Who's On First?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
In this week’s gospel text, James and John ask Jesus to secure preferred seating for them in heaven -- but Jesus sternly replies that this shows how clueless they are. He tells them that being a VIP in the kingdom isn’t about the perks, and pointedly asks: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” James and John, of course, are engaging in that oldest of human pursuits: self-promotion. Underlying their request is a belief that they’re more worthy of favored status than the rest of the disciples -- and rather predictably, Mark tells us that when the other ten get wind of the request “they began to be angry with James and John.” In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin suggests that James and John would hardly seem out of place in contemporary society, where shamelessness, self-promotion, and arrogance are often essential ingredients for success. As Mary notes, political candidates tout themselves as being more qualified for office than their opponents, and a key part of their sales job to voters is presenting their character and experience in the best possible light... even when the truth may be considerably less appealing. Moreover, they often display what New York Times columnist Frank Bruni calls “an insatiable hunger for approbation and an unshakable belief in [their] genius.”
But as Mary observes, it’s not just our politicians who exhibit these qualities -- all of us do as well, whether we pad our resumes or seek preferential treatment or judge others harshly while excusing or rationalizing our own sins. Yet Jesus calls us to a very different sort of behavior. Unlike the secular world, he says, where those who have power can do pretty much what they want (“their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants”), in God’s kingdom “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Missionary/pastor Steve Murrell contrasts the humility of Jesus’ mindset with the “arrogance, self-importance, and self-promotion [that] seem to be at an all-time high in our culture.” For Jesus, our priorities should revolve around humbling ourselves rather than promoting ourselves. And as Mary points out, doing so is a difficult task that we often ignore in favor of other aspects of faith.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on our tendency to give in to despair when faced with intractable problems. One might have expected for Job to react the same way, given the complete misery visited upon him which he is unable to explain or to ameliorate -- but instead he persists in having faith and hope in the Lord, even as he tries to obtain answers from God. When the Almighty finally emerges from a whirlwind, Job realizes that he lacks the cosmic perspective to fully understand the whys and wherefores of the suffering that has been visited upon him. Dean suggests that we might want to give into despair as we try to wrap our minds and souls around how to effectively deal with the problem of gun violence and mass shootings... but that is not an option for us -- especially when we have been exposed to the wonders of God’s creation that far surpass our understanding. Instead, Dean says, like Job our only response should be one grounded in faith, hope, and love.
Who’s on First?
by Mary Austin
Mark 10:35-45
Prominent jobs are alluring, and the presidency is the most coveted -- and most recognizable -- job of all. Anyone who runs for any political office has to believe that there’s something special about them, and people who run for president need a strong sense of their own uniqueness. Every candidate tells us -- early and often -- that he or she is singularly qualified to lead. And perhaps they’re not alone. Maybe we all think there’s something special about us. Don’t we deserve just a little bit more of life’s goodness than other people?
Jesus says to the disciples -- and us -- that yes, there is something singular about each of us... but it’s not what we think it is. Even the process of being chosen will confound us.
In the News
The candidates running for president are all trying to convince us that they should be first. Each one apparently believes that he or she is exceptional. The New York Times reports that Dr. Ben Carson’s recent comment that “he would have fought back in the face of an attack like the one in Roseburg, Oregon, went viral, drawing widespread rebuke from his critics and reviving questions about his candidacy. ‘I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,’ Mr. Carson, who has been surging in recent polls, said on Fox News. ‘I would say: “Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.” ’ ” A military veteran who did engage with the shooter was shot several times and remains in the hospital, but Dr. Carson apparently believes he could have done better.
Columnist Frank Bruni of the New York Times wrote recently about candidate Carly Fiorina, saying that while self-absorption is common in politics, Fiorina seems more self-focused than usual. Bruni writes: “The Washington Post just published a humiliating account of her sluggishness to pay bills from that 2010 campaign. That she stiffed several vendors until January 2015 wasn’t really the damning part: That’s sadly common in politics. But the Post reported that one of the people stiffed was the widow of the pollster Joe Shumate, who dropped dead of a heart attack, ‘surrounded by sheets of polling data’ for Fiorina, shortly before Election Day in 2010. Fiorina mourned him as ‘the heart and soul’ of her operation, then neglected for years to fork over at least $30,000 that she owed him.” Few people who worked Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard have contributed to her campaign, suggesting a lack of ties with people in her past. Or, as Bruni said, “She apparently doesn’t leave much love in her wake. Reuters interviewed about 30 people who worked for her in 2010, 12 of whom said: Never again. ‘I’d rather go to Iraq,’ one unidentified campaign aide groused.”
CNN reports that Donald Trump recently told an Iowa crowd: “For three months, I’ve been a politician. And you know, for three months, we’ve been No. 1.” The same is true in the Democratic race. Mickey Hirten, who has been writing about Bernie Sanders for years as part of the media in Sanders’ home state of Vermont, says: “With few exceptions, I agree with his positions on issues. But I don’t like him or his political temperament. He’d be an awful president.” In their meetings, “Sanders was always full of himself: pious, self-righteous, and utterly humorless.... The candidate you see on television working crowds, shaking hands, and even smiling has undergone a presidential campaign conversion. And there is no doubt that Sanders is a smart, deft politician riding a popular, populist wave. But what is real?” What effort will any of us expend to become first?
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, recently changed his mind about wanting to be first and got out of the race for Speaker of the House. Chris Cillizza writes for the Washington Post that this is more evidence of the power of the Tea Party side of the Republican Party: “The Republican establishment has been operating for months -- really since the rise of Trump -- under a belief that, eventually, things will return to ‘normal’ and that the party will put forward an establishment candidate for president.” Republicans in Congress are no longer willing to capitulate to the party establishment and elect the next person in line for leadership, he says. Republican voters are expressing the same sentiment, as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina lead in the polls. Voters are willing to make the last first, and the first last.
In the Scriptures
The disciples have the same feeling as our political candidates. They want to move to the head of the line too. This is the second time this topic has come up as Jesus and the disciples travel together. As often as Jesus talks about losing one’s life and taking up the cross, the disciples return to the topic of who’s going to be first. This time, seeing the uniqueness that lives in Jesus, they want to get as close to it as possible.
Rolf Jacobson points us to the blindness of the disciples, and Jesus’ attempt to teach them what kind of messiah he really is. Jacobson finds the setting of the story meaningful, observing that “immediately before the first Interpretation of the Messiah’s Servant Mission, Jesus healed a blind man -- but that the healing didn’t take right away (8:22-26). That is the only miracle of Jesus that didn’t turn out right the first time. And notice that immediately after this week’s passage, Jesus also heals a blind man (10:46-52).” The healing of the disciples’ understanding doesn’t “take” right away either, and Jesus has to keep repeating the message. The physical blindness bookends their spiritual blindness.
John Petty observes that “the word baptizo means ‘immersion.’ Hence, it may also be said that Jesus’ baptism is about ‘immersion’ into the daunting and overwhelming realities of life. (One might note, as well, the sacramental associations. Baptism, obviously, refers to baptism; the ‘cup’ to the eucharist.)” Jesus is saying that this baptism is into suffering and renunciation. Our baptism into the life of faith is about more than the video taken by grandparents, or the heirloom baptismal gown. It’s an entry into this life of sacrifice.
We all want to be first, but the process of becoming first in the realm of God is radically different than anything we experience in the usual human order of things. The selection process is very different from what we assume. We make our place through sacrificing our self-interest, and promoting what’s good for others. We immerse ourselves in a practice that’s alien to our whole culture. This is a different kind of race from what we’re used to.
In the Sermon
Author and church planter Steve Murrell says that the question of who’s better “is as valid today as two thousand years ago. The only difference is that today we rarely actually ask it out loud. That would stain our image. But we think about it all the time. We compare ourselves and our accomplishments with others, and when our church is bigger, when our cause is more compassionate, when our coffee is more organic, when our Calvinism is more Reformed, and when our candidate is more righteous, then we are obviously greater than the poorly informed commoners around us.” Jesus has a whole different way of seeing people, and he doesn’t measure by the same standards the world uses. Murrell adds: “According to Jesus, greatness has nothing to do with fame, fortune, position, power, intellect, accomplishments, or being right. Greatness is connected to humility. This means anyone can be great. Even the poor, the servant, the ignored, the unknown, and the youth. Kingdom greatness is all about humbling self, not promoting self.”
Murrell says that anyone can be great in this race. The sermon might look at whether we actually want to be great in this way. Or does this just seem like something you say at church, but can’t really do in the real world?
Or the sermon might lift up examples of people who have learned to do this, rare as they are. NPR recently told the story of Martha Freeman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who is a one-woman force. Milwaukee, like many other places, has seen a jump in homicide rates, and Mrs. Freeman, now 76, spends her time working to increase the level of peace in her neighborhood. According to NPR, “Martha Freeman cares for seven of her great-grandchildren. She’s also the adoptive mom of many others in the Garden Homes neighborhood on the city’s north side, where she’s widely known as Mama Freeman. Her front porch has been a refuge for neighborhood kids for decades. She’s retired now after serving as a corrections officer in Milwaukee County for 20 years. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t shy away from a conflict.” One young man who knows Mrs. Freeman says that “she taught him to care for his community. ‘I learned from her how to love,’ he says.”
Nothing about this comes to us naturally, or is easy to do. The sermon might look at how we develop this as a spiritual practice. How do we create the spiritual skill of letting go of selfishness and self-promotion? We baptize infants in my Presbyterian tradition, but then we lose track of teaching children and adults about this self-emptying side of our faith life. We teach all about the positive aspects of faith -- prayer, community, the process of studying to learn more, and the joys of the sacraments. We don’t say much about the idea that we are baptized into a particular way of life that is built on letting go and emptying out. Our Sunday school curriculum doesn’t teach much about getting out of the race to be first -- or even admitting that we’re in a race like that in American society. The sermon might look at how we teach people about this side of faith.
Emptying out our desire to be first, best, most noticed, or most admired is difficult spiritual work. We know how people should campaign for office, or work for a promotion, or lobby to be the starting quarterback or the team leader. We don’t know much about how to be the most humble. We miss our chance to enter into the baptism of Jesus, and to be immersed in a life of giving. To remember our baptism is to remember this calling -- and to take it up again and again and again, until it becomes part of us.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Despair Is Not an Option
by Dean Feldmeyer
Job 38:1-7 (34-41); Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
In the News
Stuff happens. So says political commentator David Horsey, quoting Jeb Bush, in an October 5 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times following the tragic mass shooting at Roseburg, Oregon.
Stuff happens. People shoot each other -- and, given the laws of our country and human nature, we can pretty much count on the fact that mass shootings are now just part of what it means to live in America in the 21st century.
The obvious solution to the problem would be to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate all privately held guns. But we’re not going to do that. We’re not even going to pass laws that significantly restrict the sale or ownership of handguns. Even if we did pass all the laws that are currently being proposed by gun-control advocates, none of them would have prevented any of the mass shootings that have happened in the past two years.
So what about mental illness? Can’t we do something about that? Well, maybe -- but even though our care of mentally ill people in this country could stand much improvement, there’s no reliable way to predict which of the afflicted are going to purchase a gun and then use it to shoot up a school or a movie theater.
So get used to it. Things aren’t going to change. Mass shootings, gun suicides, and gun-assisted crime are now part of our cultural landscape, and they’re going to be for the foreseeable future.
Stuff happens. Whaddaya gonna do, right?
Mr. Horsey and apparently much of the country have given up and given in. Nothing is going to change. There’s nothing we can do.
If he’s right, if despair and hopelessness are the only responses left to us, then our only choices are to consign ourselves to being victims or to arm ourselves, hunkering down in our well-barricaded homes and preparing to kill anyone who threatens us. Either way, America the Beautiful isn’t so beautiful anymore.
But maybe there is a third option.
Back in December of 2012, Jeffrey Toobin wrote a piece for the New Yorker titled “So You Think You Know the Second Amendment?” In it he opines that the final word on the control of guns and gun owners has not yet been spoken.
Toobin says that while the Supreme Court’s decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller case held that an outright ban on all handguns was unconstitutional, it left a lot of wiggle room for other types of gun-control legislation. All may not yet be lost in this battle for reasonable gun-control laws. “The battle over gun control is not just one of individual votes in Congress, but of a continuing clash of ideas, backed by political power,” Toobin writes. “In other words, the law of the Second Amendment is not settled; no law, not even the Constitution, ever is.”
Despair is not necessarily our inevitable position.
In fact, if we are serious in our desire to make our schools, churches, shopping malls, movie theaters, and city streets a little safer from gun violence for our children and grandchildren, despair is not an option.
In the Scriptures
Last week Job longed for an opportunity to contend with God, to plead his case and make God listen to him, but ended his soliloquy in despair: “If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face” (Job 23:17). And the psalmist began where Job left off: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).
This week God finally responds to Job, but God doesn’t explain or apologize. God only reminds Job that God is God -- and that where God is concerned, there is no such thing as a final word. God is a powerful and creative force, constantly exercising and demonstrating the power and creativity in the universe. In fact, it might be properly said that God is power and creativity itself.
Try to describe the awesome creative power of YHWH, and you soon discover that words fail. Poetry is the only way to speak of it, and that’s what the authors of Job and Psalm 104 use.
YHWH has laid the foundations of the earth and creates floods and lightning. It is God who creates wisdom and allows the mind to understand. It is God who feeds all the wild beasts and birds. God wears light as we wear a robe. God uses the winds as messengers, and fir and flame are God’s ministers.
How can people who believe in a God that is this powerful and this creative ever sink into despair? How can they ever give up hope? Despair is the ultimate un-faith! It is a luxury that Christians simply can’t afford.
In the Pulpit
The modern mind tends to accept despair by calling it realism, as in “I’m not being negative; I’m just being realistic.” Those who live by faith, hope, and love are often seen as unrealistic dreamers, cockeyed optimists, and naïve Pollyannas.
But hope is not just a fanciful wish dream.
No, our hope is grounded in our faith, and our faith is based on our experience of a God that is powerful, creative, and overflowing with love and grace.
If you have stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon or wondered at the stalactites of Mammoth Cave, if you have heard a baby’s first cry or the laughter of a toddler, if you have been nursed through a sickness by a loving parent or cried at your child’s wedding, you know that these are things that find their genesis outside the boundaries of human endeavor. These are gifts of nature and nature’s God.
And if our God can create such as these, then the only appropriate responses from us are faith, hope, and love. Despair is simply not an option.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Mark 10:35-45
Invite This Couple to Give Your Next Stewardship Sermon!
Julia Wise, a social worker, and her husband Jeff Kaufman, a software engineer, live on just a hair more than $15,200 a year. That’s not what makes them unique.
What makes their story unique is their commitment to charity. Julia and Jeff give more than $100,000 to charity -- about 40% of their pre-tax earnings. And they’ve been doing it every year since 2008. Their friend William MacAskill describes the couple as joyful, and not at all the image of penny-pinching self-deniers: “For the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to count Jeff and Julia as my friends, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a more stable, happy, and, well, perfectly normal couple. They prove that you can have a perfectly normal, enjoyable, and well-rounded life while making altruism a core part of your identity.” In other words, in their commitment to living frugally they are the embodiment of Jesus’ instructions that “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,” and a reminder that “giving makes you feel good.”
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Leadership Lessons from Malala
Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, 18-year old Malala Yousafzai isn’t trying to be great. She’s just trying to go to school, and in the process is describing what it means to be a servant leader.
Malala, known for her activism against the Taliban, has drawn international attention to the plight of millions of girls who are excluded from education. A new documentary about her life opens this week, prompting writers Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield to reflect on lessons learned from Malala’s brand of servant leadership. As Sweeney and Gosfield observe, “Malala doesn’t recount her experiences just for the sake of publicity. She does it to grab people’s attention and inspire them to join a cause that’s far bigger than her.” They note she speaks with authenticity, and doesn’t pretend to be a lofty expert:
Malala might have a voice on the world stage, but she doesn’t pretend she’s the world’s greatest authority on education. She understands that to persuade people, she needs to let them see who she really is. Although she always advocates for what she believes in, she uses her pranksterish humor, candor, and youthful charm to disarm people, whether they're global leaders like President Obama and Queen Elizabeth or late-night talk show hosts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Malala is honest and direct. She shares things about herself -- some lighthearted, like how she loves to tease her brothers and her obsession with arm wrestling, and some poignant, like her concern for her homeland and her insecurities about being a teenager. Because Malala is unapologetically herself, her message resonates with that thing all leaders require: authenticity.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Who Can Tilt the Waterskins of Heaven?
God’s response in Job 38:1-7 reframes Job’s complaints by reminding him of the greatness of creation. The drama of creation and the grandeur of God’s theater is displayed before Job. Called to comprehend “the expanse of the earth” (v. 18), Job is perhaps not unlike the main character of Ridley Scott’s new movie The Martian. Accidentally abandoned by his teammates, astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) finds himself stranded on Mars. Watney is determined to find a way to survive on the lonely yet massive planet. The struggle to survive soon becomes an opportunity for Watney, perhaps like Job, to discover deeper meaning in the vast universe. As one reviewer put it, the movie is “about willing yourself out of the lonely room -- call it Mars or your head -- and into the world, however inhospitable, so you can breathe the air and drink the water (Watney learns to make both) and yearn for others.”
*****
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Waters Standing above the Freeways
South Carolina, besieged by record rainfalls and flooding, is beginning to recover.
Flood waters are receding, allowing stretches of highways to reopen and giving residents a chance to rebuild. But even before the waters crested, churches were finding ways to care for those caught in the upheaval. It’s an illustration, perhaps, of the presence of God in the midst of flooding -- much as the great presence of God in creation is described by the psalmist: “You set the earth on its foundation so that it shall never be shaken.”
Religious groups throughout the state were motivated to do more than offer prayers for flooding victims, according to the Huffington Post. An online publisher that monitors social media posts noted how churches were providing essential support, including supplies, shelter, and other donations. Work teams and donation drives are also being organized by churches outside of the state.
*****
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
God’s Manifold Works at Risk
The historic flooding in South Carolina may have been hard to predict, but scientists say it should no longer come as a surprise. Time magazine noted that climate change is a reminder that the manifold works of God described by the psalmist are certainly at risk:
“The convergence of these statistically more likely events with what are very clearly climate related changes in sea level is a cautionary perspective into the future,” said Dana Beach, executive director of the state’s Coastal Conservation League. “It’s one that we really have to pay a lot of attention to and not just write it off as something that isn’t going to happen again.”
In South Carolina, a number of factors related to climate change, including sea level rise, high temperatures, and an unexpected hurricane, increased the likelihood that the state might experience widespread flooding. On top of that, an influx in hurricane related rainfall and an already inundated water system combined to create a disaster.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Mark 10:35-45
The Nobel Peace Prize was recently awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of Tunisian labor union leaders, businesspeople, lawyers, and human rights activists. What this group was able to accomplish is democracy. Five years ago, during the Arab Spring when governments across northern Africa and the Middle East were toppling into dictatorships or religious factions, the group prevented a civil war by creating a setting for dialogue among all interested political factions. Tunisia’s president, Beji Caid Essebsi, declared that the award demonstrated the triumph of negotiations over violence. Essebsi said, “Tunisia has no other solution but dialogue. We are facing a war against terrorism, and we can’t win unless we stay together.”
Application: We should be less concerned about sitting on the right and left side of the throne, and more concerned that there is room enough for everyone around the table.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
As Chris Harper-Mercer was systematically shooting students at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Army veteran and martial arts expert Chris Mintz used his body to secure and block the door to the adjoining classroom. Mintz was shot numerous times while using his body as a human shield so the students in his classroom could run to safety. With both legs broken from the bullets fired through the door, Mintz will have to learn to walk again.
Application: Mintz probably never thought at the time that he was giving his life as a ransom for many, but in reality that is what his actions entailed.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Now that the Russians have become involved in Syria’s civil war, they are using this battlefield to showcase their military might. It had been thought that the Russian navy never recovered from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the missiles carried by their ships could only travel a few hundred miles. That perception has changed, as their ships are now firing missiles that can travel several thousand miles. It was thought that missiles of that size had to be fired from large ships like those in the U.S. Navy that are 500 feet long and displace 9,000 tons of water. The Russian ships range from 200 to 330 feet and displace no more than 1,500 tons of water. Eric Wertheim, a naval analyst, said, “Small ships, big firepower.”
Application: As with a small ship with big firepower, to be last, to be a servant, still means we can make a great impact upon the lives of others. It is not our size or station in life, but our willingness.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Emma Revell Moody was the wife of the famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Her name is only known to a few, but she was often called the backbone of his success. Her serenity and mastery of finances counterbalanced Dwight’s impulsive and emotional behavior.
Application: Those who are last and unknown can be the backbone of every ministry.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
New York Times television critic James Poniewozik recently wrote a piece arguing that Donald Trump’s experience on The Apprentice taught him how to campaign. Poniewozik notes that the reality TV genre is focused on a niche audience, not the general public -- and polls show Trump at 23%, which is not enough to win a general election but is a sizable niche audience. He also observes that the format for reality shows is one of “combat: You fight to prove you’re a fighter.” Trump learned “that it is better to be the instigator than the instigated-upon.” So, according to Poniewozik, Trump’s campaign is no more than a reality television show.
Application: We are instructed in Hebrews not to glorify ourselves and to be aware of our weaknesses.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
Christian actor David Oyelowo -- best known for his role as Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie Selma -- also appears in the newly released film Captive, which portrays changed lives through Christ. Yet Oyelowo is disgruntled with most Christian movies, which he characterizes as “the Gospel is Jesus and him being the path to light and you play that scene after scene after scene.” Oyelowo contends that this is a “simplistic” message and that the “Bible is not as simplistic as that.” Oyelowo believes that Christian movies shouldn’t take what he calls an “on the nose” approach to getting the message across -- rather, they should portray life as it truly is and not sanitize it into a neatly summed-up Christian message. Kate Mara appears topless in Captive, which has brought the movie criticism, but Oyelowo considers this a part of life that must be acknowledged. In so doing, he says, the movie is not just speaking to a small segment of the Christian audience but is “speaking to a broad audience.” Oyelowo wants his movies to create “conversation.”
Application: In a way all of us are a high priest to those around us, and we must be able to identify with the wayward.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
In a review of the movie Steve Jobs for Christianity Today, critic Alissa Wilkinson says that she did not particularly like the film’s formulistic approach and questioned if it was worth seeing. But she found the movie’s ending to be a reason justifying everyone to sit through it. In the film Jobs is an antihero. He was a genius with money, but that was coupled with a difficult personality. The movie made Wilkinson wonder about all of her heroes and how she would come to learn they are mean-spirited, small-minded, and lack moral courage. But then there are others who are both accomplished and kind. She says the movie leaves you with the question: “Can you be great, and good?”
Application: Hebrews discusses how we are called to be priests, yet we are still mere mortals. For this reason we must deal gently with others.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
In his final Mass during his visit to the United States, Pope Francis said: “Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world.” Then he went on to address the Catholic church’s child abuse scandal, saying: “I pledge to you that we will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead.” He then concluded that “God weeps” over what was done to the youngsters.
Application: Hebrews instructs us as priests that we must be kind.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Presidential candidate Ben Carson has been challenged on his recent remarks that if the Jews had guns then the Holocaust -- Hitler’s program of genocide -- would have been greatly diminished. Carson promotes this theory in expressing his opposition to gun control. Religion News Service editorialist Cathy Grossman wrote a rebuttal to Carson’s Holocaust scenario, in which she simply asked Carson to visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum with her. Grossman says that the first exhibit they would stop at would be the shoes of the victims. Some of the shoes are tiny, as they belonged to children. Many other shoes belonged to women. Then there are shoes worn by the elderly. Of the six million Jews killed, one million shoes were those of children. Just how many shoes were there of men of fighting strength and age? Regarding Carson’s position and his response to her invitation to visit the Holocaust museum, Grossman ended her essay by saying: “Let me know when you’re ready to see the shoes.”
Application: Job is warned not to listen to dark counsel that is without knowledge. It is advice that we all must be cognizance of.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
When I was a youngster I went to see the movie The Pit and the Pendulum. With that swinging pendulum slowly cutting someone in half, the fear was too much for me. I moved from my center seat to the theater’s door where some light came in and I could easily get out, which I did. Once I was in the brightly lit lobby I was no longer afraid. Returning to the dark theater, fear overwhelmed me once again. I removed myself to the lobby a second time, and I was unbothered. (Note: You can personalize this story by saying “a friend told me” or “I read...”)
Application: Job teaches us that life can be cruel, but light came with God’s words of assurance.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless God, O my soul. O God, our God, you are very great.
People: You are clothed with honor and majesty.
Leader: You are wrapped in light as with a garment.
People: You stretch out the heavens like a tent.
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom you have made them all. Praise God!
OR
Leader: God calls us to be God’s own people.
People: That sounds great. We’re number one!
Leader: God calls us to be slaves to other people.
People: Wait... we want to be God’s people.
Leader: Jesus said that they are one and the same.
People: As Jesus’ disciples, we will be God’s people and the servants of all God’s children.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“How Great Thou Art”
found in:
UMH: 77
PH: 467
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 532
ELA: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250
“God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”
found in:
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELA: 771
W&P: 664
“Are Ye Able”
found in:
UMH: 530
NNBH: 223
CH: 621
AMEC: 291
“Make Me a Captive, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
“What Wondrous Love Is This”
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
ELA: 666
W&P: 257
Renew: 277
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
“Here I Am, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
“O God Who Shaped Creation”
found in:
UMH: 443
“Make Me a Servant”
found in:
CCB: 90
“Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is enthroned in majesty and yet comes as one of us: Grant us the grace and wisdom to accept ourselves in humility, acknowledging our gifts as coming from you and confessing our faults that we nurtured within ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
You, O God, are high and exalted above all that you created. Yet you have come and dwelt among us as one of us. We pray for wisdom and grace that we may live in humility, acknowledging our gifts and confessing our faults. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our shameless self-promotion.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have thought of ourselves more highly than we ought. We do not base our worth on being your children, but rather on what plays well with the masses. We base our worth on looking better, smarter, and richer than others. We forget that our worth is secure in being your children, and that we are free to offer ourselves to others in service. Forgive our foolish ways, and bring us back to following the true Servant, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.
Leader: God loves us in all our foolishness. Receive God’s grace and the power of God’s Spirit to be true disciples of Jesus.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
All praise and glory to you, O God, creator of all that is and the One who is seated in majesty and splendor.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have thought of ourselves more highly than we ought. We do not base our worth on being your children, but rather on what plays well with the masses. We base our worth on looking better, smarter, and richer than others. We forget that our worth is secure in being your children, and that we are free to offer ourselves to others in service. Forgive our foolish ways, and bring us back to following the true Servant, Jesus of Nazareth.
We give you thanks for those who have chosen to be your servants and who sought to teach us the truth of how to live as your children. We thank you for all the saints, named and unnamed, who have lived lives of simple obedience and service. May we be one with them.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs. Help us to look to others not as our rivals, but as our sisters and brothers whom we might be able to help. Give us hearts of love and compassion to act in the Spirit of Jesus.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Tell the children: “I’m taller than you. I have been to school more than you. I have more money in my pocket than you do.” (You hope!) Ask them if that makes them feel good when you say these things. (Of course not.) No one likes to have someone brag about being better than them. Jesus’ disciples wanted to be told they were better than others. Jesus reminded them that we are only better when we serve others. If I want to be great I must take care of other people, not try to act like I’m better than they are. Let’s all try to help someone this week -- then we will be Jesus’ disciples.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Who’s First?
by Chris Keating
Mark 10:35-47
Focus: Helping children become servant leaders.
Prepare in advance: A “Take-Home Scavenger Hunt” list for children to take home and complete. Make a checklist of activities that the children can do in the next week that illustrate service. Ideas could include: collecting canned food items for a food pantry; donating gently used toys, games, or books for a local agency; folding some laundry; cleaning the microwave; taking out the trash; helping rake leaves; emptying the dishwasher, and so on. Here is one list that was made for a youth group, but you can probably tailor one for your congregation.
Begin by greeting the children and asking them what the things are that make people leaders. Is a leader a great sports player? Is a leader a good teacher? Or is a leader someone who listens to a teacher, and does what is expected of him or her? Make a list of the things that the children think describe a leader.
Jesus wants us to be leaders too. Yet his understanding of what a leader is may be different from what we think. The children may have heard people chant “We’re number one! We’re number one!” when their favorite sports teams are leading the rest. Is that what a leader is? Is a leader someone who is very strong, like a really good baseball player? Maybe a leader has a lot of power and gets to do whatever they want -- like the president or a queen or a big boss. That’s what Jesus’ friends thought too. They imagined that by being Jesus’ friend they would someday get the honor of being called a “leader.”
In the scripture lesson from Mark, James and John want Jesus to notice them. They have decided that they need to be “Number One” (invite the children to say “We’re Number One!” as you tell the story). Jesus, however, saw things differently. James and John did not understand that God wants leaders to be servants, or people who help each other. It’s not always about being “Number One.” Sometimes, as Jesus shows us, we offer God’s love simply by helping out.
“Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave (servant) of all,” Jesus said. To help the children imagine being servants, pass out the “Take-Home Scavenger Hunt” list and encourage them to take it home and do as many of the activities as possible. They can place checkmarks next to the boxes, or even take pictures of the acts of service. Invite them to bring the lists back next week so the church can celebrate the many ways the children became servant-leaders.
In our church, we often sing “The Servant Song.” This hymn helps us understand what it means to serve each other. If this is a familiar song, the congregation and children can sing it together as you conclude the children’s time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 18, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
But as Mary observes, it’s not just our politicians who exhibit these qualities -- all of us do as well, whether we pad our resumes or seek preferential treatment or judge others harshly while excusing or rationalizing our own sins. Yet Jesus calls us to a very different sort of behavior. Unlike the secular world, he says, where those who have power can do pretty much what they want (“their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants”), in God’s kingdom “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Missionary/pastor Steve Murrell contrasts the humility of Jesus’ mindset with the “arrogance, self-importance, and self-promotion [that] seem to be at an all-time high in our culture.” For Jesus, our priorities should revolve around humbling ourselves rather than promoting ourselves. And as Mary points out, doing so is a difficult task that we often ignore in favor of other aspects of faith.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on our tendency to give in to despair when faced with intractable problems. One might have expected for Job to react the same way, given the complete misery visited upon him which he is unable to explain or to ameliorate -- but instead he persists in having faith and hope in the Lord, even as he tries to obtain answers from God. When the Almighty finally emerges from a whirlwind, Job realizes that he lacks the cosmic perspective to fully understand the whys and wherefores of the suffering that has been visited upon him. Dean suggests that we might want to give into despair as we try to wrap our minds and souls around how to effectively deal with the problem of gun violence and mass shootings... but that is not an option for us -- especially when we have been exposed to the wonders of God’s creation that far surpass our understanding. Instead, Dean says, like Job our only response should be one grounded in faith, hope, and love.
Who’s on First?
by Mary Austin
Mark 10:35-45
Prominent jobs are alluring, and the presidency is the most coveted -- and most recognizable -- job of all. Anyone who runs for any political office has to believe that there’s something special about them, and people who run for president need a strong sense of their own uniqueness. Every candidate tells us -- early and often -- that he or she is singularly qualified to lead. And perhaps they’re not alone. Maybe we all think there’s something special about us. Don’t we deserve just a little bit more of life’s goodness than other people?
Jesus says to the disciples -- and us -- that yes, there is something singular about each of us... but it’s not what we think it is. Even the process of being chosen will confound us.
In the News
The candidates running for president are all trying to convince us that they should be first. Each one apparently believes that he or she is exceptional. The New York Times reports that Dr. Ben Carson’s recent comment that “he would have fought back in the face of an attack like the one in Roseburg, Oregon, went viral, drawing widespread rebuke from his critics and reviving questions about his candidacy. ‘I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,’ Mr. Carson, who has been surging in recent polls, said on Fox News. ‘I would say: “Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.” ’ ” A military veteran who did engage with the shooter was shot several times and remains in the hospital, but Dr. Carson apparently believes he could have done better.
Columnist Frank Bruni of the New York Times wrote recently about candidate Carly Fiorina, saying that while self-absorption is common in politics, Fiorina seems more self-focused than usual. Bruni writes: “The Washington Post just published a humiliating account of her sluggishness to pay bills from that 2010 campaign. That she stiffed several vendors until January 2015 wasn’t really the damning part: That’s sadly common in politics. But the Post reported that one of the people stiffed was the widow of the pollster Joe Shumate, who dropped dead of a heart attack, ‘surrounded by sheets of polling data’ for Fiorina, shortly before Election Day in 2010. Fiorina mourned him as ‘the heart and soul’ of her operation, then neglected for years to fork over at least $30,000 that she owed him.” Few people who worked Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard have contributed to her campaign, suggesting a lack of ties with people in her past. Or, as Bruni said, “She apparently doesn’t leave much love in her wake. Reuters interviewed about 30 people who worked for her in 2010, 12 of whom said: Never again. ‘I’d rather go to Iraq,’ one unidentified campaign aide groused.”
CNN reports that Donald Trump recently told an Iowa crowd: “For three months, I’ve been a politician. And you know, for three months, we’ve been No. 1.” The same is true in the Democratic race. Mickey Hirten, who has been writing about Bernie Sanders for years as part of the media in Sanders’ home state of Vermont, says: “With few exceptions, I agree with his positions on issues. But I don’t like him or his political temperament. He’d be an awful president.” In their meetings, “Sanders was always full of himself: pious, self-righteous, and utterly humorless.... The candidate you see on television working crowds, shaking hands, and even smiling has undergone a presidential campaign conversion. And there is no doubt that Sanders is a smart, deft politician riding a popular, populist wave. But what is real?” What effort will any of us expend to become first?
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, recently changed his mind about wanting to be first and got out of the race for Speaker of the House. Chris Cillizza writes for the Washington Post that this is more evidence of the power of the Tea Party side of the Republican Party: “The Republican establishment has been operating for months -- really since the rise of Trump -- under a belief that, eventually, things will return to ‘normal’ and that the party will put forward an establishment candidate for president.” Republicans in Congress are no longer willing to capitulate to the party establishment and elect the next person in line for leadership, he says. Republican voters are expressing the same sentiment, as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina lead in the polls. Voters are willing to make the last first, and the first last.
In the Scriptures
The disciples have the same feeling as our political candidates. They want to move to the head of the line too. This is the second time this topic has come up as Jesus and the disciples travel together. As often as Jesus talks about losing one’s life and taking up the cross, the disciples return to the topic of who’s going to be first. This time, seeing the uniqueness that lives in Jesus, they want to get as close to it as possible.
Rolf Jacobson points us to the blindness of the disciples, and Jesus’ attempt to teach them what kind of messiah he really is. Jacobson finds the setting of the story meaningful, observing that “immediately before the first Interpretation of the Messiah’s Servant Mission, Jesus healed a blind man -- but that the healing didn’t take right away (8:22-26). That is the only miracle of Jesus that didn’t turn out right the first time. And notice that immediately after this week’s passage, Jesus also heals a blind man (10:46-52).” The healing of the disciples’ understanding doesn’t “take” right away either, and Jesus has to keep repeating the message. The physical blindness bookends their spiritual blindness.
John Petty observes that “the word baptizo means ‘immersion.’ Hence, it may also be said that Jesus’ baptism is about ‘immersion’ into the daunting and overwhelming realities of life. (One might note, as well, the sacramental associations. Baptism, obviously, refers to baptism; the ‘cup’ to the eucharist.)” Jesus is saying that this baptism is into suffering and renunciation. Our baptism into the life of faith is about more than the video taken by grandparents, or the heirloom baptismal gown. It’s an entry into this life of sacrifice.
We all want to be first, but the process of becoming first in the realm of God is radically different than anything we experience in the usual human order of things. The selection process is very different from what we assume. We make our place through sacrificing our self-interest, and promoting what’s good for others. We immerse ourselves in a practice that’s alien to our whole culture. This is a different kind of race from what we’re used to.
In the Sermon
Author and church planter Steve Murrell says that the question of who’s better “is as valid today as two thousand years ago. The only difference is that today we rarely actually ask it out loud. That would stain our image. But we think about it all the time. We compare ourselves and our accomplishments with others, and when our church is bigger, when our cause is more compassionate, when our coffee is more organic, when our Calvinism is more Reformed, and when our candidate is more righteous, then we are obviously greater than the poorly informed commoners around us.” Jesus has a whole different way of seeing people, and he doesn’t measure by the same standards the world uses. Murrell adds: “According to Jesus, greatness has nothing to do with fame, fortune, position, power, intellect, accomplishments, or being right. Greatness is connected to humility. This means anyone can be great. Even the poor, the servant, the ignored, the unknown, and the youth. Kingdom greatness is all about humbling self, not promoting self.”
Murrell says that anyone can be great in this race. The sermon might look at whether we actually want to be great in this way. Or does this just seem like something you say at church, but can’t really do in the real world?
Or the sermon might lift up examples of people who have learned to do this, rare as they are. NPR recently told the story of Martha Freeman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who is a one-woman force. Milwaukee, like many other places, has seen a jump in homicide rates, and Mrs. Freeman, now 76, spends her time working to increase the level of peace in her neighborhood. According to NPR, “Martha Freeman cares for seven of her great-grandchildren. She’s also the adoptive mom of many others in the Garden Homes neighborhood on the city’s north side, where she’s widely known as Mama Freeman. Her front porch has been a refuge for neighborhood kids for decades. She’s retired now after serving as a corrections officer in Milwaukee County for 20 years. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t shy away from a conflict.” One young man who knows Mrs. Freeman says that “she taught him to care for his community. ‘I learned from her how to love,’ he says.”
Nothing about this comes to us naturally, or is easy to do. The sermon might look at how we develop this as a spiritual practice. How do we create the spiritual skill of letting go of selfishness and self-promotion? We baptize infants in my Presbyterian tradition, but then we lose track of teaching children and adults about this self-emptying side of our faith life. We teach all about the positive aspects of faith -- prayer, community, the process of studying to learn more, and the joys of the sacraments. We don’t say much about the idea that we are baptized into a particular way of life that is built on letting go and emptying out. Our Sunday school curriculum doesn’t teach much about getting out of the race to be first -- or even admitting that we’re in a race like that in American society. The sermon might look at how we teach people about this side of faith.
Emptying out our desire to be first, best, most noticed, or most admired is difficult spiritual work. We know how people should campaign for office, or work for a promotion, or lobby to be the starting quarterback or the team leader. We don’t know much about how to be the most humble. We miss our chance to enter into the baptism of Jesus, and to be immersed in a life of giving. To remember our baptism is to remember this calling -- and to take it up again and again and again, until it becomes part of us.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Despair Is Not an Option
by Dean Feldmeyer
Job 38:1-7 (34-41); Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
In the News
Stuff happens. So says political commentator David Horsey, quoting Jeb Bush, in an October 5 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times following the tragic mass shooting at Roseburg, Oregon.
Stuff happens. People shoot each other -- and, given the laws of our country and human nature, we can pretty much count on the fact that mass shootings are now just part of what it means to live in America in the 21st century.
The obvious solution to the problem would be to repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate all privately held guns. But we’re not going to do that. We’re not even going to pass laws that significantly restrict the sale or ownership of handguns. Even if we did pass all the laws that are currently being proposed by gun-control advocates, none of them would have prevented any of the mass shootings that have happened in the past two years.
So what about mental illness? Can’t we do something about that? Well, maybe -- but even though our care of mentally ill people in this country could stand much improvement, there’s no reliable way to predict which of the afflicted are going to purchase a gun and then use it to shoot up a school or a movie theater.
So get used to it. Things aren’t going to change. Mass shootings, gun suicides, and gun-assisted crime are now part of our cultural landscape, and they’re going to be for the foreseeable future.
Stuff happens. Whaddaya gonna do, right?
Mr. Horsey and apparently much of the country have given up and given in. Nothing is going to change. There’s nothing we can do.
If he’s right, if despair and hopelessness are the only responses left to us, then our only choices are to consign ourselves to being victims or to arm ourselves, hunkering down in our well-barricaded homes and preparing to kill anyone who threatens us. Either way, America the Beautiful isn’t so beautiful anymore.
But maybe there is a third option.
Back in December of 2012, Jeffrey Toobin wrote a piece for the New Yorker titled “So You Think You Know the Second Amendment?” In it he opines that the final word on the control of guns and gun owners has not yet been spoken.
Toobin says that while the Supreme Court’s decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller case held that an outright ban on all handguns was unconstitutional, it left a lot of wiggle room for other types of gun-control legislation. All may not yet be lost in this battle for reasonable gun-control laws. “The battle over gun control is not just one of individual votes in Congress, but of a continuing clash of ideas, backed by political power,” Toobin writes. “In other words, the law of the Second Amendment is not settled; no law, not even the Constitution, ever is.”
Despair is not necessarily our inevitable position.
In fact, if we are serious in our desire to make our schools, churches, shopping malls, movie theaters, and city streets a little safer from gun violence for our children and grandchildren, despair is not an option.
In the Scriptures
Last week Job longed for an opportunity to contend with God, to plead his case and make God listen to him, but ended his soliloquy in despair: “If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face” (Job 23:17). And the psalmist began where Job left off: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).
This week God finally responds to Job, but God doesn’t explain or apologize. God only reminds Job that God is God -- and that where God is concerned, there is no such thing as a final word. God is a powerful and creative force, constantly exercising and demonstrating the power and creativity in the universe. In fact, it might be properly said that God is power and creativity itself.
Try to describe the awesome creative power of YHWH, and you soon discover that words fail. Poetry is the only way to speak of it, and that’s what the authors of Job and Psalm 104 use.
YHWH has laid the foundations of the earth and creates floods and lightning. It is God who creates wisdom and allows the mind to understand. It is God who feeds all the wild beasts and birds. God wears light as we wear a robe. God uses the winds as messengers, and fir and flame are God’s ministers.
How can people who believe in a God that is this powerful and this creative ever sink into despair? How can they ever give up hope? Despair is the ultimate un-faith! It is a luxury that Christians simply can’t afford.
In the Pulpit
The modern mind tends to accept despair by calling it realism, as in “I’m not being negative; I’m just being realistic.” Those who live by faith, hope, and love are often seen as unrealistic dreamers, cockeyed optimists, and naïve Pollyannas.
But hope is not just a fanciful wish dream.
No, our hope is grounded in our faith, and our faith is based on our experience of a God that is powerful, creative, and overflowing with love and grace.
If you have stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon or wondered at the stalactites of Mammoth Cave, if you have heard a baby’s first cry or the laughter of a toddler, if you have been nursed through a sickness by a loving parent or cried at your child’s wedding, you know that these are things that find their genesis outside the boundaries of human endeavor. These are gifts of nature and nature’s God.
And if our God can create such as these, then the only appropriate responses from us are faith, hope, and love. Despair is simply not an option.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Mark 10:35-45
Invite This Couple to Give Your Next Stewardship Sermon!
Julia Wise, a social worker, and her husband Jeff Kaufman, a software engineer, live on just a hair more than $15,200 a year. That’s not what makes them unique.
What makes their story unique is their commitment to charity. Julia and Jeff give more than $100,000 to charity -- about 40% of their pre-tax earnings. And they’ve been doing it every year since 2008. Their friend William MacAskill describes the couple as joyful, and not at all the image of penny-pinching self-deniers: “For the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to count Jeff and Julia as my friends, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a more stable, happy, and, well, perfectly normal couple. They prove that you can have a perfectly normal, enjoyable, and well-rounded life while making altruism a core part of your identity.” In other words, in their commitment to living frugally they are the embodiment of Jesus’ instructions that “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,” and a reminder that “giving makes you feel good.”
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Leadership Lessons from Malala
Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, 18-year old Malala Yousafzai isn’t trying to be great. She’s just trying to go to school, and in the process is describing what it means to be a servant leader.
Malala, known for her activism against the Taliban, has drawn international attention to the plight of millions of girls who are excluded from education. A new documentary about her life opens this week, prompting writers Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield to reflect on lessons learned from Malala’s brand of servant leadership. As Sweeney and Gosfield observe, “Malala doesn’t recount her experiences just for the sake of publicity. She does it to grab people’s attention and inspire them to join a cause that’s far bigger than her.” They note she speaks with authenticity, and doesn’t pretend to be a lofty expert:
Malala might have a voice on the world stage, but she doesn’t pretend she’s the world’s greatest authority on education. She understands that to persuade people, she needs to let them see who she really is. Although she always advocates for what she believes in, she uses her pranksterish humor, candor, and youthful charm to disarm people, whether they're global leaders like President Obama and Queen Elizabeth or late-night talk show hosts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Malala is honest and direct. She shares things about herself -- some lighthearted, like how she loves to tease her brothers and her obsession with arm wrestling, and some poignant, like her concern for her homeland and her insecurities about being a teenager. Because Malala is unapologetically herself, her message resonates with that thing all leaders require: authenticity.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Who Can Tilt the Waterskins of Heaven?
God’s response in Job 38:1-7 reframes Job’s complaints by reminding him of the greatness of creation. The drama of creation and the grandeur of God’s theater is displayed before Job. Called to comprehend “the expanse of the earth” (v. 18), Job is perhaps not unlike the main character of Ridley Scott’s new movie The Martian. Accidentally abandoned by his teammates, astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) finds himself stranded on Mars. Watney is determined to find a way to survive on the lonely yet massive planet. The struggle to survive soon becomes an opportunity for Watney, perhaps like Job, to discover deeper meaning in the vast universe. As one reviewer put it, the movie is “about willing yourself out of the lonely room -- call it Mars or your head -- and into the world, however inhospitable, so you can breathe the air and drink the water (Watney learns to make both) and yearn for others.”
*****
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Waters Standing above the Freeways
South Carolina, besieged by record rainfalls and flooding, is beginning to recover.
Flood waters are receding, allowing stretches of highways to reopen and giving residents a chance to rebuild. But even before the waters crested, churches were finding ways to care for those caught in the upheaval. It’s an illustration, perhaps, of the presence of God in the midst of flooding -- much as the great presence of God in creation is described by the psalmist: “You set the earth on its foundation so that it shall never be shaken.”
Religious groups throughout the state were motivated to do more than offer prayers for flooding victims, according to the Huffington Post. An online publisher that monitors social media posts noted how churches were providing essential support, including supplies, shelter, and other donations. Work teams and donation drives are also being organized by churches outside of the state.
*****
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
God’s Manifold Works at Risk
The historic flooding in South Carolina may have been hard to predict, but scientists say it should no longer come as a surprise. Time magazine noted that climate change is a reminder that the manifold works of God described by the psalmist are certainly at risk:
“The convergence of these statistically more likely events with what are very clearly climate related changes in sea level is a cautionary perspective into the future,” said Dana Beach, executive director of the state’s Coastal Conservation League. “It’s one that we really have to pay a lot of attention to and not just write it off as something that isn’t going to happen again.”
In South Carolina, a number of factors related to climate change, including sea level rise, high temperatures, and an unexpected hurricane, increased the likelihood that the state might experience widespread flooding. On top of that, an influx in hurricane related rainfall and an already inundated water system combined to create a disaster.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Mark 10:35-45
The Nobel Peace Prize was recently awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of Tunisian labor union leaders, businesspeople, lawyers, and human rights activists. What this group was able to accomplish is democracy. Five years ago, during the Arab Spring when governments across northern Africa and the Middle East were toppling into dictatorships or religious factions, the group prevented a civil war by creating a setting for dialogue among all interested political factions. Tunisia’s president, Beji Caid Essebsi, declared that the award demonstrated the triumph of negotiations over violence. Essebsi said, “Tunisia has no other solution but dialogue. We are facing a war against terrorism, and we can’t win unless we stay together.”
Application: We should be less concerned about sitting on the right and left side of the throne, and more concerned that there is room enough for everyone around the table.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
As Chris Harper-Mercer was systematically shooting students at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Army veteran and martial arts expert Chris Mintz used his body to secure and block the door to the adjoining classroom. Mintz was shot numerous times while using his body as a human shield so the students in his classroom could run to safety. With both legs broken from the bullets fired through the door, Mintz will have to learn to walk again.
Application: Mintz probably never thought at the time that he was giving his life as a ransom for many, but in reality that is what his actions entailed.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Now that the Russians have become involved in Syria’s civil war, they are using this battlefield to showcase their military might. It had been thought that the Russian navy never recovered from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the missiles carried by their ships could only travel a few hundred miles. That perception has changed, as their ships are now firing missiles that can travel several thousand miles. It was thought that missiles of that size had to be fired from large ships like those in the U.S. Navy that are 500 feet long and displace 9,000 tons of water. The Russian ships range from 200 to 330 feet and displace no more than 1,500 tons of water. Eric Wertheim, a naval analyst, said, “Small ships, big firepower.”
Application: As with a small ship with big firepower, to be last, to be a servant, still means we can make a great impact upon the lives of others. It is not our size or station in life, but our willingness.
*****
Mark 10:35-45
Emma Revell Moody was the wife of the famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Her name is only known to a few, but she was often called the backbone of his success. Her serenity and mastery of finances counterbalanced Dwight’s impulsive and emotional behavior.
Application: Those who are last and unknown can be the backbone of every ministry.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
New York Times television critic James Poniewozik recently wrote a piece arguing that Donald Trump’s experience on The Apprentice taught him how to campaign. Poniewozik notes that the reality TV genre is focused on a niche audience, not the general public -- and polls show Trump at 23%, which is not enough to win a general election but is a sizable niche audience. He also observes that the format for reality shows is one of “combat: You fight to prove you’re a fighter.” Trump learned “that it is better to be the instigator than the instigated-upon.” So, according to Poniewozik, Trump’s campaign is no more than a reality television show.
Application: We are instructed in Hebrews not to glorify ourselves and to be aware of our weaknesses.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
Christian actor David Oyelowo -- best known for his role as Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie Selma -- also appears in the newly released film Captive, which portrays changed lives through Christ. Yet Oyelowo is disgruntled with most Christian movies, which he characterizes as “the Gospel is Jesus and him being the path to light and you play that scene after scene after scene.” Oyelowo contends that this is a “simplistic” message and that the “Bible is not as simplistic as that.” Oyelowo believes that Christian movies shouldn’t take what he calls an “on the nose” approach to getting the message across -- rather, they should portray life as it truly is and not sanitize it into a neatly summed-up Christian message. Kate Mara appears topless in Captive, which has brought the movie criticism, but Oyelowo considers this a part of life that must be acknowledged. In so doing, he says, the movie is not just speaking to a small segment of the Christian audience but is “speaking to a broad audience.” Oyelowo wants his movies to create “conversation.”
Application: In a way all of us are a high priest to those around us, and we must be able to identify with the wayward.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
In a review of the movie Steve Jobs for Christianity Today, critic Alissa Wilkinson says that she did not particularly like the film’s formulistic approach and questioned if it was worth seeing. But she found the movie’s ending to be a reason justifying everyone to sit through it. In the film Jobs is an antihero. He was a genius with money, but that was coupled with a difficult personality. The movie made Wilkinson wonder about all of her heroes and how she would come to learn they are mean-spirited, small-minded, and lack moral courage. But then there are others who are both accomplished and kind. She says the movie leaves you with the question: “Can you be great, and good?”
Application: Hebrews discusses how we are called to be priests, yet we are still mere mortals. For this reason we must deal gently with others.
*****
Hebrews 5:1-10
In his final Mass during his visit to the United States, Pope Francis said: “Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world.” Then he went on to address the Catholic church’s child abuse scandal, saying: “I pledge to you that we will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead.” He then concluded that “God weeps” over what was done to the youngsters.
Application: Hebrews instructs us as priests that we must be kind.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Presidential candidate Ben Carson has been challenged on his recent remarks that if the Jews had guns then the Holocaust -- Hitler’s program of genocide -- would have been greatly diminished. Carson promotes this theory in expressing his opposition to gun control. Religion News Service editorialist Cathy Grossman wrote a rebuttal to Carson’s Holocaust scenario, in which she simply asked Carson to visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum with her. Grossman says that the first exhibit they would stop at would be the shoes of the victims. Some of the shoes are tiny, as they belonged to children. Many other shoes belonged to women. Then there are shoes worn by the elderly. Of the six million Jews killed, one million shoes were those of children. Just how many shoes were there of men of fighting strength and age? Regarding Carson’s position and his response to her invitation to visit the Holocaust museum, Grossman ended her essay by saying: “Let me know when you’re ready to see the shoes.”
Application: Job is warned not to listen to dark counsel that is without knowledge. It is advice that we all must be cognizance of.
*****
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
When I was a youngster I went to see the movie The Pit and the Pendulum. With that swinging pendulum slowly cutting someone in half, the fear was too much for me. I moved from my center seat to the theater’s door where some light came in and I could easily get out, which I did. Once I was in the brightly lit lobby I was no longer afraid. Returning to the dark theater, fear overwhelmed me once again. I removed myself to the lobby a second time, and I was unbothered. (Note: You can personalize this story by saying “a friend told me” or “I read...”)
Application: Job teaches us that life can be cruel, but light came with God’s words of assurance.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Bless God, O my soul. O God, our God, you are very great.
People: You are clothed with honor and majesty.
Leader: You are wrapped in light as with a garment.
People: You stretch out the heavens like a tent.
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom you have made them all. Praise God!
OR
Leader: God calls us to be God’s own people.
People: That sounds great. We’re number one!
Leader: God calls us to be slaves to other people.
People: Wait... we want to be God’s people.
Leader: Jesus said that they are one and the same.
People: As Jesus’ disciples, we will be God’s people and the servants of all God’s children.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“How Great Thou Art”
found in:
UMH: 77
PH: 467
AAHH: 148
NNBH: 43
NCH: 35
CH: 33
LBW: 532
ELA: 856
W&P: 51
AMEC: 68
Renew: 250
“God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”
found in:
UMH: 150
H82: 580
PH: 268
NCH: 556
CH: 651
LBW: 463
ELA: 771
W&P: 664
“Are Ye Able”
found in:
UMH: 530
NNBH: 223
CH: 621
AMEC: 291
“Make Me a Captive, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 421
PH: 378
“What Wondrous Love Is This”
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
ELA: 666
W&P: 257
Renew: 277
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
“Here I Am, Lord”
found in:
UMH: 593
PH: 525
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELA: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
“O God Who Shaped Creation”
found in:
UMH: 443
“Make Me a Servant”
found in:
CCB: 90
“Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is enthroned in majesty and yet comes as one of us: Grant us the grace and wisdom to accept ourselves in humility, acknowledging our gifts as coming from you and confessing our faults that we nurtured within ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
You, O God, are high and exalted above all that you created. Yet you have come and dwelt among us as one of us. We pray for wisdom and grace that we may live in humility, acknowledging our gifts and confessing our faults. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our shameless self-promotion.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have thought of ourselves more highly than we ought. We do not base our worth on being your children, but rather on what plays well with the masses. We base our worth on looking better, smarter, and richer than others. We forget that our worth is secure in being your children, and that we are free to offer ourselves to others in service. Forgive our foolish ways, and bring us back to following the true Servant, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.
Leader: God loves us in all our foolishness. Receive God’s grace and the power of God’s Spirit to be true disciples of Jesus.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
All praise and glory to you, O God, creator of all that is and the One who is seated in majesty and splendor.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have thought of ourselves more highly than we ought. We do not base our worth on being your children, but rather on what plays well with the masses. We base our worth on looking better, smarter, and richer than others. We forget that our worth is secure in being your children, and that we are free to offer ourselves to others in service. Forgive our foolish ways, and bring us back to following the true Servant, Jesus of Nazareth.
We give you thanks for those who have chosen to be your servants and who sought to teach us the truth of how to live as your children. We thank you for all the saints, named and unnamed, who have lived lives of simple obedience and service. May we be one with them.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs. Help us to look to others not as our rivals, but as our sisters and brothers whom we might be able to help. Give us hearts of love and compassion to act in the Spirit of Jesus.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Tell the children: “I’m taller than you. I have been to school more than you. I have more money in my pocket than you do.” (You hope!) Ask them if that makes them feel good when you say these things. (Of course not.) No one likes to have someone brag about being better than them. Jesus’ disciples wanted to be told they were better than others. Jesus reminded them that we are only better when we serve others. If I want to be great I must take care of other people, not try to act like I’m better than they are. Let’s all try to help someone this week -- then we will be Jesus’ disciples.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Who’s First?
by Chris Keating
Mark 10:35-47
Focus: Helping children become servant leaders.
Prepare in advance: A “Take-Home Scavenger Hunt” list for children to take home and complete. Make a checklist of activities that the children can do in the next week that illustrate service. Ideas could include: collecting canned food items for a food pantry; donating gently used toys, games, or books for a local agency; folding some laundry; cleaning the microwave; taking out the trash; helping rake leaves; emptying the dishwasher, and so on. Here is one list that was made for a youth group, but you can probably tailor one for your congregation.
Begin by greeting the children and asking them what the things are that make people leaders. Is a leader a great sports player? Is a leader a good teacher? Or is a leader someone who listens to a teacher, and does what is expected of him or her? Make a list of the things that the children think describe a leader.
Jesus wants us to be leaders too. Yet his understanding of what a leader is may be different from what we think. The children may have heard people chant “We’re number one! We’re number one!” when their favorite sports teams are leading the rest. Is that what a leader is? Is a leader someone who is very strong, like a really good baseball player? Maybe a leader has a lot of power and gets to do whatever they want -- like the president or a queen or a big boss. That’s what Jesus’ friends thought too. They imagined that by being Jesus’ friend they would someday get the honor of being called a “leader.”
In the scripture lesson from Mark, James and John want Jesus to notice them. They have decided that they need to be “Number One” (invite the children to say “We’re Number One!” as you tell the story). Jesus, however, saw things differently. James and John did not understand that God wants leaders to be servants, or people who help each other. It’s not always about being “Number One.” Sometimes, as Jesus shows us, we offer God’s love simply by helping out.
“Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave (servant) of all,” Jesus said. To help the children imagine being servants, pass out the “Take-Home Scavenger Hunt” list and encourage them to take it home and do as many of the activities as possible. They can place checkmarks next to the boxes, or even take pictures of the acts of service. Invite them to bring the lists back next week so the church can celebrate the many ways the children became servant-leaders.
In our church, we often sing “The Servant Song.” This hymn helps us understand what it means to serve each other. If this is a familiar song, the congregation and children can sing it together as you conclude the children’s time.
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The Immediate Word, October 18, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
