October 17, 2021- Mark 10:35-45; Psalm 91
Mark 10:35-45; Psalm 91
God as God Is
Lectionary 29B – October 17, 2021
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
One of the very first sermons I preached was on this passage in Mark exactly 21 years ago.
Then – I never preached on it again! Hahahah!
Avoided it like the plague.
I have no idea why.
Anyway, I guess it’s time to revisit it.
This little conversation Jesus has with his disciples comes right after the so-called “third passion prediction.”
You will recall that three times in Mark’s Gospel Jesus predicts he is going to suffer and die on a cross.
And you will also recall that every single time the disciples totally ignore what Jesus is saying –
maybe just like how I have avoided preaching on what Jesus says here for 21 years!
The first time it was Peter who rebukes Jesus for saying he is going to die.
The second time the disciples start to argue among themselves about who is the greatest.
This third time James and John get in on the act by arguing over who will sit at Jesus’ right and left hand
when he “comes into his kingdom.”
Sheesh.
Poor Jesus – you can just imagine him shaking his head.
The disciples either have not heard him or – for whatever reason – cannot hear him.
So he has to spell out for them what he means.
Among the Gentiles, he says – and of course he means the Romans – the ones the people regard as their rulers “lord” it over them.
They tyrannize their own people and enslave them.
But, Jesus says, in the alternative kind of community we are establishing, it is completely the opposite.
Among us, to be great is to be a servant.
The point of being a follower of Jesus is not to sit at Jesus right or left hand at the banquet –
it is, rather, to be a servant at that banquet.
Jesus claims that he, himself, is not above being a servant.
He came, he says, not in order to be served, but to serve, to give his life, to free others –
so that they, too, may serve.
In the context of this story, I suppose Jesus is trying to free his friends from the notions of greatness they have.
It appears they have a notion of greatness that means being served by others.
But Jesus’ notion of greatness is the exact opposite: his idea is that it is always greater to serve and
to set others free.
It seems to me that in this story, the disciples think they know who Jesus is and why he has come.
But even at this point in the Gospel – after the third (!) passion prediction – they still have no clue.
They have no idea who he is – and therefore, they have no idea how to truly follow him.
I like to think that we get this story every three years in order to remind us of this deep truth,
over, and over, and over: we like to think we know who Jesus is and who God is.
But if we’re honest we continually turn Jesus and the God he incarnates into something they are not.
We continually turn the triune God into something we want them to be.
God is all-powerful.
God controls creation the way a puppet-master controls a puppet theatre.
If we pray the right way, worship the right way, believe the right way, and behave the right way,
God will answer our prayers in the way we want.
I will no longer suffer, those I love will no longer suffer, the innocent will no longer suffer.
Friends, this is just not the way God works. This is just not who God is.
The disciples are shown getting it wrong over and over again because we get it wrong over and over again.
And Jesus graciously corrects them every time – and is himself an example of exactly who God is.
In any relationship, for the bond to be genuine, and true, and lasting,
we must accept the other person for who they truly are – and they must accept us just as we are.
I know this has become a cliché, but it is true. And it is powerful. And . . . we continually forget it.
Even though we know this to be the truest thing in the universe, how often do we continue to either
a) make a person out to be something they’re not, or
b) wish they were someone other than who they are.
Either way is a recipe for relationship disaster.
We must accept each other as we are.
And the same is true of God.
We may wish God was some all-powerful dude in the sky who rewards the good, punishes the bad,
and who has control over everything.
But that is simply not who God is.
We must accept God for who God is, for who God is revealed to be in the Bible,
and above all for who God is revealed to be in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Here we see a God who suffers with us, who accompanies us, who serves us, and feeds us, and loves us,
and accepts us – just as we are.
In Psalm 91 today, we have this great affirmation of just who God is: “in trouble, I am with you,”
which echoes the great affirmation at the heart of Psalm 23: in the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,
“for you are with me.”
God is accompanying, loving presence.
God does not – or cannot – prevent evil, and injustice, and suffering – just ask Job.
But God does something more amazing: God is present with us, God accompanies us, God suffers with us.
Reflecting on Psalm 91, Biblical scholar Clint McCann says it this way:
As the Psalmists knew, and as Jesus revealed as well, the delivering, saving, satisfying presence of God
does not prevent trouble, opposition, and suffering.
Rather, [the delivering, saving, satisfying presence of God] promises the strength to persevere, endure, and overcome.
This is what God’s presence promises: strength to endure. Strength to persevere. Strength to overcome.
Strength to serve in the midst of trouble.
Strength to continue as participants in God’s mission.
This is what Jesus is really calling us to this morning:
when the disciples ask “what can Jesus do for me,” they lose all sight of the big picture,
they lose sight of why we are here, of why Jesus calls us in the first place:
to be participants with him in God’s mission to love, bless, heal, serve and set free
this whole world and every person in it.
To accompany one another, to stand by one another, to serve one another, to set one another free.
It is very hard, friends, not to know answers to the desperate questions we have:
Why do the innocent suffer? Why doesn’t God do something? Are my prayers being answered?
But let us take consolation in what we do know: that God has revealed everything we need to know about God’s self,
that this God can be trusted, that God will somehow bring everything right in the end –
and that above all this God is present with us right now, in this moment,
loving us and accepting just as we are in a way we can hardly imagine –
and with this loving presence strengthening us to persevere, to endure, and overcome.
Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
