Remember Who You Are, October 25, 2009
I must make an admission to you - whenever I read this passage from the Gospel I get angry. Oh, I know the message of Jesus about serving others has been a central one to Christianity but that doesn't keep me from wondering why Jesus didn't know the havoc his words would cause in the lives of thousands of people through the ages. That may sound like heresy but the reality is that while the message of loving service may be a beautiful one in theory - it has been used in very ugly ways. Women have been reminded of their rightful role as servants in family, churches, and society-at-large. And through the years, many who have tried to assume some sort of non-servant role have been accused at the very least of going against a Biblical mandate - and at worst, of being witches. Women have been literally killed for questioning their prescribed "role". Beyond that, just think of how often the rhetoric about Christian service as an ideal has been used to placate the poor, to assure people living subsistence lives in service to the rich, that a life of service to others will mean great reward in heaven. The history of the treatment of poor people in this country and abroad has not been a pretty one. And sadly, too often the church has supported the oppression. I don't think all of that is what Jesus meant to happen - so, the real question is - how did we get it so mixed up? And, what do these words mean for us today, men and women, rich and poor, together?
Let's look at the gospel text again. James and John approached Jesus. Now here were two people who, in their time and place, had "made it." Sure, they may have been somewhat poor, but in terms of their own immediate circle, they were privileged. At the very least, we know that they were men - and being male was a good thing. They were men in a man's world. They were the ones who could study the Scriptures and pray. They had the rights of ownership and, at least as far as we know, in their little group around Jesus, they had found favor with the leader. Jesus had picked them as part of his circle of special friends. So these two asked Jesus can we sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory? In other words, we know the object of things is to keep moving up in this world and in the world to come, Jesus, and since you like us, will you make sure we keep moving up? And Jesus responded, it isn't to be like this among you, my good friends, remember who you are. You are good and graced children of God. Do not be misled by what the world around you says is your worth. And then they were invited to serve, which of course was not at all what they had in mind as moving up in the world nor was it the way society had things figured. But it was what Jesus expected. Serving others for them was to be a concrete response to knowing who they were and learning that they were no more privileged than anyone else in God's sight. It was probably a rude awakening.
To the poor and outcasts of that time, though - to the sick, the lepers, the women, the children, Jesus did not speak directly about servant-hood. That's what most of their lives already entailed. But - at its heart - his invitation to them was the same as it was to James and John: remember who you are. Think about it: every time Jesus healed someone - whether that was a leper or a blind person or the woman with a flow of blood or the woman caught in adultery about to be stoned, Jesus approached and proclaimed in action: remember who you are. You are a good and graced child of God. Do not be fooled by what the world says you are worth. Be clean! Be healed! Go and sin no more! Your faith has saved you! When Jesus refused to let the disciples send the children away, when he took them in his arms, was he not proclaiming in action: remember little ones who you are. You are worth so much to God? Remember the woman who was bent over and could not stand and who had been that way for 18 years? Her very stature symbolizes the treatment of the poor and oppressed to this very day - so often burdened by forces and expectations beyond their control. And with Jesus' touch, she stood up. Remember who you are. You are a good and graced child of God. Do not be held down by what the world says about you. The bent-over woman's response is how one would respond to such good news - she praised God. The blind man Bartimaeus, whose story we heard last week, immediately jumped up and followed Jesus. The woman cured of the flow of blood was told that her faith has made her well. The woman rescued from stoning was told to go and sin no more. To none of these people did Jesus say now go serve. As I said, he didn't need to. They were already doing that. What they could do in the future at the very least was serve knowing their dignity and worth as human beings. It may sound slight, but such knowledge can change things.
Christian service is meant to be a response to being loved, not a condition for being loved. Jesus voice echoes through the ages to all of us: remember who you are. You are good and graced children of God. Do not be fooled by what the world says you are worth. How we hear that and how we respond will depend on what the world says about our worth and how we've bought into it. For those of us who are privileged, those words should challenge us, as James and John were challenged, to examine our self-righteousness, to be more generous with what we have - to be, yes, more of service, and to recognize the dignity of others. For those of us who are burdened, bent-over, oppressed or underprivileged, the words of Jesus are an invitation to claim dignity and self-worth - to realize that in God's realm, there are no privileged places, except those that belong to ALL of us. Serving, then, becomes a response to knowing who we are, not a requirement to earn salvation and not something to impose on anyone but ourselves. In other words, serving, in the Christian context is not, and was never, something to be required of a certain group or person. It was a response to the Good News that we are loved by God.
Years ago I heard this story - I no longer know the source. A Dad reports . . .
"I was running late getting Pete ready for school. I had his shirt and pants on and was hurriedly putting on his socks. He was a bit fidgety so I decided to make some small talk with him and take his mind off his restlessness. 'Pete,' I said, 'I really like your shirt. It looks real nice.' He was reflective for a moment as he inspected his shirt.
About 30 seconds passed and I had dismissed the remark from my mind. But Peter hadn't. In a serious, almost solemn tone, he asked me, 'Do you really like it, Dad?
Surprised that he was still thinking about it, I said 'Sure Pete, I really do.' I could never have predicted his reply. Without a moment's hesitation, and in all seriousness, he said to me, 'Well Dad, I'll give it to you when you get little.'"
Some of us need the challenge to "get little" and some of us need to hear the invitation to claim our power. Some of us need to sit down and some of us need to stand up but the message is the same: remember who you are. You are good and graced children of God. Do not be fooled by what the world says you are worth.
It is in an effort to help our children come to know who they are and who they are called to be that today we give Bibles. The Bible is the record of God's invitation to us to come to know ourselves. In the Scriptures we have countless stories of the ways God has acted in human history to remind us of who we are and what we are called to be and do. And so we say to the children today . . .
When you feel like a content and self-satisfied Moses, remember that even Moses had to learn that HE was not the one in control. Remember that Moses did not make it into the Promised Land - and the story is here . . .
When you feel like all is against you, remember Hannah the barren woman, who refused to give up, storming heaven until she convinced God to give her a child. Remember Hannah whose prayer was judged to be drunkenness by the priest but who showed them all that God listens even to women. . .
When you feel you're too young or too old to answer God's call, remember Jeremiah who in spite of himself became one of the greatest of the prophets of Israel . . .
When you feel like you have nothing to offer or when you encounter those who discount you because of gender or race or anything else, remember Huldah the prophetess who rescued the Torah, the very center of Jewish faith, from destruction and thus saved her people.
When you feel like you've made one too many mistakes, like God could not possibly forgive or love you still, remember Peter, the Rock who was anything but rocklike in real life and yet who was chosen by Jesus to be part of the leadership in a new way of life we call Christian.
When you feel tired of working for justice, tired of hitting the glass ceiling, tired of striving for equality, tired of it all, remember Mary Magdalene, chosen by Jesus himself as a preacher of Good News, whose place in the early church is only now being explored and appreciated. I wonder where we'd be if she had not persisted in her right to be a disciple of Jesus despite what people said!
We come from quite an interesting family of faith. We have ancestors whose lives can teach us something about who we are and what God has done for us. And, most powerfully of all, we have Jesus who revealed in countless ways to poor and rich, male and female, Jew and Gentile, insider and outsider - James and John - the eternal challenge: remember who you are!
Christian Herter was running hard for a second term as Governor of Massachusetts. He was scheduled one night to attend a church barbecue. It had been a busy day and he had had no time for lunch, so when he arrived at the church he was famished.
As he moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," said the governor, "Do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?" "Sorry, only one piece to a customer." Now, Governor Herter was generally an unassuming man, but he decided that he would pull rank this time. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." The woman didn't blink an eye. "And do you know who I am?" she asked. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken!"
She knew who she was - and he had to learn something more about who he was and was not. It is not an easy task, this remembering who we are, but it is the stuff of Christian faith. So we give Bibles to our children today to remind them and to teach them.
May we all remember who we are. Whether we need to grow little or stand up. Whether we’re the one with the chicken or the one with the title. May we each be challenged today to remember who we are. In that free response lies real Christian service.
