This is me on October 31, 2015, right after I ran my very first race. In this sermon from October 18th, I offer some observations on my own running and the difficulties we all have when we try to be humble.
Love,
Humility, and Service (10/18/15)
Good
morning! I want to thank everyone who made the trek into Pittsburgh last
Saturday for my ordination. I didn’t read your cards until last Sunday night so
I thought I should thank you all again. Your love and support means so much to
me. I know that many more of you were also there in spirit. So this morning, I
want to start by telling you a story about someone else who wasn’t there last
Saturday, the Rev. Charissa Howe.
Charissa
is probably my best friend from seminary and she serves as the pastor of
Liberty Presbyterian Church, over near McKeesport. Charissa is also a runner.
In fact, she couldn’t come to my ordination last week because she was busy
running a marathon—or so she says. I mean, I’ve seen pictures, but I don’t
really know that she was running a marathon. It may be true or it may have been
an excuse to get out of coming to my ordination. But I probably shouldn’t go
there, because then you folks could all accuse me of scheduling my service of
ordination to get out of working the booth at the Pumpkin Festival.
Now
those of you who follow me on Facebook know that when I go out for a run, I
usually post a status message to let the world know that I just got some
exercise. For those of you who aren’t on Facebook and don’t exactly understand
what I’m talking about, let’s just say it’s a place where I can say, “Look at
me! I’m special. I’m special because I just ran 2.2 miles without stopping or
slowing down to a walk.” Yay, me!
At
this point some of you might be thinking, “Wow, Pastor Alan is really
self-absorbed!” Well, yeah, kinda. But we’ve already established that I’m an
only child. It goes with the territory. What I don’t want anyone to think, when
I post a run on Facebook, is that I’m being self-righteous or boastful. In
fact, I often teased my dear friend Charissa about bragging. She has been known
to reflect on her running and her marathons in her sermons.
One
time Charissa asked me to cover her pulpit because she and two of her children
were running in a race. Before the service started, she sent me a text message
with the times from her run and her children’s runs. She wanted me to tell the
congregation. Of course I teased her about this and how self-absorbed I thought
she was. No doubt, she’s having quite a good laugh at me talking about my own
running in a sermon.
I
only started running back in March. When I started, I couldn’t even run a lap
around a track. Now I can over two miles. I’ve lost about thirty pounds this
year, and so far I’ve kept the weight off.
I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But if I want to put my
accomplishments into perspective, all I have to do is walk into the examination
room at my doctor’s office and look at the Body Mass Index chart on the wall.
You know what I’m talking about? It’s that chart on the wall where you find
your height and your weight and it tells you if you’re underweight or
overweight. So if I need a quick dose of humility, all I have to do is look at
that BMI chart and I know just how far away I am from being healthy.
To
tell you the truth, before I started running, if I noticed that a friend of
mine posted something on Facebook about his or her workout, well, I found it to
be mildly annoying. Actually, nauseating might be a better word for it. It
bugged me when other peopled bragged about their workouts. I should have been
happy for them—and sometimes I was—but when I read about their great workouts,
I felt like I was somehow less than them. Less worthy, less important—like my
friends who were working out were somehow “lording it over me.” That’s the
phrase that Jesus uses when he’s speaking about the gentiles—the political
leadership and the ruling class in the Roman Empire; the petty nobles and great
land owners who comprised the elite class in Roman society.
Today’s
reading from the Gospel of Mark comes just after Jesus foretells his own
death—for the third time, in fact! You may recall from a few weeks ago, we
heard the story of the disciples walking with Jesus to Capernaum, arguing
amongst themselves as to which one was the greatest. And Jesus rebuked them
saying: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and a servant of all.”
And
in today’s gospel lesson, we hear James and John asking for the places of
greatest honor at Jesus’ table. Don’t they get it? Hasn’t Jesus already told them
that His kingdom will be radically different from the world as it is? Of course
he has! Jesus has explained that in the kingdom to come, all the priorities
will be reversed. The needy will have their needs met: the hungry will be fed,
the sick will be healed, the widow and the orphan shall be protected. That was
NOT the way of the world in Palestine in the first century. The disciples
couldn’t wrap their heads around Jesus’ kingdom because it was too different
from the world where they lived. They argued about which of them was the
greatest and they asked Jesus for the places of honor at His table. They just
couldn’t understand that at Christ’s table, everyone
has the place of greatest honor—and for those who truly follow Christ, the way
to that table is through service.[1]
The
disciples are really good at getting the picture partly right. They know that
Jesus is altogether different from anyone else they’ve ever met. They sense
that they should follow him, even if that means leaving all their belongings behind.
So they follow Jesus, but they keep asking dumb questions because they don’t
quite get it. They’re halfway there, but they’re still wired in to the thinking
of their world. Remember, in these stories, the disciples are both real people
and literary characters. And as characters, they’re where we enter the stories;
the disciples are stand-ins for us! We have the same fears and we have the same
failures to truly understand and to truly follow Jesus.
Like
the disciples, we are too wired in to the ways of this world. We fear losing
our place in the world and losing our stuff. We are afraid to let go and
follow. Yes, we want to serve some
people, but we don’t want to serve everyone. We don’t want to serve those
people who are undeserving. Those people who aren’t good enough or pure enough
or those people who just don’t deserve our help. Of course, each and every one
of us has a different definition of who is and isn’t deserving of our love.
We
know that our culture is messed up. We know it and we don’t like it. We want it
to be different and we want to follow Jesus, but we can’t all agree on how to
do that. Also, I think we want to hold on to the things of this world that we
think are good. But part of the problem is that we end up holding fast to a lot
of things that are really bad, too.
We
have internalized so many of the worst messages that our culture sends our way.
We live in a culture that bombards us with messages saying that we are not rich
enough, not good enough, not thin enough, not young enough, or not pretty
enough. We are told that we do not measure up to some standard of perfection,
and for that reason, we do not deserve love and happiness. But if we buy the
right products, we can access the good life.
We
want to think that we’re immune from all of that advertising, but we’re not! We
all participate in the commercial culture to some degree. Fashion is big
business—everyone has to buy clothes. The health and beauty industries are
multi-billion dollar segments of the economy. Ladies, you might not be pretty
enough, but if you buy Maybelline you can have the right eyelashes and if you
buy Pantene Pro-V shampoo you can have the right hair.
And
guys, don’t laugh too hard. Ever watch sports? Ever see the ads for Nutri-System?
Ever see a commercial for Just For Men, the hair coloring that’s just for men?
I won’t lie, I’ve thought about coloring the hair in my beard. I wouldn’t mind
looking five years younger. Now I’d love to tell you that I’m not that vain,
but the truth is, my laziness is greater than my vanity. I just don’t want to
be bothered with coloring my beard every month. If I could do it once and be
done with it, I probably would have spent the money.
There’s
something else at work in these ads. Whether it’s hair coloring, or Viagra, or
Cialis, the advertisers are telling you to hold fast to your youth and hold
fast to the things that define who you are. The advertising gives us a
measuring stick to tell us where we are, and then it offers us products that
will help us climb the ladder of success. And if we can’t climb any higher, at
least we can maintain our present position on that ladder. So of course we
don’t want to jump off that ladder and be a slave to all, as Jesus calls us to
do.
Even
if we’re not at the top of the ladder, more often than not, we like some of the
things about the rung that we’re on. And we’re afraid of what life might be
like on a lower rung. And we’re proud. Sometimes to a fault. To serve, we must
be humble, but I think our pride often gets in the way of Jesus’ call to serve
others.
It’s
really difficult to practice humility, but it’s what we’re called to do. Jesus
is telling the disciples to humble themselves and serve others. In this
morning’s Old Testament lesson, God tells Israel to be humble. The Lord is not
concerned with ritual sacrifices. The covenant between God and Israel is not
satisfied by offerings of grain or oil. No. The covenant is satisfied when the
people show their love for God by practicing justice, mercy, and humility. In
fact, they can’t do any of those things without doing all three.
Palestine
in the first century—the world that Jesus inhabited—was not a place where
justice and mercy and humility were commonly practiced. Jesus offers a
different vision for the world. Jesus taught the disciples and the people of
Palestine, and even to this day, Jesus teaches us how to be in a right
relationship with God. Jesus lived as a humble servant; he obeyed God’s call to
serve all. He was obedient, even to the point of death on a cross. Jesus calls
us to follow him and to serve others, and in doing so, he sets us free from the
death of this world.[2]
We
are called to serve others. Maybe we don’t do this because we’re afraid to die
on the cross with Jesus. Maybe we’re afraid of losing our place in this world
and giving up all that cool stuff we’ve bought over the years. I suppose it’s
probably a little bit of each. Still, it’s a tough call to hear and an even
tougher call to follow.
My
friend Charissa only started running five or six years ago. She decided she
needed to improve her health and she was gonna start running. It took her at least
a year of training to get into shape for a marathon. Me? For most of my life, I
really didn’t take care of myself. When Charissa posted her runs on Facebook or
talked about running marathons, I thought she was bragging a little and being a
little bit self-righteous. The truth is, I wasn’t taking care of myself, but I
didn’t want to be humble; I didn’t want to admit that I needed to change. When
I heard any runner talk about running, I had to write it off as bragging. That
was the only way I could keep ignoring the call to care for myself.
So we
need to search ourselves—individually and as a congregation—and seek out our
sources of pride. And then we need to ask ourselves if the things and the ideas
that we cling to are also holding us back. We are caught in a world where mercy
and justice and humility are scorned. In this world, we are told to avoid a
life of servitude; we are told that we must rise above the ordinary; we must
succeed. But success is fleeting. You can only enjoy fame, money, and power for
as long as you’re alive, but once you die, all those worldly things die with
you. Jesus offers another way. Let’s cast off the things that hold us back and
let’s follow Him! Thanks be to God! Amen.
BENEDICTION
Now, beloved,
as you depart from this place, remember that we are all reconciled to God and
to one another through the love of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit. So
look for the ways that you can be agents of reconciliation. Go forth and be
instruments of God’s peace and reconciliation. Cast off the things that keep
you from following this call. Make yourself humble. Do not return evil for evil
to any person, but know that we are all loved by God, and that we are called to
reflect that love to everyone we meet. This is the truth and the love in which
we were created. Go forth and live fully and abundantly into that love. In the
name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, let all God’s children say, Amen!
[1] Mark G.
Vitalis Hoffman. Commentary on Mark 10:35-45. Retrieved from: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2641
[2] Mark G.
Vitalis Hoffman. Commentary on Mark 10:35-45. Retrieved from: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2641
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