Today's Sermon - Oct 21, 2018 Backwards Day

Backwards Day

(based on Mark 10:35-45)

          You might be wondering why I look so ridiculous with my robe and stole on backwards.  Do you remember going to school on Backwards Day?  It was an unofficial holiday when you got to go to school wearing your clothes backwards.  We would even start the day with last period and work our way backwards throughout the day, ending it with homeroom and the day’s announcements.  For this morning, I even toyed with the idea of doing the entire service backwards as well.

          You’ll be thankful that I chose to just put my robe and stole on backwards because, two weeks ago we read from the gospel according to Mark in chapter 9 when he was having a discussion with his disciples about what they had been arguing about while they traveled to Capernaum.  They didn’t want to admit it, but they had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest among them.  And Jesus told them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. 

One chapter later, in our reading this morning, James and John take the argument to another level.  They come forward to Jesus to ask him to do them a favor.  “What do you want?” Jesus asks them.  And they say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left.”

Jesus and the other disciples are pretty angry with them, at this point.  But for different reasons.  When the other disciples found out what James and John had asked of Jesus, they were angry because they wanted those positions for themselves.  Jesus is angry because he realizes that his disciples still don’t get it.

He had already told them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  But now he tells them the same thing in a different way.  He says to them all, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

So, in the kingdom of God everything we have experienced in this world and everything we understand about how things work and everything we believe to be important now will be different; it will be backwards.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  Those who are first will be those who serve, and those who serve will be raised to the highest status.

Obviously, this is not an easy concept for us to fully grasp.  Why else did Jesus repeat this teaching twice in such a short span of time? 

I liked backwards day at school.  Why?  Because it forced me to think, to feel, to experience something routine from a different perspective.  All day long, the clothes that you normally wear, that fit just right the way that you wear them, suddenly feel wrong.  Have you ever put on a t-shirt backwards?  You can do it in the dark and know, just from the feel of it, that it is wrong.  The back part of the neck rides higher than the front, so it actually feels like you’re choking, just a bit.  It’s uncomfortable.  You know immediately that something’s amiss.

Then to experience the day from last period to first period, ending in homeroom feels wrong, even though it should have been a routine day, everything suddenly feels fresh and new.  Your math class is strangely less intimidating.  There’s suddenly new vibrancy during gym.  You actually pay attention to the announcements during homeroom, because the whole day was experienced in a different way.  The old routine is wonderfully fresh and somehow exciting because of it.

Speaking of routines: Why did you come to worship today?

What motivated you to get yourself organized, move away from a comfortable place, travel by car to be in this church building at this moment?  It takes an effort to participate in worship on Sunday mornings.  It never happens by accident.

Why are you an active member or visitor to this congregation?   We live in a time when many people flee from any kind of commitment, avoid community, and refuse to volunteer for anything.  The big trend today is cocooning, wrapping yourself up in your home.  You certainly do not enhance your social status by participating in a church anymore.  And yet people like you regularly share in the gathered Christian community, you support the work of this congregation with your gifts, and many of you work in quiet ways to further Christ’s mission and ministry here.  Why?

Scholars, theologians, church educators and even sociologists and psychiatrists have studied the phenomena of church membership and participation.  There’s a long list of why they think people go to church.  Some have said that it is to gain favor with God.  Perhaps to satisfy a spouse or to appease a parent.  Maybe to deepen a friendship.  Some say that people go to church for the same reason they go to the mall or to a store; to pick up something that you need, sort of like a spiritual full-service mini-mart, a place to pick up the spiritual resources you need in a quick, efficient manner. 

Others come to church for mood alteration – to get a sense of forgiveness when they feel particularly inadequate.  Or to seek a comfort in the midst of difficulty, grief, disappointment.  Many go to church to find encouragement when they feel depressed, lonely, or just down.  Some come to gain confidence when they feel afraid, or inspiration when life grows a tad stale through the week. 

And as almost all scholars concluded, and this is difficult for us to admit, nearly everyone comes to church simply out of obligation, out of routine because their parents made them come – even if those parents have been gone to the heavenly realms for years now.

Jesus wants to shake up that routine and have you think about life from a different perspective, because the reason behind the routine isn’t what you think it should be.  It’s something quite different.

The great value of the gospel is the manner in which it reveals what Jesus means when he speaks of a different viewpoint.  In this lesson, it’s about greatness, and its definition is different from the way the world uses that word.  For Jesus greatness is defined by total, unconditional trust in God.  Jesus tells James and John and the rest of the disciples that greatness is measured in service, in spending our lives for the sake of others.

We tend to define greatness in terms of power, privilege, and prestige.  We measure the importance of a person by external markers – the house they own, the car they drive, the appearance of their lifestyle.  We are impressed by the visible achievement of people: their honors and academic degrees, the importance of their profession, and sometimes even the accomplishments of their children.

But when Jesus speaks of greatness he inevitably links it with service.  As he said to his disciples, that which makes us great is not our ability to rule over others, but, rather, our ability to invest ourselves for the welfare of others.  In a world where most people want to put as little as is necessary into life and to get out as much as possible, Christ tells us of a better way.

Jesus calls us to that “better way” today.  Only when we are willing to put more into life than we take out, to put service to others in a place of honor only then are we worthy to be called his followers.

After nearly thirty years of service as a pastor and a church leader, I am convinced that the Church of Jesus Christ finds its validation not in its public rituals, nor in solemn pronouncements on social issues, nor in the pristine quality of our theology and teaching.  The Church of Jesus Christ establishes its credibility through its acts of mercy and kindness – the cup of water to the thirsty, the bag of groceries to the distraught, the life-giving accompaniment when we walk with someone who can go no farther without a champion.

Once upon a time in a far-off country, a king had twin sons. One was strong and handsome. The other was intelligent and wise. As the ruler grew old, everyone speculated about which son the king would choose as his successor – the strong son or the wise son.

In this land the sign of kingship was a royal ring. Just before the king died, he had a copy of the royal ring made and presented both rings to his twin sons. The chief advisors to the king asked him, “How shall we know which son wears the authentic royal ring?”

You shall know, answered the king, because the chosen one will reveal his right to rule by his self-giving service to our people.

This is not the way our world works, this is not the way the “gentiles do things”, as Jesus said.  But it is the way in which Jesus wants us to do things now; the way he wants us to envision the kingdom of God.  And the kingdom of God isn’t something that will happen in the future, in heaven, in the vision of the new regime when New Jerusalem will be established.  Jesus wants us to work toward the Kingdom of God, now.

In hindsight, I wish I had arranged for today’s worship to be done backwards.  Perhaps that would have given you a fresh sense of what Jesus was trying to explain to his disciples.

But now that I’ve experienced the uncomfortableness of being in this robe backwards for the past hour, I want you to go home and do something backwards, wear something backwards, shake up your routine and think about what Jesus is really asking us to do here and now, in this lifetime….and then start doing it.

Thanks be to God.  AMEN.