Sermon: Mark 10

Mark 10:35-45

James & John just did not understand. They just didn’t get it. One can just imagine the expression on Jesus’ face when James & John came up to him and asked him if they could have these seats of glory. Had they not listened? Did they not yet know? Over and again, Jesus had taught them. Time after time, Jesus had demonstrated by action and by word what true greatness, what true glory was about, but James and John did not understand.

They had just seen the rich young man come up to Jesus, trying to prove his greatness to the Lord, only to have been redirected to the true spiritual journey of humility. Only days before, Jesus had interrupted an argument among the disciples about who was the greatest. The greatest among you is the one who puts others first, and themselves last.

How clear could you get? Has not Jesus’ teachings been crystal clear. Yet, hear we are again. James and John just did not understand.

This time, the argument was about personal glory and positions of power. Whatever happened, James and John wanted to be in charge. James & John begin to see visions of their own glory, expectations of how good it will be for them, forgetting their life of discipleship, forgetting the spiritual journey to which they have been called. James and John forgot Jesus’ teachings.

It is easy for us to forget. It is easy for us to think about our own glory, our own interests, our own desires, and to forget about the needs of others, forget about the true meaning of being a disciple of Christ.

To have any glory in our own life, we must set aside the tempting vision of finding Personal Privilege, but by the grace of God, put on the likeness of Christ, who chose not to be served, but to find glory in serving others.

St. Francis of Assisi is a figure familiar to us all. He was the man who began the Franciscan order, a revival monastic movement in the early 13th century that has continued into our own time. St. Francis is a well known figure in the life of the church.

The simplicity and poverty, the humility and life of service that characterize him and those who have joined his movement, is known all over the world. Yet, there was a time in Francis’ life, when he did not understand. There was a time when he saw only his own glory, and did not know the way of Jesus.

Francis was born to a wealthy family in the city of Assisi. His father was a merchant who was always away on business. Francis was brought up to take his father’s place, to run the business. He was well educated, and lived the fashionable life of a young aristocrat among the wealthy Italian elite.

Francis was a warrior, he fought in the major battles of that day, leading men waging war, seeking their glory in battle. Yet he felt the emptiness of this type of so called glory. Francis had a deeper yearning in his heart. There was in his soul a calling to a life more fulfilling. There was a calling to the richness found in a life following the glory of God, not in seeking glory for oneself.

Francis went on a pilgrimage to Rome, which was common in that day. He went more out of sense of duty than out of desire; but something happened while he was on that journey.
Francis saw beggars sitting outside the great church in Rome. In the midst of all of the grandeur of the church, its wealth and it so-called earthly glory, here were beggars. The poor and the destitute filled the streets of Rome, the richest city in the world.

The contradiction deeply disturbed him. How could the church of Christ, surrounded by all this wealth, reconcile having beggars sit outside its doors? Francis saw how people treated them. With disregard and abuse, the beggars suffered to make it through the day.

In response to a deep yearning in his soul, Francis was touched by the grace of God. Francis decided that he would sit with the beggars. He decided that, instead of judging the beggars, he would sit with them, get to know them, and come to understand who they were.

Why would such a wealthy man, with such a bright future risk it all and do such a thing? Deep in his soul, Francis was touched by the Grace of God. He began to understand that it is not in judging others that we are made right with God and our neighbor; It is not is glorifying ourselves that we are made right with God and our neighbor; Rather, it is in serving God by serving our neighbor that do the will of God.

This experience led Francis to take other risks of service. He began caring for the lepers in his community. He began praying, fasting, and reading scripture. One day, in the ruins of an old church on the outskirts of his town, Francis felt he hear the voice of Christ, tell him to rebuild this church and make it a house that cared for the poor.

Francis took his money and, to the dismay of his father, gave to the priest. In the next few years, Francis rebuilt four old churches in his city, by tirelessly seeking money and support from everyone he encountered.

In the year 1209 while assisting at Holy Communion in a church near Assisi, Francis came to understand the words of Christ as a personal admonition to a life of peace, simplicity and poverty, and thereafter resolved to live a life preaching repentance, brotherly love and a life of peace with all of God’s creatures.

Instead of searching for glory for oneself, Francis chose to live a life of humility. When he was a young man, Francis did not understand. He thought that life as about finding glory for himself.
But God stirred up a deep yearning in his soul, that was brought to the surface when he encountered brothers and sisters in need. Francis looked upon those people in need with the eyes of Christ, given by the grace of God, and Francis could never again turn away.

When we open our eyes to the need around us, when we stop just looking our for our own glory, then the eyes of Christ can be seen in us.

Author Schiendler was a business man. He was a business man in Poland in the late 1930’s. Mr. Schiendler knew how to make a fast buck. The Nazi’s had come rolling in with little opposition, and Mr. Schiendler began thinking how he might profit from the political and social changes that were underway.

It soon became obvious what the Germans were going to do with the Jewish community.
Seizing their property and forcing over a million people into only 16 square blocks, the Germans created the Krakow Ghetto, and required all Jews to live their under guard.

Mr. Schiendler saw this as an opportunity to make alot of money. First, Mr. Schiendler took the money of the Jewish people and invested it in his own name in a business venture that would profit from the war. Then, by bribing Nazi officials, Mr. Schiendler gained permission to allow hundreds of Jews to work as slave labor.

Mr. Schiendler was a despicable man. He compromised what few honorable qualities he had by joining in with the evil of the Nazi movement for his own profit. Some might call this Worldly Glory, worldly wealth, made at the expense of other people… That’s a very popular thing ya know…

But something changed Mr. Scheindler. It didn’t happen quickly, there was no immediate conversion. But over the months that he working along side these Jewish people, he started to became friends with them. He began to respect some of them, not as just objects that he could exploit for money, but began to know them as people. In particular was an accountant that he allowed to keep his books. Mr. Schienddler came to know this man as a valuable friend.

As the years pasted, the war began to turn. The Nazis, feeling the pressure of the war on their resources, began what was known as the Final Solution: The final solution to their hatred of the Jews. They took the Jews out of the Ghetto into concentration camps, and began to exterminate them.

It was here that Mr. Schiendler’s transformation became complete. The more he saw the brutality and horror of what was done, the more he began to see who he really was, the more he became ashamed of what he had done. He had become a millionaire off the abuse of other people. Mr. Schiendler began to help the Jewish people. He could only do so much in the midst of the horror of the Holocaust, but he did what he could. He began to defend those who had been working for him. He hid his concerns behind a veil of claiming to need trained workers. He made lists of his workers, trying to keep them out of the concentration camps, trying to keep them alive.

Finally, near the end in 1945, the order came to kill them all, even those who Mr. Schiendler had defended as necessary for production. At great risk to himself, Mr. Schiendler made his final bribe.

He paid the millions of dollars he had made during the war to the Commandant of the Concentration camp for the lives of these Jewish workers. He was able to board them on a train and send them to Chekosylvakia, where he hid them until the end of the war.

Mr. Schiendler was able to save hundreds of people from the gas chamber because he finally stopped just thinking about himself and his own glory, and began thinking about the lives of others. Mr. Schiendler was a despicable man, until he overcame his prejudice, until he overcame his greed, overcame his callous disregard for humanity. And this happened because he looked into the eyes of another human being and saw them as he brother and sister. He looked into the eyes of someone and saw the image of God. He finally understood that all of us are created in the image of God, all of us are valuable in the eyes of God, and all of us should be valuable to one another.

This is the message of Christ. This is the very foundation of the Kingdom of God, that we love God with our whole heart, and love our neighbor as ourself. To love God means that we will love one another. The Kingdom of God, on earth, as it is in heaven.

This kingdom, this glory is found in self-sacrifice and self-giving love. Not in personal Glory. This is the meaning of this table.

Kevin Higgs