Redefining Power: A Sermon for Proper 21

This week’s Gospel story is a direct continuation from the story last week, and I’d like to take this story as a whole rather than two separate ones. So here is basically how it goes: Jesus and the disciples were walking down the road, and the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest among them. When Jesus learned what they were arguing about, his response was, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

In other words, rather than striving for greatness, strive for humility. Jesus then picked up a child to make his point to his disciples. And while he was holding this child in his arms, he said to his ultra-competitive disciples: "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

A profoundly tender moment with a provocative illustration.

So how did the disciples respond? "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." Really? Jesus is holding this child, teaching his disciples about servant leadership and humility, and this is what they say? Were they even listening to Jesus?

Once again, we see this same theme of competitiveness, or concern about who is “the greatest.” The twelve disciples want to be the only ones with the power and authority to heal and cast out demons. And this really makes Jesus mad.

After all, Jesus was still holding a child in his arms when John ignores what he is saying and changes the subject. It was as if John didn’t even notice the child or take heed to Jesus’ pronouncement that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Did John not hear him? Since Jesus was holding a child, did John not take him seriously?

So, a clearly agitated Jesus brings the focus back on the child, and says, "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” Very strong words…but Jesus was just getting started!

·      “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.”

·      “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.”

·      And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.”

So, what do we do with this today? Are we to take Jesus’ words literally? Clearly his own disciples didn’t take his words literally. And clearly Jesus didn’t enforce this either, or he would have had a bunch of maimed disciples following him around. And Christians throughout history have never taken these words from Jesus literally.

I think that Jesus’ words are so shocking, and so strong, that like John, even we get distracted and miss the point. While we are trying to make sense of Jesus’ hyperbole-filled tirade, we’re forgetting the whole point of the story. Twice, the disciples have gotten caught up in being competitive:

·      Last week: Who is the greatest?

·      This week: Other folks are healing people in Jesus’ name. And the disciples want to be the only ones who are allowed to do that.

Peter has declared that Jesus is the messiah. But ever since, the disciples have been struggling with how to be a disciple of the messiah, and what it means to be a disciple of the messiah. To them, it appears that they believed that “membership has its privileges.” To them, being in the inner circle of the savior of the world meant that they would be defined by greatness the way that ancient Rome defined greatness: power, privilege, and competitiveness.

When Pope Francis was elected, and moved from Buenos Aires to the

Vatican City, he didn’t move into the papal palace where the other popes lived. Rather, he chose to live in a modest two-room suite in the Vatican’s guesthouse on the edge of St. Peter’s Square. And he has been known to sneak out to be with poor, but to the chagrin of his security team.

When he made his first visit to the United States after becoming the Pope, he preached some sermons and made some speeches about addressing economic inequality, protecting the environment, advancing religious freedom, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities. Some American Catholics have been upset that his focus on the poor and marginalized is undercutting the Catholic Church’s focus on battling abortion and other social issues.

He’s even been called a communist by some U.S. critics. But in a speech he made in Washington, DC, he noted that he is “a Catholic, not a communist,”

and said, “I am certain I have never said anything more than what is in the social doctrine of the church.” And I think that this struggle we are seeing between the Pope and some Catholics is like the struggle Jesus was having with his disciples.

Pope Francis is, in many ways, redefining power, and reminding us  what it means to be a Christian. And Christianity to Pope Francis looks nothing like the Christianity that Vatican City is used to, or the Christianity that the United States is used to. Pope Francis is not only identifying with the weak and powerless, but he is also in many ways entering into solidarity with them. And this is very upsetting for some of his followers, just like Jesus holding up a helpless child as a model for discipleship upset Jesus’ disciples.

And when people get upset with the pope, they oftentimes tell him to stick to theology, or church matters, and stop meddling in politics. But again, Pope Francis reiterates that he is just sticking to the social teaching of the church. Nothing more, nothing less.

In his brief time as the Pope, Francis has most definitely adhered to the Christian call to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. When Jesus was comforting a child by holding her in his arms, Jesus was afflicting his disciples by saying things like, “if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out...”

This wasn’t a commandment that Jesus etched in stone and planned on enforcing. This was Jesus afflicting the comfortable so to speak. This was Jesus trying and trying to get his disciples to truly understand what it meant to be his follower. If they thought that being in Jesus’ inner circle meant having a life of power and privilege, they had another thing coming. And Jesus was set on making it clear to Peter, James, John, and the rest of the disciples that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

And such is our call today as Christians. Lord, give us the courage to be last, for your sake, for our sake, and for the sake of others.