Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville (Trinity MCC)

What’s Your Status?

Rev. Jim Merritt

Trinity MCC

October 18, 2009

Introduction:

            What’s your status? How many times have you been asked that question? For many of us this question relates to facebook where we have a “status comment.” As I’m writing today, my facebook status says, “Happy Homecoming, Gators!” For others “What’s your status,” can be a question about health. Do you or do you not have HIV/AIDS? Do you or do you not have cancer? Are you in remission or is your disease active?   And for far too many members of the human family, the question of status comes down to a class issue. Are you rich or are you poor? Are you upper class, middle class, or lower class? Do you have a lot of money and possessions, do you have some money and some possessions, or do you have little to no money and very few possessions if any? What’s your status? Let’s think some more about that.

Gospel

            In today’s gospel we see the disciples discussing, okay, arguing about status. James and John were in many ways trouble makers. I have to admit that I like them very much. They are not known as the “Sons of Thunder” for no reason; they knew how to make it thunder. I can only imagine what it was like for their family when those two little mischievous boys were growing up. On this day they are at it again, and they are bold. They ask Jesus directly if the two of them can have those two high status, honored seats at the right and left hand of Jesus. We know boys will be boys and we already know that one of their other arguments would be who gets left and who gets right. Even on which side they are assigned to sit implies status. And Jesus warns them, “You don’t even know what you’re asking for.” Have you heard statements like that, “You have no idea what you’re asking for?” When Jesus talks to them about the cup that he drinks, he is not talking about fluids. Jesus is saying, “You have no idea about the implications of the life I live, about the paths that life will take me, you have no clue….” and therefore you have no idea what you are asking for to walk that closely with me. No idea.    And of course the other disciples are furious at this whole discussion which seems to imply to them that James and John are once again climbing all over them up the ladder of success. We know what it’s like to have others attempt to climb over us don’t we? And then Jesus refers to the way the political leaders of the time “Lord it over” those who they are called to lead. He reminds the disciples how they use those they are called to serve to build palaces for them, to work in their fields, to abandon their families and the obligations they have to provide for them, to force able bodied people who both have responsibility and desire to be home working on behalf of their families, and to make them work to build up an impressive empire for these leaders. To send the fruits of their labors to the leaders’ friends in other places to help build their own pedestals higher and higher and to advance their position in their regions and in the world at the expense of those who they are called to lead and at the expense of their families who remained at home hungry and unprotected. And Jesus strongly warns against that kind of climbing of the ladder of status and success. And in one of his most counter cultural statements of all, Jesus endorses the status of servant when he says, “whoever among you wishes to be first must be the servant of all…the Son of Humankind came to serve rather than to be served. Ask Jesus, “What’s your status,” and hear his starling response, “servant of all.” What’s your status? Think with me about verse 38 where Jesus refers to his baptism. In their book, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Mark, John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S. J. suggest that Jesus probably is not intentionally referring to the actual physical act of his baptism. He is, however suggesting that all followers of Jesus are baptized into the life of Jesus, into living lives like Jesus and perhaps even into sharing in the death of Christ.[1] Once again, it is not necessarily the actual physical death of Jesus, but the death of living for ourselves, living without regard for the other, trampling on top of and all over others as we try to climb the ladder of success so that we can answer in ways pleasing to ourselves and our society, the question, “What’s your status?” What IS your status?

Application/Conclusion

            For many years my friends and I have had a discussion centered on today’s question. What’s your status? How is status established? How is class determined? For most people in our world status and class are determined by a person’s wealth and riches. Experiencing the privilege of a good quality education can also bring one a level of status; sometimes a good family name can bring a level of status or at least expected class. And I want to say to you clearly that some of the classiest people I have ever known have been people with the least in worldly terms; little money, few possessions, not a lot of formal education, no famous name; High class, top of the rung on the ladder. How do we establish status here? We establish our status by honestly and truly sharing with one another in good times and in bad. I love what it says on HRC’s website this week in their out in scripture section and I wish I knew who wrote it so I could give proper credit. “All is possible in Jesus. Can you imagine a Church where all share in one another's suffering, serve others and enjoy the fullness of salvation? This Scripture is asking us whether the Church can live into the possibility of a new life, where all drink from the cup, where all are whole, and all are welcome. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah again,

            ⁴Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted. AND

The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous.

¹²Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

What’s your status this morning, answer that question with me. What’s our status? Are we willing to share in the life and death of Jesus? Are we willing to be baptized into the life of Jesus? Are we willing to achieve true status like Jesus by bearing one another’s burdens? Are we willing to carry one another’s infirmities and diseases? Are we willing to live into the concept that when one of us is oppressed and afflicted ALL of us are oppressed and afflicted? Are we willing to live righteous lives that seem counter cultural to our world by embracing all of its citizens with the love of God whose love knows no limits? God promises us that God will allot to us, God will give to us a portion with the great, a portion with those of high class, with those of high status, with the community of saints who have embraced with the very Son of God, the Son of Humankind the role of servant for all. You see, sometimes packages can fool you. What seems like high class and great value can contain very little value at all. And what seems like nothing at all can contain the best gifts.

            What’s your status; High, mighty and powerful OR servant of all? What’s your status?

            God bless you this morning. AMEN.

First Reading: Isaiah 53: 4 – 12

⁴Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. ⁸By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. ⁹They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. ¹¹Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. ¹²Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Gospel Reading: Mark 10: 35 – 45

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; ⁴⁰but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Humankind came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

[1] John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Mark. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002.

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