October 21, 2018, First Congregational Church, Baraboo
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, who sent your word to live among us. Amen.
So what if you could be God?
If you listened to God’s response to Job today, you can hear that it is a pretty awesome job.
“I laid the foundation of the earth… sent forth lightnings… put wisdom in the inward parts, gave understanding to the mind.”
Or if you can’t be God, how about a place of honor right next to Jesus? That sounded like a good idea to a couple of Jesus’ closest followers. Surely we could at least hope for that, couldn’t we?
Let me tell you a little bit about Bruce Nolan.
For folks with long memories about movies, we first met Bruce in 2003 in a movie called Bruce Almighty. Jim Carey played the role of Bruce, Steve Carrell was his arch nemesis Evan Baxter, Jennifer Aniston was his girlfriend Grace. Oh yeah, and there was one other main character - God, played with great style by Morgan Freeman.
Bruce is TV reporter who wants to be an anchor. He gets passed over for his rival, Evan Baxter. Bruce goes on an unfortunate on-air rant about this, gets fired, gets beat up by street thugs when he tries to help a homeless man and then his car is vandalized. He begins to feel a little bit like a Job character, although he is not quite as righteous as the Job of the Bible.
When Bruce gets home that evening, battered and bruised, Grace says, “Thank God, you’re alright.”
To which Bruce replies, “God? Yeah, let’s thank God, shall we? For his blessings are raining down upon me. Wait! That’s not rain!”
Grace asks if Bruce thinks that God is picking on him. No, says Bruce, going into his best whine: “God is ignoring me completely. He is far too busy giving Evan everything he wants.” He describes God as a mean kid with a magnifying glass sitting on an ant-hill burning him up.
This all escalates into a standoff with Grace and Bruce angrily leaves in his car, where he has a little chat with God.
“OK, God, you want me to talk to you? Tell me what’s going on. What should I do? Send me a sign. Lord, I need a miracle.” Then he crashes his car into a light pole. Which leads to another rant:
“Smite me, almighty smiter. You’re the one who should be fired. The only one around here not doing his job is you. ANSWER ME!”
Yes, it’s been a bad day for Bruce. Not anywhere near as bad as what Job had gone through. As a result of a wager between God and The Adversary known as The Satan, Job lost his livestock, servants, and his ten children. He is afflicted with horrible skin sores. He had his three friends come and remind him that he probably had this coming. Pastor Doug told you some of those stories over the past couple of weeks.
In the run-up to today’s reading, like Bruce, Job does not understand why God is doing this, but Job focuses on the fact that he really has lived a good life.
Bruce is content simply to blame God. Then he gets a mysterious message summoning him to an abandoned office building where he meets God, who looks a lot like Morgan Freeman. There’s some great and humorous back and forth, ending with God saying, “I’m here to offer you a job.”
“Job?” asks Bruce. “What job?”
“My job,” says God. “When you leave this building you will be endowed with all my powers.”
Wow! How cool would that be? Bruce is perplexed at first, but then discovers he can do amazing and mischievous things, even moving the moon and the stars as he seduces Grace,
Over time, though, Bruce starts trying to make everything right in the world, he creates chaos, he cannot keep up with all the prayers and he finally gives the power back to God.
God is God and Bruce is not. That’s sort of what God was telling Job. That’s also true for us, although sometimes we can forget that.
Susan Werner is a folk singer and composer who grew up on a farm about 45 minutes straight west of Dubuque, Iowa. She has a song on her album called Gospel Truth titled “Our Father (the new revised edition).” Here’s the chorus:
“Thy Kingdom come to every nation, thy will be done in everything we do.
“Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from those who think they’re you.”
“Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from those who think they’re you.”
Over a few verses, she offers some ideas on who those people might be, singing, “Deliver us from the creepy preachers, with their narrow minds and very wide lapels…from politicians who drop your name in every speech as if they’re your best friend from high school, as if they practice what they preach.”
“Thy Kingdom come to every nation, thy will be done in everything we do.
“Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from those who think they’re you.”
“Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from those who think they’re you.”
I’d say there are no shortage of people in our world who get themselves confused with God. I’ll bet you can come up with a few in short order - people in public office, movie moguls who think they can demand whatever they want from the women who work for them, bosses in workplaces who except everyone to jump at their commands. It’s an easy list to make. And surely none of us would be on that list, right?
We don’t need to be God - it seems like a job with a lot of work. All we need is a place of honor next to Jesus. Who among us wouldn’t want that? That’s all James and John wanted. But their timing was a little odd.
We don’t need to be God - it seems like a job with a lot of work. All we need is a place of honor next to Jesus. Who among us wouldn’t want that? That’s all James and John wanted. But their timing was a little odd.
Just before the passage we heard today, Jesus was on the road with his disciples heading to Jerusalem. This is his last trip to Jerusalem and we know it’s not going to end well. He gives his closest followers a preview of what is to come.
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem,” Jesus said, “and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
It was right after that that James and John stepped forward, seemingly unconcerned about what was about to happen to Jesus but seeing in it a great opportunity for themselves. “Let us sit with you in your glory, one on your left, one on your right.”
There would be two people on Jesus’ left and right when he died, but they would not be James and John. They would be a couple of thieves. Funny how Jesus always wound up with the outcasts, even in the last moments of his life.
Remember how God responded to Job with questions? We only heard about a dozen of the 60 questions in that section from the Book of Job. Now Jesus responds with a question as well: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Sure, say, James and John, having no idea what they just agreed to.
And then their colleagues among the 12 followers get into the act. As Mark put it, “When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.” Ya think?
Time for a lesson in servanthood, said Jesus. You know how people who are rulers lord it over others. Some of them are even tyrants. We know those folks in our day as well. Jesus tells his followers that they are called to live in a different way.
He put it this way: “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”
Here’s where I think this all begins to come home to us in Baraboo on this Sunday morning in October.
The easy part is to pick on those we think are acting like God. But it also is useful to remind ourselves now and then that God is God and weare not.
It’s also useful to remind ourselves that those who think and act as if they are God are not really God either. The early Christians used the phrase “Jesus is Lord” to remind themselves that despite what he thought, Caesar was not the god they followed.
And I need to remind myself of that as well. One my favorite mantras comes from Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Job understood that message at the end of God’s words from the whirlwind: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Chapter 42)
We’re not sure if James and John really got Jesus’ message until later. Clearly they did eventually, but as with us, it may have taken them a while.
It’s so tempting to look for the advantages we can get for ourselves. I know that’s a temptation for me. I’ll bet it is for many of you as well. Could I bask in someone else’s glory? Could I ride their coattails to honor? Could I do it without really having to pay a price of my own? So what if I have to run over a few of my friends and colleagues on the way. Surely I deserve it, don’t I?
Jesus really had two messages for his followers - that would include you and me.
One was about servanthood. The other was about suffering.
We sang about being a servant as we entered into this time of reflection. It is one of the things that ought to define us as followers of Jesus.
I know there are people who make that part of their lives. You were part of the CROP Walk last Sunday to help close the hunger gap. You help build houses through Habitat for Humanity. You work to help victims of the summer floods here.
When Susan Werner was singing about creepy preachers and name-dropping politicians, she also took note of what God’s kingdom is supposed to look like, singing “Lord, send us forth to be of service, to build the schools, to dig the wells…to bring compassion to every corner of the world.”
When Susan Werner was singing about creepy preachers and name-dropping politicians, she also took note of what God’s kingdom is supposed to look like, singing “Lord, send us forth to be of service, to build the schools, to dig the wells…to bring compassion to every corner of the world.”
When Bruce Nolan gave up being God, he returns to TV reporting focusing on stories of service, gives blood and then encounters that homeless man he once tried to help and discovers that he is another manifestation of God (who once again looks a lot like Morgan Freeman).
That sense of service is important and it has the added benefit of often making us feel good about ourselves. Which is why Jesus added that part of about being able to drink the cup he would drink - a cup of suffering and death. He was telling James and John - and us - that the road to glory runs straight through the valley of suffering and death.
That’s not as comforting a message as serving one another. You know - come join our church, you can suffer and be killed here is not a great recruitment campaign. It’s not a message that we should go out and seek suffering - that would be masochistic. But it is a message that if we are going to follow Jesus, we are going to have to take risks and those risks could be costly.
If we are going to stand against hate, people may hate us.
If we are going to stand against the belittling of others, people may belittle us.
If we are going to welcome the stranger, protect the abused, befriend those returning from prison, defend the oppressed, we may face suffering in the process.
If being God turns out not to easy, neither is being a follower of Jesus. We have to continually struggle with putting our own best interests, our chance at the best place aside.
I’d like to end with a prayer which will then lead us into our regular time of prayer. It’s one of my favorites and I’ll be it is familiar to many of you. I think it captures the spirit of our readings this morning,. It is a prayer in the spirit of Francis of Assisi.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
