21st Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” That is the request of the brothers James and John. Back then, rulers would sit on their thrones, surrounded by advisers. The advisers immediately to his right and left had the ruler’s ear. They had the most influence and as a result the greatest power.

Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem, the capitol, the seat of both worldly and religious power. Surely, Jesus is going there to claim that power. And once he sits in glory on his newly acquired throne, James and John would like to have those seats of power to his right and left.

Where do they get this idea? From the world around them. The Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Judah, the business world, the whole of society are all based on the same model of what power means and how it is used. One emperor kills the next to usurp the throne, generals rival one another for promotions, senators maintain their seats by badmouthing any opponents, one business tries to run another into ruin – we know this world.

We describe it as a “dog-eat-dog” world. We use sayings like “Every man for himself!” and “Look out for number one!” We learn early on that we have to be “cutthroat” and an “alpha male or female” and make sure we are on the bus so we don’t get run over by the bus.

“But it is not so among you,” Jesus says to his disciples. Gentiles behave that way. The world at large behaves that way. But you as children of God and followers of Jesus Christ, you are not that way. In the church, the body of Christ in the world, the baptized community led by the Holy Spirit, things should not be that way. No power grabbing, no lording over one another, no throwing each other under the bus. It is not so among you.

Jesus calls members of the church and especially church leaders to follow his example of how to use power: Jesus had immense powers as the Son of God; he used those powers not to glorify himself, but to serve and to heal and to lift others up.

It sounds simple. The vast majority of pastors enters ministry with the pledge to be a servant to God’s people, following the model of Jesus Christ. They are sincere in their desire to be faithful to that pledge. However, the lure of power and recognition and fame and adoration is very tempting. Sometimes, church leaders can’t resist.

I am currently following a podcast called “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”. It tells the story of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1996 by three men holding Bible study in their apartment. One of them was Mark Driscoll.

He was a powerful speaker. He was edgy, wore blue jeans on stage, and reveled in the role of combative preacher and leader. His message and his charismatic persona attracted more and more people. By 2013, the ministry had grown to a multi-site network of 15 churches in 4 states, with over 12,000 worshipers and over a quarter of a million online viewers per week. Pastor Mark Driscoll reached thousands of people who felt like mainline denominations weren’t a good fit for them. That was great.

However, all that growth and fame and adoration tempted him to seek more and more power. His edginess became bullying. He claimed the role of lead pastor by pushing the two co-founders out. He demanded a change to the constitution that consolidated more power with him, and when two elders opposed the move, he held a church trial against them, kicked them out, and told church members to shun them.

What started as grittiness and edginess became abusive. For example, he refused to promote an overweight elder because his “fat ass” would tarnish Mars Hill’s image. When a nationally known preacher was caught with a male prostitute, he wrote, “It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband … is not responsible for his sin, but she may not be helping him either.” When the Episcopal Church elected a female bishop, Driscoll said this was a step toward voting in “a fluffy bunny rabbit to lead God’s men”. Overall, he bullied members, threatened opponents, lied, and oversaw mismanagement of church funds.

Pastor Driscoll referred to himself as “The Brand” and said that Mars Hill would always be about him in the pulpit holding the Bible. It was not about serving any more, it was about himself. He abandoned Jesus’ call to be a servant and instead expected others to serve him. He lorded over others, adapting the understanding of power from the “gentiles”, the world at large. In fact, he himself once said, “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace, it’ll be a mountain by the time we are done. You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus.”

“It is not so among you,” Jesus says. In the church, this kind of power-grabbing and power-abusing behavior ought not to have any place. People get hurt when we act that way. In the gospel story, the brothers’ request immediately stirs anger within the group of disciples and Jesus has to soothe the situation with his call to servanthood. In Mark Driscoll’s church, lots and lots of people were hurt and left the church. Many struggled with their faith after what they had experienced at Mars Hill.

Jesus doesn’t want this to happen. Jesus wants the church to a place where power is handled in a different way. Among Jesus’ followers, greatness is not achieved by lording over others, but by serving others. Jesus modeled that for us when he willingly suffered and died, giving his life as a ransom for many. By his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus freed us from the power structures of the world, from the rat race, from the need to climb ladders and to put others down in order for us to go ahead. We are free from all that. All we have to do is claim that freedom and live accordingly.

In the September 21st episode of the podcast, the host is talking to Andy Crouch, author of “Playing God - Redeeming the Gift of Power” and other books. Mr. Crouch shared an illustration that spoke to me and illuminated what Jesus is getting at. The following are his thoughts from the podcast.

In the late summer of 1997, within the same week, both Princess Diana and Mother Teresa died. At the time, they were the two most well-known women in the world. Their paths to celebrity and influence, however, was vastly different.

Everyone wants to be Diana. In reality, though, only one person in the whole world can ever be like her: married to the Prince of Wales. She was beautiful, and she had access to personal make-up artists, and chefs and trainers. You and I have absolutely no shot at ever being Diana.

Not so with Mother Teresa. Anyone could be like her. All she was is a saint, and anyone can be a saint if he or she opens themselves up to Jesus.

We do have role models for godly use of power, Andy Crouch says. We just don’t want the suffering that comes with it; the long stretches of anonymity and seeming ineffectiveness; the humiliation of being like our Lord. That part we would rather not have.

Every day I wake up, Mr. Crouch says, I can decide to follow the path of Teresa. I have absolutely no chance of making it on the path of celebrity; and yet, every day I am tempted to veer into some version of the path of celebrity rather than the path of sainthood.

Thus far Mr. Crouch’s thoughts.

I love this image. It illuminates for me what Jesus is trying to get across to the disciples in today’s gospel. James and John are trying to access and use power following the celebrity model, and if they themselves cannot be on the throne of glory, at last they want the seats immediately next to it and use some of its power for their own benefit.

Jesus directs them to the path of sainthood, of servanthood. You have been given power through the Holy Spirit. Use that power, not as power over others, but as power to serve others. Using power only for your own benefit turns you into a tyrant, like it did for Pastor Driscoll. But using your power for the benefit of others blesses their lives and builds relationships and makes you part of a mutually supportive community.

Instead of using power to look down on others, Jesus calls us to use power to support others. Pastor Chelsey Harmon described it this way: “We can be the shoulders that others stand on, the outstretched arm the helps make space for someone on the fringes to enter the center, the person who is happy to be a little smaller so that others can join in. We can become great and participate in his glory by being like Jesus, who was a servant and slave, committed to flourishing the whole world.”

We are called to be great by helping to create a great community through our service. In the world of power and competition, other people are commodities or obstacles; in the church, every person is a beloved child of God. In the world, it is survival of the fittest; in the church, it is thriving for everyone. In the world, power is used to hold others down; in the church, we use power to build one another up.

Never have we needed this building up of one another more than right now. I am increasingly exhausted by the interruptions caused by COVID, the vigilance it demands at all times, the obstacles it throws into everything we are trying to do here. I am weary.

At this time, what sustain me and blesses me, is not anyone’s celebrity or political power telling me how to be strong or else. What sustain me is the servant power of disciples like you: you stop to ask me how I am doing and really want to know; you pray for me; you leave a card on my desk with words of support and encouragement; you brighten my day with gifts from your garden. In so many quiet ways you tell me that I am a beloved child of God and part of the body of Christ. There is great power in that; not the way the world understands power, but the kind of power that is a blessing and that makes a difference.

Fellow travelers on the path of sainthood, thank you for all the ways in which you use your power to uplift one another. May God bless you as you travel on. Amen.

Information on Mars Hill Church is gleaned from the article “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Church” in the Seattle Times, originally published September 13, 2014 and updated February 4, 2016. 

Pastor Chelsey Harmon writes on the preaching website of the Center for Excellence in Preaching.