I have two questions for you this morning that I hope we can answer by the end of my homily:
Where do we want to sit in this world?
And What do we get excited about?
In the children’s book Yertle the Turtle and other stories by Dr. Seuss, Yertle the turtle is king of the pond, but he decides that his kingdom was too small. He plan was to stand on the backs of the other turtles. He manages to bully the other turtles into allowing him to stand on them. Finally he can claim to be king of all that he can see. That is until Mack, (an Irish turtle, of course,) has enough of Yertle’s dictatorship and Mack burps, causing all the turtles to tumble and Yertle comes down last of all and sinks deep into the mud. Yertle realizes that his glory cannot be rooted in the injustice of oppressing his fellow turtles!
This tale, no doubt, conveys a truth about humanity that many of us would like to deny about ourselves. (pause) Like Yertle, we all want to sit in glory. We want people to notice us, see us; we need attention, be popular and be successful – and for some people that even means stepping on others to get there.
But once you have the glitz and glamour and a million hits on your youtube account, website, or accumulate 3000 friends on facebook, or have thousands following your twitter, then what? Where does being number one lead? To what purpose? Where does this worldly success lead?
You know, for the past several weeks we have been learning that there was ambition and jealousy among the disciples. They keep fretting over trivial matter while Christ keeps speaking of his impending crucifixion, and explaining how dying to selfishness must be the pattern for all of his disciples’ lives.
Today JAMES AND JOHN approach Jesus with a mundane request. "Teacher, grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
It all seemed like such an innocent request, but was it coming from selfish motives and a sense of self-importance? As followers of JESUS of NAZARETH they may have sense they shared his power.
Jesus replied: “You do not know what you are asking.” Can you drink the cup that I drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." WE CAN?
You are thinking as human beings, not as God thinks. You HAVE NO IDEA WHAT you are TALKING ABOUT and do not know what you are saying, but you will drink of my cup of suffering, and you will be baptized into my death.
THE OTHER TEN APOSTLES BECOME INDIGNANT – perhaps because they feel that James and John have one-upped them. They likely recalled Peter’s words from last week, "Lord, we have given up everything and followed you." And Jesus promised them eternal life! What more did James and John want? Greedy sons of thunder!
Jesus said to his disciples, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers lord it over their subjects! Their great ones make their authority over others known! But it shall not be so among you. Not among you. It shall not be so among you.
The American idea of success, so deeply ingrained in us, is based on the need to prove that “I am better than you.” Even relationships are sometimes based on competition, and the need to win at fights or arguments, or dominate others through verbiage or violence. The idea of being last in order to win is an absurd idea according to our world.
But Jesus knows that if we only seek to finish first we won’t have any time to serve others, people who are slower than us or who cannot even walk.
Unlike Yertle the Turtle, Jesus’ vision for us as a community is not one where the rich, powerful, and privileged step on the poor, weak, and powerless. Jesus calls us to be His Body, the Church, the Body of Christ, where the weak support the strong, and the strong support the weak! Jesus breaks down the walls of separation that keep people apart and brings them together where they will sit together and feast at the same table!
But the poor often resent the wealthy and the wealthy fear the poor and hide behind delusions of power or importance. Yet Jesus invites all to sit at his table – and every seat is a throne of honor! This is the body of Christ, this is the meaning of Church!
Jesus acknowledges that his teaching is revolutionary. Following Jesus' example of sacrificial love continues to be countercultural in our day as well. But the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many! Now we are invited to do the same! He will be with us! He will be in us! We might take this opportunity to examine our own exercise of authority. On whose example do we model our leadership?
To be first and the greatest according to Christ is to serve the needs of others. Jesus’ challenge is a call for us to “servant leadership”.
A great example of a servant leader and someone I truly respected, was the late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw Michigan. After his ordination as bishop in 1980 he greeted an assembly at the Saginaw Civic Center with the words: “Hello, I'm Ken, and I will be your servant.” Shortly thereafter he sold the bishop's residence. From then on, he would stay in one the parish rectories of the diocese, living with the parish priest for weeks or months at a time. As Archbishop Quinn said at his funeral Mass, “Bishop Ken did not simply say great things. He lived them.”
What an example for us – all us are called to be that servant leader; to give of ourselves as a ransom for many.
And That’s how we wind up seated next to Jesus!
That’s how we wind up enthroned at his heavenly banquet!
That’s how we achieve greatness! - In our leastness! In our serving!
In our faithful love and care!
I know, I know, it all sounds so ordinary, but that’s the mystery of the kingdom. The ordinary IS extraordinary!
Now that’s something we can get excited about!
Something better than facebook,
better than American idol,
better than youtube.
better than being seated next to our favorite celebrity,- even if it is Scarlet Johannson or Brad Pitt.
and certainly better than being enthroned on the backs of our fellow turtles.
The seats of glory in our world are many, yet the greatest seat of glory is being seated next to Christ, where we will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come share your master’s joy! Inherit the kingdom, sit and eat and drink at my table!
Have we found that seat?
Look for an open seat next to someone and serve him, serve her. I assure you that many of those empty chairs will become for us our thrones of glory!
Of course, we will only fully realize in the next life that as we sat and served the least among us that it was Christ we were seated next to all along.
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