Looking down and in instead of up and out Proper 24B Oct. 20, 2024

 

+This morning the disciples are stressed out—they’ve given up EVERYTHING—job, family, familiarity, safety-- to follow Jesus, and yet over the course of the previous two chapters in Mark’s Gospel—chapters we’ve been reading since Labor Day---Jesus has predicted his death not once, not twice, but three times. “Look!” he says, “We’re going up to Jerusalem. I’ll be handed over to the chief priests and the legal experts. They’ll condemn me to death and hand me over to the Gentiles. They’ll ridicule, spit on, torture, and kill me. After three days, I will rise to life again.”
So let’s review: first Peter hears Jesus’ prediction and tells him he’s out of his mind, making Jesus pretty mad.
Second, after hearing the next prediction, several disciples compete over who will be the greatest and Jesus responds by putting a child on his lap and reminding all that receiving the fullness of God’s grace and glory requires viewing the world through the unblemished eyes of a child.
Today, we hear John and James asking for a special place above all the other disciples. Again, the disciples are thinking of worldly glory instead of Divine Peace.
Who can blame them? When the world around you is falling apart—and pretty much has been your whole life—-it’s difficult to pry your mind from what’s right here in front of your eyes to what lies beyond the now.
I think this predicament of the disciples is similar to the predicament of today.
I think people are horribly frightened.
It seems to me this has been most evident since January 6, 2020 but I also know, from an historical perspective, that this has happened before in the world (Pearl Harbor, 9/11, school shootings, the Tops shooting) and will probably happen again: when we become unsure, nervous, and scared, we turn inward.
It’s the manifestation of survival of the fittest---the world around us becomes unmoored and we dig in to protect ourselves. We look down and in instead of up and out. We become insular and focused on “me” instead of broad-minded and in tune with the world around us and the world beyond us.
    I preach a lot  about the importance of community and what I’ve come to realize is that the “me me me” of our society isn’t as much about hubris, as it’s about fear.  
Nadia Bolz-Weber, in her book, “Accidental Saints,” says this: “I’ve finally realized that trying not to need others isn’t about strength and independence, it’s about fear.”
James and John’s world is most definitely becoming unmoored. Here they are, following Jesus down to Jerusalem where he’s meeting sure and certain death. This is a terrifying prospect so they begin to look out for themselves, to assure themselves of a place at Jesus’ side.
They’re not arrogant, they’re scared.
Everything they’ve come to know is about to be destroyed. They were simple fishermen when this preacher, offering a message of hope, compels them to drop their nets and follow him.
And now he’s leaving them.
Their world was inside out and upside down and they were freaked out. I so get this.
In our world, since 9/11, since January 6,  since the seemingly unending school shootings, our sense of security had been dismantled and we are, most assuredly, unmoored.
It’s a scary time, and has been for some time. The upcoming election doesn’t do much to improve our sense of security does it?
The world hasn’t become safer or more predictable. And so we turn inward. Just like the disciples did.
What Jesus was telling the disciples in today’s Gospel and what we really need to learn, is to when feeling overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty,  find certainty in the One who tells us that peace is found through service, compassion and care for others.
To look up and out from our fear and insecurity and into the eyes of the poor, hungry, oppressed, lonely,  scared, injured and outcast.
By doing this we will, as he did with his death and resurrection, “liberate many people.”

When we live into the last will be first and the first will be last, when we live into being a servant to all, there we’ll find our greatness. By finding Strength in Weakness and Courage in Fear we’ll find true security and endless peace.
The greatness of God’s love is not found in ourselves, but in our relationship to others.
And that, my friends, is Jesus’ point.. Amen.