On Finding Our Place
October 20, 2024
Traceymay Kalvaitis
Psalm 91: 9-12
Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
Mark 10: 35-45
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.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
***
Today’s sermon is titled On Finding Our Place. This is a sermon first presented in October of 2018 when I was exactly one year into my ministry after being a teacher of young children.
There are some things I really miss about teaching second grade, like watching the children play during recess and witnessing little spontaneous acts of kindness, like one child reaching out to hold hands with another as they walk up the path, or taking turns pushing one another on the swing set. There are things I most definitely do not miss, like the spontaneous acts of unkindness that are common among children. For some classes, even the simple instruction to line up at the door would be turned into a contact sport with children charging and pushing and jostling their way into the best possible position, as close to the front of the line as possible. With some classes, we would resort to lining up by alphabetical order and then every 2 days the child in front would move to the back of the line. It was a great way to introduce alphabetical ordering, but my sole objective was safety for the children and creating a sense of security so they could relax. By knowing they had a particular place in line, a place that no one could dispute and a place they would not be pushed out of, the children were free from what was, for some, a tremendous source of stress and anxiety. If only there was such a simple system for grown-ups. If only there was someone, someone who we respect and trust that could assure us that we don’t need to be so anxious about where we are and where we aren’t because there is a place for us, just for us.
When we meet the disciples in the book of Mark, they are jockeying for the favored places at the right and left hand of Jesus, so very much like those little children scrambling to be first in line. Even though Jesus has just told them, for the third time, that he will soon face a great trial of suffering and death before he will rise again, it seems as if the only words the disciples are holding onto are the last few, “he will rise.” And they want to rise with him, especially the brothers James and John who are Jesus’s cousins. They just can not imagine that Jesus, whom they have seen working unimaginable miracles, would really allow himself to be subject to any harm. Surely Jesus will prevail, surely they are walking to Jerusalem because Jesus intends to take his rightful place as leader and drive out the Roman occupation. James and John want to be right there in the thick of it, in all of Jesus’s glory. But Jesus is not that kind of leader, in fact he says he has not come to be served but to serve, to give his life as a ransom.
Jesus says to his cousins, “You do not know what you are asking.” How could they know? How could they possibly believe what would actually happen in Jerusalem? There is no way for them to know as truth what Jesus has been telling them, so they do what any of us are likely to do when the future feels uncertain, they start to search for security, they start to search for their place and they want Jesus to promise it, but he says, “a seat at my right or my left is not mine to grant…but you will drink my cup and be baptized as I am baptized.” James and John take this as a good sign. If, at that moment, they had been able to look into Jesus’s eyes and see their future, they would have likely turned tail and headed in the opposite direction.
Jesus has a special name for James and John; he gives it to them back in the third chapter of Mark. Their new last name is Boanerges (bo-on-ear-guess), translated as “sons of thunder.” After Jesus’s death and resurrection, James and John will both recommit themselves to continuing the work of Jesus; in drinking of the same cup, they will challenge the same ruling forces of the Great Roman Empire. John will be such a thorn in the side of the powers-that-be that he will be sent to a forced labor camp on the Greek island of Patmos. John holds the place of being the only disciple to live a long life and die of natural causes. The other son of thunder, his brother, James was the first disciple to die by the Roman sword for being such a vocal devotee of Jesus Christ.
Those two brothers, James and John, must have been young men when they asked Jesus for places of honor. Jesus did not deny them those places, exactly, but when the sons of thunder eagerly assured Jesus that they could face whatever he faced, Jesus did not chastise them. In a matter of months, Jesus would hang dying on the cross and he would give John as a son to his mother Mary, and in the next breath he would ask John to take Mary as his mother. It was not the place of honor John had hoped for but perhaps it was more so. After James’s death, his remains were reportedly carried from Jerusalem to Spain and interred in Santiago, a city in western Spain that has been a pilgrimage site since the year 600. Twenty years ago, 3,501 people walked the various trails that lead to the cathedral. Last year, 86 times that many traveled by foot; 301,036 walked to the site of James’s burial. I’d say James found his place of honor, as well.
To me, there is a degree of comfort in the fact that people have not changed so much over the past few thousand years. We think we are smarter and more advanced. I’m not so convinced. We still seek the same sense of security and we still long for a sense of place where we belong. This morning we heard the words of two brothers from millennia past, seeking security, seeking a place they could count on. And we heard words from more than 3000 years ago, words of a poet, a psalmist, written in a time when the Hebrew people were not at all secure. They had no secure sense of place, no secure sense of what the future held, and yet listen to these beautiful words of hope from Psalm 91, “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you…for he shall command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways; on their hands they will bear you up.” In this ancient time of uncertainty, the poet pointed to the Lord, to God, to the Most High as a place of refuge, a dwelling place. This morning the words point still to that place; whether that place is within or without, or both, I do not know; it seems a place we must find, each for ourselves.
In closing now, can not deny a sense of unease. Following the example of Christ is a high stakes endeavor. I, too, can so relate to the adamant assertions of James and John when they said, “We are able” and yet they had no idea what was in store for them. We have no idea what is in store for us, either. One thing’s for sure: there’s no use scrambling to be first in line, or whatever the grown-up equivalent is (most successful, most intelligent, most healthy, perhaps?) We should be willing to go where we are lead, and that is usually more toward the back of the line, where we can help, where we can be helped. Following the example of Christ is not easy and life itself challenges us to the breaking point, but take heart, there are angels on whose hands we are held.
Pastoral Prayer
Gracious Lord, our God, we are thankful for our immense capacity for awareness and feeling, it is surely a gift from you. Even when the weight of knowing and feeling feels too much to bear, remind us, Lord, to appreciate that we are not unaware, and that we are not numb. We pray to be strengthened and encouraged in the work that lies before us…the work of healing, the work of repairing the brokenness within ourselves, the work of holding the needs of others in balance with our own needs, and the work that You place in our minds and hearts. Help us, we pray, to say “yes”. Help us, we pray, to say “I’m sorry; please forgive me”. Help us, we pray, to trust in the goodness that You intend for us, as your children. Thank You for our many blessings. Amen.
Benediction
I leave you now with the following words from Romans 15:13:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, that you may bound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit.”