Sermons
Eyeing the Needle
“Eyeing the Needle”
Text: Mark 10: 17-31 Esv
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" 20 And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,"Then who can be saved?"
27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." 28 Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."†
beyond the jordan
Jesus and the Disciples are on the far side of the Jordan. A man comes running up to Jesus, kneels before him, and calls him “good” teacher. These are three things most self-respecting Jews of the day would not do. Grown men don’t run—only servants or children. To kneel before another person was to give them too much worship. And Jesus counters the man by questioning the address: “Why do you call me ‘good’”?
This man is clearly reverent, clearly humble, and he recognizes and honors Jesus.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Notice: he doesn’t ask what he must do to earn eternal life, but to inherit, or receive it.
Jesus asks him what is commanded, and he runs through the short list. Then it says something lovely:
“Jesus loved him.”
Jesus says You’re doing great, but your missing something—one thing:
“Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jesus doesn’t tell him to give all the money to the poor; he just says, “Give to the poor.” The invitation is to transform his life into one that serves the gospel. He is even invited to become one of the Disciples. But he walks away disheartened, because of his wealth.
Jesus follows by twice saying how difficult it is for those with wealth to enter the kingdom. Easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle. There is no symbolism here. This is not about one of the gates in the walls of Jerusalem—just a striking, unforgettable image. Easier to put a 1500-pound camel—the largest native animal they knew—through the eye of an needle.
As we “eye the needle” together today, we’re going to consider what makes it so hard to get one with wealth into God’s kingdom, and we’re going to see what are chances are of getting through ourselves.
Wealth and the heart
Most people would like to be wealthy. For those without faith, the here and now is all there is; therefore, what is the good of life? Getting all you can, as soon as possible, and keeping it for as long as you can. If this life is all there is, there is no hope beyond this life; and if there is no hope beyond this life, then what is fulfillment?
For many, it is a balancing act between taking all you can while managing your necessary relationships—family, marriage, partnerships, etc.
If this life is all there is, it seems to me that people are perfectly justified in pursuing their goals with total aggression—campaigning, protesting, rioting and revolting—in order to get all they can in the short time they have, on whatever terms that will work for them.
The problem with those who have wealth is not the wealth itself, but the place it occupies in their heart and soul. Jesus says:
“Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Note that he does not say the opposite:
“Where your heart isthere will be your treasure also.” (NOT Jesus)
Locate your treasure and your heart will be found. In brief, your treasure is the thing which fills your heart.
Let’s be clear: Jesus is not making an indictment specifically against rich people, as we’ll see. Are only rich people greedy? No, I think we know that poor people can be greedy as well. It’s possible for rich people to be generous (as Jesus asks the man to be) and for people with nothing to be selfish.
The message of Christ isn’t about reversing privilege, creating entitlements, or economic justice in the big sense. His indictment is against the distracted and the worldly; specifically, those whose hearts are filled with the things the world supplies. That is wealth.
heart-soul-wallet
This is a security neck pouch; it’s popular with travelers to dangerous areas. The way it works is that you wear it around your neck and under your shirt. Inside their are several zip pockets and the whole wallet folds up flat to avoid detection. You put your valuables into it—passport, cash, travelers’ checks, credit cards—to keep them safe from pickpockets and street bandits.
Now I’d like us to think about heart and soul as this kind of wallet. This is our heart-soul. We all have one. It is invisible to the world but we know it’s there. You and I have the free will to put into it whatever we choose (not even the real item, let’s say, but just the name of it on a little slip of paper, like from a fortune cookie). Imagine the things one could put on a slip of paper—just the words:
FAMEDESIRESRESPECT
POWERREWARDSPRESTIGE
HOUSESINFLUENCE etc.
You and I are free to add slips of paper or to take them out. We can have lots of notes stuffed into every little pocket, and even divide up the notes according to different aspects of our life: treasures at work, treasures at home, treasures yet to be acquired, and treasures lost but not forgotten.
Our text from Mark calls the contents of the wallet wealth, but money is only one kind of wealth, because it’s only one of many things we can put in our heart-soul-wallet. Anything we put into that wallet is our wealth. Your wealth is whatever you put in that wallet.
I think most people in the world don’t have much money in there. One’s wealth can be anything.
- Family
- Children and/or grandchildren
- A person one is obsessed with
- One’s “gang,” me and my besties
- My people, OUR people
- Nationalism (collective self-love)
- Me, Me, Me
Whatever we put into that heart-soul-wallet is our wealth. Not surprisingly, it can fill up pretty quickly. Before long, it can become overpacked, overstuffed, disorganized, and the major source of fear and anxiety to balance.
The problem is that we become emotionally attached to some of those things. We can’t imagine life without them—the very thought is truly frightening to us. Our attachments to the things on the notes in our heart-soul-wallet are part of who we are. But these same attachments are the very source of most of our fears and anxieties. We think, I absolutely cannot lose this slip or that one!
genies and eternal wishes
In all those stories about Aladdin, genies, or magical fish that grant wishes, we are presented with that proverbial question: If you had three wishes, what would you wish for? Before thinking about it for long, I think we tend to defer to those cleverer answers involving wishing for more wishes. The third wish is always something like three more wishes.
Don’t we long for something similar with our wallets—some kind of third wish scheme that keeps us from overloading and running out of room? Well, there is.
The problem with our heart-soul-wallets is all the stuff we’re putting into them. We are seeking to save ourselves and losing ourselves in the process. Whatever we put inside—money, people, things, anything—competes for space against Christ.
Jesus knows what needs to be in there. To the man in the story he says, “You lack one thing.”
One Thing Missing
The Man was rich, privileged, powerful, righteous, respected, respectful, blessed, and humble. He acknowledged Jesus and honored him. Put these together and you have a pretty decent picture of what many Christians seek to build as their ideal Christianity.
Jesus word to him is also his word to all who would be all these things:
“You lack one thing.”
He may say that to you and me as well. No matter how well we think we have our act together, we are still inept, inadequate, and incomplete. As long as we are managing the heart-soul-wallet, we will lack the one thing.
If Jesus is to be Lord and Savior—if we are to trust in him—we have to turn over the entire wallet, heart and soul. Anything less is walking away disappointed because of our wealth.
Jesus says, “Hand me your wallet, full of its well-balanced and well managed notes.”
Jesus will write the notes from now on. He writes one to put inside:
The Way the Magic Works
The magic only works when we empty our hearts—when there is nothing else there to compete against the Lord for space. It only works when the wallet is handed over in entirety to Jesus to manage.
All those slips—every one of them—must be taken out and offered to him. Only then can we trust that he is really Lord, really in charge, really Master and King. Only then will the magic work, for whatever we attach to takes up space in our heart-soul.
The “one thing” the man in our text was lacking was lordship—perspective and detachment. He had many possessions, and held them in his heart. He had a lot of very good (and probably very well-organized) slips in his wallet, but he couldn’t part with them. He couldn’t be bothered. He couldn’t be disrupted now that he had his life together.
The problem with wealth—whatever its content—is that our attachments to it create a lordship of their own. We choose what slips to put into our wallets, but then we become servants to our treasures.
The saddest thing about this story is that this was a good guy whom Jesus loved and personally called to be his disciple who walked away because his heart was already full.
Jesus Transforms Religion
Notice: the Disciples are amazed (one of Mark’s favorite words) when they first hear that it is hard for one like this man to enter God’s Kingdom. When Jesus talks about the camel, they are “exceedingly amazed,” but why? What is it about the Disciples that made them so sure this guy ought to be one of the elect? Let’s look at the list of his qualifications:
RichPrivilegedPowerfulRighteous
RespectedRespectfulBlessed Humble
What is more:
He acknowledged Jesus.
He honored Jesus.
This man was the ideal religious Jew. He had his act all together. The Disciples marvel at the idea that this guy—a reverent, obedient, blessed man—might not enter the kingdom of God.
Within the short space of this narrative, Jesus does something extraordinary and world-changing. He takes religion out of the hands of humanity and places it entirely into the hand of the Father.
"With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."
No longer is religion or faith a matter of what we do, but only of what God does. In this short space, Jesus transforms all of human religion from something we do for God to something God does for us!
Religion, by itself, is useless, worthless. Only an act of God on our behalf matters. It requires an act of God to get that camel through the eye of the needle. Because we have our wallets, we are all camels.
Jesus Transforms Wealth
It is not enough that we have a dedicated, Christian wallet pocket among our other pockets. It is not enough that we have our wallet stuffed with Christian notes. We must turn over the entire wallet to God. We must give it to him in entirety and allow him to manage it.
This is not about economic justice, but simply allowing Jesus the control of our resources. God is willing to multiply our treasures a hundredfold—beyond our imagining—but only when we let him put it to use. Treasures hidden away are the buried talents of the “wicked and lazy” servant from the parable.
A wealthy woman from Lubbock, Texas (whose grandfather had donated all the land for Texas Tech University) put it perfectly:
“Money is like manure: it ain’t worth nothin’ unless you spread it around.”
Jesus wants to make the magic happen for you and me, even as he fulfills God’s will for the world.
What about Your Wallet?
So there it is; it is up to us. What shall you and I do with our wallets? What shall we put in them? What is on that slip of paper? Do we prefer anxiety, fear, and complication of soul over discipleship?
Our richness, our wealth, is ultimately not a matter of what we do with our wallets; it is a matter of what we have and become once we turn over our wallets in entirety to our Lord.
The call to discipleship—that same call that sent the man away disheartened—is presented to you and me here and now.
Our choice: keeping them full of the things of this world and living with the constant anxiety of their management, or emptying them and turning them over to Christ completely.
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. †
The Graduation of Helena Casenave
The Graduation of Helena Casenave
Class of 2016, Summa Cum Laude
Romans 12: 9-18
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
SUMMA CUM LAUDE
There are many kinds of sermons. Some sermons teach about the Bible, some give practical life instruction, some focus all their attention on the challenges of living in a fallen world, and others call our attention to the glories of God and our heavenly destiny. But there is another kind of sermon, one that points to the Lord by reflecting upon the life of a saint.
Poet Edgar Guest said somewhat famously:
“I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day.”
Today’s sermon wrote itself, for it has been written by the life, witness and ministry of Helena Casenave, a child of God, lover of Christ, and faithful member of this congregation for many years. What is more, her life is for us a sermon that is easy to see.
Be Good to Each Other
In our text from Romans, Paul instructs the church at Rome—and by extension, us—to be good to each other.
Stay positive.
Lift one another up.
The part of us that criticizes, or puts others down—the part that measures and judges others—needs to be silenced and put in its place. It is hard work, but it is part of our discipline in following Jesus.
We have an earthly example of this in Helena Casenave.
Witness
The Bible uses a great word for living the kind of life of love that truly reflects the nature and character of Christ. That word in Greek is martyr; in English it is witness. A witness is one who points beyond him or herself to another—one whose life and lifestyle gives a testimony to another.
When Christians talk about witnessing, they often mean “talking about the Gospel of Jesus” or sharing the good news with a stranger, but I would remind us again of Edgar Guest’s quote: that the world would rather see a sermon than hear one. It is a life rightly-lived that points beyond oneself to another, and it is our goal, Growing in Christ and Making Him Known, to point beyond ourselves to our Lord Jesus.
The qualities of Helena’s life that we celebrate are those traits through which we saw her pointing to her Lord. Her witness. Helena’s was indeed a mature Christianity, a kind of witness every one of us can happily imitate, emulate, and otherwise aspire toward.
What Does the New Life in Christ Look Like?
When we use words like “justified” or “sanctified,” what we really mean is that those who seek to live the new life in Christ ought to look qualitatively different from the way they did before. The greatest witness is a changed life. What does that new life in Christ look like? I tell you today it looks a lot like Helena.
Love, light, goodness, life, even innocence—it is altogether winsome. To say it is winsome means that it changes others and charges them with positivity.
To spend any time at all with Helena was to be positively charged. It was as if her good will and loving affirmation were transferred onto you, making you lighter and sweeter, more positive and willing to give that same goodness to others.
If you knew Helena, you get what I’m saying completely.
Helena loved me. I know it. I felt it. She never failed to bless me with good words and her sweet, sweet heart. It feels like it was personal even if it is not! It doesn’t matter. It was in her to love me not because I was her pastor but because she was loving.
God’s love works this same way: God’s love is not measuring; it is making.
Love builds up others; it does not take them apart through analysis or criticism. We don’t need all of that. All we need is a positive charge, not a negative.
Some find this troublesome and worrying. They imagine that life, family and society would fall apart if all we did was build each other up all the time:
[in character, wimpy, whiny]: “But if we’re only positive all the time, society would fall apart, everybody would be okay and no one would get corrected by me and my friends and I wouldn’t be able to judge others all the time, which I truly enjoy….”
ending the Inner Pharisee
Part of the Christian witness—part of the necessary work of our discipleship—is killing off the inner Pharisee that is in each one of us. We need to let it go, let it be crucified on the cross of Christ.
To say we renounce judgmentalism does not mean that we have no rules or standards—we need to raise children with a knowledge of the law and train them in righteousness—but as adults, we do not treat each other as children. It’s not your job to be measuring another Christian’s worth or spirituality.
In the Bible we see that Jesus, the revelation of God’s total and complete love, had judgment only for the judgmental. He never targeted run-of-the-mill sinners with angry words—those were saved for the “Righteous Ones,” the Pharisees and the anxiously devout. He was ruthless only with the ruthless, judging only with the judgmental. He was the friend of sinners, the friend to Israel’s enemies, and lover of every soul.
We need to kill off the inner Pharisee; something I think we saw in Helena.
We really don’t need that judgmental self. In fact, the part of us that criticizes and judges tends to get in the way of that other part of us that loves and builds up one another.
How do we do it?
One way is that we learn from others who have done it first. Like Helena.
Positively Loving
Can we do it? Here? Now? Can we agree that we don’t have to be right all the time, but that we just have to love?
TEST: Fill in the blank:
I would rather be right than __________.
What would you put there? I would rather be right than wrong? Of course, we all would. But I think we have our inner Pharisee revealed to us when we put other words in that spot. Would I rather be right than happy? I might say no way, but is my need to be right hurting my happiness or more importantly, the happiness of others?
Would I rather be right than joyous? Or rather be right than at peace? A good deal of our fighting comes from the need to be right. But there is one that is more important than all to followers of Jesus: Would you rather be right than loving? Here is the acid test. Does your need to be right ever keep you from showing or giving love? Ever? That is your inner Pharisee! That is what Jesus most clearly disdained. That is what you and I would improve our witness to renounce, expel, and/or otherwise exorcise.
Can we let it all go today? It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been negative, snippy, snobby, or high-horsed. What if we all just…let it go?
What would it be like if we were to simply, here and now, pronounce one another forgiven—all forgiven—and live the new life from here on? What would it look like?
Imagine an entire community of Helenas: people loving one another and building each other up, outdoing each other only in showing honor. What would that be like?
Scary for some.
[in character] “Question: But what would I be without my judgments?”
A: Better.
“But we would be so vulnerable—people out there might try to take advantage of us!”
Really? Did we with Helena?
We have everything to gain, nothing to lose but our sin and misery.
Q: “But how can we sustain it? We might come to the altar in tears now, but in two or three days we’ll be back to our old, normal, judgmental selves?”
A: We need a covenant, a collective agreement. We need to feed on good stuff and reject the bad. Every time we lower ourselves to “righteousness” we must return to love and the spirit of Christ.
An Exercise
Think of some difficult people in your life. People unlike yourself who see things differently than you. People who dislike you, think you’re wrong, or even those who may be hounding you. How can you love them and build them up?
Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. That is the high bar, that is truly mature Christian love, that is where we are all headed.
If Helena had enemies, I don’t know who they were. She had love for everyone and saw the beauty of Jesus Christ in every one.
How much better would our lives be if we all played that way?
If you really loved everyone else, how do you think you feel about your own life? I guarantee: you would feel happier—more whole and complete.
And how do you think others would feel about you? Would they be anxious at your approach, wondering how to cover themselves, where and how to guard and block? No, they would be happy at your arrival and uplifted after your departure.
What would happen to a congregation of Christians who all agreed to silence their inner Pharisees and to practice outdoing one another in showing honor—in building each other up with Christlike love?
What would an entire congregations of Helenas look like? How would it feel?
Let’s find out, shall we? Whatever it is that made Helena Casenave so irretrievably kind and positive, I pray that it is catching, that we all become infected, and never ever recover.
†
Sissyfights, ULTD.
“Sissyfights Unlimited”
Text: Mark 9: 30-41 Esv
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know,
31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
38 John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.†
1. The Disciples Batting 1000.
Our narrative brings us back to Capernaum following a failed attempt by the Disciples to cast out an unclean spirit. Jesus reminds them that such can only be cast out by prayer, which is a way of reminding them that they can’t really do anything by themselves in their own power. They couldn’t do it; they failed.
Next, Jesus tells them that he wants to go through Galilee incognito, and reminds them again that he will be handed over, arrested, killed and will be raised on the third day. The disciples don’t get it. They don’t understand, and to make it worse, they are afraid to ask.
As if this wasn’t a good enough negative score, the next thing they do along the road is begin arguing about which one of them is the greatest. Really? Is the word irony not ringing a bell for every reader by now? After failure in the field and inability to comprehend Jesus’ plain-spoken message even after the second time, they still have enough ridiculous pride within themselves to argue about who is the greatest?
When they come to the house in Capernaum, Jesus asks them what they were talking about. The text says they were silent. Perhaps ashamed of having bragged, perhaps embarrassed at having been caught. Either way, they are consistent with their falling short.
What is the deal with people? Not only are we all obviously flawed, but we can fall into the same games of one-upsmanship in seeking to determine who is better than whom.
I want to say this morning that whenever you and I play those games, we risk damaging the fellowship—the koinonia—gift of the Holy Spirit. The fellowship of faith is indeed a precious gift, and whenever we acknowledge it as such, and protect it as such, we find our fellowship increased, bolstered, happier—and a more winsome witness to our world.
2. Sissyfights, etc.
Twenty years ago, there was an online game that was, for a short time, king. It was called “Sissyfight.” Comic strip artist Lynda Barry says there is no force in the natural world so mean and nasty as a group of fifth grade girls who have ganged up against another. Sissyfight seems to prove Barry’s point. In this game, online players picked a different school girl avatar and take turns ganging up on one another. “Let’s not like Linda, her hair is red!” “Let’s make fun of Trudy for awhile.” “Hey everybody, let’s not like Claudia!” The players of the game gather points for ganging up against a momentary victim, and more points for getting people to take their side against others.
It’s all very juvenile, to say the least, but it is unfortunately a huge part of our fallen nature. We, like the Disciples, can find ourselves playing the “who is the greatest?” game. The more we play, the more in turns into Sissyfights, and the more our koinonia—our divine fellowship—suffers.
It probably doesn’t happen that much at church, but at dinner parties, private gatherings, at the ball game—any location where you and your Sissyfight group can do the dirty work in safety. Who is in? Who is out? Who do we like? Who are we going to judge? Let’s be critical of so-and-so for awhile, shall we?
Playing Sissyfight leads us to other disciplines—ones we do not want to part of our Christian character:
Gossip
Slander
Dishing the Dirt
Rumors
Backbiting
“Just kidding”
“Not sure, but I heard. . .”
Scripture is pretty clear about these things:
“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips”. (Colossians 3:8).
“Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”(James 5:9)
“Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure”
(Psalm 101:5).
“Mockers are proud and haughty; they act with boundless arrogance.”(proverbs 21:24)
“A mocker resents correction; he will not consult the wise.”
(Proverbs 9:8).
“Mockers are proud and haughty; they act with boundless arrogance.”(proverbs 21:24)
“A mocker resents correction; he will not consult the wise.”
(Proverbs 9:8).
“Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.” (Proverbs 22:10)
“Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.” (James 3:5)
“A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”
(Proverbs 16:28).
“What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:3)
So, we don’t want to be the kind of church that plays Sissyfight. None of us wants to be that person who drives people out of the church fellowship. Just as the Disciples argued over who was the greatest, we too have our less-than-edifying conversations. Behind it all is not so much the drive to power, but the need to belong. We all want to feel like we belong, and we want others to feel that way as well.
I think we all know as well that the Sissyfighting does us no real good. All the criticism and phony superiority leave us empty rather than full. We are all born with a God-shaped void in our hearts—an emptiness that God alone can fill—and Sissyfighting is just one of many ways we might try to fill that void, and it never works.
The good news is that when Jesus shows up, all the Sissyfighting tends to go silent pretty quickly.
“What were you discussing along the way?” says Jesus, and everyone goes silent.
3. Waiters and Waiting
Jesus’ response to the Sissyfight games is swift and decisive:
"If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."
The word for servant is literally Deacon. In our world, the closest thing to this kind of servant is a waiter or waitress. What is the waiter’s job? To wait on you and your needs as you sit at their table.
I was not a good waiter; in fact, I was fired after my second night. But I was an excellent busboy. The Golden Apple (of Love) was one of Omaha’s ritziest restaurants, which is kind of like being the coolest guy in the bowling league (I love bowling). At the Golden Apple, to become a waiter, there were strict rules. You had to speak always in low tones with a calm, relaxed voice. You never—never—interrupted a conversation among guests. You never ask obvious questions (Would you like more water? No—just keep the water glass full). The purpose of these rules was to serve the guests in excellent form. We were taught to truly wait upon the guests. You wait and watch to fill a need as unobstrusively as possible.
Waiters today often seem to reverse that code. You can be in the midst of an intimate conversation and your waiter bursts in over the top of you, loud and anxious: “HEY! HOW’S IT GOIN’ HERE? YOU GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED? GREAT!!” The point of all this is to say that when Jesus instructs his disciples on their appropriate role in the world, it is to wait upon one another. Jesus says that if we want to be the greatest, we must become waiters. We must wait on everyone else. Wait, wait, wait, and consider the needs of one another as more important than our own.
4. Babies
To further illustrate this, Jesus takes a baby—perhaps a toddler—up into his arms and tells his disciples:
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
Rabbis did not hold babies—it just wasn’t done. Jesus reminds the Disciples and us that he himself will bring babes into our fellowship. New faces, new names, new (to us) children of God. The message is clear: we are to receive them. We are to receive them into the fullest fellowship—the koinonia union—as insiders.
The Church of Jesus Christ is the place where the weak and the vulnerable belong. The Church is the antithesis of the Country Club or the Winners’ Circle. We are to welcome all whom Jesus brings into our circle.
As if this were not yet clear to the Disciples (what is?) John makes one more pass:
"Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."
Translation: We tried to stop them because they are not part of our group.
The whole in-group/out-group sorting process is the effect of sissyfighting. Putting others out creates an elevated platform for “us,” however constructed. The process necessarily depends upon a certain amount of exclusion.
The whole point of a club may be nothing other than to be exclusive. To create an insider identity so insiders can feel like precious insiders.
Thank God for Groucho Marx, who is the pin to that balloon with his quote:
“I’d never belong to a club that would have me as a member!”
5. departing the sissyfights
How do we escape our nature in the matter of all these things? I’m going to suggest three ways as a start—three ways we can avoid playing social climbing games:
1) Suspend judgment.
Easier said than done, but a worthy goal. I know for myself, I’m always happier when I stop playing the critic or analyzer of others. I ask myself, “Who made me their judge?” or “Who ever made it my job to evaluate them?” It is precisely our judging of others that throws us into the Pharisees camp, time after time. Can we simply make it a personal value to avoid judging? I don’t really know, but perhaps we should give it a try and see what happens.
2) Focus on belonging.
King of the Hill is the game of one-upsmanship. It is the quest for power and personal empowerment. I think we have a better handle on reality by defining relationships in terms of power less and in terms of belonging more.
Behind every sissyfight is a child of God who wants to belong to someone, something, or a group of someones. Everyone has a need to belong. Perhaps we can become the kind of church where belonging is guaranteed.
Let me remind you, that every visitor that walks through these doors is a babe that Jesus has pulled into our midst—one whom Jesus holds up in his arms. The simple challenge to us is to receive that one in Jesus’ name. In fact, our entire health as a congregation can be tied to this dictum: How well do we help people feel that they belong here?
Let’s be mindful of belonging and make it our focus as members of this fellowship.
3) Connect more deeply.
Our vision statement includes our aspiration to be Deeply connected—which means that our relationships are incomplete as long as they are superficial. We have been united in Christ and to one another by his Holy Spirit. Our bond is unspeakably profound and spiritually eternal! When we remain mindful of our deep, deep, eternally-deep connection in Christ, we are more likely to function as brothers and sisters in the Lord and less likely to play the shallow, skin-deep games of the flesh.
Our relationships are necessarily eternal, and that means we should be quick to pray together, praise God together, and acknowledge the shared mission of our lives in our conversations.
Question: “What do I do when someone says something inappropriate? Begins to gossip or tells an inappropriate joke?”
An Answer: I suggest one, powerful word: “C’mon.” That one word is a little reminder that we are made for better. It neither judges nor excuses, but rather brings your brother and sister back onto the track where we want to be walking. Just a simple, loving, “C’mon.”
It’s always worked on me from my friends.
6. belonging every baby
We are all a work-in-progress. This congregation is a work-in-progress. God’s Word tells us that as The Lord brings into our circle every babe, toddler, child and outsider; our task is uniform: we are to welcome, to receive, that child like God himself. We don’t need to raise a high bar or hold up a hoop for them to jump through before they are “okay” for our fellowship. We do not need to do that judging—God does that through his Holy Spirit in the heart of every child he draws—but we do need to make it crystal clear that First Presbyterian Church is a place where he or she can indeed belong.
You and I are only here by grace; none of us has earned the right to be here. Let us know the joy and pleasure we bring to the Lord by helping every one know and feel that they belong with us. It is a much, much better game than Sissyfight, and we will all be a whole lot happier by playing! †