Sermon 10/17/2021
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Sermon Proper 24 B 2021
Scripture: Mark 10:35-45
Theme: True Greatness
Greatest of All Time
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When we moved from NY to Ohio our youngest was just getting really into basketball and his favorite player was LeBron James. At the time, LeBron was still playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, so there was a lot of excitement in my house and talk about basketball and the Cavs and Goats. Frankly this confused me because although I am not very knowledgeable about sports I was pretty sure there were no farmyard animals in the NBA last time I checked. Amos who was seven at the time, had to explain to his poor clueless mother that it wasn’t “goats” it was GOAT G-O-A-T, “the greatest of all time”.
Greatness is a label we think may not apply to us, but the reality is that the concept of greatness exists in our society in a powerful way and influences our own thoughts and actions even in ways we may not realize.
How I changed my mind about greatness
For example: when I was young - academic achievement was the goal. I studied hard to get good grades so that my teachers and parents would think I was great. As an adult and later as a parent watching my own children go through school with their peers, my definition of greatness changed. While it is great when students work hard and get good grades, there are a fair number of students who excel academically in high school without cracking a book (my husband and I’m sure I would have hated him for it had we been in high school together).
But I see something now that I did not see then, which is true greatness is exhibited by those students for whom school does not come easy and who persevere and strive despite the obstacles they face.
These are the kids who
Have to get themselves up and fed and dressed and out the door without the help of an adult because maybe their parent works the night shift or maybe they are strung out or hungover
Contend with ADHD, anxiety, learning disabilities for whom every class, every assignment is a struggle
Face bullying, ridicule, disrespect from their peers - school for them is a place of threats and danger where just walking around in their own skin makes them a target.
Our society constructs arbitrary measures of greatness. In our small Ohio town there are banners of high school football players displayed in shops and businesses. But I don’t want to pick on football players. Last year when our oldest was a senior the Summit Choral Society of Akron had banners put up on the lampposts of the graduating seniors. My question is: Where are all the Banners of the Four Cities compact students who are building a house in my neighborhood? An actual house that a family will live in - that is pretty great!
As a society we’ve got some pretty skewed ideas about what greatness looks like - wealth, beauty, power, the number of followers you have on youtube or instagram. But the good news is we have some rather helpful insights from the one who made us - who knows a thing or two about us.
Let’s look together at the passage Mark 10:35 - 45 and read about what Jesus has to say about true greatness.
Just a little aside - Jesus doesn’t scold or shame James and John, he uses this as a teaching moment for all of the disciples.
The verse I want to focus on is:
whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all
Greatness is not about the position you hold or the power you exert over others.
In fact, Jesus explains, it is the exact opposite!
True greatness is the willingness to give up our position in exchange for the role of the lowliest. True greatness is the willingness to give up our power in exchange for weakness.
Not for the sake of being the lowliest and last, but for the sake of compassion, so that we might serve one another.
When I think about some of my personal heroes. People who I feel exemplified lives of servant leadership. They are people whose love for others was so great that they felt compelled to make a difference in the lives of the hurting and oppressed.
Mother Teresa - cared for the sick and dying in Calcutta, India
Dr. MLK Jr. -
The last sermon he preached before his assassination was preached on this passage from Mark 10:35-45 The title of his sermon was: "The Drum Major Instinct" - [LINK].
He encouraged his listeners to
“Be first in love”
“Be first in generosity”
He talked about his own death and asked that if a eulogy is said, that the person not mention where he went to school, that he has a nobel peace prize or any other award. “I’d like for someone to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody”
This love moved them to leave personal comforts to live and serve among those they loved.
Isn’t this exactly what God did?
God didn’t observe our suffering from a safe distance. In Jesus Christ God took on flesh and came to earth and walked among us. Jesus gave up all positions and power to enter into our suffering so that we might truly see and understand how great God’s compassion is for us and for the world.
When Jesus calls us to follow him and to be a servant of all, he is calling us to share in the suffering of others, to help carry one another’s burdens.
I have seen examples of this in the members of this congregation. I was thinking again about Paul and Mary Ellen Huber who started up “Helping Haitians in Need”. They started this up early on in their retirement. During that time of life when most people are laying responsibilities down, they took up an invitation from God to participate in the good work of God in Haiti through Pastor Eddy and his school. Is life as carefree for them? No, because now they are sharing in the sufferings of Pastor Eddy and the people of Haiti. But I would venture to say that this relationship has helped them grow in their compassion and faith.
Some of us don’t always choose the role of servant, but God has put us in relationship with others who need our compassion and help. After watching my father serve as caretaker for my mother these last five years as her dementia worsened I learned what true greatness looks like.
It looks like learning to cook
It looks like handling the finances as well as washing and folding the laundry
It looks like loving calm in the midst of screaming outbursts
It looks like kneeling down to put on shoes, bathing and toileting and dressing and brushing teeth
It looks like patience, endless patience
I know many of us are feeling overwhelmed right now, we can’t take on one more thing. Don’t have the emotional capacity for it. Maybe you are in a place where you need support and an opportunity to share your suffering.
I was listening to an interview this week with a pediatric ICU nurse Hui Wen Sato who described a week of devastating medical cases that left her feeling emotionally raw. She was scheduled to have coffee with a friend and called her up to explain the situation and offered to reschedule. The friend responded . Hui Wen is now studying how medical professionals can learn to manage the intense stress of their jobs caused by witnessing human pain not by compartmentalizing their lives but by finding ways to process their grief - [LINK].
If you still aren’t sure how to define greatness for your own life maybe it is helpful to shift your focus from:
What is greatness?
Who is measuring it?
We put big lists of demands on ourselves that often leave us feeling overwhelmed and guilty.
Instead, let us focus on the only one whose opinion about our life really matters. At the end of the day a lot of what we spend our time worrying about wasn’t important after all. What matters to God is the compassion we showed.
I’d like to leave you with these final words from the Rev. Dr. MLK Jr.’s “The Drum Major Instinct” sermon:
Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory or relativity to serve
You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve
You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve
You only need a heart full of grace and a soul full of love.
Amen.