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In today's text, Jesus teaches the disciples about the power of evil. He says plainly, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him." Religious movements wanting to capture the attention of a large number of followers, need to have a realistic understanding of evil. No one will last long in a religion glossing over the harsh, brutal facts of human suffering. Dwelling only on those sweet moments when we walk in the garden with our Savior will soon bring us to having our faith shattered by the intrusions of evil -- ours, others, and that of history and nature. Religious positive thinking takes us only so far. We need a sturdier faith present for those moments when the best prayer we can manage is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Playing it safe, the Jesus movement could have opted for being one of the several movements within Judaism, confined to the holy land, and ministering only to Jews. This would not be very costly. In fact, this was the vision of some of the earliest Christians. James, the brother of Jesus, wanted it this way. Strangely, the death of Jesus made the Jesus movement attractive to a larger scope than confinement to the holy land. Jesus teaches us that a witness to the mercy and compassion of God can cost us our lives.

There is something phony about the glorious claims made by people who have been well born. The stories of those who have had one wonderful opportunity after another, and whose days have fallen largely in pleasant places seem unreal to us. When they tell of their achievements and accomplishments we find ourselves wondering how things might have been if they had experienced some serious dislocation in their lives. Sports folks often say, "No pain -- no gain!" Chirpy, untested optimism remains unconvincing largely because it has not found a way to move beyond, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him."

The early Christians had both a realism about life as well as the glory lying beyond the suffering. British Christian, H. A. Williams, in True Resurrection, points out the reason the first Christians believed in the resurrection of Jesus was because they already sensed the resurrection element in all of life. Life rises from death in all sorts of ways. A righteous cause goes down to defeat time after time, until one day it rises to new life. A woman whose husband has been torn away by death, rises up out of her grief, gathers her children around her and finds the will and means to send her children off to the university. In a neighborhood noted for crime and drugs, a few people decide to reclaim it for decent and responsible living. A medical scientist driven to despair trying to discover a better treatment for some dread disease, gives it one more try and finds the cure. A concert pianist, no longer able to play up to his professional standards, finds a rich and rewarding life as a teacher of young piano students who possess the unique talents she once had. A pastor, denied the call to fill the pulpit of a prestigious congregation, plunges himself back into the church presently served, and discovers a rich and wonderful ministry previously overlooked.

What Williams makes us see is that Jesus' resurrection is no exceptional unusual event. His mission and spirit returned to life, as God continually lifts goodness up out of suffering and defeat. Those who make the resurrection a miraculous interruption of the way things are, are missing the point. Jesus' resurrection is not something unique and unusual causing us to marvel and wonder. No, Jesus' resurrection is one with all the resurrections occurring all the time. We can not only rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus, but we can also glimpse the prevailing resurrecting power of God all around us. The point we made earlier holds more true. Life recognizing the evils threatening human and cosmic welfare, opens us to the glory of resurrection.

More Interested In Worldly Greatness

Let us think about the clergy. Clergy need a serious humility about themselves. We say that we want nothing more than to serve the Lord, wherever and under any circumstances; but often beneath such piety is a powerful ambition yearning for the large congregation with the big budget and multiple staff. We may try to hide our ambition, but inwardly it haunts us. When pastors remember John Oberlin telling his judicatory superiors he wanted to be sent to the congregation that no other candidate wanted, we think, "That's great, but I'm not certain I could do that!" Ambition dies hard, if ever.

Congregations can be ambitious for themselves, too. Our current church growth movement feeds on the unchallenged idolatry -- success in the church is related to its membership. Even more frightening, the church growth movement says every church can, and should, grow. This blatant lie bedevils many congregations who have no opportunity for growth, making pastors adopt an unrealistic standard for successful ministry. The mental-spiritual health of many churches and pastors is damaged because of this capitulation to our cultural ethos equating success with size and largeness.

Occasionally, a church will follow Jesus rather than the dominant church fad. One congregation, a newly organized church in a suburban area, had just moved into its new building. Then the evangelism committee was given a number of cards of families interested in this new church. As the committee met to organize visits to these homes, someone remarked that some of these homes were located in a neighborhood with a number of black families. All conversation stopped, and even the pastor was silenced for a brief moment. The committee recognized that welcoming these black families might create serious conflict resulting in a loss of members. Doing this would be very troublesome because of their mortgage and that surrounding churches offered a comfortable non-integrated alternative for members who were distressed.

But some of the committee spoke words of grace. They said, "If we are the church, we should invite everyone." One committee member said, "Well, if we don't call on all these addresses, black or white, I'm afraid this church is not for me and my family." The committee decided to call on all the families whose card they held. As a result, several black families became vital members of the congregation -- including one mixed marriage couple with a seriously handicapped child. As you might expect, the congregation did not experience the growth that was expected when it was organized, but today it remains a well-integrated church, perhaps the best model of a racially inclusive church in its judicatory.

Our lection is very honest, allowing us to see our individual struggles in all of this. Mark says they were hustling along to Capernaum, and when they got there, Jesus asked them what they had been arguing about on the way. When Jesus asked them about their conversation they became silent. What do we make of this? Perhaps it's because the disciples know that their conversation was off-limits for Jesus followers. They were embarrassed by Jesus' query and they say nothing.

Greatness Is Service

Jesus continues to tell the disciples what they must have heard from him more than once, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Nietzsche remarked that Jesus' ethic was a slave ethic. Some think that this is a devastating judgment against Jesus, particularly in our world where power and firepower are so honored. Perhaps it's time for us to say two things about Neitzsch's comment: One, Jesus would say that Nietzsche had it right; and two, that when all the other self-serving ethics have come and gone, we can believe that Jesus' "slave ethic" will prevail. Greatness in God's kingdom is a kingdom where greatness is service.

Individuals can face up to the ethic of Jesus more easily than groups or congregations because groups find it much more difficult to give themselves away in service to others. However, occasionally a congregation does catch this mood of Jesus. A dwindling congregation in the city was proud of its heritage. It had been one of the prestigious congregations of its denomination for nearly 200 years. It hosted national judicatory meetings in its sanctuary. Many of the leaders of the denomination presided at these meetings and preached from its pulpit. In succeeding years, the congregation, now small in numbers, thought its mission was to be a historic site and shrine.

Then an unusual thing happened. A large corporation, adjacent to the church, wanted the church site for an expanded parking lot. They offered the congregation a large sum and the congregation began to deliberate. Some felt they should refuse the offer and remain a historical remembrance of their denomination's past. Others wanted to take the offer and move to a new site, preferably one where the witness of the church was critical. Wonderfully, they accepted the offer, moved to a dangerous, violence-ridden part of the city, and began a significant ministry. They exemplified Jesus' insistence that greatness is service -- even if that service puts us among the hurting, homeless, and hopeless nobodies.

A retired automobile executive has responded to Jesus' claim. With a large pension and benefits earned in his working days, he turned his back on the comfortable life in suburban retirement -- a nice home, country club membership, and the consolations of Mass at his nearby parish. He has given all this up, becoming a peace activist, going to demonstrations and workshops all over the country. All this has earned him some arrests and court appearances. He says he is just making up for the years at the auto company desk, avoiding real discipleship, and wants to devote his remaining years to the cause of peace. Not only has he understood Jesus, he is an inspiring witness for all the rest of us -- Jesus' style means serving.

There Is A Payoff

Now we tend to be squeamish about spiritual rewards for our faithfulness, but the issue about rewards really is, what sort of reward do we want? Do we want all the trinkets, toys, and perks the world offers? One of those life consultant gurus told a group of lay and clergy this is what the people want, and it is the business of the church to see that they get it! How unabashedly crass have we become? The guru was right. These things are much desired in our day, but he is seriously wrong thinking that the church can have any part in helping their congregations toward these goals.

The rewards that come to those who have understood that greatness is service, are rewarded with the blessings of "the one who sent" Jesus. When we minister to children, we are in line for this reward. Notice that "children" is not exclusively those younger in years. In Jesus' vocabulary, children are those most vulnerable and most helpless. They are those most forgotten, and quite unromantically, those who are often disagreeable, ungracious, manipulative, and sometimes dangerous. Caring for them often means painful caring.

Sometimes we wonder about those missionaries who go off to far and forsaken places to witness to the gospel. They take medical care with them, they educate those without schooling, they help those to whom they minister to develop leadership skills, and they speak of the religious convictions bringing them to such places. These missionaries are remarkable for their sense of joy and courage. When we hear them tell about their work, we wonder how they could manage such optimism and steadfastness. We also notice they are willing to return to their ministries in difficult places after their furlough. No one forces them to return to their work after a brief respite. They just go. How is this possible? Is it because there is an inner reward that is worth more than all the worldly rewards they might capture? Do we have to linger very long over such a question as this? Perhaps it is already given in today's text, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."