21st Sunday after Pentecost

Jesus said: 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.

How many times have we heard this throughout our lives?
Or some form of it?
Like: The last shall be first, and the first shall be last?

For the son of Man came not to be served, but TO Serve?

We’ve heard this teaching so many times that sometimes it’s almost lost on us.
We don’t really know what it means:

Except for that maybe the end of the line is the best place to be?
Those who serve are luckier than those in power?
And lovers of God get less status and not more?
Or that the lowliest job is the one to covet?

But that’s pretty weird too:
The idea that we’re still wanting:
Still coveting something:
In order to get the great reward at the end.

The famous preacher Barbara Brown Taylor likens this idea to an “intermediate
stage”
Like a boot camp, or limbo, or parole:
Where you do your time as a servant with no whining and then in the end you
WIN the game: you get eternal life,
and if you do it better than every one else, you might even win the best seats in
the house.

But that’s just the thing.
It’s not a game.
There is no winning.
And whenever you try to be the “best:”
even if you’re trying to be the “Best servant”
You’re still missing the point.

And Jesus himself is proof of this.
Jesus is not pretending to be a servant until the time comes for him to rip of his
disguise and climb onto a golden throne.
He is a servant through and through.
Forever and Ever, Amen.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
Famously ask Jesus to let them sit at his right and left hands in glory:
(Like:
at the end of the “game” :

The end of this earthly life:
they want to be crowned next to Jesus at the top.)

And Jesus famously says back to them: “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.”

If Jesus is the servant:
Through and through:
Forever and ever amen,
Then the winning seats are not his to give.
He doesn’t even have one himself.
Because there’s no winning.
Because it’s not a game.

Jesus isn’t in it for a trophy.
He isn’t in it for a reward.

He IS in it for the love God:
Which promises him nothing.
(Except for the opportunity to give himself away.)

And more than that: When Jesus says “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,”

He isn’t speaking about glory or reward at all.

He’s doing the exact opposite, and alluding to his death.

He’s pointing toward the moment where the best seat he’s going to get is the
throne of a cross:
With splinters, and blood, and agony.

And it wont be the Zebedee brothers at his side:
It wont be any of his disciples.
Instead, It will be two unnamed criminals:
One at his left and one at his right.

The glory seat next to Jesus:
(if you can even call it the glory seat)
Was the seat of execution:
With the literal lowest of the low on each side.

Like: Literally.
These guys weren’t trying to be the lowest in order to get the reward at the end.
They weren’t even PRETENDING to be the lowest.
They literally were the lowest of the low:

The kind of people nobody wants to be next to:
The kind of people nobody wants to hang out with:
Let alone, share a throne with.

Now: I’m obviously not saying that we should all become criminals in order to
gain the reward.

Because AGAIN:
Then we’d still doing something:
Trying to become something that we’re not:
In order to just win the reward.

What I AM saying:
Is that just when we think we’ve got it figured out:
Just when we think we know that we have to be less to be most:
Or to be servants in order to win:
We’ve already lost.

Because we’ve still made it about us.
(even under the guise of “service of others”)

When we serve others in order to ultimately serve ourselves,
It’s not really service.

If our eyes are always on the prize:
The trophy at the end of the game:
Then our eyes are not really on God.

When Jesus says that he came not to be served, but TO serve:

The emphasis is on the ongoing action:
Not the endgame.

When James and John ask Jesus to let them sit next to him in his glory, Jesus says
some important words that we often forget:
“The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am
baptized, you will be baptized.”

It’s not about what’s at the end.
It’s about the whole process:
The whole journey.

It’s about the actions:
Drinking from the same cup as Jesus:
Being baptized with the same water and spirit.

So The next time you participate in an act of service:
Pay attention to what happens:
Pay attention to what happens within you:
And around you:
In the whole process:
Not just how it “feels at the end.”

Focus not on the reward:
But on the act itself.

And when you come to the altar today:
And drink from the cup:
And taste the bread on your tongue:
Focus on that action:
Eating and Drinking the bread and wine of Jesus:
Not as a reward:
But in the action itself.

Revel in that moment.
Taste.
See.
Smell.
Hear.
Pay attention to it all.

Not for the endgame:
But for the love of God offered to you at this very moment.

Amen.