“Greatness According to God”

Will you pray with me…AMEN

Show of hands – have any of you ever been in one or more of the following roles: parent, teacher, youth leader, brother or sister, grandparent, coach? Yes, many hands, many hands. Can you relate to Jesus’ disappointment in this scripture? He could have just as easily said, “how many times do I have to tell you kids what’s going on here? Why do you not understand what I am telling you? How clueless can you be?” It’s difficult to teach and parent and mentor and coach, but as we have seen in this and recent scriptures, Jesus has endless patience with us.  Even so, we get the sense in some of our recent scripture readings that oftentimes the disciples just don’t seem to get the point. 

Or maybe they are not as clueless as they seem.  The disciples might just be like us…they might like to define things in their own terms, not in terms of someone who has some element of control over them. If we placed this scene in today’s culture, James and John could be asking for a pre-nuptial agreement like some celebrity who is so self involved that he is sure he can trust no one – when, in fact, maybe the one he should mistrust is himself.

But Jesus does not berate James and John.  He works with them and the other ten disciples to show them that their desire for greatness is not all that selfish – just misdirected. Jesus also reminds them that there will be sacrifices along the way. He takes the moment to teach, once again, that those who seek material greatness in life may be looking in the wrong direction. Jesus challenges us to see greatness from a different perspective and consider a different up-front guarantee. He calls us to a way and a world view that is completely turned around from what we both want and expect. We might say, “If I do this for you, Jesus, what can you guarantee me in the end?” But Jesus shows us that’s the wrong question.  He shows us how in the Christian life, greatness comes from serving others with nothing asked for in advance. In fact, stepping out in faith is the opposite of any kind of guarantee.

By now many of us have either read or heard of the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. There is a wonderful article about the book called “Three Cups of Humble Tea,’ detailing Mortenson’s journey and inspiration, in this month’s Homiletics magazine. The short summary of the book is that Greg, born in 1957, joined the Army and served as a corpsman. He became an avid mountain climber. In 1993, he was part of a team that climbed the world’s second highest mountain, called K2, or The Savage Peak, part of the Himalayas. K2 sits on the border between Pakistan and China. Mortenson was inspired by a commitment to his younger sister Christa who died at 23 following a seizure from epilepsy just a year before the climb. 78 days into the climb, Mortenson was within 600 meters of the top, when he got sick and had to turn back. A local guide helped Greg, but somehow they got separated. Lost, sick, and near death, he was found by locals who helped him to regain his strength. Life in the village was hard to say the least. No medical care, no schools, marginal crops, and early death were the reality of the Balti people. Children under a year old had a greater than 35% mortality rate. Mortenson tells how he once counted 82 children kneeling on the frozen ground trying to learn a lesson from a teacher who was able to get to the village only occasionally. Talk about people living faithfully – with virtually nothing, the Baltis were the perfect image of those who demand nothing, but live and give from their spiritual center.

The ruling Taliban who restricted the teaching of young girls threatened death to Mortenson and the villagers. In fact, Greg was once kidnapped and held hostage for his defiance. When he finally returned to California, he started raising money to build schools and medical services for the people on the mountain who cared for him.  He started with nothing. Unlike James and John, he didn’t ask for an upfront guarantee. He served and out of that service became a leader, in spite of his of his material scarcity.

With the money raised Mortenson bought lumber and supplies, which the men of the village carried 18 miles up the mountain on their backs. When the first school was built, he returned to the states and raised more money for more schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As of last year, Mortenson and the villagers had built 78 schools in volatile rural areas.  He and the people hired teachers and they are responsible for schooling over 28,000 kids, 18,000 of whom are young girls who never would have been educated otherwise.  In the process, Mortenson gained a certain level of world greatness he might have expected from his big climb. Little did he know the path he’d end up on.  Clearly, greatness was not his goal on this unexpected path. He didn’t have any guarantees like James and John asked for from Jesus.

By the way, the title of the book comes from the Balti people’s practice of tea, one of their few forms of nourishment. The first time you share tea with a Balti person, you are a stranger. The second time you share tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share tea, you are a member of the family. Imagine finding family in a simple cup of tea? 

Here at Dennis Union church, we share a similar cup of blessing in our communion service.  Like Mortenson and the villagers, we are a family here at Dennis Union Church. We can all help each other become our best selves, no matter where we start.  I believe Mortenson’s climb is similar to our stewardship climb here at Dennis Union.  I believe these tiny arks our kids used to collect their coins for the Heifer project reflect the plentiful philosophy that inspired Mortenson project.  This philosophy says, “I have enough, which is plenty.  I offer the rest to you.”  Giving is an expression of belief in the teachings of Jesus.

This is the ark our kids use to save their money to offer their financial support for the heifer project. Small amounts of coins and courage do not always add up to the total price of a heifer for each child’s effort, but they do add up to growth and transformation for each child….each one we are shepherding along the way to conformation and church life.  We know that stewardship comes in many forms -- whether you give of your time to mentor and teach, or your talent to lead a specific committee that needs your particular skills, or your financial offering to support our many ministries, you are stewarding your resources. You are being transformed by the presence of Jesus Christ who teaches us that to be first we must be last, and to lead we must first serve.

Later in Mark (chapter 12, verse 38-44), he describes generosity and servant hood drawn from scarcity in the story of the woman and her coins. Mark describes how she gave her all to the offering.  She, too, followed the plentiful philosophy – giving all she had, without fear.  This woman reminds me of my lovely mother who raised my two older sisters and me on virtually nothing but faith. One of her favorite admonitions was, “Well, you really don’t have any money problems.. ……because you don’t have any money. She said, start from the place where money and decisions about money can frustrate you, and take a different direction. All you do will be based upon what you can do personally, because money won’t get in your way.” Each night she sat on the couch and counted her coins, just to be sure where she spent them. She didn’t covet or hoard her money; she spent it honorable and carefully. Money or concerns about money never kept her from a faithful life. She gave her Sunday offering out of faith and assurance that she was giving all to God she could, in time and talents. My mother never asked for a guarantee up front.  She didn’t prescribe to the sage advice that you protect yourself in a time of economic difficulty and, if the protection fails, get meaner and leaner to recover. Mimi was already lean and not so mean. She was never afraid to give of her all.

So let’s go back to this morning’s scripture. When James and John ask to be assured of their place in heaven, Jesus asks them if they are able to drink of the cup, and receive the baptism Jesus knows is ahead for Him.  They assure him, “We are able.” Maybe they do, in fact, understand what is ahead.  Maybe they are fearful and just need Jesus’ reassurance.  We see evidence for this in the fact that Jesus does not berate them.  He simply clarifies the path to true greatness.

Jesus makes beautiful and prophetic connections to Baptism and the Last Supper and Communion of all the followers.  Jesus is leading them to His crucifixion and death, as the means to glory. As we are baptized, we are followers of Jesus in His ministry.  We, like Jesus, are not called to greatness alone, but to a walk with Jesus to love and serve, as best as we are able. Sharing the cup takes us to the communion table, binding us deeper as the community of believers and followers of Jesus. The two sacraments we share in the United Church of Christ – baptism and communion – are the center points of our faith. There is no earthly guarantee of either greatness or security in these sacraments Jesus brought us. There is only the certainty of a relationship with Jesus. Out of the simplicity of faith we become servants offering ourselves from scarcity to plenty.

This past Sunday, the baptism of two adorable kids, Riley and Alexis and their mother Jessica, came from the depth of simple trust, out of the emptiness of pain in the loss of Jessica’s dear friend Chelsea. At the saddest points of Jessica’s life, she stepped forward, leading her kids, with no guarantees but hope for the love of community. Something changed for them, something like the force that changed Greg Mortenson and James and John. Something like the force that changes you and me. Once we are free to be, we are free to give of ourselves even from our scarcity. We operate not of out of fear, but from trust that we have plenty of what we need.

The math on our 2010 budget is relatively simple. We project about a $70,000 shortfall for the year ahead. We have 200 pledging units. If each pledging unit was able to increase this year’s pledge by $350 each, we could meet all our challenges and commitments. $350 for the year amounts to just about $7 a week. There are some folks who simply cannot stretch for that $7 extra dollars. And maybe there are some of us who can go $14 or $21. I’m not sure; you do your own math. For me, that’s a few less cups of coffee a week at Nirvana or Mercantile. What does $7 a week look like for you? What do you think God has in mind for you about how you offer your resources as part of God’s plan?

As you pray about that question, keep in mind that it’s about much more than the math.  Just like our kids and their commitment to the heifer arks, it’s not all about how many dollars you decide to give.  It’s about your trust in God to live by the plentiful philosophy, which means giving in faith.

Greg Mortenson learned that the first thing you do is to sit and share a cup of tea. Then you start from the bottom, literally, take your time, and begin the climb. What a beautiful metaphor.  Greatness is most beautiful when one starts from nothing, from scarcity, and moves on to the land of plenty.

Like James and John and all the followers of Jesus from that day forward, we share in the baptism of Jesus on the cross and in His resurrection. We share in the body and blood of Jesus at the Communion table Jesus created for us. Our guarantee is this…the body of Jesus, broken for us, is the bread of our lives. The cup of blessing poured out for all of us, is the cup of blessed assurance. Given the power of that promise, how can we step up for the work Jesus calls us to do here in Dennis and beyond? 

As we continue praying about our stewardship journey, I invite you to sit and have a cup of humble tea.  Share one with a friend.  Listen for your call from Jesus to give of yourself, release your fears, and travel to a place of greatness according to God’s plan.  You might just find yourself in a place you could never have imagined.