"Power"
True power comes out of powerlessness.
Sermon Preached by
The Reverend Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Text: Mark 10:35-45
A number of years ago I was invited to sit at the head table at a very important dinner at the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa. Many dignitaries were present and a leading person was speaking. I arrived early because I had been asked to say the prayer of invocation. Often when clergy participate in such events, we are invariably seated at the very end of the head table. And so, I was given my instructions and was told where to be seated - sure enough, it was at the end of the head table.
Just as we were about to process in led by bagpipes, one of the organizers of the event pulled me aside and said, “Reverend, I'm sorry to inform you, but a deputy government minister has just arrived and we need to find a place for him at the head table. Would you give up your seat and move to another table?”
I agreed and processed in all the way around the head table and back down the stairs again to a chair with everybody else. There was only one problem: They hadn't changed the place cards. When it was time for the invocation, the emcee, who was not aware of the change, went over to the deputy minister and said, “And you will now give the prayer of invocation.”
The deputy minister said, “But I'm not Reverend Stirling.”
The emcee said, “I don't care, I need someone to pray.”
And so the deputy minister went up to the lectern. I just sat there with my arms crossed and a grin as big as any cat you have ever seen on my face. To my great surprise and humiliation, however, the deputy minister gave a most touching and beautiful extemporaneous prayer. Ever since, I have coveted my seat at head tables, in case someone better than I gets the privilege and I am never invited back.
As human beings, it's important sometimes, to sit at the head table, to have a position of honour. I love what the late Samuel Bronfman, the former CEO of Seagram's, once said when he was going to an urgent board meeting. He arrived late and just took a seat at the table. One of the young executives there saw that Mr. Bronfman was not at the head of the table. He immediately went over to him and said, “Mr. Bronfman, you can't sit there, you are to sit at the head of the table.”
Mr. Bronfman replied, “Wherever I sit, young man, is the head of the table.”
Both these stories are relevant to our text today, because the disciples were debating who would sit at the place of prestige at the head table in the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples were under the illusion that they somehow would ascend to great heights in the Kingdom of God, and would sit alongside Jesus in a place of spiritual or even political honour. These fishermen and boat owners, these tax collectors and simple Galileans honestly believed that when Jesus inaugurated his kingdom, they would have a position of power at the great banquet celebrating God's victory.
In this moment of internecine conflict among the disciples, James and John stood up and asked for a particular place of honour, even above all the other disciples. They asked Jesus if they could sit at his right and his left hand at this great banquet. They wanted to be elevated to a position of importance within the Kingdom of God.
Biblical scholars have speculated recently that there might indeed have been some tension among different camps within the group of disciples; some might have had a basic allegiance towards Peter, while others had a greater allegiance towards John and maybe his brother James. There might have been camps developing within this body of disciples, competing for positions of power and influence with Jesus. So here you had two disciples wanting to elevate themselves, but their whole concept of the Kingdom, of the banquet, their whole idea of what God was going to do was predicated on a paradigm of earthly power. They used what they saw around them as their example of what the Kingdom of God would be like. They came to Jesus on worldly terms, wanting to have a position of authority and power in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the midst of all this conflict Jesus threw them a curve. As they were jostling for position, Jesus gave them this incredible message: “Whoever wants to be one of the first must be like the servants at the banquet.” Not those who sit at the head table, not those who have positions of authority and power, but the servants, the waiters, waitresses. They are the ones who are going to have a great position at the banquet in heaven. They are the ones whom God really has ordained.
Robert Frost had a wonderful expression: “I bid you to a one-man revolution.” And Jesus, by talking to his disciples in such a way, was inaugurating a revolution in the way in which they thought. Their whole concept of power and position was turned on its head by this discussion of the banquet. For us, it does three real things: First, it illuminates and illustrates for us, the very nature of the ministry of Jesus himself.
In the classic Socratic method, Jesus asked these disciples questions and tried to extract from them the truths underlying their requests. He said to them, “What do you want from me?”
They said, “We want to sit in a high position.”
Jesus responded, “Are you willing to …?” and here he started to use the language of a banquet, that a person living in first-century Palestine would fully understand. He said, “Are you sure this is what you want? Because then you are going to have to take the cup that I am about to take.” (Now, the cup represents wine and the wine represents the blood and the blood represents the sacrifice that Jesus was going to have to make.) In saying this to the disciples he is using a phrase used throughout Judaism: “the cup of suffering.” He said, “Are you willing to take the cup of suffering that I am going to have to take.” And then he said to them something peculiar that seems to have nothing to do with banquets, but does: “Are you willing to undergo the baptism that I am going to undergo?”
Now, the baptism, as we looked at it last week with Jonah, is a symbol of Jesus dying and rising again, of going under the water and coming up again. It is the symbol of the death and the resurrection of Jesus. He said to them, “Are you willing to die with me and rise with me?” Are you willing to going with me to the bitter end? But the word “baptism” also has a meaning that suggests cleanliness, and before every banquet it was the tradition in the time of Jesus to wash the guests hands and feet. So, Jesus was saying to them, “Are you willing to be cleansed? Are you willing to suffer with me? Are you willing to humble yourself and be cleansed? Because if you are willing to do those things then, indeed, you will be at the banquet.”
So they glibly said, “Well, of course we are. Of course we will,” without any real thought as to what Jesus was saying. What Jesus was really saying to them, and what they didn't get at that very moment, was that it would require from them a total and complete surrender. When I took a lifesaving course some time ago, one of the rules that we were taught (and I've heard Charles Stanley, the preacher, say exactly the same thing) was if you find somebody in the water and they are anxious, flapping their arms and their legs trying to keep themselves afloat, panicking and it looks like they're drowning, whatever you do as a lifeguard, don't go near them. You have to wait, and it's the hardest thing to do. Your natural impulse is to swim right up to them, but don't. If they are panicking they will not listen to you and calm down. Most people when they feel they are drowning will not listen so you have to wait until they have exhausted themselves and they are near the point of drowning. At that very moment you go to them.
If someone is flapping their arms and kicking their legs, the likelihood is that it will not be one person drowning, but two. Lifeguards cannot save people who are panicking, cannot put their arms under them and elevate their heads onto their chests and bring them back to safety. There needs to be a degree of surrender before they can be taken to safety.
Jesus knew that these disciples, in their desire to elevate themselves, had to surrender themselves to an entirely different way of looking at the Kingdom before they could receive the power that they needed to exercise their ministry. Jesus, then, was saying, “It is not whether you sit at the head table but whether you are willing to surrender that is the most important thing.”
There is a second great lesson: Not only does it show us the nature of Jesus that we must be willing to participate in his death and resurrection, but it is also an indictment of earthly power. Jesus was probably (and I'm only speculating now) looking out to the streets around him when he said, “Look at these Gentiles and their leaders. They lord it over one another. They exercise power over one another and they dominate.” He was probably looking at the Romans. Tacitus, the great historian, tells us that many of the guards and governors were corrupt. They would extort money, oppress people and use their military power to keep people down. Jesus looked at them and said, “See how they lord it over one another? It must not be like that amongst you. You must be different.”
I recently reread a classic book by Hannah Arendt, the great 20th century philosopher, titled, The Origins of Totalitarianism. She makes a point that often totalitarianism and the abuse of power arise when lonely and isolated individuals become apathetic, when they become trapped in their own little worlds. When that happens, they allow other groups within society to organize in such a way that eventually, through propaganda and force and collectivity, they impose their minority will on a majority who themselves have become isolated and lonely and apathetic.
Arendt maintains that totalitarianism is like a sandstorm that blows over humanity in such a way that people don't even realize that it is coming, and yet when it does arise, it does so with such force that everything else is pushed out of its way. One of the reasons is that people become apathetic and isolated and others will use power over them eventually to get their own way. She gives examples of generation upon generation where this spirit of totalitarianism has reared its ugly head. And it's always just a matter of time before it reappears again, even in this new century.
There is a danger that people, because they are isolated and lonely and introspective and only care for themselves will allow others to exercise power over them and to use worldly power to influence them. Very often as Christians, we allow ourselves to be co-opted by world power. We allow the power of the world to set the agenda for us. Jesus is telling the disciples that the way to address that power is not to mimic it or imitate it or match it step for step. Rather, the way to deal with the powers of the world is to adopt the method that Jesus used.
The real power comes from those who are the servants. The real power comes from those who are humble, those who surrender completely and totally to God. He's saying to them, “Don't just look around for your pattern of leadership. Rather, look to heaven, look to me, look to God as your source.”
One of my colleagues in ministry tells the story of how one day there was a new Sunday school superintendent appointed at his church. One of her duties was to take the various materials, games and Bibles out of a locked cabinet. But to unlock the cabinet you had to have the combination, and this new superintendent had no idea how to open it. She went to the minister and asked, “Is there any way that you can help me with this?”
The minister said, “Sure, I'm not familiar with it but I will have a look.” And so, he looks heavenward, then tries one number and it seems to be all right. Then he looks heavenward and down again and tries a second number, and it seems all right. He's not quite sure what the third one is, so he clasps his hands and looks towards the heavens again, twiddles the lock and the tumbler falls and the lock opens.
The superintendent is overwhelmed by all of this and says, “My goodness, Reverend, what faith you have! What incredible guidance you receive! You're a marvel! This is tremendous!”
The minister said, “No, not really. In fact, the combination is on a piece of tape on the ceiling and all I have to do is look up and there it is. But no one ever looks up, therefore no one ever breaks in.”
Jesus is making a profound point with the disciples. He's saying you can look around at those who lord it over one another, who exercise their power and dominion in a worldly sense, but in the Kingdom that is not where to look. If you want to know what the banquet is like do not use the model of earthly power as your source. Look to God, for only God can give you what you desire.
Finally my friends, I believe this is an inspiration for all of us in our daily lives. I don't know about you, but I have felt incredibly powerless in the face of world events of the last three weeks. Somehow, you can see why people are intimidated into being isolated and lonely in the face of the catastrophes that beset our world.
Very often we can do as Pilate did, and wash his hands of the whole thing. We could say that we don't care. Or, we can adopt the method of Jesus who, rather than washing his hands in the basin in order that it might be taken over, takes the water from the basin and washes his disciples feet. The choice between these two modes is very simple and clear.
One is the basin of rejection, of ennui, of “I don't care.” The other is the one of service, of compassion, of self-giving love, of Christ. It is precisely when we feel at our most powerless against whatever we have to endure in our lives, that we need to go back in our minds and hearts to the example of Jesus, from where our true power comes. The power of the Spirit comes not by the ability to always change everything by force or will or status, but by service, by humility, by grace.
I've recently been reading a book by a man called Pastor Zhang Rongliang, who sets up house churches in small areas. One day when he was setting up a new house church, he and the pastor with him were arrested by the all-powerful Chinese PSB, Public Security Bureau, because he hadn't received the authority to set up a religious meeting group. He and his fellow pastor had their heads shaved and were imprisoned with some of the roughest criminals in all of China.
When they were going in the warden actually warned them, “When you get in there, I want you to realize that you are probably going to get beaten up really badly. I'm just letting you know what to expect.” And he gleefully opened the cell and put them in. When they got in, there indeed were many violent criminals, standing around hitting their fists into their hands, letting the new arrivals know what fate would befall them. At this very pressing moment, the self-proclaimed head of the prison block came up to these two and said, “So, what have you done? Come on, tell us!”
They responded, “We are here because we are Christians.”
They laughed at these Christians and doubtlessly thought, “Oh, how stupid. We'll humiliate them.” So the leader and said, “I hear that you Christians sing a lot of hymns whenever you gather. Why don't the two of you sing now? Come on, sing for us or we'll beat you up.”
The two began to sing hymns. Their knees were knocking, they were shaking and they were crying as they sang the hymns their house churches had sung. When they finished singing the inmates started to laugh at them and humiliate them. The guards were also laughing at them through the bars. And the inmates said, “Why don't you pray now? Go ahead, we hear you're very good at praying, you Christians, pray.”
And so, Pastor Zhang and his friend began to pray, knowing that they were being made fun of while they did so. After their prayers had finished, some of the others walked away laughing. They didn't beat them up, they just turned their backs on them. The guards were furious because these men hadn't been beaten up and put in their place, so they decided to take it upon themselves.
They stripped them and made them stand against a wall for 24 hours, barefoot, without food or any chance of rest. Just as the guards lined the pastors up against the wall, to everyone's astonishment, some of the prisoners who had made fun of them went and stood along the wall with them. First one, then another, then every, single one of the inmates went and stood beside them against the wall.
When the guards saw this they were terrified, because they realized that they could intimidate two supposedly weak Christians, but there was no way that they would be able to intimidate this whole group of violent men. Pastor Zhang made a very simple point. He said, “You know, we had no power when we went into that cell, but we had an awful lot when we came out.”
The only power they had was to declare their faith. The only power they had was to sing when teased. The only power they had was to pray when mocked. But somehow, because they were willing to do those things in a subservient way, God warmed the hearts of the men around them. Jesus knew that for Christians to exercise the gifts of the Kingdom it was no good imitating earthly power. It was no good looking around and imitating the way of the world. The only way was His way. It was the way of the cup. It was the way of baptism. It was the way of the washing of feet. It was the way of being the servant when the banquet was finally held.
Ruth Holmes Culkin once wrote the following:
You know Lord how I serve you with great emotional fervour in the limelight. You know how eagerly I speak for you at a women's club. You know how I effervesce when I promote a fellowship group. You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study. But how would I react I wonder if you pointed to a basin of water and asked me to wash the callused feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman day after day, month after month in a room where nobody saw and nobody knew.
The answer to that is the Kingdom. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.