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Sep 20, 2009
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We were gathered in a bar in the basement beneath a popular concert venue in Wrigleyville. It took fifteen minutes for my eyes to adjust, but there we were. We were a motley group of theologians, pastors, writers, actors, journalists and others there to support a friend who was releasing a new book. Cathleen Falsani has written The Dude Abides, The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers. So there we were…networking, canoodling, chatting, waiting for a chance to bend Cathleen’s ear. We were there to support and celebrate with a friend.
Some of us came with a group. Some of us like yours truly came alone. One gentleman was singling us out. “Hey. How do you know Cathleen?” He knew we did not know anyone and so he started collecting us loners together. We made our connections and formed new acquaintances. It was a generous act. He knew nothing about any of us except there was some likelihood that we would know Cathleen.
There was one moment in the evening when I had a chance to speak with Cathleen. She was telling a story about the U2 concert she had attended on Sunday night. The usual life-long fan adjectives were thrown about. The concerts are religious experiences for many people. Cathleen said that Bono got everyone to pray without every asking them to pray.
He told everyone about Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who is currently under house arrest. Suu Kyi is once again paying the price for seeking justice for her entire country. So Bono had everyone hold out their hands and to hold her up, to hold up a peacemaker and to sing with him. And they did.
“You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us had been
A place that has to be believed to be seen…
Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t deny it
Can’t sell it or buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight”
Sixty-five thousand people in prayer and solidarity with a peacemaker…singing to her, upholding her. For there to be justice in this world, we all have to be part of the solution. We all have to be aware and uphold the people in the trenches. We have to sustain one another and be sustained by one another. We have to sustain justice and be sustained by that same justice.
This morning’s Gospel passage has a similar message hidden in it. Mark’s gospel has this relentless pace. Healing to exorcism to teaching moment, Jesus is always on the move. He’s a restless messiah with the powers that be right on his heels. This morning the disciples are jockeying for position. They are trying to add some structure to their little band of social activists, trying on a little hierarchy, trying to decide who will be greatest. Jesus quickly calls them out.
“If anyone wishes to be first, they shall be last of all and servant of all.”
No hierarchy. No greatness. There is no status, no benefit that comes when one follows Jesus. Serve. That’s the command. All the social structures that the disciples are accustomed to are laid aside for something that is dangerous and sacrificial in nature.
One of the things that I struggle with as a pastor is this odd honor that is bestowed on me in some contexts. I’m the “Reverend.” I am revered. I am honored. It strikes me as absurd. My opinion suddenly has weight. But this place of status cuts both ways. It means I am also the target for a lot of animosity. I am The Man.
I’ve probably said this here before. I am Southern, white, male and Baptist. I am The Man. I am the powers that be nipping at the heels of the Messiah trying to cut him down. I know this. I am one of the most privileged people I know. American. Educated. Ordained. And whatever is wrong with the world may indeed come to rest at my feet.
Is this an exaggeration? Perhaps a little. Yet, I am still surprised by how often people defer to me in some communities. I am surprised by how some people are ignored as well. Class. Culture. Status. These are real forces in our lives. It’s not a product of our imaginations.
“If anyone wishes to be first, they shall be last of all and servant of all.”
No status, says Jesus. There’s no pecking order here.
So Jesus turns to a child in an attempt to illustrate his point. A little child has no status in Jesus’ time. No rights. This is not a story about innocence or purity of motive. It’s about status. It’s about rights. It’s about how none of that matters to God. We strive for them and Jesus wants us to see that we’re not even asking the right questions half of the time.
So, back to the party in the bar in Wrigleyville.
So, the evening had progressed. I had met more people with status than I could manage. My usual comfort in groups of strangers had been completely undermined by the pedestals I had scattered around the room, each higher than the next. My imagination and anxiety were getting the best of me. I called a friend to blather about how overwhelmed I was. I had to ask Cathleen to stop sending people my way. She’s so kind. She wants the people that she knows to know one another. It’s a deeply generous motive. And yet…
…I was feeling small. I was all caught up in status real or imagined. What is so seductive about status? If I know this person of great status, then my status improved. I move up the pecking order in some small way. If I meet a lot of people who are movers and shakers in society, I then get to see how small I am. I suddenly realize how unimportant in ineffective I really am. If I were to vanish no one would even notice…And there it is.
I hear Jesus again. “You are asking the wrong question,” he says to me. “Breathe, son.” My Jesus always has that Southern pushiness about him. What does your Jesus sound like?
So, I did take that breath. I’m still working it out.
Jesus says to me, “It’s not about status. It is about faith and the willingness to walk in the way of the Messiah.”
Like Aung San Suu Kyi, I am to walk in the way of the Messiah. I am to walk in the way of the peacemakers of the world. I have to leave everything, all that concern for status and class, education and who knows who…it has to go away. It doesn’t make a difference to Jesus at all. He just wants faithfulness. He wants someone to do something out there to bring justice to the world.
“If anyone wishes to be first, they shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Justice is for everyone. It’s not just for those who can afford it. It’s not just for those with a right to it. It’s not just for those of the right class, from the right neighborhoods, the right nations, the right schools or professions…or even all the wrong ones!
God’s justice is for everyone. Jesus shows us a child to say that it’s not even about rights. It’s simply because we’re here, together, on this earth. No more. No less.
Any justice that does not sustain everyone is no justice at all.
Gaelic Storm (redux)
So, on my way home the night of Cathleen’s book release I listened to a new recording from one of my favorite Irish bands, Gaelic Storm. You see, I couldn’t afford the U2 concert tickets. I couldn’t get in. I didn’t even try. I was at a free concert. Got my picture taken with the band. Bought a CD. It was a great night.
In the generous attempts of Bono and the crowd of so many, there are still limitations in this world. But we’re trying. We’re trying to overcome what divides us. We are trying to see past the limits we place on ourselves to do good. We see Aung San Suu Kyi and others working for justice for all, seeking ways beyond status. We see Bono and the masses sustaining justice. They have come to the feet of Christ as a little child and…they change things. Bono sings:
I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on
Leave it behind
You’ve got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme…
You’ve got to leave it behind.
Sixty-five thousand people praying for a peacemaker…upholding justice in an imperfect world…in spite of that imperfect world – or one guy in a car listening to a bar band. Does it make a difference? It does if we can leave it behind. Jesus doesn’t believe in status. It doesn’t carry any weight at all.
Thanks be to God. |
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