Sermon on Mark 10:35-45
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
Last month, we talked about this pattern in the Gospel of Mark where three times, Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the disciples misunderstand him, and then he teaches them more about what it means to follow him.
We read two of these passages last month, and this week, we’ve finally reached the third time.
James and John remind me of a time when I was in first or second grade. I was in class, and I had some sort of minor physical ailment (I don’t even remember what it was). But I told my teacher, and she asked if I wanted to go to the office or tough it out.
I didn’t know what “tough it out” meant, but I was proud enough that I wasn’t going to ask. I decided to tell her I would tough it out, thinking maybe it was something that would make me feel better. To my dismay, she went back to the lesson without doing anything to ease my woes.
I learned an uncomfortable lesson that day about pretending I understood something I didn’t.
Similarly, James and John asked Jesus for glory and special treatment, and he replied, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” James and John replied in the affirmative, but they obviously didn’t know what they were talking about, and Jesus knew it.
They apparently had not been paying attention to Jesus’ prediction right before this that he would be “handed over to the chief priests and thescribes, and they [would] condemn him to death; then they [would] hand him over to the gentiles; they [would] mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he [would] rise again.”
That’s not a cup James and John, with their daydreams of glory, should have been so excited to drink from. And remember: this was the third time Jesus had told them all of this. But they still weren’t getting it.
And then the other disciples were miffed at James and John for presuming to ask for those positions of status. They obviously missed the point, too, that Jesus was going to suffer and die very soon.
So, Jesus began to teach them what power really means in the Beloved Community.
Our culture today values power and status in a similar way to what James and John were picturing.
We don’t have to look far to hear about or scroll past people striving for power and status:
1. Celebrities are nothing new, though, it’s an odd phenomenon to have so many people today who are “famous for being famous.”
2. Other people are making entire careers out of being social media influencers, vying to shape culture and get the attention of brands.
3. And in a contentious election year, we’re killing countless trees to print the political advertisements that stuff our mailboxes.
So many people spend so much energy to attractpeople’s attention, support, and esteem. And rarely do people consider the cost.
After all, attention is fickle—a household name one day is forgotten the next, political careers come and go.
If the goal is so dependent on others’ opinions, what happens to one’s sense of self when the attention diminishes?
The Church too in the US is grieving its loss of influence in society. Many of you remember the heyday of the Church in the US in the 20th century.
It was a time when church was the center of community, when business connections wanted to know what church you attended, when Sunday school rooms overflowed, and youth groups thrived.
Christianity was people’s assumed religion, and a Norwegian-Swedish Lutheran couple was considered a “mixed marriage.”
The Church in the US today is not what many people had picturedthe future would look like 50, 60, or 70 years ago.
So, many Christians have gotten caught up in the power struggle, striving for political power, demeaning anything in popular culture that’s getting more attention than church, denigrating younger generations for not attending church or taking over the committee roles their parents and grandparents held, or doubling down onworldviews that are exclusionary and ungenerous.
Too many of us, in trying to resist culture, have actually fallen prey to the same values and tactics so many people use to try to acquire power and status.
Brene Brown calls this “power over.”[1] She describes this approach to power as being driven by fear. People who wield “power over,”
1. Believe that power is finite and use fear to protect and hoard power.
2. See decency as a sign of weakness—something “for suckers.”
3. Believe that being right is more important than getting it right.
4. Give people someone to blame for their discomfort—preferably someone who looks/acts/sounds different than they do.
5. Maintain power over by shaming and bullying.
Our society rewards “power over.” It’s even seen as necessary in business or politics or media.
It sounds a lot like what James and John were asking for. They were afraid they weren’t going to have the positions of status they wanted, so they went over the other disciples’ heads to vie for power directly from their rabbi. They expected Jesus to be a “power over” sort of messiah.
But that’s not who Jesus was.
He used this opportunity to teach his disciples a different form of power: the power of service.
Instead of clawing their way to the top, stepping on others to get what they want, Jesus taught his followers to follow in his example of service. In the Beloved Community he was instituting, power is inverted: “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.”
Brene Brown also describes a form of power other than “power over”: she calls it “power with/to/within.”
Leaders who work from a position of “power with/to/within”:
1. Believe that power becomes infinite and expands when shared with others.
2. They value decency as a function of self-respect and respect for others.
3. Create learning cultures. Getting it right is more important than being right.
4. Normalize discomfort and move away from shame and blame and toward accountability and meaningful change.
5. Frame leadership as a responsibility to be in service of others rather than served by others.
This type of power isn’t easy. It’s against the grain of the human instinct toward “power over.” Jesus came to teach us a different way, and he died for it.
But fortunately, that’s not the end of the story, and the upside down Beloved Community will be complete one day, where the last will be first and the first will be last.
Until then, we too can follow Jesus’ example of greatness through service. It’s not easy, and there’s plenty in our culture that resists it.
But we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us, and we have each other to encourage us along the way.
This congregation has a spirit of service—it’s our mission and purpose to feed our neighbors, body and soul.
And I’ve experienced your humility and servants’ hearts. A while back, the stewardship team led a project where we collected acts of kindness. We encouraged you all to write down the acts of kindness you did throughout the month.
But even though I witness your kindness all the time—watching out for each other, showing generosity to the community—I had a couple people pull me aside and tell me how uncomfortable it made them to have to write down their acts of kindness. The slips of paper were even anonymous, but you were too humble to even write down that you held a door for someone.
It's beautiful, and I love that about you. You care about other people so much and want to serve and don’t want to be acknowledged.
So, as the stewardship team is collecting stories about this congregation for our Stories of Us project, you don’t have to write anything about yourself. But maybe this week, write down a way you’ve seen others in this congregation serve the community.
It’s okay to brag about each other’s kindness. Let’s remind each other of how much this congregation strives to serve.
That’s a way we can remember to follow in Jesus’ example of servanthood instead of the world’s “power over.”
Let’s continue this congregation’s legacy of service as we serve our community and all our beloved neighbors together.
[1]https://brenebrown.com/resources/brene-brown-on-power-and-leadership/