Proper 24B
PROPER 24B
OCTOBER 22, 2006

by Robert Morrison

ISAIAH 53:4-12
HEBREWS 4:12-16
MARK 10:35- 45
PSALM 91:9-16

If any of you have even only a passing interest in sports, or paid attention to news on TV, you probably saw and heard something about the fracas in the football game a week ago yesterday between Miami and Florida International Universities.

Actually, fracas may be too polite a word for it. Had it occurred anywhere but in the middle of a football game in front of a stadium-full of spectators, it might have been labeled gang warfare.

By Monday evening, TV commentators were still pontificating about the consequences, and I found myself wondering what I might have done had I been a player or a member of the support staff of either team. Would I have rushed out on to the field and added to the violence and brutality? Would I have tried to keep people separated until some sort of reason and morality prevailed?

One TV commentator, an alumnus of both Miami University and the school’s football team, was honest enough to say that he might well have gone into the midst of the fighting, but he wasn’t sure. But what would I have done?

I found myself thinking about that question as I read through this morning’s Gospel passage, and coming upon Jesus’ pointed question to James and John and, quite likely, to the other disciples. I found myself thinking about the brutality of the game’s incident and compared it with the fierceness of the response of the ten disciples when they heard what James and John had asked. And, again, I wondered how I would have reacted - either a week ago Saturday, or two thousand years ago

Because I see in this story a warning to the twenty-first disciples as much as to the first century ones that I, and you, and everyone else who steps forward to try to follow Jesus, to put Him in the centre of their lives and to adopt His manner of life as their own - I see in this story a warning that the followers of Jesus have to try - at the very least - to be willing NOT to respond like the participants in that brawl.

The followers of Jesus have, instead, to be willing to place themselves between opposing factions, and to be willing to suffer the consequences for NOT following the ways of the world. The followers of Jesus have to be willing to set aside any primary thoughts of personal safety, whether that be physical, or economic, or emotional. The call to follow Jesus is to resist the dehumanising and brutalising tactics that can be so prevalent in our society - to resist by not becoming a part of them, however unwittingly; and to resist by removing another from danger, no matter what the cost to ourselves.

Some time ago I read of the death in Portland of Ben Hazen, one of the founders and developers of the Benjamin Franklin Savings and Loan Association. He had a lot of energy and some good ideas. But one of the slogans he thought up for the bank never DID sit comfortably with me. “Pay yourself first” - that’s how the bank tried to encourage you and me to nurture the habit of saving - especially of saving with the Ben Franklin! But that would seem to be the opposite of what Jesus seeks from you and me.

Mind you, Jesus never twisted anyone’s arm. He never threatened. He DID lay out, pretty clearly, His understanding of how God hoped we’d behave and respond to the Gospel. But Jesus never bullied. He simply expected people to follow Him with some sort of an understanding of what we might anticipate as His friends.

We COULD, perhaps, update Jesus’ remarks to the questions asked at Baptism or the renewal of these vows. We COULD re-think about what it means ACTIVELY - not passively - but ACTIVELY to resist evil.

Even if we’re not likely to be tempted to join in a brawl on a football field, we might think about what we see and hear on TV or the radio; or if we’re at some meeting in town; or even if we simply overhear a remark and see some action as we’re walking down the aisle in some store.

“‘Are you able to be baptised in the same way I am?’ said Jesus. Are you prepared to admit and to accept that entry into eternal life may involve passage through all the scorn, and lying, and even physical bruising that can occur when people in the world jockey to position themselves to ensure that they’ll be able to dictate who holds power and who’ll have no say in self-decisions?

The call to be a disciple of Jesus and an apostle of the Gospel is one to set aside certainty for ourselves, if we need to. Jesus didn’t actually say that everyone would suffer. Well, maybe He did - but the suffering, the sacrifice, implied Jesus, could and would take any number of forms.

The way Jesus saw it, He anticipated having to offer everything He had - whatever that was - security, popularity, friendships, in addition to any tangible resources, including His life - Jesus anticipated putting EVERYTHING at God’s disposal, because He trusted that God would use whatever Jesus had to bring about renewal in creation. AND Jesus trusted that God would ensure that His, Jesus‘, needs would be taken care of.

How long it took for Jesus to come to this understanding of His relationship with God, we don’t really know. But at least in the way that two of the Gospel writers repeated, almost identically, the question about how James’ and John’s willingness to be involved in the same sacrificial life as He was, it appears that Jesus was absolutely convinced that not only He, but every disciple of His had to be willing to demonstrate lavish generosity of self-sacrifice for the sake of bringing into complete reality both God’s reign and the hope of justice, respect and love for every human being.

And it takes incidents like that football game a week ago yesterday to drive home - to me at least - how seriously and how urgently Jesus is trying to get us to follow and participate.

Of course, it’s highly unlikely that you and I will ever be confronted by such a sports scene at which we’re actually present. But it’s not that removed from the realm of possibility that we’ll have to act in a way that’s unpopular with our friends, even our family members - not for the sake of starting a fight, but for the sake of offering shelter, or comfort, or wise advice, and, yes, possibly, of offering protection.

None of us knows what the life of a Christian will entail. We don’t even know what may be required of us for the rest of this day, never mind this week, far less the rest of our lives. But we’re to be prepared to be willing to offer everything we have, should we be asked.

There’s a wonderful prayer - one of my favourites - that’s placed in the PrayerBook in the midst of the section designed to be used when we or someone else are sick. It’s called “In the morning” - it’s written to be addressed to God whenever we have the need, but especially at the beginning of any day. I think it’s a couple of lines of the prayer that I find so necessary to repeat for myself: “Make me ready, Lord, for whatever (will be), ... and give me the Spirit of Jesus.” (1)

This is a prayer of hope that God will bless us with the ability to respond, no matter how great or how small we may feel our resources to be. This is a prayer that asks God to give us whatever we need to be able to do, whatever is necessary to witness to the Gospel.

Yesterday, Peter Fones, a former member of this Parish, was ordained Priest, and two others, Nancy Crawford and Tracy LeBlanc, were ordained Deacons. None of them, I don’t think, desires or is driven to court danger or to suffer any sort of martyrdom, just as you and I didn’t actively seek that when we were baptised or confirmed. But Peter, and Nancy, and Tracy, and you and I have to be ready to respond, no matter what the challenge, no matter what the cost.

I remember being somewhat awestruck at a General Convention meeting when I found myself sitting about ten to fifteen feet away from the wonderful Roman Catholic theologian, Henri Nouwen, who was giving a talk to us. I remember the rapt attention we were all paying to him. Here was someone living out a servant ministry, at risk to himself in a number of ways. I can’t remember what he said. What I DO remember is a vision of him stopping in mid-delivery of his address to help to her feet a woman who’d half-fainted, half-tripped, and lay sprawled on the floor in front of him.

Any number of people COULD have responded and let him continue his talk, and not lost his train of thought. But HE responded - no matter what this meant in terms of his personal abilities, or of where he was in the lecture, or, for that matter, just how many dignitaries shared the platform with him and who was in the audience.

I was reminded of this, and I thought of those ordained yesterday, and I thought of your and my baptismal vows - I was reminded of all of this when I came across a little book that Henri Nouwen wrote about this Gospel story and its application.

Nouwen wrote, “In this book I want to tell you the story of the cup, not just as my story, but as the story of life.

“When Jesus asks his friends James and John, the sons of Zebedee, ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’ he poses the question that goes right to the heart of my priesthood and my life as a human being. Years ago, when I held that beautiful golden chalice in my hands, that question didn’t seem hard to answer. For me, a newly ordained priest full of ideas and ideals, life seemed to be rich with promises. I was eager to drink the cup!

“Today, sitting in front of a low table surrounded by men and women with mental disabilities and their assistants, and offering them glass cups of wine, that same question has become a spiritual challenge. Can I, can we, drink the cup that Jesus drank?” (2)

“Holding the cup of life means looking critically at what we are living. This requires great courage, because when we start looking, we might be terrified by what we see. Questions may arise that we don’t know how to answer. Doubts may come up about things we thought we were sure about. Fear may emerge from unexpected places. We are tempted to say, ‘Let’s just live life. All this thinking about it only makes it harder.’ Still, we intuitively know that without looking at life critically we lose our vision and our direction. When we drink the cup without holding it first, we may simply get drunk and wander around aimlessly.

“Holding the cup of life is a hard discipline. We are a thirsty people who like to start drinking at once. But we need to restrain our impulse to drink, put both of our hands around the cup, and ask ourselves, ‘What am I given to drink? What is in my cup? Is it safe to drink? Is it good for me? Will it bring me health?’” (3)

We are invited today - yet again - to take into our own hands, the cup God has designed for us. We are to embrace that cup, be it filled with joys or sorrows, relief or pain.

But what are these compared to the cups of emotion in the world around us? WE are to take our own cup so that we may help others take THEIR cups, and to drink from them. WE are to raise our cups so high so that the world may know that we have chosen to follow Jesus, with all that THAT entails. WE are to accept the cup that is passed into our hands, without necessarily needing to know what is in it, or when we’re to drink it. We are simply to trust that God’s judgement will enable us, when the time comes.

And if this means standing up in front of a frenzied melee of deranged football players, then so be it.

As likely as not, the cup that is ours will be mixed. But let us take it anyway. Let us drink it anyway.

As Nouwen notes, “In the midst of sorrows is consolation, in the midst of the darkness is light, in the midst of despair is hope, in the midst of Babylon is a glimpse of Jerusalem, and in the midst of the army of demons is the consoling angel. The cup of sorrow, as inconceivable as it seems, is also the cup of joy. Only when we discover this in our own life can we consider drinking it.” (4)

NOTES:
  1. B.C.P. page 461
  2. Henri J. M. Nouwen: “Can you drink the cup?’ Ave Maria Press. 1996. Pages 19-20
  3. Nouwen. Op. cit. pages 27 - 28
  4. Nouwen Op. cit. page 38.