Nagoya Mission

March 29, 2009

John 12: 20-33

        As many of you may know Nagoya is closely related to the family history of the last feudal dictators in Japan, the Tokugawa Shogunate.  But Nagoya is not the only city with Tokugawa family connections.  The city of Mito, northeast of Tokyo in present day Ibaraki Prefecture, was the headquarters of one of the three main branches of the Tokugawa family, the Mito branch.
         During the Edo period (1603-1868) the head of the Mito Tokugawa clan occupied the hereditary position of vice shogun.  Although no one in the family could ever become a shogun, the vice shogun had great prestige and considerable power in Japan during those 265 years.  The most famous of the long line of vice-shoguns was Mito or Tokugawa Mitsukuni.  Not only is he famous for his time as vice-shogun but, after Mitsukuni retired, he become known by the name, Komon, and legend has it that he traveled Japan doing good deeds.  The story of this man, by the way is the basis for a long running weekly samurai TV drama called Mito Komon, a fictionalized account of that retired vice-shogun’s legendary travels.
         What interests us today is not only the history of the word komon but also its present day meaning --- “advisor” or “counselor.”1  There is no longer a Tokugawa Shogunate yet komon still exist not only in Japan but in many places around the world.  Advisors or counselors, either because of family relationships or experience or both, play key roles in virtually every area of modern business, politics and professional affairs around the world.  The most powerful and effective advisors and counselors may be like Mito Mitsukuni recently retired from a top position in government or business.  Wherever they gained their experience, these advisors and counselors are retained and especially valued for their connections.  Because of their connections, komon are “go betweens” to help break the barriers that exist between groups of people.  Good and efficient connection brokers are not new or only found in Japan.  Just as revealed every week at the climax of the Japanese TV drama, at the all important moment, Mito Mitsukuni is revealed by his Tokugawa family crest on his inro (印籠); in other words, like a good “go between,” he pulls out his all important connection to the Shogun and everything works out! 
       Just look at our gospel, we are told that a group of “Greeks” approach Philip, one of the disciples of Jesus, with a request, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus” because Philip “was from Bethsaida in Galilee.”2  Connections and the breaking down of barriers are a crucial theme in this lesson.
         Before we continue further perhaps we need to explore who these “Greeks” are.  These “Greeks” were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the most important religious holiday for Jews.3  So, were these tourists from Athens with digital cameras and camcorders ready to take some pictures and thought they might catch the latest hot news --- Jesus?
         There are basically two complementary schools of thought among Biblical scholars about these “Greeks.”  One school of thought is that this group is a general term to describe anyone that is a gentile; religiously inquiring gentiles in Jerusalem at this important religious event. (The Passover) The Greek culture was the predominant culture in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.4
         The other school of thought is more specific in that these “Greeks” were part of a large group of 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation and older ethnic and/or cultural Jews who had left Israel and had adopted habits in the cultures where they lived.  This Diaspora would come back to Jerusalem on occasion to visit family and friends for the holidays.5  History suggests that at the time of Jesus, these “Greeks” were allowed into a small section of the Holy Temple even though they may have not been observant Jews.  In fact, Paul was accused of crossing this boundary in the temple in Acts 24: 5-6 because Paul, once a Pharisee, had become a “Greek” when he had become a Christian.
         Well whoever they were, why would they go to Philip?  It could have been because Philip is approachable as some speculate he may be a re-converted Greek.  This means a cultural or ethnic Jew who became observant through Jesus or earlier.  Or perhaps Philip spoke Greek well.  After all the Scripture points out that he’s from Bethsaida, a well-known city of “Greek” Jewish emigres.  Either way, what we do see is Philip has great connections because straightaway he takes the request to his fellow disciple Andrew, also from Bethsaida.
 Andrew may have been the most important “go between” because if you read the Gospel of John carefully, it is Andrew among the twelve, who is repeatedly described as a broker between Jesus and outsiders.  For example, it is Andrew who negotiates the meeting between Jesus and his brother Simon Peter.  It is Andrew who finds the young boy with food and brings him to Jesus in the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.6
         Together Philip and Andrew go to Jesus to pass on the request from these “Greeks.”  Now this is what’s peculiar ? we do not hear that Jesus pays Andrew and Philip any attention at all and furthermore we never hear about these “Greeks” again, yet understanding barriers and connections is helpful as we understand what Jesus says next. 
         In response we are told Jesus speaks a group of paradoxical statements: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.”7
         Whoever these “Greeks” were, and whatever the roles of Philip and Andrew, the timing of the event provokes an important point.  Jesus notifies everyone that this hour, the time of the cross, was soon coming.  When we continue reading this chapter of John, we see that Jesus continues to talk about his death and glorification.
         Although Jesus does not respond to the literal specific request of the “Greeks,” as if to set up an appointment, the request was of secondary importance.  Rather, this event and the question of the “Greeks” is an important opportunity.  It was necessary for Jesus to remind (emphasize) the fact that Jesus death and resurrection will break down the walls between people.  Between Jews and Gentiles, bond and free, between those who could come to God and those who could not, and to open again the way to God to all humanity.
         In other words in Jesus, “go betweens” are no longer necessary between God and humanity.  No temple in Jerusalem.  No more spilling of sacrificial blood for the atonement of sins.  No more following laws of religious purity for purity’s sake to be able to worship God.  No more religious leadership as a go between God and humanity.  Instead there is but pure grace in faith in Jesus Christ.
         In a sense, the “Greeks” want to see … not simply a miracle worker, but God, and Jesus knew this: yet before they could see unto salvation, which is what all gentiles wanted and needed, Jesus had to destroy the wall that partitioned people from God.  That middle wall could only be destroyed, as Paul said later, by Jesus own flesh.8  The gentiles, or non-observant Jews represented by these Greeks who came to Philip and Andrew, could not see God until the way was prepared.  Cryptically to the disciples, easier for us who follow to see, Jesus was saying Calvary is upon you, get ready, the connection of the cross and the empty tomb is coming.  
         We know the rest of the story we see in Jesus.  No longer are go betweens necessary whether we are cradle Christians or recently claimed disciples.  We believe.  We trust.  We have faith.  We know we are called to follow Jesus wherever that may lead.  By whatever route Jesus leads us, we are to put the attractions and distractions of this life aside and maintain single-minded focus on the one who holds eternity in the palm of his hand.
         This leads to the final point for there are still those among us today who wish to see God --- neighbors near and far.  Unless we are willing to follow in our Savior’s footsteps, unless we are willing to be “little Christ,” how will they see him?  For you see, we are the present-day Greeks.  We as well are Philip and Andrew whose connection is to point the way to the One who will draw all people to himself.
         We are go betweens between Jesus and the people we meet, but not to form another layer between people and God.  Rather, we are to be like Jesus, so that we may “die” in a sense, to produce many seeds.
         My prayer for all of us in this Lenten season is that we will shake free from whatever shackles us and prevents us from keeping our focus on the Son of God, so that we are ready to show the way for all who “wish to see Jesus.”  Amen.

1 Japan’s Cultural Code Words, De Mente, Boye Lafayette, Tuttle Publishing, Tokyo, 2004. p. 163
2 John 12: 21
3 Vs. 20
4 The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Brown, Raymond E., Fitzmyer, Joseph A & Murphy, Roland E., Eds.. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1990. p. 971.
5 Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John, Malina, Bruce & Rohrbaugh, Richard L. Fortress Press: Minneapolis. 1998. p. 211-213
6 John 1: 40-41; John 6: 8-9; Palestine in the time of Jesus, Hanson, K.C. & Oakman, Douglas E.. Fortress Press: Minneapolis. 1998. p. 80
7 John 12: 23-26
8 Ephesians 2:11-18

March 22, 2009

Text: John 3:13-21

        On Tuesday, March 17th after 146 years, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer a daily newspaper in the U.S. stopped printing.  Although it is no longer available in print in the city of Seattle, a much smaller group of employees remain in the newsroom to take part in what is termed a “journalistic experiment: whether a major newspaper can make money, and consistently produce good stories, as an Internet only?operation.”1  In other words, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, once a newspaper, is now news without the paper.
         The New York Times, another US daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City has long been nicknamed “the gray lady” because of the concentration of its print.  A year ago The New York Times decided to devote the second and third pages of every issue to summaries of articles that appear elsewhere in the paper.  This change was to address two complaints the newspaper was hearing.  One was from readers who said they did not have enough time to read the articles.  The other was from readers who said that because there was so much in each issue, they often overlooked the articles they really cared about.2  
         What do those events have to do with each other and with us?  The closures and changes in newspapers are simply a sign of an even larger and deeper trend; how we read.  Writing in the US magazine, The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr, said that the Internet is rewiring not only our reading habits, but also the circuits in our brain that have to do with cognition.3
         As Carr sees it, the wonderful access to news and other information that was not possible within most of our lifetimes on-line comes at a price: the Internet not only supplies stuff to think about but also shapes the very process of thought.  To support his argument, Carr notes, that a recent study by scholars from University College - London showed that as people view material on-line, they usually skim rather than read deeply.  They hop from one source to another and rarely return to any one they have already visited.  Generally, people reading on the Internet read no more than one or two pages before they leap to another site.  The authors of the study concluded that “there are signs that new forms of ‘reading’ are emerging as users ‘power browse.’” 
         For Christians this should not be new because from my experience too many of us hop-skip through the Bible as if it were the Internet.  Just think about that in our lesson today.  Most verses of the Bible are not on many Christians lips, but many of us can usually rattle off the substance of John 3:16, which is often called “the gospel in a nutshell.”  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
         Although as true as that gospel verse is, the memory of one verse may leave us with the assumption that if we can recite John 3:16, or have a non-believer read it, that is the whole Christian message, as if the rest of the Bible was just commentary.  That supposition is quite common in the United States where well meaning Christians try to place John 3:16 on everything from license plates to t-shirts, from signs at sports games to placing the chapter and verse after one’s name on business cards.
         Reading, hearing or studying, John 3:16 and thinking we have got the whole story is like reading in a hop-skip fashion on the Internet.  We may get the basic nugget of the story, but we will miss the in-depth kind of understanding that comes only from deeper reading, from living with the Scriptures.  For example, the fact is a mere reading of John 3:16 is not going to give the foggiest idea of what Jesus was talking about in verses 14 and 15 or why the story of a wilderness serpent serves as an introduction to verse 16.
         One way to start seeing John 3:16 in its larger context is to imagine there’s a hyperlink: a word, phrase, or image that you can click on to jump to a new document or a new section within the current document; as many of you know an excellent tool on the Internet.  In verse 14 there would be a hyperlink that jumps you back to Numbers chapter 21 and it particular verses 4-9.
         At that time, the Numbers story finds the people of Israel in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan.  The people had left Egypt and slavery, had made a stop at Mt. Sinai and developed a covenant with God, and are once again on their journey to their new land.  Their route requires them to skirt the land of Edom.  This detour makes the Israelites cranky and it brings up complaints the people have raised on numerous occasions before: “Our slavery in Egypt was better than this.  We’re going to die out here in the wilderness.”  And then, in a rant that does not even make sense, they add, “We’ve got no food and water, and this food we have is miserable!”  They complained not only against Moses, but also against God.4
         Now this is not the first time they have complained nor is it their second or even their third.  It is at least the fourth occasion, and in each preceding time, God addressed their complaints in some way.  Here they are at it again but the response is different.
         To say this group is complaining is actually putting a positive spin to their words.  Really it is a form of sin.  In response to their complaints we have a lesson whose language is brutal.  God does not merely ‘send’ snakes among the people.  The Hebrew uses a piel verb to stress the severity of divine judgment; God ‘thrusts’ poisonous snakes upon them.  Likewise, the snakes don’t simply ‘bite’ the people.  Again using the piel form of the Hebrew verb, they ‘chomp down’ on the people.  There is no hiding the ferocity of divine anger which is unleashed on the people.
         Coming to face with divine judgment brought repentance.  The people quickly went back to Moses with the admission that they had sinned against him and against God, and they pleaded with Moses to intervene with God on their behalf.  The intervention though is no saint with a flute.  Instead Moses is commanded to provide healing to the people with what appears to be a huge amulet in the midst of the people --- a snake on a stake --- so that, if bitten, a person might simply look at it and be healed.  However, most artistic depictions of that image that I have seen do not do it justice.
         What is it that God tells Moses to make for himself and to place upon a pole?  The Hebrew text is clear: God instructs Moses, ‘aseh leka seraph, “Make for yourself a seraph.”  Moses is told to make not just some generic snake but rather a seraph.  You may recognize that word because in the plural form it is seraphim.  It becomes clear that these seraphim were thought of as snake-figures, who ‘burn’ because of their venomous poison.  We learn from Isaiah 14:29 that, not only do these snakes ‘burn with fire’, but they also dart or fly.  And it is, of course, these very creatures which Isaiah early encounters in his temple vision in Isaiah 6, decked out with their 3 pairs of wings.  In other words, this was no ordinary snake but rather an image of a flying snake of fire of a pole.
         Now if we return to John, with that it mind, we see that Jesus’ mention of the seraph in the wilderness was in a conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus.  This man had come to Jesus seeking to understand his message and mission, and as they were both Jewish and steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus was able to hyperlink to this serpent story with the certainty that Nicodemus would know it and be able to use it as a comparison to Jesus’ mission.  Thus, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “And just as Moses lifted up the seraph in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
         In Numbers, it is clear that some of the bitten people refused to look at the bronze serpent and died.  It is not hard to imagine why, considering what was on the pole.  The medicine is a challenge for us sin-bitten people --- who may prefer too quick to skip around and not look deeply --- for we too can refuse to look at the Savior God provided and thus miss healing. 
         Thus, it’s not enough to read John 3:16 as if it were an emoticon on a cell phone novel or in an email.  Rather, we are people who are struggling with a variety of deep and sometimes painful sins; God’s own antidote to the deadly sin in which we are entangled in the wilderness of our lives we see the form of one hanging there, bleeding for our sake, and we recognize this figure as God’s own son, God’s own self.  John 3:16 are not just words for a banner headline for a web page but a deep and painful reminder that God has dragged us out of our bondage to sin and death and has drawn us to the cross.  We are to look, believe and live!

1 International Herald Tribune, March 18,2009, "Last P-I printed, Seattle becomes a journalism lab",
2 The New York Times, April 6, 2008, Hoyt, Clark. “Change can be painful, but this one shouldn’t hurt.” www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06pubed.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Tom%20Bodkin&st=cse&scp=4.
3 Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google making us stupid?” The Atlantic, July/August 2008, theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google.
4 Numbers 20

March 15, 2009

John 2: 13-22 

       Today’s gospel lesson is not really about bingo.  Maybe that never occurred to you, but when I was growing up, this Gospel reading often brought church bingo, bazaars or rummage sales to mind.  Oh, it wasn't the game of bingo or selling tickets itself --- it was the notion of taking money in the church.  Yet this lesson in a way is about those activities … but far more!
         What do I mean by all that!  When I was growing up as a Christian, I was taught that today’s gospel lesson of Jesus overturning the tables in the confines of the temple in Jerusalem meant that we should avoid certain types of money raising in the church.  Yet, I never heard a sermon or even had a Bible study that went into detail on why that is.  Somehow it was part of my upbringing and associated with this lesson.
         It wasn’t until the first year at one of my prior congregations, that I started to explore this lesson more thoroughly.  That congregation’s annual picnic was an end of summer event to kick off the fall events and included a silent auction as well as a raffle for some donated items and services.
         Prior to this, I had never been part of a congregation that had a raffle or silent auction.  I was uneasy, but kept my feelings to just the church council because I was the new pastor and it wasn’t that bad I reasoned.  Tickets were sold at the picnic outside, on the day of the event, once a year.
         Well, I was visiting a home bound member of the church.  During our visit, she said “Pastor, I heard you have some feelings about the raffle at the church picnic.”  I thought to myself, “I am going to get a lecture about how a new pastor should not be changing the customs of the congregation.”  Instead, she asked, “To tell you the truth, doesn’t this raffle make a ‘house of prayer’ into a ‘den of robbers.’?”1  Well, there I had it!  That spurred me to examine today’s lesson more.
         First, there is the anger, or maybe better expressed as “righteous” anger.  Throughout the Old Testament, God acts sometimes out of anger.  But God’s anger is not one where God loses self-control, for example.  We have this event as well as words from Paul who adds in Ephesians: “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”2  So is this lesson about “righteous” anger; anger with no sin?  Is this what we are to emulate?
         Although we can spend more time on the topic of Christian anger, I think the main point of the event lies elsewhere.  Jesus was not just acting out a moment of moral indignation.  Instead, let us examine the purpose of the anger; Jesus was cleansing the temple.  Temple purity is the central issue of this gospel event.
         There is something else.  We need to remember that not everything is recorded the same in all four of the gospels.  Some events appear in all four, like the crucifixion and the resurrection.  But many of the things that are important parts of Jesus’ ministry may be noted in just one, or two or three of the four gospels.  This event of Jesus cleansing the temple is one of the acts of Jesus that shows up in all four gospels… well sort of…
         Because, there are some important and significant differences with John’s record versus those in Matthew, Mark and Luke, for while Matthew, Mark and Luke place this event much later in their gospels --- near Jesus’ final week, we can see that John chooses to put the cleansing of the temple very early --- in Chapter 2.  I believe that John saw this event with a particular meaning, and thus its sequence in the life of Jesus was not as important.  For John, Jesus' actions in the temple pointed to the heart of who Jesus was and what he had come to do.  It had to come at the beginning, not near the end.
         As I mentioned, this event in John is in chapter 2, and a little verse connects it with another event in Capernaum; Jesus' miracle at the wedding in Cana.  You may remember that they ran out of wine at the wedding, and Mary exclaims, “They have no more wine.”3  Jesus told the steward to fill six stone jars with water.  Then he told the steward to taste the water, and --- the water had been turned to wine with such a taste that the steward wondered why the host had saved the best for last.
         However, John tells us a particular detail that we sometimes miss in our fascination with the miracle and all that wine: The stone jars that were used are for the rites of purification.  It was customary to have water available to be used for ritual cleaning for members of the family and guests.  It is the purification water that Jesus used to turn into the wine.
         By the time of Jesus, an elaborate system of religious purification had been developed, not only with water but by a host of different means.  Some things were considered pure and others impure based on scriptural references, religious interpretation and custom.  All of this ritual was established to be able to worship God, but the ritual had become the purpose rather than a means to an end.
         So here are two successive events that had to do with purification.  Although worship at the temple is ringed with purity, there was a profound difference.  In the heart of Jerusalem was the temple.  In the heart of the temple, within its innermost sanctuary, was the "Holy of Holies," where only the high priest was allowed to visit.
         In the heart of the "Holy of Holies," sat the ark itself and in the center of the ark was a particular spot, a “mercy seat.”  The kapporeth or "mercy seat" was a flat slab of gold resting on top of the ark.  Guarding either end of this slab, and of one piece with it, were winged angels, their faces inward, turned toward each other and their wings arching over the mercy seat.  Here between the cherubim and over the mercy seat was the throne, a dwelling of the God of Israel.  Once a year, on the Day of Atonement it was on this "mercy seat" that the high priest sprinkled the sacrificial blood.4 
         It is important to remember that nothing resided on the mercy seat, and the gold slab was just that a seat.  The seat was not worshipped nor was God's presence anywhere portrayed within this "Holy of Holies"--- or anywhere else within the temple; no idols of God; no representation of God at all.  All that greeted the high priest on this slab was open space, a void.
         In other words, the most sacred space where God was in the midst of the Hebrew people was empty, but yet not empty.  To go to Jerusalem to the temple, to make a pilgrimage to be near to and worship, to find mercy and comfort, was to visit empty space --- the holy.  That is an important point to remember for we too have no gilded statue or talking idol or shrine, rather we have the living presence of God's holiness.
         When Jesus went on his rampage in the temple it was partly a reaction against the intrusions of unholy noise and images into this sanctuary of holy silence.  Jesus saw that the temple site was gradually being transformed from a center of spirituality that leads one to greater space for holiness in people’s lives -- into a place simply of greater hustle and bustle.
         By cleansing the temple of all this pollution, Jesus sought to regain the sanctity of silence.  For only in the silence of the sanctuary could one hope to hear the silence in their midst, the living presence of God.  However, that point does not end there because this cleansing was also part of God’s redemptive plan for the world.
         The religious leaders do not question his point that all this noise, hustle and bustle, is taking away from the worship of God but rather they question his authority.  “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”5  To cleanse the temple?   
         To which Jesus answers: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  Jesus was predicting what was to happen, that no longer was this divine presence to be found in this one place.  In his life, crucifixion, death and resurrection, Jesus himself became the new temple.  It was no longer simply in or at a building.  Rather, the new mercy seat for God's presence was in, with and through Jesus Christ, meaning God in Jesus made it possible for each one of us to become living temples.  Jesus became the new mercy seat that we might each become a mercy seat, a people of comfort, forgiveness and love.  Jesus made the encounter with the Divine Presence possible for all people.  
         In the words of Anglican Bishop Rowan Williams, "Jesus is our holy place, which also means that he is the promise of a new kind of holiness. …. If we are so drawn into the words and acts and passion of Jesus that (as Paul said) his life and death are at work in us, we become sanctuaries to each other, holy places, mercy seats."6
         So is this lesson, about bingo?  We are temples of God’s living presence.  Because of Jesus Christ, God’s divine presence --- comfort, mercy and forgiveness --- we are God’s people sent out to the whole world.  Amen. 

1 Mark 11: 15-19
2 Ephesians 4: 26-27
3 John 2: 3
4 Exodus 25:22; 30:6; Numbers 7:89)
5 John 2: 18
6 A Ray of Darkness, Rowan Williams, Cambridge, Mass.: Cowley Publications, 1995, p. 87. 

March 8, 2009

Mark 10: 32-45

        What do you and I pay attention to?  Do we notice the overstated or the ordinary?  There used to be a magazine on the Internet called The Journal of Mundane Behavior.  The Journal’s stated purpose was to explore nothing but the “unmarked,” or those aspects of our everyday lives that typically go unnoticed.1  The founder, Dr. Scott Schaffer, a professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, got the idea for the journal in the late 1990’s after reading an essay by a fellow sociologist complaining that all the academic journals seemed to focus on deviant behavior.
         In response, Professor Schaffer got together a high powered editorial board with academic leaders in North America, Asia and Europe, leading to their first issue in 2000.  Well, the journal lasted for four years and is now on hiatus, not dead, but the last issue was published in 2004.  The mundane can not even keep a journal alive.
         Do you think Jesus would have understood this aspect of humanity?  We pay more attention to the great over the average?
          According to our gospel reading from Mark, a couple of the disciples are squabbling about who will be the greatest in the coming kingdom.  One wants to sit at Jesus' right hand and the other at his left hand, but Jesus silences both James and John along with their fellow disciples by comparing their behavior to the graceless actions of the Gentiles, in other words, people like you and me --- non-Jews.
          The gentiles are the people Jesus called and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.”2  "You are acting like Gentiles," jabs Jesus.  Ouch.  “Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”3 
         That message from Jesus seems pretty clear.  
         Yet, let’s look a little deeper into our gospel.  First, let us not be too quick to judge James and John for being seemingly insensitive and selfishly ambitious, somehow deviant in appropriate Christian behavior.  In fact, there are many moments in my life, when I have wished for a few James and Johns on my team.  Most pastors I know feel the same way.  These guys had some good things going for them.  Think about it.
         James and John were people of vision.  Jesus had just told all the disciples for the third time that he was going to Jerusalem to die.  He also told them that he would be raised again on the third day.  Possibly the part about Jesus dying did not grab the attention of James and John the same way as the part about him being raised from the dead captured their imagination.   James and John had come to understand that Jesus was God's chosen Messiah, so it was not too out of place for them to realize that meant that they were in on the ground floor.
         Think of it this way.  What if you could go back in time to say the mid-1970s, and you were able to locate these two young men, friends but college dropouts, one from Harvard and the other Washington State University, and you could say to them: "Bill Gates and Paul Allen, I believe you're going places.  I want to be on your team."  This is similar to what James and John possibly saw in Jesus, except, obviously, on a much grander scale.  They did not completely understand who Jesus was but they wanted to be a part of it.  They were men of vision. 
         What also struck me was that James and John were willing to pay the price.  Jesus asked them plainly, "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"  James and John answered, “We can.”4  And if we can completely trust Christian tradition, they did, in fact, suffer for the kingdom of God.  John was boiled in oil and exiled to the island of Patmos; James was beheaded.  These men paid a price for their allegiance to Jesus, so when they told Jesus that they were willing to suffer, they meant it.
         So, who of us would not be willing to work with these two who said “We will put in the extra hours.  We will give till it hurts.  We will be there when you need us.  We will pay the price.”  In many ways, James and John were what some people would consider ideal.  
         But instead, Jesus tells James and John and by association us, that the greatest among us are the servants and the most extraordinary of leaders are the most ordinary of disciples.  
         Well, how does that apply to our lives?  First of all, for me it means being willing to work without a guarantee.  James and John tried to negotiate a good deal for themselves over and above the other disciples.  They said, "We'll share your vision, we'll pay the price, we'll do the work, but in return, we want the recognition."  Jesus said, in effect, “It doesn't work that way.”  He told them, “You will pay a price, but I can not promise you recognition.  That is not how the kingdom of God works."
         That means, as disciples, we are to let go of the desire for recognition, because most of the time, from my experience, most people who serve God never get the recognition they deserve --- not in this life.  I do not mean to say that about myself.  Rather, just look at our Christian history and the church around the world.  As we speak there is and has been a multitude of committed believers giving of themselves to the work of God around the world.  There are countless people who have been or are faithfully serving and we will never know about them.
         As we noted earlier, Jesus asked if James and John were ready to suffer and they responded with “We can.”  Yet, how many times do we not truly understand the depth of that question from Jesus.  Professional athletes are a good example, for many receive recognition, but rarely do we see the price they pay: the rigorous training, the fierce competition, the brutality of the sport and in some cases the shortened life.  Serving as disciples includes a serious commitment to a life of service in the kingdom of God and may include suffering in the process.  It's part of the package.  
         Some people want to lead because they want to be a person in charge.  And some people want to lead because they want to help others.  Those are not necessarily incompatible.  Yet, Jesus talked about how the "Gentile" rulers used their position of authority to push people around.  It is a leadership in which people serve in whatever way the leader desires.  Leadership in that context is power and control.  Jesus said that is not that way in the coming kingdom of God for we are to work on behalf of people.
         Most thoughtful people, like James and John develop some dream or plan for their lives.  Or some spend a lifetime following a dream someone else had for their lives.  Yet, in spite of well-laid plans and treasured dreams we have for ourselves or which others had for us, life seldom follows the path or reaches the destination we thought it would.  In his book Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, Greg Levoy writes, "I have heard it said that the best way to make God laugh is to proclaim your five-year plan."5 
         Jesus did not criticize James and John for setting a lofty goal; for their ambition of being next to Jesus on his right and left.  Instead, Jesus is telling us that setting goals in concrete is foolish for as servants we do not know how or when or what type of service we will do.
         Stop and think for a moment about where you are now --- where you live and what you are doing, what you are thinking and what life is like for you.  Did you every dream five, ten, or twenty years ago that you would be where you are now?  Could you have ever predicted what would happen to you along the way?  Could you have guessed why or how you would be at this place in your life?
     In his book Confessions, Saint Augustine pictures his mother, Monica, praying all night at a seaside chapel that her son will not sail for Italy.  She wanted Augustine to be a Christian and she could not bear losing him from her influence.  She thought if I have not led him to Christ here, how much farther he would be from the Lord in Italy.  But even as she prayed, Augustine set sail for Italy where he met a servant of the Lord by the name of Ambrose who opened his eyes to Jesus Christ.  Augustine became a Christian in the very place from which his mother's prayers would have kept him.6  
         God works in mysterious ways in our lives and in the life of the world.  God is not bound by our vision of possibilities in leadership, in service, in greatness, including how to be disciples.  Rather, by being servants, we let God be the Lord of our journey, the Lord of our discipleship, being a servant as Jesus was a servant, prepared and open to be surprised by God, even in the ordinary.  Amen.

1 http://www.mundanebehavior.org/
2 Mark 10:42
3 Vs. 43-44
4 10:38-39
5 Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, Gregg Michael Levoy, Three Rivers Press, 1998.
6 The illustration is from www.day1.org; October 22, 2000, The Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts.

March 2, 2009

This week, there is no sermon posted as I did not preach at the English worship service at Meito Christ International Church in Nagoya, Japan.  Instead we had a guest pastor from South Carolina, Rev. Robert T. Byrne preach.  Pastor Byrne is the first "exchange pastor" from the South Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to serve the JELC or Japanese Evangelical Lutheran Church in Japan.  He and his spouse, Chris are on exchange for six months (October 1, 2008 - March 31, 2009) and are now visiting the "Tokai" district (one of five districts of the JELC) and thankfully, I was able to have him preach on Sunday, March 1st.  Rev. Byrne serves as pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Aiken, South Carolina.

On March 2nd, Pastor Byrne, Chris and myself were able to take some time to visit "Meiji-Mura."  Meiji-Mura is an open air architectural museum housing various buildings from all over Japan and a few from around the world.  Many of the buildings are architectural gems from the Meiji period  明治時代 of Japan.  In Japan, periods of time are associated with the reign of various emperors.  Therefore, the Meiji period from October 23 1868 to July 30, 1912 corresponds from the enthronement of the Emperor Mutsuhito to his death.  After the death of an emperor a posthumous name is given, in this case, Meiji.

We had wonderful afternoon together visiting many of the buildings and having conversations on a variety of topics.  Attached is a photo of Pastor Byrne and myself (Chris took the photo) outside one of highlights of the museum, the lobby of the old Imperial Hotel from Tokyo.  The building was designed by the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the lobby was moved to this site.  After the photo, we sat and had coffee on the second floor of the lobby overlooking the grounds.  Pastor Byrne is providing a blog of his time in Japan.  It can be found at: http://scepreports.blogspot.com