Sunday Homily - September 23, 2018 - Be Good, Not Great
Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet Icon
I.
It is on a large plot of land in the wetlands of Louisiana,
where they raise cows for beef,
and where they have fire ant hills the size
of small tractors.
There is a ranch-style house that the kids call home.
Rock and mortar for the walls,
rough sawn cedar for the gable roof.
On those humid Louisiana days, a young teen girl,
We’ll call her Sasha (name changed for privacy purposes)
has started to herd the cats for the day.
That is, if those cats were all the boys and girls
that had a bit too much energy after breakfast.
Sasha watches them each and every day,
putting bandaids on their scrapes,
carrying the 4-year-old who has gotten too tired,
and tucking them in to bed after a long day.
Now, Sasha is not a volunteer
nor is she paid for her services.
Sasha is, herself, an orphan.
Her mom and dad divorced when she was very young,
and neither parent wanted Sasha.
And so, as a 2-year-old, she was sent to Fair Haven Orphanage,
a non-profit startup by a man who believed that God
had called him to start a home for children
many many years ago.
[for more information and story about Fair Haven Orphanage, please visit their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fairhaven-Childrens-Home/146919375352638]
Sasha never really knew any other family than her extended family,
her Fair Haven family.
And as a 14 year old when I met her,
she had never been adopted
since coming to the orphanage.
And I couldn’t help but just feel in my soul,
as I watched Sasha selflessly watch the other orphans
day in, day out,
through all the incredible need of these kids
the crying, laughing, yelling…
That I was in the presence of greatness.
This 14 year old girl,
broken by the sin of the world,
the brokenness that clings so closely to all of us,
Instead chose to become a mother to the motherless
to love those who may have never been loved,
and to care for those who have no one to care for them.
And to think,
that kind of greatness,
that kind of heroism,
isn’t the thing that makes the news.
Yet, it is people like Sasha that really showcase what greatness looks like,
because Sasha’s greatness is in the shape of the Holy Cross.
Her greatness is in the shape of Jesus Christ.
II.
He has something to tell us about what actually matters to God.
And spoiler: it ISN’T the greatness that the disciples
were arguing about in our Gospel this morning.
After Jesus, for the second time, says he must suffer, die, and rise again,
the disciples were too afraid to ask Jesus
what he meant by saying these things.
And yet, even though they didn’t talk to Jesus about that,
they apparently have plenty of energy to argue among themselves
about which disciple is the greatest!
I have no idea what that looked like or sounded like,
but I would have loved to have been there to see what they said.
James: “Jesus is my brother, and I’m a part of the Kingly line of David.”
Peter responds: “Jesus commended me for my confession,
when y’all were too chicken to speak up!”
Thomas looks at Peter: “I mean, Jesus did also call you Satan…”
And I’m sure that Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Joanna,
and the rest of the women following Jesus roll their eyes
and say, “What is up with men and all this competition?”
And we know the next couple of interactions:
Jesus asks them what they are arguing about,
they keep silent,
and then Jesus does this.
He looks at them all and says to them,
and to us here today,
“Whoever wants to be first,
must be last of all and servant of all.”
Then he takes a little child,
maybe about 2 or three years old,
and lifts the child up into his arms.
And he says, “Welcome kids like this,
and you welcome me.
And when you welcome kids,
you welcome my Father who sent me.”
The disciples are flummoxed.
“You want us to welcome kids, who need constant attention,
and aren’t old enough to work yet,
and you are saying its the same thing
as welcoming YOU, Jesus?”
III.
to take the moral high ground,
smile and laugh at those silly disciples
and say, “Poor guys, they just don’t get it.”
Because as soon as we say those things,
as soon as we start politely condescending,
that’s when Jesus will start speaking to us
in these same words:
“You who wish to become great
must become least of all
and servant of all.”
Now, y'all know that I'm a professional church dude.
I've been in church since around -9 months,
and I've gotten to know personally the graces
as well as the brokenness that we as the Church
the Body of Christ,
carry with us in our history.
And I have to wonder,
with the headlines I read about the church,
with the things I hear from those within and without the church:
Have we, the Church, focused so heavily on greatness,
that we have forgotten how to be good?
Have we focused so closely on trying to fix the culture,
to wrangle the world by the force that Christianity has in the halls of power
that we have forgotten how to serve the common good for all people?
Have we been striving so hard for the approval of the world
the incessant need to be “relevant”
(for the record, I am not a fan of the word "relevant" in current Christian circles)
that we have forgotten how to serve
those people who our culture deems irrelevant?
Have we in our stewardship focused so closely
on how successful our finances are
how big our budget is
how many programs we have
that we have forgotten people’s names?
IV.
Do you know what the antidote for this chasing after greatness?
Do you know what will make our wrangling cease,
our petty arguments stop?
I confess, I don’t know if I do.
But here is one way I think God calls each of us into
in our life following Jesus.
And that is to exchange our need for greatness,
with the small,
insignificant,
patient footsteps
of being good stewards of our neighbors.
Now, notice I didn’t say being stewards TO our neighbors,
as if stewardship is something we did TO or FOR them.
No, I think we need to have the courage to say
that we are called to be good stewards
OF our neighbors,
OF their lives.
Instead of seeing our neighbors here in Searcy as people
who need something done TO them or FOR them,
what if we saw them like Sasha saw her orphan family?
What if instead of seeing people as a complex set of problems to fix,
we saw EVERYONE as a person who Jesus already loves
whom Jesus ALREADY knows their name personally,
and a person whose name Jesus calls YOU to know and love personally?
Look around you this morning at the people beside you
the people behind you,
and those who are usually here
but aren’t for some reason.
And ask yourself:
“Is Jesus calling me to know their name?
Is Jesus calling me to have dinner with them this week?
Is Jesus calling me to check up on them
because we haven’t seen them recently?”
Stewardship OF our neighbors
OF our brothers and sisters in Jesus,
is that greatness that Jesus really gets at this morning.
It isn’t about measuring yourself AGAINST someone,
it isn’t a competition to the top of the ladder.
Rather, it is the greatness that only comes
from being good to those who God puts into our lives.
In this stewardship season at Trinity Parish Church,
will you join with me in the stewardship of our Searcy family?
Will you begin to see the vision of each person you meet
whether on the street,
or at the Walmart,
or serving your table at the Greek House,
or singing in the Harding Choir
or attending the College Church of Christ
as YOUR family that yearns
for YOUR love in Christ?
Will you join me in giving of your time
that precious commodity,
to those inefficient,
unproductive,
yet divinely good moments
that it takes to get to know and love someone
who Jesus calls you to love?
Will you join with me in choosing not to great,
but rather choosing to be good?
In the Name of the + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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