September 20 Proper 20
Would you rather be able to fly or would you rather be able to become invisible? On NPR’s “This American Life,” John Hodgman conducted an informal survey asking listeners: Which you rather have the power to fly or the power of invisibility? What would you do with this power?
How would you answer? Would you rather fly or become invisible?
What Mr. Hodgman found surprised him. No matter which power one chose, almost everyone used this new power in self-serving ways. They almost all said that they would rely on their new super powers to fulfill their personal desires.
Most people who chose invisibility said they would sneak into movies, steal items from stores, spy on coworkers, stalk their exes and their enemies, hang around showers, eavesdrop on conversations about themselves, and slip onto airplanes for free rides.
People who would be able to fly would stop taking the bus, would give up their cars, would check out bars by flying around, and would fly to Paris or Prague or Rio.
One respondent, who had chosen flight, commented, “ I don’t think I’d want to spend a lot of my time using my power for good. I mean, if I don’t have super strength and I’m not invulnerable, it would be very dangerous to fly. If you had to rescue somebody from a burning building, you might catch on fire. Just having the power of flight, I don’t think it’s necessarily quite enough because you don’t have the super strength. I’d still be weak when I got there. I don’t fight crime now.”
Then he finished with, “I’d go to Paris, I suppose. If I was a superhero, I guess I could be the ‘Going to Paris Man.’”
I think it would be difficult to see ‘Going to Paris Man’ as a Superhero. But his answer is telling and might be more representative of all of us, if we’re really honest.
His answer doesn’t surprise most of us. It’s the wisdom of the world that James is talking about today. He warns us against false wisdom, which is characterized by “bitter envy and selfish ambition.” It is “earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition,” James warns, “there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.”
“These conflicts and disputes among you…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. You covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.”
That hurts me to hear because it’s still so true. “These disputes and conflicts among you, where do they come from?” Where indeed? What is it about us church folks that makes us tend to exclude rather than include when almost all of us can recite by heart the two great commandments: Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. No exceptions.
In the same chapter, we read, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God?
But wait! What’s so wrong with the world? Didn’t God create the world and declare it good? But that’s not what James or Jesus is talking about. When they talk about the “world,” they’re referring to the “operating systems,” the way we interact with each other, the systems we’ve set up to run the world. That’s where we get into trouble.
In the alternative Wisdom reading, we read, “Let us oppress the poor man; let us not regard the grey hairs of the aged, let our might be our law or right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.” That might be a summary of what James refers to as earthly wisdom.
Now hearing that should make us all uncomfortable because we have to understand that as long as there is oppression, disregard for anyone, as long as there are accepted norms and written laws that ensure that only the powerful get ahead, as long as God’s people are at enmity with God’s people, we’re a part of that.
Let’s look at the two kinds of wisdom that James talks about, earthly wisdom and wisdom from above in another way. Let’s think about it as the difference between being smart and being wise. Take a moment to get an image in your mind of a person you consider smart. What does this person look like? (Pause)
Do you picture a smart person as attired in an expensive business suit? Does this smart person have all the earmarks of power and success? Does this smart person have money, a good job, a nice car, and stylish clothes? Or maybe your image of a smart person is a “geek”: someone with glasses, a pocket protector with too many pens, who looks like he or she needs a fashion coach.
Now imagine a wise person, a person who demonstrates wisdom from above—the wisdom that James describes as pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. What does this person look like? The earlier images disappear. In their place, is a face creased and worn. Perhaps this person has grey hair. Instead of having the marks of success, this person is characterized by a sense of peace and contentment.
The motto of the world might be, “It is good to be clever.” James would probably reply, “It is clever to be good.” The world may say, “It is good to be wise.” James would respond, “It is wise to be good.”
In the Gospel today, Jesus predicts again that he will be betrayed, that he will be killed, and that he will rise after three days. And once again, the disciples turn their focus to worldly wisdom: who is the greatest, the most powerful? We usually are frustrated with the disciples’ lack of understanding, but we too choose to turn away from the truth of what Jesus is teaching because what it would mean in our lives if we truly took it seriously.
Instead of scolding them, Jesus sits down to teach them. His sitting down, which is the posture of a teacher, and calling to them is his way of getting their attention. It’s his way of telling them that what he’s about to tell them is very important.
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Jesus takes worldly wisdom and turns it completely upside down. He doesn’t repudiate ambition; he simply redirects it. The truly great person is a servant, a person who cares for other people.
We think of successful people as being “on top” and unsuccessful people as being “at the bottom.” Timothy Geddert in his book Believers Church Bible Commentary, says that “ Jesus chose another image, the image of ‘arounders.” Jesus is in the middle, and true inclusion in Jesus’ circle involves believing oneself around Jesus. Those around Jesus do not need to jockey for positions in the inner ring. There is room for everyone in the circle of arounders. Those who refuse the invitation are the ‘outsiders.”
And then Jesus uses a living parable to demonstrate what he means. Jesus tells the disciples that if we want to know who is truly great in God’s kingdom, we need to look at a child. He takes the child in his arms. None of us today would be surprised to see a teacher hug a child, but it was very different in Jesus’ time. A child would rank somewhere between a woman and a slave. For a rabbi to take a child in his arms in the presence of his disciples would have been remarkable and would have the attention of the disciples.
In Matthew’s version of this story, Jesus tells the disciples to become like a child. Mark reports that Jesus told his disciples to welcome a child. Clearly Jesus means us to see children in a new way, but he is also reminding us that we are to welcome all those who are of low worldly status, all those in need. He says in the verses that follow this reading that “little ones who believe in me” (vss. 42-47), people of any age are included. Jesus calls us to welcome the homeless, the disabled, the mentally ill, the sick, the uneducated, workers who have no voice and no choice in their working conditions, the poor, the hungry, anyone who cannot repay our hospitality. Jesus is not abolishing ambition. He is simply redirecting it. William Barclay, a 20th century theologian and Bible commentator says, “ For the ambition to have things done for us, (Jesus) substituted the ambition to do things for others.” (The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark, The Saint Andrews Press, 1954, p.229)
Gordon Cosby, founder of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. says it this way:
If we are willing to grapple with several basic realities integrally related to radical obedience to Jesus Christ, then we have a chance of being the instruments of Christ in changing history…I believe that radical obedience to Jesus Christ means to be identified with the poor. The gospel claims that God himself in his Son got into human life at the point of the weak, the despised, the rejected, the sick, the imprisoned, the least of the race—the last, not the first… He didn’t simply dip into their life and problems momentarily and then slip out again…He loved the riffraff and the rabble so deeply that he simply wanted to be with them, and to serve them in whatever form their need might shape his service.”
And then he looks at our society, where the powerful, the highly educated, the affluent and the influential have carved out a place for themselves. We have built institutions which secure our privilege.
What it means to really follow Jesus, to welcome the child is to begin the downward journey, where we are completely powerless except for God’s power. We keep journeying downward until we are identified with the powerless poor and where we recognize that these are our people.
Gordon Cosby describes the importance of this downward journey:
To mature in that process of downward movement, to give up power, to be with the powerless and victimized poor of the earth, we need to become part of an intense Christian community which confronts and supports us. If we don’t have that, I think we might as well forget it. Radical obedience means belonging to a deep and intense community which takes seriously both the contemplative relationship with Jesus Christ and the servant posture among the poor and the oppressed of the world. The creation of such faith communities is in my judgment the most important task in our time; it is the most effective political action that we can ever perform.
May we have the faith to travel on this downward journey, that we may become identified with the littlest, the least, the last and the lost. May we have the grace to recognize the wisdom from above and the courage to follow it. May we use every gift God has given us to help transform this world into the place where God’s will is done. Amen.