Let us pray - in the silence of the stars, in the quiet of the hills and in the heaving of the sea, you speak O Lord. In the words of the prophets and the message of the apostles, you speak O Lord. Now we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
How should we think about James and John, the sons of Zebedee? How should we think about the day they went to Jesus and said to him:
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
And when Jesus answered, "What is it you want me to do for you?" They replied:
"Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
How should we think about these two who were so forward that they not only wanted to stand out from the crowd, they also wanted to stand ahead of the other disciples and have the highest positions of power and privilege that they believed Jesus could grant.
We know how Peter and Matthew and Levi and the others reacted to James and John when they heard what James and John had asked Jesus to do for them. We know that they were angry with the sons of Zebedee, that they resented the two brothers' attempt to claim a position of privilege in the Kingdom of God.
And we know too how Jesus dealt with James and John, and what he said to all the disciples when he noticed their anger and resentment.
But that still doesn't answer the question - how should we think about James and John?
Should we regard them as being overly ambitious? Should we think less of them because they quite clearly seem to think too much of themselves?
Or should we just kind of ignore them and their obvious lack of sensitivity? Their lack of tact? Should we just kind of gloss over the affair and the reaction of the other disciples and of Jesus himself to their request?
My feeling is that we need to regard James and John and their audacious request with far more seriousness than we may want at first to give them.
My belief is that we should regard James and John as if they were us. And that then we should really listen to what Jesus had to say to them and to the other disciples.
Now let me qualify this.
I have never dreamed, and I doubt that any of you have ever dreamed, of actually sitting at the right hand of God and receiving all the glory and honour and respect and power that position has.
Most of us - even when we get into a really good political discussion with our friends and try to solve all the problems of Hong Kong - don't even really want to be in the government, let along to be the Chief Executive. No matter how much we may dream about what we do if we were in that position.
So for me to say that we should regard James and John as if they were us may seem to you to be a bit much, it may seem to you to be something that you can't relate to: something that only applies to those few people who are crazy with ambition, those few people who really do want, as Jesus states about the gentiles, to Lord it over others, those few arrogant ones who think that they are better, or that they know more, than everyone else.
But, my friends, that is too easy, it lets us off the hook that Jesus wants us on, the hook, which, when we embrace it, leads to wholeness for us and for our world.
We should regard James and John as if they were us. And we should listen o what Jesus had to say to them and to other disciples.
HOW MANY OF YOU, in your younger years, worked at odd jobs in the summer doing summer jobs, whether it be in shops, restaurants or offices.
Most of us have...
I think that its safe to say that we've usually had these jobs because they were expedient. We needed the money so we could have some pocket money, or because we needed to survive for a while until something else came along.
But we probably didn't aspire to these jobs as a life long profession - nor would we be delighted if one of our children said that she wanted to be a waitress when she grew up, or that he wanted to sweep the streets for the rest of his life.
We know that these jobs are important in that we think that they need to be done - but we probably don't think people should do them as a career - we probably think that they are best reserved for the very young, or for those who have no education and little hope of advancing their station in life.
We want better things then babysitting and street sweeping and waiting on tables for ourselves and for our children. We want to be paid well and we want our kids to earn a "decent" living. We want them to do something worthwhile. We want others to respect them and what they do. Like maybe they could become doctors or lawyers or accountants or run the family business or own their own computer repair business or nurse or teach or be computer programmers or x-ray technicians or heavy duty mechanics or owner-operators of their own business.
And that is good stuff - that's stuff that I want for my kids and I, like most parents, push my kids towards that stuff, I push them to get ahead.
As my father and mother did before me - so I do.
I ask them when they seem to be slacking off at school or when they are grumbling about the chores they have to perform, "Do you want to work at MacDonalds for the rest of your life? Do you want to dig ditches for a living?"
But you know - when I go to a restaurant - I want polite and attentive service.
And in the days I needed a babysitter for Ruth - I wanted someone who really cared for my child and knew how to keep an eye on her and how to react when she were getting into trouble.
If I hire to get someone to paint my house - I want it done right.
And I expect my garbage to be picked up promptly, the ditches along the highways to be properly dug, and all the debris on the streets and on the beaches I go to be cleaned up and stowed away in an environmentally friendly manner.
I want to be served, and to be served well. And so I believe so do we all.
I want to be respected, and listened to, and to have my opinions valued, and so I believe so do we all.
And I know and I believe that these wants are not wrong. And I know and I believe that these wants can easily go very wrong, and lead one first to insensitivity, and then to rudeness, and then to arrogance, and finally to tyranny.
And so my friends, when I really think about things, I have to struggle with myself. And I have to have help in that struggle, I have to have guidance: the guidance to realize that while I really don't want to be the Chief Executive of SAR Hong Kong or to Lord it over anyone else as the Gentiles do, I still, in one part of me at least, want more than I want to give or to have my children give. I need the guidance to realize that in me is a seed, that if watered, if indulged, can grow into an evil plant.
All of us have inside us somewhere James and John, all of us, in some part of our hearts and minds would rather be served than serve.
Indeed I think that even the most righteous among us occasionally dreams of the luxury of winning the Mark Six lottery and of living in ease the rest of our days rather than of the satisfaction of serving others and serving them well.
And so today, in the name of God, I deliver you a reminder.
A reminder about what Jesus had to say, and about what Jesus did.
Jesus said, "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to 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 as a ransom for many."
Jesus could not tell James or John who would end up sitting at his left or his right hand. As he said to them, it was not even something that he could grant. But I can tell you that Jesus himself sits at the right hand of God.
He sits there because he gave himself to us wholly and completely, because he served God and served us all with all of his heart and soul and body.
I can tell that you when he entered Jerusalem in triumph just a few days before his death, He rode an ass, not a stallion; and that he stayed in the humble home of a friend, not in some pretentious palace.
I can tell you that he gave food to the hungry and that he visited the sick, and that when he performed miracles he fled from the crowds that wanted to make him a king because of the power that they knew lay behind those acts.
I can tell you that Jesus didn't just wash people's souls clean of sin, he kneeled beside them and washed their feet clean of dust and dirt.
And not once did he complain that no one appreciated him, nor did he open his mouth when he was reviled and persecuted because he was a friend of sinners.
I offer you today a reminder of who is at the right hand of God and of some of the reasons for why he is there.
I offer you this reminder in the name of God, so that when you speak to your children, and when you consider what is worth while and what is worthy of respect and what jobs are beneath your dignity, and what insults you cannot bear, you will know what is right, and which seeds you should water, and which ones you should not.
I call you this day to remember James and John, and how you yourselves are like them.
And finally I call you to remember that James and John, were among the chosen ones and remained among the chosen ones, and that Jesus served them and gave his life for them.
As he has given his life for you.
Our reward is indeed in heaven - whether to the right or to the left or to the front or to the rear of our Servant King I cannot say - but I can say that God will embrace us and wipe every tear from our eyes and that all we will find there will make the glory we sometimes seek here seem like so much trash.
Praise be to God for the salvation he grants us through Christ Jesus our Lord, our brother, our friend, and our servant. Amen.
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