Text: Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
I serve on the board of Iowa Religious Media Services – it’s an ecumenical lending library that American Baptists and 6 other denominations support together. At our meeting this week, the Preview committee reported on some of the new videos they had watched and purchased. One was the Kyle Petty Bible Study – a video curriculum led by the NASCAR race car driver.
I’ve got to tell you, I am not an auto racing fan. Growing up in Indiana, I was sort of a racing fan one day a year – the day before Memorial Day when they ran the Indianapolis 500 - but that was about it.
But I want to tell you about one of the more memorable auto races in history. In 1979 the Daytona 500 was televised live for the very first time. Going into the final lap, Donnie Allison was in the lead, with Cale Yarbrough close behind. As Yarbrough tried to pass, Allison drifted inside, forcing Yarbrough’s car into the grass. Yarbrough somehow kept control of his car, got back on the track, and caught up with Allison. The two cars tangled on the backstretch, Yarbrough eventually forcing Allison’s car into the wall, with both cars crashing. Richard Petty (the father of Kyle Petty, who did the Bible study), back in third place, cruised past both cars and went on to win, earning a then-record $73,900. (Why they didn't round it up to $75,000, I don't know.)
At that point, the television cameras turned back to the two cars that had wrecked. Viewers saw a heated argument between Yarbrough, Allison, and Allison’s brother Bobby, ending in a fist fight right on the track, on live television – and no doubt spurring the growth of NASCAR into what it is today.
While the front-runners were fighting and arguing on live television, important things were happening. While they were fighting and arguing, Richard Petty won the race.
That same scene is replayed over and over and over again, and not simply in sports. We find a variation, in fact, in our scripture reading from Mark.
Jesus and the disciples were traveling, and Jesus was sharing some important things with them along the way. He was speaking of his own death. But they didn’t understand what he was saying. And it appears that some really weren’t listening too closely anyway. Jesus could hear heated words among the disciples but didn’t know what it was all about. And you know, if Jesus couldn’t hear them, chances are they couldn’t hear Jesus.
When they reached Capernaum, Jesus asked what they were arguing about along the way. The scripture says, “They were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.”
They had missed Jesus words. They couldn’t hear him, and even if they did, they didn’t understand him, and they didn’t seem to try that hard to understand. Jesus’ teaching took a back seat to their concerns over greatness. Which begs the question for us: What do we miss concerning God’s kingdom because we are arguing about something else?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that we live in an argumentative age that is easily distracted by disputes and name-calling while really important matters get left behind.
A congressman heckles the president in a display that was worse only in degree from behavior that has been going on for some time by our elected representatives of both parties. And the next day, people were not talking about the actual substantive issue of health care, they were talking about, even arguing about, how uncivil things have gotten.
The basketball Hall of Fame inducted new members a week or so ago. Among them was Jerry Sloan, coach of the Utah Jazz. Sloan went to my mother’s high school in Illinois – he was a few years behind her in school - and he went to college at the University of Evansville about 15 years before I went to school there. He talked about growing up in a one room school where the only teacher was also the basketball coach, and boys and girls played together on the same team because it was such a small school. He said that he was secretly glad when he got to high school and girls no longer played with the boys because his best friend’s sister was a better ballplayer than either one of them.
After finishing his playing career with the Bulls, he accepted the head coaching job at Evansville but then thought better of it and resigned after 5 days. That fall, a plane crashed and killed the entire Evansville basketball team and staff, and that tragic event was a reminder that he has carried to this day that there are a lot of things in life more important than basketball. His speech was full of humility and thank yous to so many who had blessed him along the way.
And then Michael Jordan, probably the greatest player of all time, gave his speech. But Jordan used his speech as an opportunity to ridicule anyone who he had perceived as offending or slighting him in any way – former teammates, other NBA players, owners, high school coaches, college coaches, on and on. He had climbed to the top but still felt the need to put others down,
And what could have been a great evening turned into an awkward moment.
This argumentative, me-first mindset is everywhere. I could mention Serena Williams at the U.S. Open or Kanye West at the Video Music awards. And it’s not just celebrities.
A 16-year-old Connecticut high school student fell asleep in class, and his teacher smacked her palm on his desk to wake him up. Guess what? His parents are suing Danbury High. You hear about these kinds of cases almost every day. How much time and energy and expense go into such things ach other that could go into more productive endeavors?
Like those disciples, we can argue and bicker while missing out on what is truly important. Turn on the TV and you can find TV preachers endlessly debate end-time scenarios while paying scant attention to Jesus’ admonition to love God and neighbor and minister to people in need.
Or closer to home, how many families spend time arguing over matters of relatively little consequence while weightier matters go unconsidered?
We need to be clear here; disagreement is not a bad thing. Quite often, it is a very good thing. It is important to have honest discussion, to air differences. But when Jesus got agitated, it was over a real issue. It was almost always about the hard-heartedness of others, about the lack of regard for the needs of people. The disciples, however, are entirely self-serving. They are arguing over who is number one.
What is going on in the story from Mark is an illustration of what James is talking about. James contrasts “wisdom from above,” God’s wisdom, with what he calls “earthly wisdom.” Rather than bitter envy and selfish ambition, he says that God’s wisdom is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality or hypocrisy. You can hear references to what we have already read in James as he makes mention of the need for works of mercy and the problems of both showing favoritism and the way we speak to one another. For James, wisdom has to do with action. Forrest Gump’s mama said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” I can’t argue with that, and James gives the corollary: wise is as wise does.
I don’t think human nature has changed all that much since the time that Jesus and James lived. In that day, life was all about hierarchies. There were national hierarchies: the Romans, and the conquered nations. Greeks looked down on everyone else, much as people from highly cultured folks might be tempted to look down on others. There were religious hierarchies, numerous groups with varying social and religious standing. There were economic hierarchies: rich and poor, those who owned land and those who didn’t. There were all kinds of hierarchies, and the disciples were simply trying to establish their own hierarchy. Who was the greatest among them?
All of this sounds somehow familiar. We love to argue about who is better, whether it is sports or politics or religion or American Idol. And we all look out for ourselves. We are concerned about “what’s in it for me.” Greed is rampant.
I heard this week that Whirlpool Corporation is shutting down its plant in my hometown of Evansville, Indiana and moving 1100 jobs to Mexico. My dad worked there his entire career, and at one time Whirlpool employed 10,000 employees in Evansville. I know that there are kids whose families depend on those jobs just as my family did when I was growing up. I really don’t know enough to make a judgment on this decision, but there is no doubt that greed has led to many folks losing their livelihoods while those at the top get bonuses. Selfish ambition has a lot to do with our current economic woes.
Jesus had an inkling as to what the disciples had been discussing. He said, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” And then Jesus took a child in his arms and said, “Whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me.”
When I was talking about hierarchies in the ancient world, I left one out: the hierarchy in families. Today, family life is often centered on children: taking kids to ballgames and dance lessons and school activities. But this kind of pattern has only emerged fairly recently. It was not so in Jesus’ day. Mortality rates were such that many children did not survive, and there was not the emotional attachment toward children that we have today. Children were really to be neither seen nor heard, especially in a gathering of men. The value of children came only when they were old enough to contribute something to the family.
Jesus’ point cannot be missed. The disciples argued over who was the greatest, but Jesus redefined greatness for them. This is not a romantic statement about how wonderful children are. Rather, it is a statement about how we ought to treat those of low status. True greatness is seen in caring for those in greatest need.
A pastor in the Dallas area says that he once served a small church that was growing. He made the comment that it was great to see 60 or 70 people each Sunday (which was more than the 35 they had averaged for some time).
The woman to whom he was speaking said that she had been counting, and she never came up with more than 45 or 50. The pastor was sure it was more like 60-70. So they decided to count the people there in church at that moment. The pastor started with a family of 6 sitting on the front pew. But before he got to the next pew, the woman stopped him and said, “You can’t count the children!” She continued, “You can’t count them because they don’t give money.” This pastor stood with his jaw to the floor as the woman walked away.
He said that he watched over the next year as the number of children grew smaller. The woman made a comment that now they were agreeing on the numbers. The pastor said that all the children had gone someplace where they count.
The disciples, with their egos and arrogance and concern for who was best and who was right and who was number one, were not open and receptive to what Jesus had to offer. But the same spirit that would welcome a child would welcome Jesus. And that, says James, is true wisdom.
Jesus and James both talk a lot about ambition today, but they are not arguing against ambition. We all need ambition, we all need goals. The problem, says James, is selfish ambition. Ambition that is all about you. Hopes and dreams and aspirations that center around increasing your own power and wealth and influence and outdoing others in the process. This kind of ambition will consume you. But neither James nor Jesus was opposed to ambition that seeks growth and justice and wellness and happiness for all of God’s children.
The CEO of a large corporation came from very little. He grew up over the small store that his father managed, and now he is in charge of a company that employs 60,000 people. “What do you want for your life?” he was asked. He responded, “I want the people who work for our company to be able to live good, whole, and happy lives.” There’s ambition for you.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a sermon titled The Drum Major Instinct.” In it, he spoke of how he would want to be remembered:
Every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral… And every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?”There’s ambition for you: aspiring to a committed life that serves others. That’s ambition, and that is “wisdom from above.” Amen.
… If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long… Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize… Tell them not to mention where I went to school.
… I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.
I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say.
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