Frank Laubach, who was a missionary to Africa, likes to tell the story of how he was shown a huge hydro electric dam there which provided power for a Firestone Plant. Inside the plant was this massive pipe leading into four huge turbines. Below the turbines the pipe continued out to the foot of the dam. All was quiet inside the power house.
Laubach wondered why the turbines were not running and he was told that the pipe was closed at the outlet. Once the gigantic value was opened at the outlet the water would flow through and the turbines would run.
Laubach commented about this later. He said "that is the way our lives are. The pipe must be open up toward God and open down toward others. Then the current can flow through and the wheels can go around and provide the power of God that we need.
We must be open toward God, and open towards others, otherwise the power we need can not be produced. A simple idea really, but one that is at the root of both the gospel and epistle reading today.
The gospel says, in verses 30 to 34, that Jesus and his disciples were travelling through Galilee, and Jesus was teaching his disciples about how the Son of Man was going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and be killed, and then on the third day rise; but that the disciples did not understand what he meant - and were afraid to ask him about it.
Instead, they were arguing, and we hear that when they arrived at Capernaum
Jesus asked them about it, saying: "what were you arguing about on the road"? But the disciples were silent because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest among them. A silly argument really - one that I am sure that no one here this morning would ever get into. I mean imagine it - trying to decide who is more important... What measuring stick would we use?
It is an endless argument once you get into it, and one the disciples did well to remain silent about when confronted by the master. Why this quest to determine who is most important? Why this quest to be number one so important to us?
I mean, why bother with the whole question?
Surely there is a different way of looking at life? A more helpful way - a way that totally avoids the question of greatness, the question of who should be first and instead looks at quality of life, at what James, in verse 18 of the epistle reading, calls the harvest of righteousness.
Jesus speaks of a different way of living and of thinking when after asking his disciples about what they were arguing about, calls all twelve of them together and says to them:
"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
And then taking a little child and having him stand among them, he takes the child in his arms and says to them:
Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
I have always liked that, both as an image, and as a teaching.
Jesus calls the twelve - and Jesus calls us today - away from our arguments about who is the greatest, and who deserves more and who should call the shots and turns our mind instead to the question of our attitude and how willing we are to humble ourselves and to serve one another. Children were not valued at the time of Jesus in the way they are today. They had no rights. There were no United Nations declarations about how they should be treated, and what it is that they deserve out of life. Children were not the most important persons in their families, nor were they
considered to be the greatest members of their society.
Rather children were expected to be obedient to their parents and to help the family earn its living. Their needs were subordinate to the needs of the entire family and their role in the family was one of subservience.Who are the children today?
who are those people who are not highly regarded?
who are those without a place of their own?
those without a leg to stand on?
Those whose voices are heard not because they have a right to be heard, but only because the more powerful indulge them from time to time?
Who is seen as less important, by us, and by our society?
Whoever welcomes one of these in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
What Jesus is saying, is that life in the Kingdom of God is not about being the greatest, or the first... but rather about seeing other people as important and this not in degree - not in measurement, but rather in an absolute way, a way that ignores all distinctions.
Life lived according to the way of Christ is a life of opening ones arms and welcoming people into our embrace - and showing them that we care. It is about opening the pipeline at both ends so nothing at all impedes the flow of power, the flow of love, that produces the harvest we all need and desire the harvest that comes when we live as peacemakers and sow the seeds of peace each day.
To be a peacemaker, to enjoy the harvest of righteousness, requires an attitude of peace, an attitude of humility. It requires the recognition that it is really only God who is important, and that God is found in the simple things, in the lowly things, in the ordinary things. This brings us to God's gifts and his irrevocable call - in Romans 11:29
It is dangerous to align our calling and our vocation as dependent on each other. God calls us into relationship with him. That is our foremost calling. It is from this relationship that our "physical" calling results.
Whether that is to be a teacher, a doctor, garbage collector, a stockbroker, a street sweeper, a nurse, a pastor, or any number of vocations, we must realize that when God calls us, the change in vocation never changes God’s call on our lives. It is a mere change in the landscape of our calling.
This is why it is dangerous to associate our purpose and calling too closely with our work. When we define our work life exclusively as our calling, we fall into the trap of locking up our identity into our vocation. This promotes aspiration because of a need to gain greater self-worth through what we do.
The great artist Picasso, fell into this trap. "When a man knows how to do something," Pablo Picasso told a friend, "he ceases being a man when he stops doing it." The result was a driven man. Picasso's gift, once idolized, held him in thrall. Every empty canvass was an affront to his creativity.
Like an addict, he made work his source of satisfaction only to find himself dissatisfied. "I have only one thought: work," Picasso said toward the end of his life, when neither his family nor his friends could help him relax. [Os Guiness, The Call (Nashville, Tennessee: Word Publishing, 1998), 242.]
What happens when we lose our job? Do we lose our calling? Do we lose our identity? Do we lose our sense of well-being? No. Calling involves different stages and experiences in life. Disruptions in our work are an important training ground for God to fulfill all aspects of His calling in our life. Trust in our God who says our calling is irrevocable and that all things come from Him.
What is it that we want out of life? Or from God? I think for most of us, we are looking for a better life for ourselves and our families and our world.
This can only come to us when we give up the world's standards of success as they are measured by power, status, and money - and turn as humble children to our Father in Heaven and learn from him.
we block out our calling, and what God has in store for us, and our world.
Jesus came among us not as a Lord, not as a boss, not as an important person but as servant. He came to touch, to embrace, to heal, to forgive, to help, to love. Even though he knew it would take him to the cross.
Our prayer should not be "make me someone important", nor should it be "give me wealth and success". Rather, knowing that God is fully able and fully willing to give us what we need in this life, and that our God is found in those whom the world regards of no account, not important, and our prayer should be like that of St. Francis.
Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love with all my soul. Make me a channel of your peace for it is in pardoning that I am pardoned; in giving that I receive; and in dying that I am born to eternal life.
Blessed be God, who shows us the way in Christ Jesus,
day by day, day by day.
-- Amen--
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
September 24, 2006