Mark 9:30-37
Time After Pentecost-Lectionary 24 September 20, 2015
Nadia Bolz-Weber , pastor of the ELCA congregation named House for All Sinners and Saints, has a “regular spiritual practice of warning people.”[1] At a brunch for newcomers, she told those who had recently joined the congregation that they needed to hear something. Pastor Bolz-Weber then went on to say, “This church will disappoint you. Or I will fail to meet your expectations or I’ll say something stupid and hurt your feelings. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when. Welcome to House for All Sinners and Saints. We will disappoint you.”[2]
To quote Martin Luther, “This is most certainly true!”[3] It is true for House for All Sinners and Saints, for Pastor Bolz-Weber, and it is true for St. Stephen and for me. I have been thinking about the anniversary of my ordination, which led me to recall my seminary training, and the congregations I have served. Here is an example of the difference between wisdom and knowledge. That we will never be perfect is knowledge. Not mentioning that in a call interview is wisdom. That the church and their pastors will, at least one time, disappoint their congregations seems to be a universal truth that is not taught in seminary.
What got me thinking about all of this in the first place is our reading this morning from Mark. Last week, we heard Peter confess Jesus as the Messiah, but he was unable to accept that as the Messiah, Jesus would have to suffer. Jesus responded to Peter saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:33b). Immediately prior to our gospel lesson from this morning is a story about a boy with a spirit. The boy’s father approached Jesus and asked him to heal his son, telling him that he had asked the disciples to cast out the demon. They tried, but couldn’t do it.
Now we hear Jesus tell his disciples, for the second time, that he will be betrayed, and he will be killed. Jesus says that three days after being killed, he will rise again. The disciples did not understand, and they didn’t ask him to explain. They simply didn’t talk about it.
Then they engaged in a heated discussion all along their way to Capernaum. Jesus asked them what they were arguing about. (As if he didn’t know!) The disciples didn’t answer him. They were arguing with each other about who was the greatest. [If you have watched any of the political debates, you can imagine what their conversation must have been like.]
Given their failure to heal the boy, their ignoring Jesus’ warning of his suffering and death, and now their self-centered argument about who was the best, I have to wonder how much the disciples must have disappointed Jesus, not just once, but over and over again. He had taught them about God and God’s love shown through the things he did, — by sharing God’s abundance with others, by feeding the hungry, loving the stranger, and healing those who were sick. Yet here they were not talking about how to help people, but rather åarguing about which one of them was the greatest. How sad Jesus must have been!
What were the disciples thinking? Sometimes the issue is not the issue when people act inappropriately and when they argue. Maybe, in light of their failure to heal the boy, the disciples were feeling insecure, and in an effort to overcome their failure, they asserted their in-their-dreams greatness. Maybe they were really disappointed in themselves, or maybe they simply felt powerless.
Maybe all these factors and emotions were mingled in with Jesus’ talk about being killed. The disciples must have been confused and scared by his words. Our response to pain is often to protect ourselves, and many times we do this by looking for someone or something to blame. Maybe by focusing on themselves the disciples were avoiding what would soon be a terrible reality. Whatever was behind their argument about who was the greatest only served to make each of them appear to be small-minded.
Yes, the disciples must have disappointed Jesus. Are we so different? Have you disappointed God once? Maybe once this morning? Human perfection is impossible to achieve. Does that mean we shouldn’t try? Of course not! But if we are to live out our baptismal promises, we cannot fear falling short of God’s hopes and expectations of us. We need tolerance for our own shortcomings so that we can tolerate imperfection in others. All of this is to say that Jesus calls us to forgive ourselves and to forgive others. Before we worship, we confess our sins, and ask God’s forgiveness. Before we come to God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. Here’s the best part. God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin.
We don’t have to pretend that we are perfect! This is why Jesus died on the cross; Jesus died for our sins. God forgives us seven times, and seven times seventy times. There is nothing we can do that God’s love for us cannot redeem. We have a God of second chances, and third chances, and how ever many it takes.
What did Jesus say to the disciples after he heard them arguing? Jesus sat the disciples down and told them that “whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (9:35). He said, in other words, “You’ve got it all wrong. You’ve got things backwards. It’s you I want, the screw-ups and the misfits. And here’s what I want you to do—serve others.” No matter how disappointing we are, God still trusts us to be Christ for others. That’s what Jesus wants for us to do, to be servants. That’s what we are to do with our second chances, and our third, and how ever many we are need. Thanks be to God!
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2013/05/sermon-on-why-hope-and-vapid-optimism-are-not-the-same-thing/
[2] ibid.
[3] See Luther’s explanation of the Creed in the Small Catechism.