Your Servant
Christ our Servant shapes us in our lives as servants, helping us every step of the path of Christ, for the sake of the world.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 29 B
Text: Mark 10:(32-34) 35-45
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
We’ve finally come to the place Mark’s been leading us in his Gospel for weeks now.
There’s one more story in chapter 10 after today, a healing we’ll hear next week. Then Mark enters Holy Week, the palms, the betrayal, the death, the resurrection. We walked that with Mark last spring.
Ever since Jesus started traveling to Jerusalem and we joined him in chapter 8, he’s been telling his followers, telling us, telling you, that he’s heading there to be beaten and killed. And to rise from death. And he’s been calling his followers, calling us, calling you, to take this same Christ path of self-giving love, letting go, losing for the sake of others.
And his followers, including me, including you, have been struggling with this. We’ve seen Peter and John fail to get it, and frankly, it’s hard for us, too.
Today, after all this, days from Holy Week, two of his trusted leaders still don’t get it. They respond to Jesus’ latest warning of his imminent suffering by asking for the honored seats when he comes in glory. Clueless.
Maybe the fact that these two important ones still struggle after weeks of instruction and guidance from Jesus should make us feel better. But it doesn’t change that we are also struggling with Jesus.
It’s really hard following someone who leads on such a challenging path.
The writer to the Hebrews calls Jesus the “pioneer” of our faith. Pioneers go ahead, blaze a trail, lead. Jesus leads the path of Christ for all of us, modeling the self-giving love, facing suffering and death ahead of us.
But following someone who’s that focused on a path is not easy. I once was traveling in tandem with someone who drove through a yellow light that changed to red for me. We were supposed to drive together for 8 hours. Instead, I spent 8 hours wondering if I’d ever catch up.
That’s what following Christ on this path feels like sometimes. Like we’re children following a long-legged, determined parent, always trying to catch up. Stumbling, getting tired. Not really handling the path well. Frightened of the next steps, and our leader is so far ahead and has done it so well, we’re alone in this. It’s lonely and frightening and confusing and daunting and overwhelming to always feel behind.
The thing is, Jesus isn’t actually ahead of us on the path.
The last word of Jesus in these chapters about losing like Jesus we heard today: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is your servant. Not ahead of you, making you fear you’ll be left behind. At your feet, washing them. At this table, offering you food for life. It’s not just suffering coming next for these disciples in Holy Week. Jesus will show them he’s there for them on this path. As their servant. As our servant. As your servant.
What Hebrews fully says is Jesus is the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2) The one who completes your faith, helps your discipleship, shapes your servant life.
All this self-giving love, this servant path of Christ we keep hearing about, is made possible by the Great Servant, our God-with-us, who completes in us, in you, this life of faith.
He does this as he did for these disciples, first by teaching.
All this time as they walked to Jerusalem, Jesus prepared them for what was ahead for him, and for them if they follow. But this whole journey Jesus wasn’t impatiently running ahead, chewing them out for not keeping up. He just kept at it, teaching them, helping them understand his way. Correcting them when they misunderstood.
Yes, it was hard sometimes when he corrected. Ask Peter. But his love was always there. Look at James and John today. They’re asking for a ridiculous thing, they’re completely disconnected from Jesus’ focus. But Jesus is gentle with them. He just says they don’t know what they’re asking. And they don’t – they think they can handle what he’s facing, his cup, his baptism.
Of course they don’t know Jesus will struggle with that cup himself in Gethsemane, and in the baptism of his crucifixion will cry out in abandonment. But Jesus just says, “Yes, you will experience the same as I.”
That’s your Servant Teacher: firm, clear, never wavering from the path, but constantly trying to reach you with different images and words, always loving you, even when you struggle repeatedly with the lesson.
That kindness comes because Christ also has empathy for your weakness, not just lessons.
Even human priests can have this gift, Hebrews says today, but Christ Jesus does completely. He lived as one of us, knew how hard it can be to be faithful. He will soon undergo a great trial of his path in Gethsemane. He knows what it is to fear, to wish to avoid painful consequences of sacrificial love.
So, Hebrews says, he “is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.” Your Servant Christ is at your side fully understanding your fear, your weakness, your confusion as you seek to be faithful. Empathizing with you, and even more, strengthening you. Healing you, as Hebrews says.
And Christ your Servant knows the full pain and suffering of loving as God loves.
In fact, he knows it far worse than most of us ever will. A few days after this promise, he goes to the cross. To find power in powerlessness, healing in self-giving love, grace in losing himself for everyone.
The Servant who walks by your side has experienced it all. When you suffer trying to be faithful, when you are hurt because you refuse to hurt others, when you lose because you won’t live a life that defeats other lives, you are always upheld by the Pioneer who did it first, who now completes your faith by strengthening you in your suffering and difficulty.
James and John didn’t know what they were facing, but Jesus did.
And Jesus knows the same about you and me. In baptism we are joined to Christ’s path for the sake of the world. Anointed and set apart to be servants to the world on behalf of God, bearers of God’s love and mercy and justice. It’s a costly path, as we follow Christ and walk alongside others as servants ourselves. Empathizing with their weakness and struggle, because we know weakness and struggle. Sharing their suffering because we know that it costs to let go in order to follow.
But grace upon grace: your Servant, God-with-us, is always at your side, walking beside you. Helping complete your faith and your discipleship. Every step of the way.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Worship, October 17, 2021
The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 29 B
We worship the Triune God who became Servant of the creation in order to draw all creation, including us, into transforming servant love for each other.
Download worship folder for Sunday, October 17, 2021.
Presiding and preaching: Pastor Joseph Crippen
Readings and prayers: Marian Cherwien, lector; Vicar Andrea Bonneville DeNaples, Assisting Minister
Organist: Cantor David Cherwien
Download next Sunday’s readings for the Tuesday noon Bible study.
The Olive Branch, 10/13/21
Holy Possible
With God all things are possible: even the changing of your heart to let go of all things and follow Christ in love for God and neighbor.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 28 B
Text: Mark 10:17-31
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Do you dare to ask God to change your heart?
That’s your question today. For weeks now in our Gospel readings we’ve walked between Jesus’ predictions of his suffering and death and we’ve heard Jesus call us to follow in drastic terms: Take up your cross. Lose your life. Be last, not first. Serve everyone else. Chop off whatever trips you up from following. Sell everything you have, give it away, and follow.
But hard as those actions are, drastic as they sound, impossible as they might seem, Jesus gives great hope today: Whatever seems impossible for us is possible for God.
So – do you dare to ask God to make the impossible possible?
If you hear “take up your cross, lose your life, let go of everything,” and don’t get nervous or anxious about what that would mean for your life, hoping for unchallenging ways to understand Jesus’ description of the path of Christ, you might emerge from these weeks of Gospel readings unscathed. But probably not faithful.
That’s our great challenge. We’ve learned to hear Jesus’ drastic calls and put them in a box called “Sayings of Jesus” that we occasionally open, but only to admire them, not be challenged by them. You could go through these thorny bushes of what Jesus says it means to follow him and avoid ever getting your clothes caught on the branches. You can hear Jesus and not be changed, or concerned about your life.
The rich man today didn’t take that option. He heard Jesus exactly as Jesus intended, and knew he was being asked to let go of everything he owned if he wanted to follow. No exaggeration. No metaphor. And he had enough integrity to say “I can’t follow you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
If you dare, things will change. This man knew that.
We make Jesus’ calls comfortable by imagining Jesus is talking about getting to heaven with God when we die, not about this life. We hear Jesus say today it’ll be hard for rich people to go to heaven, rather than hear him call you and me to let go of all we have to follow him.
Today Jesus is clearly talking about God’s reign now, in this age. The disciples left family and friends, their homes, their fields and work, for the sake of following Jesus. Jesus says they are receiving all that back in abundance right now, in the community of those who follow Christ alongside them. All the family, home, wealth, and work they need they have in each other.
But that’s why following Jesus is hard for people with wealth. Like us. The more you have to lose, the harder it is to let go.
When we shift Jesus’ clear words from this life to the next, we utterly change the intent of God coming among us.
If the Triune God’s only goal in Christ was to end the power of death and bring all whom God loves into life after death, God could have done that any way God wanted. God created the universe.
But if the Triune God’s goal in Christ is to draw all whom God loves into relationship with God and with each other, a relationship of love that transforms lives and the creation, then God had to finally become one of us, speak our language, show us a face and a voice we could hear and trust and learn from.
Even in today’s Gospel Jesus promises life with God after we die. It’s just a separate thing from his call to lose everything to follow him. It’s a question of who can do what. Only the crucified and risen Christ can give you and me life after we die. You and I can do nothing to make it happen. We can only trust Christ’s promise to do it.
But only you and I can live the life of Christ here, in our lives, today, and so change the world. Learn to love God and neighbor with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
So what do we do with today’s call?
The question might not be whether today you divest all of your retirement, or sell your house, or take your Social Security check, and give it all away. We could argue that if everyone sold everything and gave it away, who would grow the food, make the homes, if everyone has nothing? The question really is whether you listen to Jesus with enough seriousness that his call makes you squirm. Causes you discomfort. Makes you wonder if you are actually being faithful.
So, you could start to ask, every day, what you hold that keeps you from loving God and neighbor fully. It could be everything. But start somewhere. It might be wealth that holds you back, and you decide to give away a lot more than you have before. It might be habits that harm others, that you decide to change. It might be ways of thinking, prejudices, fears, you try to get rid of.
But you and I would do better to share the integrity of this man today and walk away if we’re not willing to consider what we need to lose, let go of, cut off, for the sake of God’s Good News reaching all.
But also remember: God makes what seems impossible possible.
You and I hear these calls and know it’s going to be really hard to know what to do. Even harder to have the courage to try. Hardest of all, to fail and have to start over again.
But, do you dare trust Jesus’ word and ask the Triune God to change your heart? To make possible in you what you think is impossible? Because God will. The Spirit is in you right now, pulling you as you hear Jesus’ words, waking you at night with calls to love and care for your neighbor. God’s ready and willing to change your heart and so change your life. If you don’t walk away in sadness but give God a chance, you will find all you need to follow Christ faithfully. Even with stumbles and sins along the way.
And remember this, too: Jesus loved this man, even as he called him to risk everything.
Even as he walked away. Jesus loved the disciples even when they struggled on this path.
And Jesus – God-with-us – loves you as you are. You are God’s beloved child, a precious gift in God’s eyes. The God who loves you says, “Follow me. Let go of what keeps you from it. Even if it’s hard. And let me make it possible for you to do it.” That’s the joy of this path.
And that’s what God’s reign is all about. God’s beloved children living in love with each other and God, learning to let go of all that prevents that love, to embrace losing everything for each other in order to find everything in each other. So the whole creation can be healed.
Do you dare to ask God to make you a part of this?
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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