Reverend Philip Stringer
Mark 10:35-45
LET US PRAY: O merciful Father in Heaven: You give the knowledge of your saving help -- a comfort to your people. Feed our hearts with your Holy Word, and make our hearts instruments of your glory, today and all days. AMEN
The Day was February Second, 1892 -- a Friday at 3:00 P.M. In the South-East Quarter of the United States, over 100 Churches were ringing their bells simultaneously in Celebration. At that very moment, over 2000 miles away in San Francisco, the first Lutheran missionary from the United States was boarding a ship for Japan. As the ship's whistle blew, hundreds of people from the United Synod South -- a predecessor body of our Church -- were praying for his safe travel, and for the Holy Spirit to bless his work among the people of Japan.
A little over one year later, on April 2nd, 1893, the first Lutheran worship service was held in Japan. The young church faced strong opposition in its first year. But never-the-less, five persons were baptized that year. Eleven were baptized the following year.
Today, a little more than 131 years later, the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church claims nearly 22,000 members in 122 congregations. 131 years ago, bells rang and hearts were joined together in prayer. Today those prayers are STILL being answered.
The story of the birth of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church is more than just an interesting story with a happy ending. It is a modern example for us of the self-giving way which is the mark of the Christian life. What they did 100 years ago changed the world we live in today. You are connected to that story in a direct way because in 1964, when THIS congregation was founded — there were quite possibly some people here who remembered those bells ringing 80 years earlier.
You and I are stewards of God’s grace today. For all of the philosophizing that can be done on the topic, we can really reduce it to a very simple statement: it’s about love.
Love is about relationship and connected-ness. In a relationship of love, one person doesn’t seek control or power over the other. As simple as that sounds, it’s hard to comprehend when one is living in fear. That was the issue when James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to talk with Jesus, and it is very much the context in which we live, too — for this world is steeped in fear and much of what happens and is done in life is done out of fear.
But today our scripture texts contrast that reality with the character and power of God’s love, revealed to us in Jesus.
It’s unfortunate that our Gospel reading begins where it does --vs35. What happens in the verses before this is so important for understanding our text, that I want to read it to you now -- 3 verses:
They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
The disciples are no longer trying to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem. They see they can’t prevent him from doing it. So, like rats leaving a sinking ship, they start making plans to save themselves — out of fear. It’s every man for himself, and James and John want to get the best seats. They’re trying to beat out the other disciples for positions of honor and power.
They don’t get what they’re after, of course -- but the other disciples are angry with them. Those who tried to climb higher, are now pushed lower in this power struggle for the kingdom.
And that’s when Jesus tells them all to just stop it! How is it that they can be told all of the information and can watch Jesus’ actions and still don’t see what the kingdom is about? It isn’t about personal gain. It isn’t about controlling others or measuring yourself against others. It’s about loving and giving out of that love. Greatness in God’s kingdom is all about love.
The Deuteronomist summarizes what is at the heart of the commandments with one great commandment for shaping life. The one thing that is to be passed on to one’s children: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Jesus added that another is like it (synonymous): You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You can’t love God if you don’t love your neighbor.
A blueprint is something used for building. When God created you and me, the blueprint that God used was God’s own image. God’s blueprint as it is unrolled before our eyes is simply this: Love God. Love People. Love.
Often, our conversations about stewardship center around stuff. But it isn’t really about stuff. It’s about the content of life — the quality of life.
Descartes joke
If René Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am,” as Christians, we say, “I love, therefore, I live.” We know we are alive because we love. To walk through this life doing anything other than loving, is not to live at all. And in whatever corners of our lives where we are not loving, then we are still experiencing death.
Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus came to fill your whole life with love.
Those of you who are parents know a love that goes beyond words. In the delivery room when I first laid eyes on my firstborn, it was a religious experience. It was as if a curtain was pulled back and I suddenly understood a great cosmic truth. And suddenly, I understood my own parents on a completely different level.
We study the Bible, we talk about God -- there are books and books and books, college degrees and Sunday school -- traditions and rituals. A person can grow up believing in the existence of God and even in the identity of God in Jesus -- But only through love do we know God. You were put together using the blueprint of God’s own image. God creates. God gives. God loves.
When it comes to stewardship -- we must acknowledge that realistically, the church as an institution needs our money. Without it, it will cease to exist. But quite frankly, the world can do without another organization.
What the world CAN’T do without is love. Specifically, the love of God. And when we push beyond the organizational necessities, the church does not exist for itself. It exists as the gathering place of those loving in the way of God, and we use what we have, not for ourselves, but to express our love for God and our love for people.
Pastorally, my concern isn’t that the church needs to receive, but that you and I need to give -- that’s what we were created to do. That’s what our lives are about.
Recently, Dr. Kiyoshige, the President of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, commented about the witness of Christians in the world. "You cannot make a person a Christian with a lecture," he said. "You must show them with your life. For Christianity is a WAY of living."
131 years ago, the people of over 100 churches rejoiced in this new life, as they looked beyond their own walls -- and even beyond their own shorelines -- to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a people in a distant land. They had no expectations of gaining anything for themselves; only the joy of having served their Lord faithfully with their whole lives. The missionary whom they sent also shared this joy -- and today, nearly 22,000 Japanese share this joy also, as they live their lives proclaiming the Good News to their own people -- and through 40 missionaries of their own, whom they have sent out into the world with joy and thanksgiving. 22,000 lives today that have all been touched, one-by-one, by people who dared to put their faith into action and live what they believed.
And I think again of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. In our gospel text, they are afraid and living for themselves. But it’s important to note that they didn’t stay that way. In the end, they were willing to give their whole lives for the sake of proclaiming the gospel. In fact, James is the only one of the disciples whose death is recorded in the Scriptures — In the book of Acts we read that Herod had James beheaded with an axe.
Somewhere between our gospel reading and this account in Acts, there was a change — a stirring of the Holy Spirit in their hearts in which they stopped living for themselves and began loving in the name of Christ. It was then that they truly began to live.
For all of the talk and arguments that can be offered on the topic of Stewardship, we can really boil it all down to this: It’s about a life of love.
My prayer for you and for me is that we may be fully alive. I pray that you be full of love. In Jesus’ name.
AMEN
Comments