James and John, Zebedee’s sons, came
up to him. “Teacher, we have
something we want you to do for us.”
“What is it? I’ll see what I can do.”
“Arrange it,” they said, “so that we
will be awarded the highest places
of honor in your glory—one of us at
your right, the other at your left.”
Jesus said, “You have no idea what
you’re asking. Are you capable of
drinking the cup I drink, of being
baptized in the baptism I’m about to be
plunged into?”
“Sure,” they said. “Why not?”
Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you will
drink the cup I drink, and be
baptized in my baptism. But as to
awarding places of honor, that’s not
my business. There are other
arrangements for that.”
When the other ten heard of this
conversation, they lost their
tempers with James and John. Jesus got
them together to settle things
down. “You’ve observed how godless
rulers throw their weight around,”
he said, “and when people get a little
power how quickly it goes to their
heads. It’s not going to be that way
with you. Whoever wants to be great
must become a servant. Whoever wants
to be first among you must be
your slave. That is what the Son of
Man has done: He came to serve, not
to be served—and then to give away his
life in exchange for many who
are held hostage.”
The Billings Gazette has been running
a series titled “Ten
Inspiring Stories from Billings and
Montana.” The goal of
the series is for the reading audience
to “refresh its faith in
humanity.”
This week we read about the high-tech
smart house that
was recently built in Lockwood for
former Navy SEAL Bo
Reichenbach. Reichenbach’s life
changed when he
stepped on a makeshift bomb in
Afghanistan in 2012. His
dream, before the accident, was to
build his own home for
his family. His father is a builder.
With the loss of both his
legs, and one arm also injured,
Reichenbach’s dream was
short-lived...until many good people
(including foundations
and organizations) who “like to make
good things happen”
stepped in.
This week Bo and his family received
the keys to their
brand-new home that meets all of the
American Disability
Act’s requirements, including a cook
top stove that has a
button you push which lowers it to a
height that you can
cook from a wheelchair--- one of many
high tech features
in the home that support Bo’s needs.
What struck me as I read the story was
the creativity of
the persons involved in building this
unique home, whether
it was the foundation which provided
financial backing
(created in memory of a firefighter
named Stephen Sillar,
who laid his life on the line on
September 11, 2001…his
shift had just ended and he had plans
to play golf with his
brothers, but when he heard that the
towers had been
bombed returned to help his
coworkers), or the local
persons who gave unselfishly of their
resources to make
this home a reality, to the person or
persons who use their
life to think of ways to make living
easier for persons who
can’t stand on two legs or reach with
two arms.
A retired friend
shared with me that this is how she
views her newly
acquired retirement status, as an
opportunity to be
creative in a Jesus kind of way,
which means SERVICE. In our lesson from
the Gospel
of Mark, Jesus reminds his friends
that life with God isn’t
about self-promotion, it is about self
sacrifice, or
SERVICE. I like the way service is
defined in the
Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible—the
commentary the
work of Christian author Richard
Foster:
“Service is the
loving, thoughtful, active promotion of
the good of others
and the causes of God in our
world, through which
we experience the many little
deaths of going
beyond ourselves.”
What we hear in this definition is
that SERVICE is
INTENTIONAL (thoughtful; thought out),
INDESPENSIBLE (of God), and
INVIGORATING (lifegiving.)
·
Many
of the stories recorded in the 10th chapter of Mark
address energy centers which ail
people, or make us sick:
legalism, judgment (shaming), the
pursuit of comfort, and
self-centeredness (me before you).
Jesus invites us into
new energy centers: compassion,
humility, the pursuit of
spiritual depth, and connectedness or
attention to the
other (you then me). The
movement of the soul of the
person, or the soul
of a congregation, from the sick
energy centers to the
healthy energy centers is what
we are talking about
when we talk about faith—in faith
we step into God
activity such as prayer, forgiveness,
service---trusting
that we will not fail ourselves or
each other—because
God is with us in our actions.
My newly retired friend put God
activity on hold for many
years. She made time for worship but
the rest of the week
was about pursuing success at work
instead of pursuing
success at life. As she entered her
sixties she realized
her spirit was starving for something
other than her
savings account and a new sofa and
promotions at work.
“I’m simply listening
to the people in my life and
responding,” she told
me, “which was pretty hard to
do when I was running
the company”.
She continued, “Not too long after I
retired I met a
professional woman who was what I used
to be—working,
working, working! You’ve heard of the
walking dead—well
there is the working dead and I was
one of them! When I
met this woman I loved her because she
was me—she
gave everything she had to her job in
the community and
her family at home. Families have to
eat which means
someone has to cook! So she was a
brilliant lady, and a
tired lady. So I went around to a few
stores and selected
a few inexpensive goodies such as
chocolates and cute
cooking utensils and a small vase with
flowers, arranged
them in a basket, and left it on her
front porch with a note
that read ‘If you want to be good
to others you also have
to be good to
yourself.’ I
had so much fun! Not too long
ago a family in my neighborhood here
in Billings struggled
with the failing health of their
mother. Their mother had
cancer and I think, in the end, this
family tended to her for
over two years. I looked out my
kitchen window and
decided I’d do my part, too, so I
cooked extra food on
Thursdays and placed the food in their
refrigerator for the
weekend when most of the family would
show up. I grew
to love the mother, too! Now that the
mother has died, I
am going to select a few cards and
include notes about
how much I loved this woman and her
family. You know,
service simply is
acts of kindness. You
don’t have to
make it complicated and travel long
distances to find
people who need a little kindness in
their life. It’s next
door. The point is I’m having so much
fun. Who knew
that SERVICE was play?”
So often we will talk
about service as Christian duty; a
requirement, or
obligation.
Do we think Jesus plucked
Zachaeus out of that tree out of
obligation—or returned
Lazarus to Mary and Martha out of
obligation? Did he stop
and visit with the Rich Young Man
because he was
required to do so? Did he pull the
children out of the
crowd and put them on his knee, and
speak of their value,
because he was supposed to?
The answer is no.
Jesus served because SAW the
world as God saw the
world: beauty and value in
everything and
everyone.
To LOVE is to WAKE UP (to
quote Jesuit author and teacher
Anthony de Mello) to life
as it really is: holy. Of God—all
God—all of it!!! How can
we not be impressed by it all—or moved
to be in it—or
moved to stay with it—to build it up?
How can we turn all
that is IN ON OURSELVES when all that
is belongs to
everyone—especially God’s
unconditional love?
The challenge, we
begin to understand, is to love
where we are planted—to refrain from
thinking that God
happens somewhere else—to refrain from
wishing we
were in Hawaii, or born into a better
looking family, or
longing to be ten years old again and
in the care of our
parents, or, if we are entering this
story as the church, to
move into our neighborhood as it is
now, to embrace each
other as we are now, to be open to the
depth and talent of
every generation of persons because
every generation of
persons is holy.
Holy is happening
RIGHT NOW…inviting us to show
up…inviting us to
care.
Here’s a little story:
“Where shall I look
for Enlightenment?” the disciple asked.
“Here,” the elder
said.
“When will it
happen?” the disciple wanted to know.
“It is happening
right now,” the elder said.
“Then why don’t I
experience it?” the disciple asked.
And the elder
answered, “Because you do not look.”
“But what should I
look for?” the disciple wanted to know.
And the elder smiled
and answered, “Nothing. Just look.”
“But at what?” the
disciple insisted.
“Anything your eyes
alight upon,” the elder continued.
“Well, then, must I
look in a special kind of way?” the
disciple said.
“No,” the elder said.
“Why ever not?” the
disciple persisted.
And the elder said
quietly, “Because to look you must be
here. The problem is
that you are mostly somewhere
else.”
As my retired friend shard with
me---when she wanted to
grow deeper in Jesus---all she had to
do was walk out her
front door with a new purpose---to
build up her neighbor in
love.
Prayer: Very Present
God, you are as close to us
as we choose to see.
Open the eyes of our
heart—so many
beautiful people—tired and
worn, growing ever so
slowly in goodness—and
beautiful. Give us
the courage to love us all, like
you! Amen.
(This sermon was preached by Reverend Dana Keener at Central Christian Church in Billings, Montana on October 18, 2015.)
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