Pentecost 20, 2006

Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalm 91:9-16

Hebrews 5:1-9

Mark 10:35-45

When I was in college I already knew I wanted to be a pastor. But I also knew that a year off of school would be nice. But what to do? I was earning an English/Liberal arts degree.

At the time I was active in our small Lutheran Campus Ministry group. We were hosting someone from the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I went to her event, mainly to make sure someone would be there. The next summer I was in Washington DC for orientation as a member of the volunteer corp. This organization, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the 15/20 some years since I was in it, provides opportunities for individuals 19 and older to live in an intentional community, work for social justice, and live simply.

I received a small stipend, a small community of housemates, and a job at the Delaware Food Bank, which at that time was located in the projects in Wilmington.. This was a long way from the farm in Minnesota! And that was the point.

Anyway, people who have been in the corps all share their stories willingly. But all the stories have the same theme…We all went into the Volunteer Corp to work at non-profit inner-city agencies in order to share our gifts. We were going to make a difference in the world. And we probably made some dents. But one of the Volunteers from 1985 summed up what really happened:

“I came with noble aspirations of giving—

I have received beyond measure;

I came with expectations of hardship—

I have received abundance;

I came with caution—

I have been overwhelmed with love;

I came with self-righteousness—

I have found humility.

I came with religious idealism—

I have found Christ in the streets.”

Pam Stalheim LVC 1985-1986

We all went in thinking we could change the world, maybe, maybe not. But we all came out having been changed.

Isn’t it like that with the best things in life? We join a non-profit board, a civic group, we journey to another country…expecting to offer our gifts to others. But we end up receiving…we end up being changed.

That is the best of Church life, by the way. We come with our noble intentions of sharing our gifts, perhaps we come with our selfish intentions of putting “church” on our résumé, perhaps we come thinking it is a way we can have our personal needs attended to: our need for power and control, our need for attention, our need to be first.

But little by little, or maybe all at once, we are changed. The shape of our life is not what it used to be.

Let’s look at the disciples. We get that great story today of James and John. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Pretty cheeky of them.

“Jesus, let us tell you what we want, let us tell you what we need, let us have a little control here.”

Jesus, at first, plays along. “What is it you want me to do for you?”

Reserve the best seats in the house, okay? Just save one on your right and one on your left. Okay? You’re Jesus. You can do that for us.

Jesus, and I picture him shaking his head again in frustration, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. No problem…now about those front row tickets…”

Jesus replies, “You will get the cup and the baptism…and that isn’t pretty or easy. But I’m not saving seats. That’s God’s job and God’s decision.”

Then those other 10 guys, the ones who are amazed at the chutzpah of James and John, amazed and annoyed cause they two want the good seats, Those 10 guys get mad.

Jesus calls them over, like a bunch of squabbling school kids, and reminds them that they are acting like the Gentiles. They are acting just like the guys they hate.

Your county is being ruled by Roman tyrants, and now here you go, acting just like that.

It isn’t about ruling the world, owning the biggest oil field, being the most recognized.

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

It isn’t about having the best seats in the house or the busiest day planner or the most recognized name. It isn’t about going to the right church or being on the right committee or being on the most boards.

It’s not even about service as we tend to think of it.

For we think that “serving” is simply doing something helpful for others.

Jesus wasn’t a servant like that. His service was all giving, life-changing, society upsetting service. Serving unto death. Serving as a ransom for many.

Service in Jesus’ name is a radical self-giving which changes the shape of one’s very life. It is sharing not just what we have, but what we are.

And when we share what we are….we make a real difference in the world. And when we share what we are as a church, we make a real difference in society.

Last week it was about greed, this week it is about pride. This week we are challenged to carry a cross, not wear a crown. (I stole that, catchy huh?)

We are challenged to quit asking for the best seats, quit jockeying for the best civic identity, quit trying to get the glory and the control.

We are challenged to serve, not lightly, or out of our own self-interest. But to serve with all our heart, soul and mind. We are to share our very selves with the world, as Christ shares his very self with us.

And when we do that, we are changed. When we do that together, society is changed.

That’s a tough call. It involves drinking the cup Jesus drinks and being baptized with the baptism Jesus was baptized with. It involves giving ourselves away.

In a world where we are taught to accumulate not only possessions, but titles and fame…giving ourselves away is a counter-cultural act. Sharing what we have and what we are is another chip out of a selfish society.

And so we give ourselves to God, to one another, to our world. And in doing so the very shape of our lives is changed. Together, the shape of our lives, of our church, becomes the shape of the cross.

So we give ourselves to God. Shape us and use us O Lord. Amen.