Sermon from August 12, 2001
Several years ago, the Philadelphia Daily News described Wilmington as "...a small town where everybody who matters knows everybody else who matters," (The News Journal, Friday, Nov. 27, 1998, A22). My first indelicate question was whether everybody knew Pat Haney or George Yost. They matter. They matter in ways the Daily News cannot imagine. Of course, they do not matter within the political, social and economic circles of power that the Daily News writes about. But, then, I think the editorial policy of the Daily News lives in a small world. Pat Haney and George Yost inhabit the vastly larger world of family, religion, teaching children, soldiering and making ends meet.

Of course, the Daily News will justify its policies by pointing out that the circles of power it writes about have disproportionate influence over the rest of us. They can kill us with weapons of mass destruction or fail (as in the California energy shortage) to provide necessary services for citizens, and they collect and spend (not always wisely) obscene amounts of money. In the public interest journalists hold people in power somewhat accountable. I am glad to concede that point without for a moment forgetting their arrogance. After all, journalism itself has become part of the power establishment, having its own disproportionate influence over ideas.

Disproportionate influence, wherever it finds a home, has attracted people from time out of mind. If it attracts you, it is worth asking about your motives. Are you ambitious to get ahead in your career? Do you want lots of money? Do you relish more responsibility, longer hours on the job? Do you aspire to be famous? Do you just like power over other people?

To step into positions of power is to step on to the dance floor where the devil is an uninvited guest. If we don't know that, we don't know anything about how power works. Being religious, being close to Jesus Christ does not change that. "Those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them," (T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral). You can see what I mean, as Mark's story of Jesus opens up an unexpected motive in the heart of His disciples. Please look with me at Mark 10:32ff.

They were on their way up to Jerusalem. You may remember at the beginning of chapter ten, Jesus left Galilee for the last time to go to Judea. Judea was home to Jerusalem. But in Judea Jesus turned west instead of east. Now (in verse 32) He turns east and makes his way up into the mountains toward Jerusalem.

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Mark does not explain why the disciples were astonished or why those who followed were afraid – unless what Jesus says next is the explanation.

Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. Again? Yes, again. It is the third time Jesus tells his disciples unwanted and unwelcomed news about Himself. In Mark 8:31-10:53 Mark develops his theme of a suffering Messiah by repeating a threefold pattern three times in these chapters. Here is the pattern.

Jesus' prediction of His suffering and death is always the first part of the pattern. We saw it first in Mark 8:31, then in Mark 9:31, and now in Mark 10:33-34. The second part is always some inappropriate, uncomprehending response on the part of His disciples, as we shall see again shortly. The third part of the pattern is always Jesus' reply to the disciples' response in which He challenges, encourages, and teaches them what it means to be followers of a suffering Messiah. Then, an episode or series of episodes follows, which reinforces what the disciples need to learn. Verses 33-34 give Jesus' third prediction of His coming suffering, death and resurrection. The part about the Gentiles is new information.

"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

The first time Jesus predicted this, Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him, and a most unpleasant scene ensued. The second time He predicted this, His disciples had a discussion among themselves about which of them would be the greatest some day. What kind of uncomprehending, inappropriate response would they make this time? Verses 35ff. tell us.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." By the way, that sounds like a bunch of Christians at a prayer meeting, doesn't it? "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." This is not a sermon about prayer, but the episode might hold up to us a mirror image of what much of our praying is like.

Do you remember when we first met James and John in the Gospel of Mark? Back in chapter one Jesus had called them to be His disciples, while they were at work in their boat, mending their fishing nets. They had responded immeditately, one might even say, precipitously. Mark says they left their father, Zebedee, right there in the boat with the hired servants. Later on, Jesus gave them a nickname. In Mark three He called them "Sons of Thunder." You might also remember in Mark 9:38 John told Jesus about a stranger who was driving out demons in Jesus' name and the disciples had forbidden him to do that. Yo get the impression that John had taken the lead in forbidding him.

We do not have a lot of evidence, but what we have suggests two brothers, who are eager, perhaps overeager, at times hasty, and maybe a little too cocksure of themselves. The episode in these verses suggests something else.

Verse 36 starts us off with Jesus' reply. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. By the way, when we pray and ask Jesus to do all kinds of outlandish things for our benefit, He probably listens. We may weary Him with our nonsense, but He listens and will at times engage us about what we are asking. He does that here with James and John.

Verse 37: They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." In English sitting to the right and left of, say, the president, expresses a position of honor and trust, and has overtones of being able to get things done. In the language of the Bible it means this, but it also means to hold positions of executive authority. It is obvious that James and John had a high opinion of their abilities. It is also obvious that they were ambitious brothers, the JFK and the RFK of their time. I don't say that to be unkind. Try to hear their request against the political backdrop of their times.

Many Jews in the first century expected the Messiah to be a Messiah who would liberate Israel from its oppressors by military and political means. If you think of the Messiah that way, then it makes perfect sense to imagine what the trappings of power around him would be like. Since the twelve disciples hold a privileged place in Jesus' public life, they have reason to think that when He takes power, they will hold high places in his government. The debate among them back in chapter nine had to do with who would have greater influence in that government. We can see here in chapter ten clearly the validity of this interpretation.

Most people need to revise their mental picture of Jesus' twelve disciples. If we picture them as Sunday School boys, we fail to understand them. We come close to the mark, if we see them as ambitious men, who had set their sights on their share of the political power and glory to come in Jerusalem, when Jesus drove the Romans out of Israel. That may not be our favorite picture of the disciples. It might even make us dislike them. But it has the advantage of making them look like actual, ambitious men that we know. The Sunday School boy image doesn't look like anyone we know, or at least like anyone we would want to know.

When they argued among themselves about this back in chapter nine, they had an uneasy conscience about it. We know that, because when Jesus asked them what they had been talking about, they kept quiet because on the way that had argued about who was the greatest. Why keep quiet? They were embarrassed by their own ambition. They may even have had guilt about it. Here in chapter ten James and John seem no longer to have any qualms about exprerssing their ambitions openly to Christ. They have no qualms about going behind the backs of the other ten.

Going behind their backs like that points to one of the great temptations that faces ambitious people. If you are going to realize your ambitions, then sooner or later you will be tempted to have a disregard for other people. Few of us can do that without twinges of conscience, especially when we take our first steps toward realizing our ambitions. That is why the disciples were silent about their ambitions in chapter nine. Ambitious people often rationalize their ill treatment of other people by separating what they call their private life from their public life. I came across a wonderful, political example of this.

The Brookings Institute has recently published a collection of essays called What's God Got to Do with the American Experiment? In one of the essays Alan Wolfe makes this comment: "'Such Christian virtures as humility and charity' in our political leaders 'may make us proud,' ... but our survival depends on 'duplicity, dishonesty, even disrespect for human life,'" (quoted in First Things, May 2001, 25). In other words, "you are free to be as good as your religion demands in the private sphere, and as ruthless as we need you to be in public," (ibid.). Were James and John moving in that direction?

Verse 38 introduces Jesus' gracious response. He does not lambaste them for their ungodly ambition. Instead, He again introduces into the conversation what it means to be followers of a suffering Messiah. He does so by means of a somewhat obscure question. "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" In other words, "You men think I am destined for greatness, and you want a piece of the action. Do you know what greatness in the kingdom of God costs? Can you pay the price that greatness requires?"

Thinking more of the greatness than of the cost, they respond without hesitation. Verse 39: "We can," they answered. Would it not have been a good idea to ask what Jesus meant by the cup I drink or the baptism I am baptized with? James and John, the eager, perhaps overeager, at times hasty, maybe a little too cocksure of themselves, and ambitious brothers waste no time in reassuring Jesus of their unbounded confidence and undoubted competence to do they knew not what.

Jesus does not enlighten them further. Would it have made any difference if He had? Simply (and ominously), Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with."

Sometime, you should read the twelfth chapter of the Book of Acts in order to see how James gave the last, full measure of devotion to the Lord he truly loved. By then, he knew full well about Jesus' cup and Jesus' baptism.

Here, verse 40 strikes us and may have struck James and John as a kind of anti-climax. "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."

Why didn't Jesus just say that? Because, as we have seen throughout Mark 8:31 until now, He was teaching His disciples what it meant to be followers of a suffering Messiah. Conventional ways of thinking hit a wall when Jesus said He was a Messiah, who was doomed to die. In all His replies to the disciples' inappropriate, uncomprehending responses to that prediction Jesus says in effect, "Now that I have your attention, let me remake your mind by showing you how the kingdom of God really works." Every inversion of values He makes offers a bracing alternative to conventional ways of thinking. He is about to offer another of those inversions, as we shall see in verses 42-45 next Sunday.

In the meantime verse 41 should surprise absolutely no one. When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Why would that be? Were they angry that James and John had the guts to ask what they all wanted but were afraid to ask? The whole scene is a classic case of power moves and counter moves – politicking at its most basic.

I said at the outset that to step into positions of power is to step on to the dance floor where the devil is an uninvited guest. His diabolic intent, the principle of evil that lurks in all exercise of human power was captured perfectly in the temptation of Jesus, as reported in Matthew 4:8-9. Again, the devil took (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

Kingdoms and their splendor are fitting gifts for a Savior and Lord, but the price was unacceptably high. Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" He put His finger on the first line of defense against the diabolic intent that lurks in all exercise of human power. Do you intend your assumption of power to be an opportunity to serve God, or do you intend anything else? The answer to that question will constitute the spiritual warfare of your soul for a long time to come.

In light of the mistrust and tension among the disciples people in power must ever be alert to something else. Do you give thought to what it may cost other people for you to get ahead? Can you assume power over other people without trampling on people? How will you handle people who will know you better than you know yourself and will try to exploit your weakness for their own advancement?

I say all this, because so many of you in this room are leaders. You are men and women of power. I did not want you to forget that in the dance of power there is an uninvited but ever present guest who has beautiful but malignant designs on you. And I do not want you to miss the inversion of power values that Jesus offers in verses 42-45.

I am thankful also that this sermon coincides with President Bush's statement this past week on stem cell research. The only thing I wish to say about that today is that stem cell research has to do with the exercise of power.

We often think of science as "man's power over nature." Sixty years ago, C.S. Lewis pointed out more precisely that science is the power of a few over many, using science as the means. That applies to stem cell research in two ways.

First, it is the exercise of power by a very few human beings over tens of thousands of frozen embryos and unborn children, the weakest of human beings. On the other hand, it is the exercise of a few over future generations of human beings. Here is what I mean.

Stem cell research promises dramatic results for human health and longevity. It promises, e.g., possible cures for human ills such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injuires. But if it is successful against these and other ailments, it means the prolongation of human life. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future people will be living well into their hundreds.

That will not be an unmixed blessing. It will raise difficult questions of justice (who can pay for the benefits of stem cell therapy?), questions of social well-being (how can the economy, even the planet, sustain an ever-growing, longer living human population?) and the inevitable problems that we cannot anticipate today.

I raise this issue, because some of you are research scientists, who work in bio-medical research. Can you seek first the kingdom of God and be engaged there? I believe you can, but have you thought about how?

With stem cell research and genetic research we truly live in a lawless world. That is, we have no laws to guide us. I find this disturbing, if, as Alan Wolfe wrote, "our survivial depends on 'dublicity, dishonesty, even disrespect for human life,'" on the part of the politicians, who must guide public policy.

As we shall see next week, the Church is called in this "brave, new world" as in all circumstances to walk to a different drumbeat. It is appropriate that we pray God to give us grace and wisdom to live that way in these unprecedented human circumstances.