That pesky word “obedience”

They were not entering into the story or trying to understand what the movie-maker was trying to communicate, they were only greedy consumers, looking for more trinkets.

Two couples, on two very different levels.

When Mark tells today's story, he is very spare with the details, so let's add a bit of imagination.

Can we hear Andrew telling his brother Peter, “I saw Jesus before you did.”

Peter fires back “Maybe so, but he is giving me the keys, the power.”

And then James jumps into the conversation:

“He took me up the mountain to meet Moses and Elijah, don't forget.

Only the three of us saw that;

the rest of you guys haven't had any experience nearly as special as that one!”

Judas tries for the last word in the argument:

“Argue all you want, but he gave me the money-box.

When one has the money-box, that is the most important thing.”

And there is nothing in this imagined argument that matches any of the things which Jesus is trying to get across to them.

He is on a completely different level.

Jesus has been speaking about what will be happening with him in the passion and death and resurrection, and also what it will mean to be a follower of one who dies...

...while the disciples are busily disputing over which of them has the inside track with Jesus,

and which of them will get special consideration when Jesus becomes the kind of King that they expect.

They are operating on two vastly different levels of conversation and understanding.

This sort of deliberate non-understanding is not unique to the disciples.

When we mention the word “obedience” in the context of Jesus' teaching, we might develop that same multi-level problem.

On the one hand we could be talking about Jesus' obedience as his self-giving, self-emptying, as Paul describes it in Philippians 2: who did not regard his status as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave...and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross... [Phil 2:6-8]

and how our lives could be shaped by that example.

But at the same time there is a very strong tug upon us in another direction, saying things like...

--obedience is for wimps

--I am my own boss

--I'm not going to be tied down or restricted in any way like that.

--you'd better watch out, because if I don't like it here, I'll leave.

And those two parts of conversation and thought have nothing to do with each other, and have gone right past each other.

Perhaps we need to take apart that word and idea of “obedience.”

The first step in obedience is simply being quiet, shutting our mouths and listening.

Notice that the disciples were so busy talking among themselves that they didn't have time to be listening to what Jesus was saying.

That was the first problem.

Listen to what Jesus is saying;

listen to how God is calling us, perhaps in unexpected ways, to unforeseen tasks.

How often has it been surprises?

--Abraham was already 75 years old when God says to him “Go from your country to the land that I will show you... And Abraham went, as the Lord had told him.”

Surprise!

--The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Then Jeremiah said “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy”, ….

But the Lord God put out his hand and touched my mouth and said, “I have put my words in your mouth....”

Surprise!

--An angel visits Mary and greets her: Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you.

She was much perplexed by his words, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

She listens as the angel explains, and then responds, “Let it be with me according to your word.”

Surprise!

--And then there are the fishermen, tax collectors and others who are bid to first be quiet, and then to leave all sorts of things and to follow Jesus.

--And the challenge is renewed this day with new catechetical students who are old enough now to realize that the world does not revolve around their every whim or desire,

and that the beginning of wisdom involves being quiet and listening carefully.

In none of the situation that we have just named are we talking about career goals and advancement schemes.

Rather the emphasis is on attentiveness, listening, and then action that is bold and appropriate, and pointed beyond oneself.

In one of those hands-on science museums I remember seeing a gadget demonstrating centripetal force, a cone-shaped thing in which a penny is started rolling slowly around the top of the cone.

As the penny starts to move down the cone, it goes faster and faster until it finally drops through the hole in the center.

That is the way it goes with us.

We start out slowly on the path of self-interest.

Left to our own devices, and unless it is interrupted, we turn ever more tightly in upon ourselves, until there is nothing left of the person for anyone else.

The effect of Jesus catching hold of a person is to stop us in mid-roll and to send us spinning again in the opposite direction, away from self.

That is when our question changes from “What do I get out of it?” to “What good does it do?”

With that shift of question, we are beginning to understand a little bit of what Jesus meant when he says If any want to be first he must be last and servant of all.

That means being a true helper, not the British-type servant who regards himself superior to the bumbling bosses.

Jesus' picture of the true servant now brings us to the final sentence of the lesson today, where he talks about receiving him like a child.

Maybe the shock value of that statement is not clear to us.

Our day has lots of violence against children, but still, for us, they have much more status than children did in ancient times.

Long ago, children were next to nothing.

-many died in childhood.

-if they weren't liked, they were exposed in the woods

-childhood was to be gotten over quickly and they were to join the labor force as soon as possible.

And yet in spite of all that, children can learn quickly, soak up experiences, and can listen in an accepting way.

That becomes the second part of the meaning of 'obedience”.

And a third portion is caught up in the word “humility”.

When we can stop trying to prove how special we are, how unique and worthy we are of special consideration, and finally acknowledge that we are really quite ordinary people, with weaknesses and failings like everyone else...

...then the law has done its job of convicting us of our sinfulness and preparing us to hear the gospel.

Precisely when we finally realize that all of our hard work counts for nothing, and that we are really quite ordinary,

then Jesus steps in and says: all who will listen truly are somebody because of the word of God who himself became a child, a servant, the least in society, in order to show the way through death to life for all who will hear the news gladly.

Obedience is changed from a hateful thing against which we fight, to the joyful question: What next can we do?

When that happens, the conversation with Jesus will be operating on a single level; we will be talking with each other rather than past each other.

May God's Holy Spirit guide our lives so that they reflect the three aspects of obedience:

first, silence and listening for his direction,

next, acceptance and diligence in action,

and finally, humility in knowing that God's plans for creation are much larger than we are.

Let us all say...Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.