Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | October 20, 2024

Mark 10:35-45

Sometimes people are curious about what I do for a living, as a church pastor. What exactly does a pastor do? That’s a question for the ages. Over the ages of my brief time in ministry, I narrowed my vision on the subject of what needs doing. For me, the essence of ministry is simple: I show up and remind people that God loves them. If you happen to be in the audience, or congregation at the time, then that’s hopefully the message you come away with.

There have been times when there has been strong pressure to do something other than that. I felt it; I studied the subject of leadership up one side and down the other. There seemed to be an underlying motive to programs and materials on the subject of church leadership. That was, that effective church leadership will result in church growth. The better the leader, the bigger the church. Of course, it was all couched in the correct terminology. Evangelism sounds better than, “We need more people” and ‘stewardship’ sounds better than, “Give us your money.”

A few years ago there was an email from the program strategy office of the General Assembly in the in-box with the subject line: MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!!

What’s this? What is it I can’t miss? A “Webinar” on LEADERSHIP!!!

Being the curious sort I looked into it. And the fact that this course is being sponsored by the Presbyterian Church to which I belong, there might be some pearls of wisdom to be gleaned. Amongst the subjects to be covered in an eight-course series, all on DVD for only $149.95 were –

• How to form fresh strategies for collaborating with other leaders and with all constituents!
• The art of packaging tasks and events into a project plan!
• Developing a training ground and strong bench!
• Developing technology tools for tracking potential leaders!
• Developing strategies for reducing a self-defeating over-reliance on Sunday worship!
• Repurposing key staff for non-Sunday ministries!
• Establishing protocols (for self, staff and key leaders) for documenting events, conversations, decisions and feedback!
• Challenge stale ideas!
• Preach with power!

I decided to take a pass. The ideas were packaged in the latest technology; the words were scrambled around and updated; but was the same old stale bread. Is this what is required of leadership in our time and place? On the subject of leading and following in a heart and soul realm, there are heart and soul realities to remember: what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus and his followers were getting closer to Jerusalem. Each step of the way drew him nearer to the cross. Along the way he taught his followers about the nature of life; about how life could be when people lived in tune with the Spirit of God. His vision was hopeful and promising; it was inclusive and empowering; it was revolutionary and thus threatening to the powers of the status quo.

One day along the way, two of his followers posed a question to Jesus. It was a question about leadership. He had told them many things about the nature of leadership. He had said before that to be a leader, one must become like a child. He said in order to be first, one must be last. He said that his way involved carrying a cross.

The question his two followers posed was simple. They asked, “Will you do us the favor of granting us to sit at your right and left hand side when you come into your glory?”

After all the time they spent with Jesus and when the journey was getting near to the end, they still clung to the old notions about power and authority. They thought that the realm of God was like any other political power structure, only bigger and better and with supreme authority. “Give us the seats of power!” they were asking. With the proper position we can wield the power. In effect he told them, “That’s not what this is about.”

What is it about then? If following Jesus is about anything, it is servanthood. While there were many books, classes and seminars on leadership, there weren’t so many on “how to be an effective servant.” Those lessons tend to come through the lessons learned in the journey of life.

In the summer of 1972, I went to work in the newly built “Lloyd Building” in Portland. The Lloyd Building was an imposing structure of 16 floors, built as an office complex in the emerging business district known the Lloyd Center. The building housed various businesses, one of which was the corporate headquarters of the NBA team the Portland Trailblazers.

Every day when I went through the doors of the Lloyd Building, I knew my place in the hierarchy. I knew exactly where I stood. I was without a doubt on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder. There was no one working in that building who earned less than I did, or who had a job title with less prominence or power than mine.

I was the shoeshine boy at the Lloyd Building Barbershop. Customers would come in for a haircut and my job was to wait until their haircut was finished and while I was helping them back into their suit jacket and while sweeping off any stray hairs with a brush, to inquire without being too pushy, “Will you wanting a shine today, sir?” 

Often they would want a shoeshine. They would sit in the shoeshine chair and I would go to work. Shining shoes is not rocket science, but there is a method to it. I learned my trade well and in time could shine shoes with a bit of flair. When I was finished they would pay me: Fifty cents a shine and sometimes a tip. I made on average between seven and ten dollars a day. The lifestyle that funded was austere.

Sometimes I would carry on conversation with my customers. I rarely initiated the conversation. Much of the time they would be talking with Wally the barber or other customers in the shop. Occasionally they would engage my thoughts on a subject – such as – “What do you plan to do with your life?”

What, you don’t think shining shoes is what I want to be doing with my life?

I learned what it means to be a person of low status – one who deals with people’s shoes while they are still in them, who cleans off whatever is on them and makes them look better in the end and who always smiles and says, “thank you, sir,” when the coins are put in my hand.

I remember that job with fondness. It was part of life’s lessons in reality. One of the lessons that came out of shining shoes was that there is a difference between humility and humiliation.

Humility is an attitude you take upon yourself. Humiliation is a position other people try to put you in. Humility is not about putting yourself down – it is merely realizing who you are. In terms of position or place, as a beloved child of God you are beyond measure; in terms of worth, you are priceless. When we own that identity, we realize there is no need to put anyone down, including ourselves.

Humiliation values people by a false measure. Power, status, position, or money does not make a person worth more. The followers of Jesus didn’t get it. They wanted those prime positions of power. They wanted to sit on the thrones of power and glory and look down on the rest and rule their lives.

Jesus asked them a question – Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with my baptism? Naturally they answered, “Of course we can!” But they didn’t understand the question.

He alluded to the Sacraments of Communion and Baptism. The “cup I drink” alludes to his fate. Fate in the sense that there are predictable outcomes to a life of peace and justice. When peace and justice run up against the power and violence that keeps the status quo in operation, then violence is the outcome.

And baptism, in one sense it was “what he had to go through,” but in another sense it alluded to the beginning of his journey. After he was baptized Jesus went through a season of temptation. His identity was brought into question and each of the temptations he faced in the wilderness was about taking the easy way out.

Make bread and be relevant to the needs of society!

Jump off the Temple and put on the show that people want!

Replace God in worship with the powers of the status quo and then you’ll have the means to get things done!

Some of the others along with them overheard what James and John were asking after and they became angry. Were they mad that James and John because of their bold request, or were they mad because they didn’t think of it first? Jesus called them together and for the umpteenth time it seemed, he told them the way it was with him. It went something like this:

“Let’s talk about leadership. In this world there are all kinds of leaders. Most people see it as one thing and one thing only: power. You know the kind of people I’m talking about. You see them every day. They must be lord and master. They like to tell people what to do. They’re first in line for everything. They get what they want because they have the money to buy it or the power to grab it.

But that is not the way it is with you. If you want to be great, then look for ways to serve others. If you want power, then learn how to be a slave to one and all. If you have learned anything from me, then it is that I did not come here to be served. I came to serve and I will give my life in service.”

That’s the sort of teaching that landed Jesus with a death sentence. It doesn’t make sense really, but then his teaching isn’t meant to make sense. Making sense would have been for him to build a power structure that would rival the status quo and defeat it by being more powerful.

What he did was to say in effect to the powers and dominions of the world, “I’m not going to play your game.” He opted out of the system, which disempowered it. That was such a threat that the system killed him for it. We say, “He rose again from the dead.” Part of what that means is that you cannot kill a heart and soul reality. You cannot murder truth. It lives on no matter how many times it is put to death.

Hierarchy and status might bring power, but servanthood brings empowerment. That empowerment reveals the life God makes possible. What also lives on is this reminder: God loves you. Amen.