The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for October 22, 2006

Texts: Job 23:1-9,16-17/Mark 10:35-45

Title: “Illusions Die Hard”

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  You know, the compliant, agreeable Jesus whose word selection draws exclusively from the vocabulary of affirmation. 

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  You know, the Jesus whose displeasure is always voiced against behaviors that arouse our righteous indignation, but never our guilt.              

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted? You know, the Jesus who stands four-square behind our life style choices.

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  You know, the Jesus who hates our enemies with the virulent passion we do?

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  You know, the Jesus who says, “Don’t change a thing, I love you just the way you are.”

              When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  You know, the Jesus who stays out of our lives, particularly the seamy parts, until he is invited.

              We never seem to get the Jesus we want, unless it is a Jesus of our own creating. The Jesus we meet in the gospels, of course, can’t be counted upon to support our agendas, that is, if we read carefully.  But we don’t always read carefully.  We don’t want too much information.  We tend to isolate and remember a list of favorite verses. Verses of comfort and consolation being the most preferred. Who, after all, opens the Bible to be depressed?

              No, we don’t open the Bible to be depressed.  We really don’t open the Bible to be accused either.  We know what we know of Jesus, and that’s enough.  It’s easy enough to tune out if what we read or hear preached doesn’t square with the Jesus our minds create.  No, we come to church to be uplifted.  We don’t want a “downer,” even if it might be a downer the Lord himself served up.

              Jesus had a way of serving up downers, even to the twelve he chose to be companions in ministry. The twelve disciples of our Lord didn’t get the Jesus they wanted.

              They left all to follow Jesus.  Just like that, left all to follow Jesus.  Give credit where credit is due.

A great adventure it was.  Front row seat to watch the Lord at work.  Mark describes a series of the most amazing adventures.  Jesus healing, Jesus casting out demons, Jesus teaching and preaching with authority that kept his audiences spellbound, says nothing of miraculously feeding crowds of thousands on the most meager provisions.    

              A great adventure it was.  But the adventure was but an overture to something big that was sure to take place, and it could take place that very day, tomorrow, or next week.  It very well might be that their friend and mentor was indeed God’s own son.  Think of it! God’s own son. 

               King David had a great reign, but things sort of fell apart after him.  Didn’t the prophets say that someone even greater than David would come, someone who would establish a throne not only here on earth, but an eternal throne in heaven? The titles for this someone were already established in the history of the Jews as Messiah, Redeemer, God’s anointed, the Christ.

                Dare the twelve imagine that the Jesus with whom they ate and traveled was the in fact the one who would fulfill ancient hopes and dreams?

                 Each of the twelve certainly maintained their own private thoughts about Jesus, but to a man they believed that Jesus was more than just a man.

                 Mark does not reveal what exactly motivated two of the disciples, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to convert what they knew of Jesus into a special request, but they did.  It was a nervy thing they did. You have a big favor to ask of someone, you put yourself out there. Will the request be viewed as presumptuous, and out of line?  Will it create a rift?  The brothers Zebedee were willing to risk.

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

                The prize was out there and James and John wanted a piece of it.  “When the time comes and you make your big move, Lord, we want to be standing right there at your side, one of us on the left, one on the right.”

The two brothers had constructed a wonderful picture of what life in Jesus’ glory would be. Sorry to say, they didn’t get what they wanted.

              So I ask again, when have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  Jesus did not comply with the request of the brothers Zebedee.  He didn’t write a ticket on the future, but instead stated in the disciples hearing, all the disciples hearing, for the other ten had gotten wind of what the two brothers were trying to pull off and came to Jesus to protest [Jesus stated in their hearing] not the requirements for joining him in glory, but the requirements for glory in the present.

              A bit hard to swallow, those requirements.  They were then, and they are now.  Greatness not equated to sitting on the throne, greatness conferred on the one who polishes the throne.          

              Jesus is the only one who really got the servant thing right.  Try as he might he couldn’t convince his disciples, at least while he was with them on earth, that serving others really offered a payback worth shooting for. 

              Jesus the frontrunner charging his way into paradise on a string of audacious deeds was much more appealing to the disciples than Jesus mucking around in the dirt of the world trying to clean up the mess human folly left behind.  

               No, the disciples didn’t get the Jesus they wanted, the compliant Jesus eager to give his buddies a leg up on the good fortune list.  But then Jesus has always maintained a far different perspective on the world than we, without significant effort at least, can embrace.

                Jesus set the terms for what a full life in the world means, but the disciples weren’t buying it, and for good reason.  Jesus got hunted down and killed for living the full life.

               When have the likes of us ever gotten the Jesus we wanted?  We have only gotten the Jesus we wanted when we created Jesus in our own image.

                Unless you are a new Christian, you have probably heard the lesson I read at least a dozen times. Is there a single soul among us who has not heard Jesus elevate the servant vocation as the greatest vocation of all?

                First shall be last, last shall be first.  The meek shall inherit the earth.  Give away your possession that you might gain a truly rich life.  We have heard this stuff since we were kids in Sunday school.  No surprises in any of that, it’s just Jesus being Jesus.

                I have got to believe that Jesus’ disciples and the early audiences who heard him teach and preach were knocked a bit off stride, as Jesus repeatedly elevated what was lowly, and made it holy.  “I came to save sinners, no, not the ninety-nine righteous, they can take care of themselves, I am on the look out for the one black sheep.

               The Pharisees and scribes, at first disregarded him as an oddball, then a nuisance, only later as a threat. Mark tells us that even his family worried about his mental health.  What his disciples internalized as he traveled around Judea and Galilee is anyone’s guess, yet lessons like this morning’s give us a clue as to what they came to believe.

                 No they didn’t get the Jesus they wanted.  The disciples imagined thrones in glory, while Jesus concentrated his message on those who serve at the foot of the throne. The disciples were unprepared to accept Jesus’ definition of greatness, at least as long as he lived in their midst. Now that was a problem.

                 I think our problem is different, for the very reason that we really DON’T see Jesus’ teaching as a problem.  We have internalized Jesus’ teachings on the subject of greatness, only the sharp edge of the teaching has been blunted through numerous exposures to it. We know, as in acknowledge, but we don’t know so as to apply. But who can blame us? We do not live in a world that particularly values servanthood, but more often than not marginalizes those persons who qualify for nothing more than servanthood.

                  The likes of us never seem to get the Jesus we want, the compliant and affirming Jesus.  Instead we get the Jesus who turns our desires for respectability, recognition and wealth on their head.

                   The sharp edge of Jesus’ message, his promotion of servanthood, his advocacy of the powerless and marginalized, his disdain for the self-righteous, has been blunted, and people like me, pastors and priests, have allowed that to happen. Too often we have sought to preserve peace and harmony within our congregations at the expense of any   agenda that might alienate or create tension. Likewise we pastors have failed to take Jesus’ message seriously enough to make his ends our own, and by so doing we have deprived congregations like this one of the truth we all need to hear.

                 Lakeview Presbyterian Church stands at a very important crossroads in its history. All you have to do is look around you.  A gutted sanctuary, less than half the people we would typically see in worship before the storm, and a depleted church staff.

                 In our circumstances it is easy to become inward focused, to make excuses for ourselves, to establish getting this building back on its feet as our only real priority.

                  Faced with rebuilding our priorities have had to change, but acknowledging our responsibility to attend to our property, we have been given a mission by Jesus Christ that involves much than deciding what kind of seating we will have, what kind of tile we will lay on the floor, or what kind of music we will sing.

                 The likes of us never seem to get the Jesus we want.  As we ask, “what electrician shall we select to wire our facility, Jesus asks “what are you doing to house your neighbor?” As we ask, “who will assume responsibility for our fellowship program?” Jesus asks “what are you doing to feed your neighbor?”  As we ask, “who will organize the Advent program” Jesus asks, “what are you doing to bring my name to your neighbor?”

                  I am excited that we have nearly completed filling our leadership roster.  The list of nominees to the session, nine of them, out of a full compliment of twelve, will be presented for election next month.  This leadership team will be challenged by me, as I challenge myself, to take seriously Jesus’ questions.

                 The storm has made us inward focused, but we dare not remain so, not, that is, if we are to be faithful to our servant calling. We know at some level what Jesus’ priorities are, we have heard them stated more times than we can count. 

                 Jesus’ twelve disciples also heard them stated more times than they could count.  They heard, but they just didn’t get it. 

                  No, they didn’t get the Jesus they wanted, the Jesus who reserved for them a place in glory.  So what did they get instead, “the cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”  Make no mistake, the cup and the baptism that Jesus held up was the cup of suffering, baptism in the fire of adversity.

                    Illusions die hard.  The disciples didn’t get the Jesus they wanted, but they did get the cup and the baptism.  It was a struggle for them to let go of the mythic Jesus they had created, but in their servanthood, their sacrifice, and, yes, their suffering, they became pillars of the church Jesus created.

                  A new day, but Jesus remains the Jesus the disciples knew.  Not the compliant, affirming Jesus, ready to pat us on the back and indulge our weaknesses with consoling words and reassurance.  Instead we get the Jesus who says, “I came to serve, and I call you to serve.”  We must not, we shall not, ignore that call. AMEN.

                   PRAYER

                   Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, you have never been the Jesus we wanted.  Redeeming, yes. Healing, yes. Comforting, yes.  We esteem you for all of the gifts you bring to our lives, but we struggle with the demands you place on our lives.  Even as you call us to a servant vocation, we are constantly tempted to focus our resources and energies on maintaining the programs and traditions that occupy our time within the sanctuary’s four walls. Service often equates to agendas that are self-serving, rather than outreach into the world.  From our preoccupation with bricks and mortar, O God, the fellowship opportunities we might plan, and the next meeting to be scheduled, free our minds to entertain the agendas you endorse beyond our sanctuary doors.

                   We come to you with gratitude for new friends we have met as a result of the storm.  Even as we have bid farewell to our friends from the Brookfield Presbyterian Church after their second visit to New Orleans, we welcome our friends from the Dunn’s Corners Presbyterian, who have also come to our city for a second time to aid in the recovery effort. An important witness, we thank you for the testimony these servants of Christ, O Lord, are making to the oneness we share in Christ.

                   Holy Spirit, source of God’s abiding presence, awaken our spirits to your presence this day that in this hour we may feel your transforming power, a power to stir us to action as servants of the living and reigning Christ whose name we bear. Challenged by the daily obligations that come with living, responsibilities on the job, at home, responsibilities to children and elderly parents, we allow ourselves little discretionary time to be still and experience your presence in silence.  Distracted, always on the move, even the bed offers little rest as we toss and turn, processing events past, or musing on what will come. Quiet the insistent messages urging us into a frenzy over things we are powerless control.

                     God our father, we pray your blessing on each person who is present with us today. Though we share a common worship space today, a common baptism, and common confession of faith, we bear many different ambitions for ourselves and our futures. We perceive events in the world in widely varied ways. We each are unique, O God, yet each of us is a child created in your own image. May we, in this community of faith, establish our true identity as your children, and may we, through this community of faith, be encouraged to fully employ the gifts we have been given.

                       The world suffers as its people suffer.  We lift up the suffering today, holding in our prayers those families who have been deprived of a son or daughter killed in war. We lift up the people around the globe who live in abject poverty, whose children die of malnutrition before their eyes. We pray for those who have been deprived of human rights, who languish in prisons uncharged.  We pray for those who are marginalized as refugees, the homeless who have no country they can call home.  We pray for the terrorized for whom every telephone call, knock on the door, or trip across town threatens disaster.

                    God, in your mercy, help us do what we shall never do on our own.  Help us to establish peace among nations, peace and justice within nations. Abide with those who are morally bound to do the hard work of peacemaking, and may who admire them take the next step and join them in their cause.

                   For gifts received, and gifts we are privileged to give.  For friends, family, for the hope that insists upon asserting itself even on our worst days, we give you thanks, O God, and praise.

Children of your creating, O God, brothers and sisters of Jesus the Christ, we pray the prayer he taught us…