Roger Lynn
November 12, 2017
(click here for the audio for this sermon)
(click here for the video for the entire worship service - the sermon starts at 5:25)
How To Succeed . . . in business, in sports, in romance, in life. You name the specific topic and you will likely find at least one “How To Succeed” title listed on Amazon, not to mention a variety of week-end seminars and late-night infomercials. And if James and John had been alive today, they would have been the first in line for all of them. They had apparently been paying enough attention to grasp the age-old adage: “It’s not what you know - it’s who you know.” It’s all about making contacts. And they thought they had hit the jackpot! They were on a first name basis with God’s main man! The contacts just don’t get any better than that. And they weren’t about to pass up the opportunity to press their advantage. “Hey Jesus, can you do us a favor?” (You can almost see the arm around the shoulder.) “We’re looking to score big in the eternal life department, and we’re pretty sure you can get us the best seats in the house. How about it?”
The problem, of course, is that they apparently hadn’t been paying as much attention to Jesus as they had to the “How to succeed” paperback they’d picked up cheap at a garage sale somewhere. Because if they had, they would never have asked the question in the first place, or at least would have had some clue as to the answer Jesus was about to hand them. But as was so often the case with all of the disciples, they once again demonstrate a profound ability to miss the point completely.
This answer explains why you won’t find “The Jesus Model for Success” in the self-help section on Amazon. Well, actually that kind of book is available, but the Jesus that you’ll read about in the pages of such books bears very little resemblance to the Jesus we read about in the Gospels – the one who told people that those who want to save their life must lose it, and following his example meant serving others, and ultimately leading the life he chose to lead ended up getting him killed. The kind of success Jesus advocates is not popular. Most of us don’t really want to hear about it. We certainly don’t want to adopt it as the model for our living.
But it is a path which leads us to rich, meaningful, fulfilling living. Such living connects us with others and it connects us with our own deepest, truest selves. When we give ourselves away we really do find ourselves again – in the eyes of those we serve, in the partnerships with those who stand with us, in the sense of satisfaction we feel inside ourselves. How this works is a mystery. On the surface it doesn’t seem to make any sense. How will pouring ourselves out fill up the world? But there is strong evidence that it is true. Look at the people in history who are remembered for the positive effect they wrought – people like Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa. Their idea of success had more to do with giving ourselves away than it did with looking out for number one. Somehow in the great mystery that is this life, we do make a difference when we touch the world with the gift of ourselves. Healing really does comes through serving.
We’re not usually as blatant as James and John. We don’t come right out and admit that what we’re after is the spiritual equivalent of free tickets to the banquet. But in many and various ways that is often how we try to approach life. We want it to be safe and we want it to be easy. What we don’t want is to be uncomfortable or take risks. So it’s a good thing that, like the disciples, we have Jesus to point us towards a path which we would not normally choose on our own – the path of service. May we touch the world with the gift of ourselves. May we learn to let go of our lives so that we can discover who we really are.
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