Great - Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost (September 22, 2024)

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 11:18–20 | Psalm 54 | James 3:13–4:3, 4:7–8 | Mark 9:30–37

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35).
 
These words are such a contrast to how our world operates. All around us, people are competing to be noticed… to be seen as important. Searching for honour and status by building themselves up… amassing wealth… or influence… or power.
 
Just this past week here in New Brunswick election signs have started to sprout up everywhere. And in Ottawa, our Members of Parliament argue about who has the best plan for our country, while eagerly tearing each other down. Meanwhile, our neighbours to the South are in the midst of a seemingly unending fight for the Whitehouse… and this spirit of competition and mistrust seems to be permeating every level of society.
 
Everyone wants to be on the winning side. Everyone wants to advance… to be elevated. Everyone wants a taste of greatness… and a share of the glory.
 
And into this mess, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
 
The Good News of Jesus has much to offer our world today… a world obsessed with greatness… and it has much to says to His Church as well… to His people… who can be just as caught up and confused about what true greatness is as everyone else.
 
Sometimes this confusion shows up when we just go along with the impulse to build ourselves up… to strive to make ourselves and our communities seem impressive, influential, and important to those around us. But sometimes it shows up when we start to doubt our value… when we give into discouragement because our dreams for the future didn’t come true, and we feel sidelined and insignificant.
 
I mean, after all, in a world so fixated on success and greatness, what kind of difference could we make anyway? What good could our little church, in our little neighbourhood, and our little lives really do, right?
 
Our reading today from the Gospel of Mark reminds us that God offers the world a very different way to understand greatness… and call us to keep on striving for what matters most.
 
Our passage begins with Jesus trying for a second time to teach His disciples the true nature of His mission: that He had not come to conquer the Roman armies, or establish an earthly centre of power… but to suffer… to be rejected, and betrayed, and brutally executed… but rise again on the third day. This was how God’s great and glorious Kingdom would finally come about.
 
But, as it turns out, the disciples were still not getting it… confused, and afraid to ask Jesus to explain what He meant, they were still caught up in pursuing their own visions of God’s Kingdom… visions that included their own glory and honour… their own sense of greatness.
 
We can see the same self-centeredness being addressed in our second reading today, from the book of James… highlighting the source of all sorts of conflicts at work in every human community.

James 4:1-3, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”
 
St. James is calling out Christians who were still just serving their own desires… whose lives were simply reflecting the deeply selfish values of the world and its visions of glory and greatness.
 
And he contrasts this with a vision of true greatness… and Godly glory… God’s light and wisdom at work in our daily lives, which looks very different.
 
James 3:16-18, “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”

One of these ways reflects our natural, self-seeking habits. The other reflects the Spirit-led life of God at work in and through people transformed by His love. People who have put our faith not in our own status or understanding, or abilities, but in the rescuing grace of God offered to us all in Jesus Christ.
 
It can be so easy, even for us Christians, to get caught up in a self-centered sense of greatness… to just build our lives around achieving our own goals, and serving our own desires… or when we despair and give up when we seem to not be as successful as those around us.
 
In the face of this temptation, which can show up in both big and subtle ways everyday, we must ask ourselves: Will we choose to keep seeking our own desires, our own glory, or God’s good Kingdom? Will we trust in our own sense of greatness, or entrust ourselves to the greatness of our Lord?
 
St. James’ spells out how to make this choice. James 4:7-8,
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:7-8).
 
As long as we’re serving ourselves… as long as our lives revolve around getting what we want… achieving our goals… building up our own sense of greatness, we’re missing out. But if we turn to the Lord, and turn over our hearts and minds and lives to Him… resisting the temptations of the evil one, and instead drawing near to the Living God in faith… then we can begin to experience something wonderful… and liberating… and new.
 
We can discover that we are here to share in something that is so much bigger than ourselves. We are invited to belong to an eternal fellowship… a family of sisters and brothers, where we don’t have to compete, or fight for attention or status… but where we all are welcome, and wanted… and where we all have been given a role to play together in God’s good Kingdom.  
 
Jesus shows us that true greatness is not found in building ourselves up… but through giving ourselves away in love.
 
Back in Mark Chapter 9, Jesus calls His bickering disciples to explain what they were arguing about on the way to Capernaum.
 
Mark 9:34-37, “But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’”
 
Whoever welcomes a child in Jesus’ name, welcomes Jesus as well as His heavenly Father. What does welcoming a child have to do with the disciples’ argument on the road about greatness?
 
Notice that Jesus is not telling them to become like a little child here. He does that elsewhere. No, He’s making the point that even a little child… a member of society with zero status or influence or power, can act as an effective messenger of the Gospel, and servant of the Kingdom of God.

The Anglican Bishop and scholar, N.T. Wright puts it well, saying of the disciples that, “They were each hoping, it seems, to become Jesus’ official spokesman. Jesus would be king; the question was, who would be Chief of Staff, head of the royal household? Who would speak for Jesus? Who would be his ambassador, welcomed with the honour due to Jesus himself? Answer: anyone at all, and the humbler the better. An insignificant, unnamed child can become Jesus’ official representative, so that receiving him or her means receiving Jesus. Furthermore… by receiving Jesus, not least in the person of an insignificant child, people will receive ‘the one who sent him’”.[1]
 
In other words, there’s no point in fighting over positions of honour and status in God’s Kingdom… God doesn’t operate the way our world does… rewarding those who fight their way to the top, while leaving everyone else in the dust. It’s not a matter of ambition or ability that makes an effective disciple of Jesus… even the lowliest, least capable people can be used by God to share His love with those around them… faithfully offering to others what they have received.  

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
 
While the disciples were busy bickering over who was going to be the greatest, Jesus made clear that the message itself is far more important than the status of the messenger! The Gospel is not a tool to use to build ourselves up, it is the Good News of God’s great love for our messed-up world… and what He has done to rescue and raise it up again. And God loves to work through even the most humble people to share this Good News with everyone.
 
The Living God, the Creator of all that exists isn’t limited by our limitations. Nor is He impressed by our world’s ideas of greatness. Time and again, He uses humble messengers… everyday people to serve His glorious purposes. Instead of playing favorites, God wants to work through us all.
 
So we don’t need to worry about being seen as great by others to be of great use in God’s Kingdom. If we want to be great in God’s eyes… to reflect the values of His Kingdom… and share in His own glory and honour… it means laying aside our selfish ambitions, and learning to serve others like He does: in self-giving love.
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We know that Jesus our Saviour King did not seek His own glory, but rather, He humbled Himself… submitting to the will of His Father in Heaven… and giving His life at the cross to atone for the sins of the whole world. 
 
Our Lord was beaten, ridiculed, and publicly put to death. But what seemed to be the worst failure and defeat, was turned into God’s glorious victory over sin and the power of death when Jesus Christ rose again from the grave.
 
And the same Spirit that was at work in Him can empower you and I today to take part in the work of His Kingdom… putting His holy love into practice, and helping those around us hear and see the Good News at work in our own lives, so that they can share in it too.
 
So let’s not get distracted by worrying about trying to make ourselves look great in the world’s eyes… or even in our own eyes. And let’s not give into self-conscious concerns about not being important or powerful enough to be able to make a difference for God in the world.

Instead, let’s heed the words of St. James, and keep on drawing near in faith to Jesus, our great Saviour King, so that all we say and do starts to reflect His glorious life and light, and rescuing love… trusting Him to take care of the rest. Amen.


[1] N. T. Wright, Twelve Months of Sundays: Reflections on Bible Readings, Year B (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2002), 107.