kingdom of God)...

The truth instead of what's popular - which often means the truth of what's good for God's vision for the whole world, instead of just what's comfortable for me or for my "group" (and that often means realizing that what's good for the whole world is going to be uncomfortable for everybody and every group...)

And unlike so many others, Jesus showed his commitment to discomfort - even the discomfort of pain, suffering and death - by enduring it himself, instead of simply asking others to do it. And in calling us to follow him in the way of discomfort, Jesus isn't asking us to turn into masochists who enjoy discomfort, or to seek out discomfort for its own sake.

Instead, Jesus is calling us to do as he did - to put the good of others and the truth of God's love as the highest goal, even above the goal of comfort. Because in God's kingdom, what makes us uncomfortable - and even what made God uncomfortable - is exactly what we need.

Amen.