Be Careful What You Wish For!
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., once said that “there is, deep down within all of us, an instinct. It's a kind of drum major instinct… a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first.” You can see it in children as they play… jumping at the chance to wear the golden crown (even if it is only made of cardboard)… grabbing the best toys first… deciding which games to play… and whose rules will be followed when they play… often raising their voices to make their desires known above all others. I have often listened in as one child asserted his or her will in such situations and smiled when I heard the justification for certain rules or procedures stated with authority by a small child mimicking the vocabulary and tone of voice of some adult they had obviously overheard winning a similar argument in the adult world. Yes, we all want to be leaders… and sometimes, we will use every means at our disposal to become one.
At the boarding school where I lived in Thailand, we often played Dodge Ball... or its variation, Prison Ball… when we could gather enough people to form teams. Usually, some adult would appoint two students to be captains of the opposing teams and those two students would select those who would play on their teams. We all wanted to be picked first and we all dreamed of the day when we would be appointed captains and be able to pick our own team… that is, until the day that it happened and we were suddenly faced with the prospect of selecting our team. It was only then that we realized the challenge of being a captain… that selecting the best player forced us to decide whether the best player was the fastest runner, the most accurate thrower, or the person who could balance our own weaknesses… and that choosing a person with one skill often meant giving up another person with different skills. Being a captain also forced us to face the possibility that the mortal enemy of our recess periods might be the best player for our team… or that selecting the best player for our team might slight a friend whose trusting eyes rested on us. Leadership looks so easy to those who are not in the driver’s seat… just as driving looks so easy to teenagers who have never been behind the wheel. But true leadership is not easy… and there is more to it than can be found in children’s games.
The story is told of a man dressed in civilian clothes who rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier during the American Revolutionary War. Their leader was shouting instructions at them from the back of his horse, but made no attempt to help them with their task. When the rider asked the leader why he did not help them, for they were obviously short-handed, the man retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, then dismounted and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers complete their task. When the job was finished, the man turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, the next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that, George Washington got back on his horse and rode off.
What is most powerful about this story is that George Washington did not merely tell the young leader what he should do for his men, he modeled for him. Without any words at all, he demonstrated that leadership is more than “talking the talk”… it is being willing to “walk the walk.” What was, perhaps, most frustrating to Jesus in our text today, is that Jesus has been “walking the walk” for three years with James and John… and it is obvious from our story that they still don’t get it… and Jesus is running out of time. Jesus and his disciples are headed for Jerusalem where the last events of Jesus’ life on earth will be played out. The crucifixion itself is merely days away… and two of Jesus’ most trusted disciples present a request that is the very antithesis of Jesus’ teaching. I am surprised that Jesus did not stop right there in the road… turn his face toward heaven and say, “Dad, it’s not working. I need more time… or different people. These guys just don’t get it.”
The arrogance of James’ and John’s request matches the arrogance of Job’s demand of God… and I’m amazed that Jesus did not respond with the same thundering questions that God threw at Job in the text that Leesa Levisay read for us this morning: “Where were you when the earth was created?” “What do you know about anything?” Instead, Jesus patiently asks questions that he knows James and John cannot answer yet… questions they will remember after they see him model the answers for them. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They, in their ignorance and arrogance, claim that they can… and Jesus promises each of them that they will. The Book of Acts, chapter twelve, verse two, tells us that James, the brother of John, was executed under the persecutions of Herod Agrippa when he became governor of Judea in the first decade after the crucifixion of Jesus. According to the story, recorded by Bishop Clement of Alexandria in the third century, his martyrdom converted his executioner, who was himself martyred. During the persecutions of the church in Rome, Christian tradition relates that James’ brother, John, was thrown into a vat of boiling oil. He somehow survived that and was later sentenced to hard labor in the mines on the island of Patmos, where he wrote his book of Revelations. Be careful what you wish for!
We are often quick to castigate James and John for their actions in this story, but the reality is that the struggle for power… position… and prestige exists in every dimension of human life… even in the church. William Carter, in his book, “No Box Seats in the Kingdom,” tells of a Methodist pastor who once wrote about power and politics in his denomination. Methodist preachers, he notes, are under the care of a bishop. Bishops, in turn, are Methodist preachers who are elected by fellow Methodist preachers after an extensive campaign for the office during which the candidate tries not to be caught campaigning. As he observes, it is a long-standing Methodist tradition that bishops must not appear to have sought their office and, once elected, the new bishop must make a public declaration that… and I quote… "I didn't seek this office and I didn't want it but, once the Lord calls"... Methodists take all of this with a grain of salt… the same way Baptist congregations have learned to be somewhat skeptical when one of their preachers moves on to a bigger church claiming that the Lord has called them there. Baptists note that the Lord rarely calls someone out of one church into another church unless the new church offers a higher salary. Methodists have likewise noted that there have been few preachers who, once they are elected bishop, turn the job down. And lest we too quickly place a halo on Presbyterians, the same tradition of outward humility accompanies the election of each moderator of the PC(USA)… most of whom have campaigned… without being caught campaigning… for at least a year before the election.
Why the need for a false façade and visible public humility? Perhaps, it is that the candidates want to be able to demonstrate that they do not seek to place themselves above their peers… and thus, be seen soliciting position… power… and prestige that Jesus never sought in his lifetime. Perhaps, it is so that the candidates can avoid the jealousy of others, the divisiveness of power within a community of equals, or the possibility that they might anger their peers… just as the other disciples became angry when they learned of the request that James and John made. And yet, there is a part of me that believes that the anger of the other disciples arose partly out of their own fear that James and John beat them to the punch… that James and John had only done what they themselves wanted to do… for they had argued earlier about who among them was the greatest. How often have we discussed the evils of comparing ourselves to others? Here is yet another example of how such efforts to grasp the symbols of success result in needless quarreling and dissention, allowing our own ambitions to divide us.
And yet, it seems to be part of human nature to consider ourselves to be the center of the universe. One of the biggest phenomena in modern religious publishing is the little book called “The Prayer of Jabez” by Bruce Wilkinson. The book is based on a single verse of 1 Chronicles concerning a minor figure named Jabez. The verse goes like this: "Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 'Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm! And God granted what he asked' " (4:10).
Wilkinson, who wrote the best-selling book, plucks that verse out of context and uses it to promise his readers that, if they only utter this prayer with all their hearts, God will bless them with the modern equivalent of an enlarged "border" and God's hand will be with them, granting their every desire. It is almost as though he treats God like some cosmic vending machine: put your Jabez-prayer into the slot, push the button, and out pops whatever you ordered! Would that it were true! That all we need to do is utter a prayer according to a certain formula… and God will automatically grant it! But it's not true: Jesus' encounter with James and John is ample evidence of that.
Kathleen Norris presents an entirely different view of prayer in her book, “Amazing Grace.” She says, “I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways that you can't imagine. To be made more grateful… more able to see the good in what you have been given… instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who are in the habit of praying… and they include the mystics of the Christian tradition…” she says, “know that when a prayer is answered, it is never in a way that you expect.... No wonder we have difficulty with prayer… for the best "how-to" I know is from Psalm 46: "Be still and know that I am God."
My challenge for us today and throughout the coming week is simply this: To take a page from Kathleen Norris’ book and to be careful what we wish for. Each day, as we open our mouths to ask God for what we want, may we stop for a moment to contemplate the life of Jesus and to ask ourselves whether Jesus would make that same request of his Father. Perhaps, the best time we could spend this week is time in silence… being still and… through our stillness… coming to know the God of Genesis… of Job… and of Jesus. I think we will all find that our God is not the God imagined by James… John… and Jabez. Amen.
Mark 10:35-45