Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 20 October 2024
Recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdnMfwbMjmI from 22:47 to 41:06
 | Prayer |
 | [Slide 2 – James and John] James and John’s request to sit at Jesus’s right and left in the Kingdom of God comes as they are on their way to Jerusalem. It shows that they want to be in charge, to have all the privileges that go with any of the positions that are close to the King. They want to be VIPs and seen as great and glorious. Perhaps they think some of Jesus’s glory with rub off on them, perhaps they’re just being greedy. The other disciples weren’t at all happy with James and John trying to become more important than them. |
 | [Slide 3 – Who is the greatest ...] I wonder who you think is the greatest person that ever lived? Of course, for this, you can’t choose Jesus. I know that Jesus is the answer every time, and we will see that later, but for now let’s leave him out. [get answers and comment] |
 | [Slide 4 – List of the greats …] Here’s a list of candidates that people have voted for on a website called ranker.com Jesus Christ Leonardo da Vinci Isaac Newton Nikola Tesla Galileo Galilei Aristotle Martin Luther King, Jr. Albert Einstein Marie Curie Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Of course, this list is of its time, just as our ideas are. The list is affected by those who have chosen to vote, so it’s not what you’d call definitive. In Jesus day, the greatest person would have been a king, a political leader, a commander of an army, or a high ranking priest. All of these people lived in palaces and expected others to do their bidding. This is the sort of life that James and John were expecting, after Jesus’ death and resurrection. They don’t seem to be at all worried by the difficulties to come, they are focussed on the end game. We can tell this by their blasé response when Jesus asks them if they can drink the cup He is going to drink, and if they can be baptized with the baptism that He will be baptized with. Jesus is trying to make them see how hard it will be, but they do not care. |
 | [Slide 5 – Learn by your mistakes …] They say that you learn by your mistakes. It’s also true that we can learn by the mistakes of others, so let’s see what we can learn from James and John’s absolute howler. Jesus uses their request as a ‘teachable moment’. Here’s what he said: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Up-side down Here’s Jesus turning the ideas and practices of the world on their head. If God had followed the way of the world, His son would have been born in a palace to a King and Queen, and he would have grown up as a prince. Instead, he was born in obscurity, in an outhouse, among the animals, and he grew up as a carpenter. His life was spent among the poor, helping and healing them, not being served by them. So, when Jesus says that the son of man did not come to be served, He has already shown the truth of His statement. To serve - Activity Let’s see what it means to serve. For this I will need a few helpers. |
 | [Slide 6 – Serving Others - Activity] Activity [Ask the helpers to pair up. One of the pair must then select a sweet for the other. Then change the pairings, and ask those with sweets to select a sweet for their new partner] Review Activity That was a very simple, and imperfect illustration of what it means to serve. Did you get the sweet you wanted, or one that you don’t like? Perhaps it would have been better if you had chosen for yourselves. The problem with that is it leads to exactly what we have now, a society where the majority are only interested in their own lives and improving their lives, often at the expense of others. Lesson from activity Of course, we cannot serve the person we are serving just anyhow. We have to be giving them what they want. It would be better in our game to ask the person you were getting the sweet from what they like. Jesus often asked those he was about to heal what He could do for them. Who do we know who serves? [get answers] |
 | [Slide 7 – Greatest servants of all time] Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was harder to find a list of the greatest servants that have ever lived. So many of the lists included CEOs of large corporations and talked of their visionary leadership, those people were all very well paid for their genius, and would have had many others serving them. That is not what I was trying to find. I did find a few, though, who might just qualify (in no particular order): Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi Mother Teresa Nelson Mandela Jesus of Nazareth The problem with finding lists of people who serve is that most of them do it anonymously. How do we serve? We only hear about them by the organizations they serve with, like the RNLI or St. John’s Ambulance. The other time we may hear about them is when they win an award. Occasionally they will appear on local news as they receive an award they would probably rather not have. They will say something like “the work is its own reward”. There is a sense in which service is its own reward. |
 | [Slide 8 – Albert Schweitzer Quote] Each of us has to find our own way to serve others, as Albert Schweitzer said, “the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” Service Whether this is true or not, our calling, if we follow Christ, is to serve others. He is our example. He is the one who came to serve, to give up His life in that service, so that many could be saved. Without his choice to serve and to die on the cross, there would be no reconciliation with God. If we follow Him, then, just like the disciples, we must follow Him to Jerusalem, and to His death. We must follow His example and choose to serve others. There are endless ways we can do this, and we will find, if we try, that it is also the route to fulfilment and happiness. Benefits everyone If we are all serving someone else, then it is also true that we are all recipients of someone’s service. |
 | [Slide 9 – long spoons] This is illustrated by the allegory of the long spoons. This is usually used to describe the difference between heaven and hell. Let me explain. Imagine we are all around a large bowl of soup. Each of us has a small spoon with a very long handle. We could try to feed our selves, but by the time we have retrieved the soup, most of it has fallen off the spoon. That’s the top picture, if you can see it. This is hell. We are not getting enough to eat. However, if we choose to feed someone else, someone at the right distance for the long spoon, they will be well-fed, and if everyone does it, we will all be well-fed. – This is what heaven is all about. Conclusion The children had a poster to colour, it says “The servant is the greatest of all”. We can all want this greatness, and we can all have it. All we have to do is to find a way to serve – and there are so many ways to do that. I’ll leave you all to think of some new ones to try. Amen |
References:
https://mypastoralponderings.com/2021/10/16/how-to-become-great-my-sermon-on-mark-1035-45/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons
https://www.ranker.com/list/the-all-time-greatest-people-in-history/alan-smithee
https://ministry-to-children.com/he-came-to-serve-lesson/
https://sermons4kids.com/activities/to-be-like-jesus-group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer
