Listen to the Sermon.
We’ve heard the saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” And we have all practiced it or can recognize examples in our culture. Like when we see an outfit or a hairstyle we think is particularly attractive or that communicates a message we want to embody, we work to re-create it for ourselves. Thinking back a decade or three, remember the ‘power tie’ for men or the ‘red power suit’ for women? Or, more recently, ‘Bieber hair’ or ‘Pantsuit Nation’? Millions of advertising dollars are spent to make us think: ‘If I just wear that, I can garner that kind of respect and power, too.”
We see this very same dynamic in the gospel today with James and John. They boldly ask Jesus for coveted seats of power in glory, the seats at his immediate right and left hands. If we can’t sit in the seat of power, we should sit right next to it. Those sons of Zebedee know there is something special about Jesus, and they want to get some of it for themselves.
Jesus called James and John to follow him (Mark 1:19) just after he called Simon and Andrew. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, they have been listening to his teaching, watching him heal people and cast out demons. They do believe that he is the promised Messiah.
And, even though they have been with Jesus constantly for nearly 2 years, they still think he’s going to be a military ruler. The kind of king who wields armies and fear. That power to order the world in their own image looks mighty appealing to these humble men, fishermen and disciples of an itinerant teacher. We can hear them saying, ‘Come on, Jesus, you’re going to kick this dusty road and sit in glory. Just let us sit right next to you and share that glory, OK?’
Jesus on the other hand, has no illusion about what the road to his ‘glory’ will be. And he asks them, quite pointedly, if they really understand what they are asking for, “Do you really think you can drink from my cup, that you can be baptized with my baptism?” In their ignorance and arrogance, they say, ‘Of course! Just give me a sip of that cup of power.’
And then their friends find out! And those other ten guys - and probably some of the women too - they are MAD. Mark doesn’t say why the other disciples are angry. We can put ourselves in their shoes and imagine all the ways we would be angry. Nonetheless, Jesus calms the angry disciples. The explanation Jesus gives completely debunks James’ and John’s assumptions about power and might. Instead Jesus talks about what power in the kingdom of God, his kingdom, really looks like.
James and John, they think greatness comes from status, the kind of ‘power over’ wielded by tyrants and oppressors. In response, Jesus does what Jesus does all the time. He turns power completely on its head and he says that power comes from serving other people. Not from oppressing them with fear, but from serving them. We will either willingly and joyfully serve others, or we become enslaved to our illusions that we can be free and secure through status and power, through having a respectable job and knowing the ‘right’ people.
We choose who we will serve. Will we serve the voices of the culture that say that we can (and must) be free on our own and at any cost? Or will we hear and heed the voice of Jesus? Will we find our freedom and our true selves through serving our neighbor?
Why do we have a God who is always pushing us to consider the needs of someone else before ourselves? It goes very much against our culture, and even went against the culture of Jesus’ time, to put the needs of someone else before our own.
Quite simply, God delights in our relationships. God delights in God’s relationship with us, and God delights in our relationships with other people. Whether they are at home, at school or work, or with neighbors we know or strangers in our community. It is through our relationships with other people that we discover ourselves inextricably linked with those around us.
When we open ourselves to know someone else, we discover that ‘we are they’ and ‘they are we.’ There is some bit of us, some bit of God, some bit of holy, reflected back to us in the face of the other.
Jesus describes giving his life “as a ransom for many,” reflecting that same priority on loving the other before self. Jesus does not buy us back from God or the devil, but instead pays himself out in order to rescue us from ourselves. To rescue us from our delusion that we are somehow self-sufficient and independent, self-made women and men.
Perhaps in this world we can make those claims, but not in God’s. From this point in Jesus’ story to the end, his whole life and death challenge our assumptions about the true nature of power. As we watch Jesus’ story unfold, we learn that even as we give ourselves in service to others we find ourselves living more fully than ever before.
Our power derives from our imitation of Jesus’ service to us. Power rooted in our status as beloved children of a merciful and gracious God. Being loved unconditionally by God, regardless of our wealth or position in this world, helps us all to realize that we are blessed. We know that blessing first in our baptism, when we emerge from the water as Jesus did and we hear God say, ‘This is my child, my beloved.’ We return that blessing to God, by returning our lives to God. Our stewardship flows from this same font of blessing, blessing all others through serving them in God's love.
Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Maybe in this world. When it comes to God, I don’t think so. We don’t imitate God to flatter God, “to offer excessive and insincere praise to God, especially to further our own interests” [1] God doesn’t ask for or need our flattery.
We give to God because God gives us more than we can ask or imagine. In imitation of that generosity, we give - our whole selves. God gives to us generously, completely, with no strings, no time limits, no expectations. Whether we realize or reciprocate God’s love or not, God’s love is still there - big, bold, and always completely available to us. God gives to us with love, so that we can grow in that love.
In our imitation of our great God, we are asked to give of ourselves, of our gratitude, our time and our passions and our money, with love and generosity, without condition, without expectation of return, so that God’s love can continue to grow in us and in the world around us. So that the kingdom of God can come near – to us and to everyone else who needs to hear a word of hope and love and forgiveness.
Let us pray.
Suffering God, in whose name we seek glory for ourselves: cast down the idols that serve our fear and guilt, our need for blame, for punishment; direct our angry hearts to him who bears our wounds where there is no more need to fight; through Jesus Christ, the true God and servant of all. Amen. [2]
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[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com, accessed 21 October 2018, definition of flattery.
[2] Steven Shakespeare, Prayers for an Inclusive Church (New York: Church Publishing, 2009), Collect for Year B Proper 24.
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