“Whoever wishes to be 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.” (Mark 10:43-45)
In the name of the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I want to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Dennis. I first met Dennis about 5 years ago. We were both members of the Crossing, an Episcopal worshipping community in Boston. I have to admit that when I first met Dennis, I tried to stay as far away from his as possible. You see, Dennis is homeless, living on the streets of Boston. He didn’t have access to a shower to use regularly or to clean clothes and you could tell as soon as he walked into a room. At the time I worked a few blocks away at a day shelter for people who are homeless. I felt like I “deserved” a break when I came to church. At least that it what I told myself. I constructed walls around my heart as I carefully avoided Dennis. But God has a way of breaking down those walls.
After a few weeks I noticed that during the prayers of the people, a time at the Crossing in which all people are invited to share their prayers aloud, Dennis prayed the most inspired and heart felt prayers. And they weren’t for what I had expected. They were not for himself. They were not that he would find a job or housing. His prayers were always for others. He prayed for his brothers and sisters on the streets. He prayed for the people who walked past him and looked the other way. He prayed for places of violence and hurt in our world. He prayed that people would come to know the healing power and abundant love of God.
I slowly moved past some of my selfishness and got to know Dennis. He doesn’t know how to write so he would ask me and others in the community to write down his words. They were beautifully crafted poems. Poems he shared with people who were struggling. I got to know about the people he helped who couldn’t afford food. I heard about the people he helped who were being held down by drug and alcohol addictions.
“Whoever wishes to be 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.”
In this mornings Gospel reading we encounter the disciples at not one of their finer moments. In the verse just prior to what we heard read this morning, Jesus has predicted his passion, death, and resurrection for the third time. And for the third time the disciples just don’t know what to do with this information. Perhaps out fear or their inability to grasp what Jesus was telling them, James and John ask Jesus for the honor of sitting at his right and left hand in glory. The disciples were seeking their own glory and honor. They just didn’t get it. They didn’t get what Jesus had been trying to teach them all along. Being a follower of Christ is not about our own glory, it is about serving God by serving our sisters and brothers. It is about lifting up others, not ourselves.
This is something my friend Dennis understands. And it is something so many in this congregation understand. I was reminded of this yet again on Friday night as our vestry gathered for a time of conversation and prayer.
We spoke about the many reasons we love Christ Church, and what makes us a unique community.
We spoke of the people of Christ Church who serve one another with such open and loving hearts. Those who visit parishioners in the hospital, who provide a listening ear to someone who is hurting, cook a meal for someone who is sick, knit a prayer shawl for a person grieving, and who offer their intercessory prayers for so many in need.
We spoke of the people of Christ Church who serve beyond our congregation by donating food or preparing and serving a meal at the Monday Lunch Program, by volunteering with the B-Safe program during the summer, sorting clothes for Circle of Hope and driving the donations to homeless shelters, supporting and participating in the Youth Mission Trip, and traveling to Haiti.
And, as the vestry was gathered I was so aware of how the women and men serving in this leadership capacity give so generously of their time and their gifts. We have investment experts, communication gurus, people who remind us to look beyond our own walls and others who are experts on keeping our walls standing and our basements free of water.
We have so many, who like Dennis, understand what it means to seek God’s glory rather than our own, to serve the needs of others rather simply our own needs.
Let me tell you one more story about Dennis, another way in which he seems to understand so much of today’s Gospel reading. Another way he taught me about being a follower of Christ, a servant of all.
At the Crossing, the community puts a basket on the Altar for people to place their financial offerings. People are invited to bring their gifts to the altar during what the community calls “Open Space,” a five minute portion of the service in which people can enter into one of a variety of spiritual practices (meditatively walking through the Church, silent prayer, healing prayer, lighting a candle). One of the spiritual practices is pledging. One Thursday evening, during open space, I was praying near the altar. I noticed Dennis walk towards the Altar and reach into his jacket pocket. From his pocket he pulled a plastic baggie filled with change. He placed the entire bag into the basket, stood in silent prayer, crossed himself (make cross), and walked away.
He placed all the money he had on the altar of God and walked away trusting that all would be well. I’ve seen him make this offering several times. It is how he fulfills his pledge to God and to the church in which he is a vital member. Dennis is so grateful for all God has given him, that he is moved to give of the little he has, the baggie full of change, recognizing that what he does have does not belong to him, he is simply the steward of it.
This is when I finally started to understand financial giving as an essential piece of what it means to be a servant of all. In his simple action, Dennis invited me to think of my own habits of giving and how giving affects me and the communities I’m a part of. I didn’t grow up with the idea of pledging, it wasn’t a part of my churches tradition. As a child and young adult, I don’t remember learning to think of the resources I had as truly belonging to God and not to me. These are lessons I’ve only begun to learn since joining the Episcopal Church. I’ve had a taste of the freedom that comes as I hold onto my financial resources less tightly; as I give more freely to the communities I’m invested in. There is a sense of joy in knowing that we are returning to God what is God and that it is being used faithfully to further God’s mission. The choice to pledge, to prayerfully discern what we will offer back to God in this coming year, has the potential to bring us closer to God. It increases our trust and faith in the goodness of God.
I’m not saying the pledging is easy. It is still something I struggle with. The bills pile up and the anxiety increases. I worry about paying off my seminary loan, about the cost of living in Needham. I think about whether or not I’ll ever be able to afford my own home and whether or not I’m saving enough for retirement. I imagine many people in this congregation have similar anxieties about money.
But over the last two weeks, Skip and Myra in their sermons, have invited us to pledge from a place of grace and hope, not from a place of fear. Skip spoke about pledging as planting seeds of hope. We have so many reasons to be hopeful at Christ Church. Our ministries are flourishing. People are coming to know God more deeply. Our sisters and brothers are being cared for in meaningful ways. New families are coming and experiencing this community as a place of welcome, a place that feels like home.
I want to be a part of this season of planting and invite you to as well. Skip has invited us this year to increasing our pledging by 10%. This increase will allow us to further the ministries of Christ Church as we seek to serve God. When my pledge card comes in the mail, I will respond to Skip’s invitation and will increase my pledge by 10%. I hope you will prayerfully discern whether this is something God is inviting you to do as well.
And if you haven’t before made a pledge at Christ Church, try it on. Pledging for the first time, increasing our pledge to a place that is more of a stretch, is the only way to discover for ourselves the joy and grace available to us through the spiritual practice of giving. And it is a way we live out Jesus’ call to us to be servant of all.
Know that I’m walking this path with you and I look forward to seeing where it leads us as individuals and as a community. I’m confident it will deepen our relationship with God and will increase our capacity to live in service of God and God’s mission for us at this time and in this wonderful place.
Amen.
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