“FIRST CLASS
SEATS”
|
A sermon preached Readings: James
3:13-4:3, 4:7-8a, and Mark 9:30-37 |
Mark 9:34
“They said nothing, because they had been arguing about who was the greatest”
Jesus
and the disciples have been on the road –
now they are back home in Capernaum –
we guess hungry and tired after walking in the sun.
But
Jesus picks up a something in the air, in the atmosphere.
Does
he see a shifty or calculating look somewhere,
or does he just guess that his followers had been jostling for position again?
It
was evidently an on-going problem for him -
So “What were you talking about
as you walked?” he asks.
Oh nothing they mumble in reply –
like guilty schoolchildren chatting on the back row at class:
Did it happen to you at school?
“Sails, you seem to have a lot to say for yourself back there -
perhaps you’d like to tell us all about it? –
Evidently much more interesting than what the rest of us have been saying…
So what were you talking about?”
“Oh nothing sir, nothing at all, sorry sir…”
And
so (Mark 9:34) like guilty schoolchildren caught out,
the disciples “said nothing, because they had been arguing was the greatest”.
Here
is Jesus, walking the way of the Cross,
and what are his followers doing?
They are looking for glory -
they have put the effort in on the campaign trail,
but already they are dividing the spoils of victory –
When
Jesus takes over from Caesar as King, then he’ll need a cabinet –
who will get the Foreign Office and the Home Office?
Who will be at the right hand and who at the left?
And do we catch the so weary yet so patient way
Jesus says yet again -
“Don’t you see, true
greatness is not about pre-eminence and pomp–
the first shall be last and the
greatest is the one who is servant of all.”
Sadly
it is a message that every age has had to learn again -
not least in the Church.
Holinshed’s Chronicles are best known
as sources for much in Shakespeare’s history plays.
But there is loads of stuff in there which never reached the stage –
Here is Holinshed writing about a meeting of clergy in 1179.
Those invited include the Legate (the Pope’s representative in England)
and the Archbishops of York and Canterbury:
“At Westminster a convocation of the cleargie
was called,
but when the legat was set,
and the Archbishop of Caturburie on his right hand as
primate of all the realme,
the archbishop of Yorke coming in,
and disdaining to sit on the left,
where he might seeme to give preheminence
unto the archbishop of Canturburie
(unmanerlie inough indeed) swasht him down,
meaning to thrust himself in betwixt the legat and
the archbishop of Canturburie.
And when belike the said archbishop of Canterburie
was loth to memoove,
he [the Archbishop of York] set his buttocks inst his lap,
but he scarslie touched the archbishop’s skirt with
his bum,
when the bishops and other chapleins with their
servants stept to him,
pulled him away, and threw him to the ground,
and beginning to lay on him with bats and fists,
and the archbishop of Canturburie yielding good for
evil,
sought to save him from their hands….
…The archbishop of Yorke with his rent rochet got up,
and awaie he went to the king with a great complaint
against the archbishop of Canturburie:
but when upon examination of the matter the truth was knowne,
he was laught at for his labour, and that was all the
remedie he got.”
[Holinshed’s Chronicles, 1179, quoted in John Julius Norwich, Christmas
Crackers, 1980, p.17]
So
Rowan Williams is not the first Archbishop of Canterbury
to suffer at the hands of his colleagues!
But
more seriously 1200 years after Christ,
his followers had still to heed his words about status and privilege.
And I
wonder whether we have done so yet 2000 years on??
As a child I remember learning a particular card game for the first
time –
I think it must have been one of those whist derivatives
where points are scored according to whether or not you win cards
such as hearts or the Queen of Spades.
I picked the game up quickly and easily –
indeed I could believe how easy it was to amass a huge score –
Then it dawned on my 7 year old mind that I had got it wrong –
I was trying to amass the specified cards and get a big score –
I was actually meant to be avoiding these cards
and the winner was the one with the lowest score.
So
Jesus has often somehow to explain to us
how we have striven and succeeded with great effort –
but, alas alack, the first shall be last.
Jesus
tells us to struggle and strive at the game of life -
to live well and holy and perfect lives –
but he is saying, when you set off make sure you are playing by the proper
rules.
On the great North Run today, who will be the greatest?
The people who cross the finish line first?
Or those who bring the most hope and joy to the needy
through their example and through their sponsorship?
One race, one set of competitors,
but many different criteria for success and achievement.
And
how do we strive for?
If we are honest, what do we envy in others or take pride in ourselves?
Contemporary
culture full of league tables and advertising jingles
encourages us to judge according to material wealth, political clout and social
status.
According
to popular view,
you are deemed to have “arrived” in the journey of life when you travel first
class.
Adlai Stevenson
famously referred to this planet as
"Spaceship Earth our fragile craft."
Others have
commented that our spaceship has First and Economy Class seats.
At Cancun last
week, to the shame of the USA and the European Union,
the First Class passengers met with the economy class passengers
and refused to share out the seating.
We are part of
one world,
but sadly our leaders still seem to believe that we have a divine right
to the first class seats of honour at the front of the plane.
I hope we will
continue to remind the government of Great Britain that true greatness
- for nations and individuals –
comes through service not through political power and material wealth.
And
when we have bewailed what our governments do,
we have to put our money where our mouth is -
Please
take the Christian Aid envelopes and bring them back
to Harvest Festival next week brimming over –
for this is a measure of greatness
that we seek out the poor and the needy and serve their needs.
In an obscure corner of the old cloisters of Winchester College,
there is a gravestone
recording the death of the 18 year old head boy of the school –
It goes like this:
|
Hoc sub marmore sepultus est Tho. Welsted Quem calculi ictu mors Prostravit in hac
schola primus erat nec Ut speramus
in caelo ultimus est Quod pro Oxiono adiit |
Beneath this marble is
buried Tho. Welsted Who was struck down by the
throwing of a stone He was first in this
school And we hope is not last in
heaven Wither he went Instead of to Oxford, Jan 13 1676 Aged 18. |
And
we may or may not ever go to Oxford,
but we shall all take the same final journey one day.
I
have this sort of vision about judgement day –
That one day we will stand before our Lord,
and he will say –
what did you do with your life?
Will we hear ourselves say,
“I had a house and a mortgage and a job and a salary and a pension,” or
whatever.
And in sorrow the Lord will say –
“But I am asking you about greatness –
we do not measure greatness that way up here. ”
And then perhaps will the Lord of glory bend before us
and start cleaning our shoes –
and then will he say –
“Come this is the measure of true greatness.”
Then shall we weep and repent
and realize how we have squandered our earthly life.
And then we will say
“But Lord, why am I here
before the throne of heaven when I have so misused my life?”
And he will say
“Why my child – not because you are first or the greatest –
I fear you are not –
You are here because
when I had gathered in 99 sheep to the fold
and there was but one last one to be found,
how could I leave you out?
So one day shall we learn
that the first shall be last
- and the last shall be first.