The Cup is the Reward

Homily for Sunday, October 13, 2024
The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 10:35-45

So we ordained our new bishop yesterday.

  And I’m really excited about it.

Her name is Julia Whitworth

  and I actually went to seminary with her

So I know her a bit,

    and I’ve followed the work she’s done

  creating intentional communities in Indiana

     much like Creche.

She’s a savvy leader

  she’s a prayerful visionary,

And, I honestly think,

  she’s exactly what we need right now.

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I’ve been looking forward to this weekend

  since her election in May.

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But one thing I noticed during the election process

 is that The Episcopal Church

has an uncomfortable relationship

  with authority and power and ambition.

We want our bishop candidates

  to act like they don’t want the job.

We get suspicious if they seem to want it too much

  and they’re definitely not supposed to campaign for it.

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And many, many times these past few months

  I’ve heard someone say

    “I would never want to be a bishop,”

and invariably someone responds with,

  “well that means you’d make a good one.”

And I’m always like,

  “No, no it doesn’t!”

    That makes zero sense!

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I wouldn’t go to a dentist who didn’t want to be a dentist

  I wouldn’t I trust my car to a mechanic

    who didn’t want to be a mechanic.

Why on earth would I want a bishop

  who doesn’t want to be a bishop?

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I want a bishop who loves the job

  I want a bishop who shows up every day thinking,

    “Yes, this is exactly what I want to be doing.”

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I want that for anyone in leadership.

And most days,

  that is how I feel about my work

directing Creche

  and creating neo-monastic,

    intentional communities

  like the Trinity House.

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I love the work,

  I believe in the work,

    and I think I’m pretty good at it.

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And therein lies one of the hazards of leadership.

On one hand,

  a leader does need a strong sense of self,

    you need enough confidence

  to believe that your ideas are worth hearing

enough ego to believe that you can succeed

  and enough ambition to actually attempt it.

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But wow, confidence, ego, ambition

  these are dangerous things

and the church has rightly regarded them with suspicion

  at least since this passage from Hebrews was written.

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Because it is a very, very small step

  from “I want to offer my gifts in service to the gospel,

    and one of those gifts is leadership”

  to “I deserve to be in charge.”

    or “I’m entitled to power.”

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Many of us have known leaders

  who succumbed to that way of thinking.

Many of us have struggled with that ourselves

  and not just priests,

but anyone who leads,

  managers, donors, volunteers,

    even parents.

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It’s a narrow road to walk

and I think James and John

  in this gospel story

  are having some trouble with it.

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Now James and John

  did enjoy a special place of privilege.

The New Testament shows Jesus having hundreds of followers,

  and then there’s the Twelve Disciples,

and then there’s Peter, John, and James.

  they’re Jesus’s most intimate, inner circle.

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John is called “The Beloved Disciple.”

  He is always close by Jesus’s side,

    and he not only wrote one of the gospels,

     but also the Book of Revelation

  James is called “James the Great.”

    and he was the first Bishop of Jerusalem.

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Together, Jesus calls them “the Sons of Thunder.”

It’s clear that they were gifted leaders

  passionately devoted to Jesus and his mission.

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And one day,

  after leaving their families and careers behind,

    after years of seeing wonders and working wonders,

they come to Jesus and say,

  “hey, when all this is said and done,

  we want the places of highest honor in your kingdom.”

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Now I don’t know what Jesus thought

  when he heard this,

but it’s easy for me to imagine

  it was something like:

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You think you’re entitled to a reward?

You have a community,

  you have a purpose,

    you have… me.

  Is that not enough?

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But Jesus, ever the patient teacher,

  doesn’t say any of those things.

Instead, he responds with a question of his own:

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Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?

  Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?

That’s interesting.

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Because “cup” is a complex metaphor

  in Hebrew scripture.

It can mean a blessing,

  like in the 23rd Psalm

You anoint my head with oil,

  my cup overflows.

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Or it can mean hardship,

  like in the 11th Psalm

A scorching wind shall be

  the portion of their cup.

Or in garden of Gethsemane,

  when Jesus prays

    “Abba, God, take this cup from me.”

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And I think Jesus,

  who was well versed in the psalms

  and quotes them all the time,

chose this word in the fullness of its meanings

  The blessings and the hardships.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?

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The sons of thunder rush to assure him

  that they can drink it.

And, indeed, the rest of their lives

  were filled with blessings and hardships.

James the Great became the first of the twelve to be martyred.

  King Herod executes him by sword in the Book of Acts.

And John, the beloved disciple,

  dies in exile on the isle of Patmos.

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And yet, I suspect that at the end of it all,

  neither one of them would have chosen

    to live their lives any other way.

Not because they still wanted those seats of honor,

  but because the blessings made the hardships worthwhile.

And a life lived in the light of the gospel

  is its own reward.

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Sitting at Jesus’s right and left

  aren’t the reward for drinking the cup

  The cup is the reward.

That’s why Jesus answers them

  with this question.

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The reward for following Jesus

  is following Jesus.

The reward for discipleship

  is a life of discipleship.

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I have definitely found that to be true in my life.

My life is happier, more exciting, more interesting,

  I even like myself more

when I’m practicing discipleship.

Things like prayer, christian community, and justice making.

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The reward for prayer is prayer.

I think of it like date night with my wife.

We’re both busy people;

  setting aside time to be together

    isn’t always easy and it isn’t always convenient.

But I would never ask her,

  “What’s my reward for spending time with you?”

Time with her is the reward.

  and it’s sustained our marriage for sixteen years.

Prayer is the same.

  The reward for spending time with God

    is time spent with God.

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And setting aside time to be in Christian community together

    isn’t always easy and isn’t always convenient.

But we show up for each other.

We show up to worship,

  we show up to celebrations

We show up to grieve

  we carry boxes when someone’s moving

    we bring each other food when someone’s sick

And we do it because

  to love and be loved in community

    is lifegiving.

  The reward for being here is being here.

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And as followers of Jesus, 

  we’re committed to the work of justice.

To guard the dignity of the poor,

  to care for the aliens in our land,

    to dismantle racial oppression.

  to protect queer children.

We donate our resources

  we volunteer our time

we march in protests

  we advocate for change.

So that the kingdoms of the earth

  might reflect the kingdom of God.

And pursuing that work

  leads us on adventures we couldn’t have predicted,

Meeting people we would never have known

  Finding joy we couldn’t have imagined.

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Jesus says that he can’t offer us a seat at his right hand,

  but he can offer us this cup.

And that is good news for all of us

  whether we hold positions of leadership or not.

We can drink the cup that Jesus drinks

  without ego or entitlement.

And we can have the confidence to lead,

  the groundedness to cast bold visions

  and the courage to pursue them.

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James and John got there by the end

  and so can we.

May God give us the grace and power

  to live lives as adventurous,

and vibrant,

  and purposeful

as the sons of thunder.

Amen.

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