October 21, 2018 - Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost - What Is Great?

Photo by Ron Houser

In today's Gospel James and John ask Jesus "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Pastor Ray's sermon focused on how not only they but many of us make the same mistake, confusing what our lives with Jesus are all about. He focused on what he called the ironies that are piled up in this Gospel because James an John, like us, do not know what they are asking of Jesus. They are seeking to be greater than the other disciples.

During Children's Time Pastor Ray asked the children "What is great? How do we know if someone or something is great?' Unsurprisingly, they were a bit hard pressed to answer. I imagine if they were not in church they would have been able to agree on a better, or maybe different answer.

Think for a moment about this. Who or what do we say is great? We constantly hear the slogan now Make America Great Again. Most would associate it nationally with being first in the world, both an economic and military powerhouse that can always have things our way. Now Jesus in today's gospel speaks again, "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all." Do we, must we, believe this?

It appears we don't profess this dictate during the majority of our lives. We don't live our lives where we behave in this way either. We follow the survival of the fittest dictate far more often and act as if the survival of those who don't depend on the generosity of the strongest. We often act as if this world is ruled by violence.

Jesus says to James and John "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" 39 They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized"

James death, unlike Jesus was by stoning. John was reported to have died a natural death The baptism Jesus refers to is likely death in general rather than specifically a death by crucifixion. “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death.” In the first phase of water baptism, Christians are “buried in a watery grave.”  Whenever anyone was baptized in the early church after they were saved, they were immersed under water, which represented the death and burial of their old Adam. Dying to rise again into new life.  In this way, water baptism reveals the heart of the New Covenant.

This new life is not one where we suddenly incapable of sin. This is not a life of glory as we our old selves understand glory. This is a life where we need to constantly remind ourselves we are the living body of Christ. We are always taking first steps in the journey and supporting others as they take there steps to make God's will done on earth as in heaven.

What is great? Perhaps what is great is that there are always first steps to take.