Proper 24, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 24, Yr B (2024)                                                            The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Mark 10:35-45                                                                    St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

When my children were little,

I would occasionally feel a tug on the hem of my shirt,

                        and when I would turn to look,

      I would see beautiful, big, brown eyes and a smile looking up at me…

“Mommy,

         will you promise to do whatever I ask?

                        Please, huh, please?

                 Will you?”

When they were little,

(and I was naïve),

 I would say “sure, honey!”

But, as they grew older –

and I grew wiser –

I learned to first ask what they wanted!

In today’s Gospel reading brothers James and John quietly sidle up to Jesus,

making sure that the other disciples don’t hear them….

“Jesus,

            Jesus,

      we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

Jesus, in his wisdom, replies, “Well… what do you want?”

“To sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

When I first read this story, I thought, “What arrogance!”

James and John (two grown men) walk up to Jesus

and ask that he grant their request without first telling him what they want.

And then they ask to sit on either side of Jesus in his glory!

Wow!

There was a reason they earned the nickname “Sons of thunder!”

Have they not heard a word that Jesus has been saying?

Jesus has just told them a third time,

without softening the blow in any way,

     that he will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and the Gentiles, too, and will be mocked,

and spit upon,

and flogged,

and killed. 

They just don’t seem to understand the horror that is about to take place!

If they really understood that Jesus was going to be mocked and killed,

            why in the world would they ask to sit at his right and at his left?

They still seem to be preoccupied with honor and power

even in the midst of talk of suffering and death.

But then I thought…

            well, maybe they did hear Jesus after all,

      and instead of being clueless,

                        maybe they are actually terrified.

Maybe this third time, what Jesus is saying is finally starting to sink in…

their leader for whom they have given up everything is about to be killed.

And if he is killed,

then they will be alone.

      They will have given up everything…for nothing!

So, perhaps in their terror they are grasping for some security

by asking to sit at Jesus’ right and left,

      seeking to stay with him and somehow maintain some purpose – and power.

Some years ago Sam Wells, the Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, preached about our quest for power.  He said:

“The problem is that our [human] quest for power,

and for the eternal life we hope that power will bring,

     is one colossal detour from the quest that we were really made for

      and the gift that God truly offers us.

“The accumulation of power is an enormous insurance policy against there being no God.

“But the insurance policy fails because it’s powerless to deliver eternal life –

which is the one thing we need it for.

“And what God offers us more than anything else isn’t power….

what God offers us is glory.”

When James and John ask to sit at the right hand and at the left hand of Jesus,

I think what they are seeking

is to secure their own power, privilege, honor, and safety.

They are seeking some long-lasting recognition for their efforts in this world.

And as Jesus says, t

hey have no idea what they are really asking.

They seek power, even if it’s just the power of security…

            while Jesus seeks to serve,

which involves humility and insecurity.

As Jesus says, the first will be last,

            and the last will be first.

James and John seem to be asking to be first…

            Jesus is seeking to be the last.

It is the last,

the “least,”

      who will show up first, Jesus says.

If you recall last week’s Gospel:

Jesus looked with love

upon the man who asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life,

       because Jesus knew that what the man needed to do

would be the hardest thing possible for him. 

And sure enough, when Jesus told this man to give away all that he had -

            what was required of this man to be “the last” -

the man went away grieving.

I believe that Jesus looks upon James and John with that very same love –

with compassion and grace –

     and tells them that even though they have absolutely no idea what they asking,

         that they will indeed drink the cup he drinks

and they will be baptized with the same baptism.

Unbeknownst to them they will indeed suffer for the sake of the Gospel,

and it is in their suffering that they will receive the power of God,

the power of eternal life,

       even though that power doesn’t remotely resemble what they think it will.

So, maybe as James and John take Jesus’ words seriously this time around,

they seek to grasp their places of power

so that they will not, after all, lose their Messiah

       or their hoped-for place in the world.

They seem to understand Jesus’ glory in terms of human power…

the same power that Jesus reminds them

      that the Gentile rulers use to crush those under them as tyrants.

This earthly “power” is indeed not the “glory” of God.

Instead God’s glory shines through those who serve one another,

            through the one who lays down their life in love,

not through wielding power over others.

The cross is where Jesus empties himself of every ounce of earthly power,

            and the cross is where we most visibly see the glory of God. 

Sam speaks of the glory of God as:

 “the wonder of the full presence of God…

                            God’s ever-expanding,

ever-embracing,

        ever-enfolding encircling of us.”

“If we discover the glory of the cross,

            we shall receive the power of the resurrection.”

And that is a different power indeed – the power of new life!

If we receive the power of the resurrection,

we need not live in fear and in search of earthly security,

      placing ourselves and our needs above others.

Sam continues,

“Resurrection comes when [we’re] so excited by the glory

that [we] stop worrying about [our] own survival,

[even] our own power over death….

“Seek only the power,

and [we’ll] never find our way to the glory.

“Seek the glory,

and [we’ll] be given the power.” 

(preached at Duke Chapel, “The Power and the Glory” on 11/3/13)

Seek the glory, and we’ll be given the power.

Some years ago I went to a prayer vigil for three people who died at the hands of domestic violence.

As part of the vigil a number of folks shared their own stories and wisdom. 

One woman spoke whose daughter and grandson had been killed several years prior.

This woman spoke of living into and living out the glory of God.

She said, “We cannot legislate love. 

Love begins with us. 

Love occurs between two people. 

“It matters how we speak to one another.

“It matters how we treat one another.

“It matters how we relate to people in our families. 

“It matters how we relate to people in our places of work. 

       “It matters how we relate to people in our neighborhoods.

   “It matters how we relate to people at the grocery store.

“Our children are watching us,

and they learn from us.

“If we speak with violence,

they will learn violence.

“But if we speak with love,

they will learn how to love.”

She is so right.

She spoke words of the power of resurrection…

the power of love.

As followers of Christ,

we are called to bear witness through our very lives of God’s glory:

        the ever-expanding,

ever-embracing,

ever-enfolding arms of God’s love.

To do this, we lay down our very lives in service to the world. Amen.