by Nathan Buch

Gospel: Matthew 20:17-28

1. Our Savior Serves us
2. We Serve Him by Serving Others

17 Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21 “What is it you want?” he asked.
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-Matthew 20:17-28

John had worked for the company for about 10 years. He had been successful and had climbed the ladder in the company until he was almost upper management. He had passed over several other job opportunities because he felt that this was the place for him. He felt that his current bosses appreciated the work he did, paid him fairly, and would continue to advance him in the company.

Then the company got sold. His bosses were no longer his bosses. Things began to change, but John continued to work hard and it seemed the new company notices and approves of his work as the old had done. About 6 months after the company had been purchased, the news came that John’s company would be merged into their parent company. Shortly after they received this news, even more bad news came: many positions would need to be eliminated including several middle and lower management positions. The company said they would re-interview all the employees over the next few weeks. The employees would be notified when and where they were to meet.

John waited for the call. He saw his fellow managers go, but he was not called. He saw his staff file out over the next few weeks, still no call. After 3 weeks of this he began to get frustrated. With all the people who went before him, he didn’t feel appreciated anymore. There could be only one conclusion. The company didn’t need him or appreciate him and his work. They must have decided to fire him.

Finally, when it seemed like he might be the only employee left, he got the call. He walked into the room and began the interview by telling all the things he had done for the company and all the sacrifices he had made. He told them all the things that the company was doing wrong and how they should be doing things. He told them he should’ve been first to be called in and not the last. He told them that they should have been better to him because he had been faithful to the company.

The three men on the other side of the table sat quietly as John gave his laundry list of frustration. When he ran out of steam the man in the middle said, “Hello John, my name is Dave and I own this company. I want you to know that we made sure to keep the interviews for the best employees until the end because we wanted to make sure that the offers we would be giving were going to the right people. John, you were one of those people we were going to make an offer to. But, you brought up a lot of things a few minutes ago that I think we need to talk about before or if we make you that offer.”

Maybe you have a story like John’s where you have thought way too highly of yourself and your sinful pride has led us to say or do things that aren’t right. Sinful pride can and does cloud our judgment to the point that we make sinful decisions that only reflects a love of self and looks to our own needs rather then a love for others and their needs. In our sermon text today, we see Jesus teaching us about loving others and Selfless Service. Jesus shows us how he has selflessly served us and how we can serve him by selflessly serving others.

Jesus' time was drawing to a close. During his last few weeks on earth, Jesus made sure to teach the disciples not only what would happen to him in Jerusalem, but also why that would happen to him.

As they travel to Jerusalem, Jesus pulls his disciples aside, and tells them this journey, which should have been a celebration of Passover, would not end well. This trip would end in suffering and death. Yet, even though this trip would be filled with fear and violence it would still end in victory. We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

Some of us have walked to the cross with Jesus during many times over our lives. For others this might be something new this year. Yet, no matter how often we have celebrated Lent we should see Jesus’ great love summarized in these three sentences. In these three sentences, we don’t just hear Jesus talking about his suffering and death, he also shows he is willing to suffer agony and be subject to death, in order to save us.

Compare Jesus example of love and service with our own lack of love and service for others. Even in the little things we think more of ourselves than others. When our spouse asks us to help with a household chore, instead of putting their need in front of our own, we don’t get up right away to do it, we wait until it is convenient for us. When children are asked to do something for mom and dad, they quickly forget about it and don’t do it. On our list of things to do, what we want usually comes first, while what other people want and need gets pushed to the bottom.

Our sinful nature does not allow us to easily do things for others because we too busy thinking about what it will cost us. Whether it is time, effort, or money, there are many times when we think it is too much to serve others. Other times, we will just not lower ourselves to doing those things because we feel someone else should be doing them.

Not Jesus. Jesus served us. He could have said, “No. Not for these sinful ungrateful people. I would be willing to do this for some people, but not these people.” But he didn’t. Jesus knew the cost to serve us, but he walked directly to the cross anyway and into the suffering and death that he knew was there. He never once entertained the sinful thought that he should serve himself first and not us.

Right after Jesus gives this lesson of selfless love to his disciples, we see the opposite play out. We see how human pride and selfishness can show itself. The mother of James and John comes to Jesus with her sons and asks that her sons be placed at Jesus’ right and left hands. To be at the right and left hands of Jesus were places of special honor. Maybe she thought she was doing something practical because Jesus was talking about the end of his life. Maybe she thought it was natural because James and John were part of Jesus’ inner circle of three.

Jesus tries to show them that this is a sinful request. He asks if they are able to drink from the cup he is about to drink from. Jesus is asking if they are ready to suffer and die as he is about to do. Once again, they show their pride in saying they are ready.

When the other disciples heard about their request they were upset by it, but not for the right reasons. They are upset that John and James would think that they were better than anyone else. Imagine you are standing there, what do you think that argument sounded like? Do you think like it sounded like a group of men, reasonably talking things over, or a group of kids out at recess arguing about who is the best player? Probably, like the boys at recess.

Jesus could have walked into the group and said, “You are all foolish because I am the greatest. I am the Son of God.” But he doesn’t. He uses his own service to once again teach them how they should serve him by serving others. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Why would the disciples be servants? Why would they allow themselves to be last? The story is told about a servant who was willing to do anything for his master. One day the master had another important man over and they were discussing their servants. The other man scoffed at the master when he said his servant would do anything for him. The master called the servant in and asked him to go to the highest mountain and get him some water from the spring that was there.

Days later the servant returned. He had been through much, but in his canteen he had the water. The important man knew that this trip was amazingly difficult thing to do for such a small thing like water. He asked the servant, “Why did you do that for the master.” The servant replied, “My master has done so much for me. He has given me so much. I love my master for all that he has done, I am willing to do what he asks.”

Soon, Jesus would wash his disciples feet. Soon, he would give them the command to love one another.

Soon, he would show them that loving others would include sacrifice. Soon, he would tell them love others as he had loved them and to put that love and service into action by going out to preach and to teach to all people.

Our master Jesus, has done so much for us, he has given us so much by his suffering and death. He does not ask us to do something as difficult as climb the highest mountain, he tells us to love and serve others.

How do we respond to our master Jesus’ love? Do we continue to look out for number 1, do we say the job is too big, or it too much for us to do, do we continue to count the cost of service do we reply as a loving servant should:, “I love my master, Jesus, I am willing to do what he asks when he tells me to serve others in love.”

The servant loved his master and was willing to serve him even if that service was hard. Service is not always easy, the disciples would drink from the cup of suffering during their ministries, yet they would continue to serve. Our own service to others may not always turn out the way that we intend it to, it might not always influence people to come to the foot of the cross and repent, we may even experience some hardships.

However, in love to our Savior who has lovingly served us, we continue to serve him and others by reaching out with the message of Jesus, just as he tells us to.

by Donald H. Juel

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

The second of Jesus' announcements of his death serves not simply to provide foreshadowing of what is to come but to keep Jesus' death and discipleship bound together. In this case, the connection moves beyond the literal possibilities of martyrdom. While Jesus is predicting his death, his followers are discussing which of them is the greatest. Their behavior seems almost too outrageous to take seriously. Perhaps we ought to pause a moment to argue the case of the disciples.

Their problem ought not be trivialized. Perhaps they discuss greatness both here and in chapter 10 because they believe Jesus is the Christ. They are convinced that his ministry will end in deliverance and, as his followers, they will undoubtedly be assigned places in his cabinet. They are correct - though they have not the faintest idea what that cabinet will look like or what discipleship will entail. It is not that God's triumph is failure; it is that God's way to triumph involves a cross instead of more conventional means to victory.

Jesus' challenge to his followers is clear to any reader: whoever wishes to be first must be last of all and servant of all. The character of servant-hood becomes particular: whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. How this constitutes serving becomes more striking in view of the place of children in ancient society. The law viewed children as little more than property until they reached the legal age of adulthood. Their parents - actually, their fathers - had absolute authority over them. To welcome children means to abandon one's authority and status, spending them on those with the least ability to repay.

While our notions of parental authority have undergone considerable evolution since Jesus' day, children within the church often have little more status than they did centuries earlier. Discussions of when children ought to be invited to the Lord's Supper often indicate how little baptism really means in some congregations.

There is a place for young people in worship only when they are young adults. Sunday school is sometimes a good excuse for excluding children from worship. Children and young people get the message: they know they are not welcome. The dramatic drop in church attendance and participation in congregational programs after confirmation is in large measure a reflection of the lack of interest invested in them. The secret of programs like Lutheran Youth Encounter and Young Life is that leaders make young people welcome and take them seriously.

What does it mean to be a disciple of the one whose career climaxes on a cross? Here, it involves acknowledging new standards of valuation. The death to which Jesus invites his followers is a death to self-importance. And that death is made particular in terms of extending hospitality to young people - to the ones who have always been expendable in times of war, who will be paying their parents' debts for generations, and on whom our future depends.

by The Reverend Dr. Richard (Rick) Miles

Gospel: Mark 10: 35-45

The Gospel:

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But 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?" They 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; but 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."

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So 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. But it is not so among you; but 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, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Mark 10: 35-45

Greatness

Can you guess who said this? “I am the Greatest! I want everyone to bear witness, I am the greatest! I'm the greatest thing that ever lived. I don't have a mark on my face, and I upset Sonny Liston, and I just turned twenty-two years old. I must be the greatest. I showed the world. I talk to God everyday. I know the real God. I shook up the world; I'm the king of the world. You must listen to me. I am the greatest! I can't be beat!" For a good many of us here, I don’t even have to provide a helpful hint for you; you already know who said that. You may even have been watching live on television when he said it. It was, of course, Muhammad Ali, truly the greatest boxer of his era. He was great and he wanted to make sure that everyone knew it, and that everyone gave him his due for it. Most of us were shocked by his brazen bravado. I mean, we were used to great athletes who were humble; or at least pretended to be humble in public.

Then again, we have always had those folks, accomplished in their field, who have heavily indulged in such self-promotion. Take Frank Lloyd Wright, the great architect, for instance. He once said, “Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose arrogance and have seen no reason to change.“ Well, bless his heart! I’m learning.

In our Gospel lesson from the 10th chapter of Mark, this morning, we meet two self-promoting characters, whose desire to be recognized as great has spawned countless commentaries and sermons for two thousand years. Not the way they had hoped, however.

Sons of Thunder. That's the nickname given by Jesus to James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mark 3:17). They are two of the first disciples called by Jesus; a couple of guys in his inner-most circle. Sons of Thunder: An awesome name for a motorcycle gang; or a rock band. But these two brothers think that it would be even better to be known as "the Greatest." So they walk up to Jesus and say, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."

Are they being presumptuous? Absolutely! Narcissistic? Possibly. Out of line? You bet! You might want to shake your head at their arrogance, but the request they make is really not surprising. When you believe that you are the greatest, you're naturally going to make such demands. Just think of so many of our political candidates as we are entering the final weeks of long and punishing campaigns. They would not aspire to the highest offices in the land if they did not believe that they were the best. And they've spent years approaching rich donors and saying, in effect, "I want you to do for me whatever I ask of you."

So James and John say to Jesus, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory" (v. 37). They want the prime cabinet posts in the messianic administration of Jesus, sitting in the seats closest to the very regent of God. Nothing would make them happier than having people look up at Jesus and his Dream Team, themselves in the center, marveling at how great they are.
But there are a couple of problems with aspiring to be seen as great, as opposed to aspiring to greatness. There is a difference. Jesus tells us what real greatness is in our passage this morning.

First though, what are these problems with aspiring to be seen as great?
Well, the first problem is this: it creates a life of illusion. The illusion is that we are more important, wise, and just plain wonderful than we really are. This illusion can carry over into job titles. Not meaning to pick on politicians so much this morning, but I found these words from a relatively new one rather instructive. He writes, “I was totally unprepared for the Washington environment. I came from an all-male-college environment, where a person's standing in the community was judged on the basis of such factors as: Was he a good guy? Would he let you borrow his car? Would he still be your friend if your date threw up in his car?

But when I got to Washington, I discovered that even among young people, being a good guy was not the key thing: The key thing was your position on the great Washington totem pole of status. Way up at the top of this pole is the president; way down at the bottom, below mildew, is the public. In between is an extremely complex hierarchy of government officials, journalists, lobbyists, lawyers and other power players, holding thousands of minutely graduated status rankings differentiated by extremely subtle nuances that only Washingtonians are capable of grasping.

He then offers some examples. Which one of these following positions is the more important? "Principal Assistant Deputy Undersecretary" or, "Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary," or "Principal Deputy to Deputy Assistant Secretary," or "Deputy to the Deputy Secretary," or "Principal Assistant Deputy Undersecretary," or "Chief of Staff to the Assistant Assistant Secretary." All of these are real federal job titles, by the way. A true Washingtonian would know, we’re told. I asked my sister about this, as she was in this hierarchy for nearly 40 years. “Oh, that’s easy,” she said, “It depends on their department.”

Aspiring to be seen as great is often linked to a life of illusion, one which causes people to believe that they are more invincible, powerful and righteous than they really are. That’s one problem. Here’s the other: It can lead us into a state of confusion; namely, confusion about the true meaning of greatness. This second problem is one that Jesus addresses directly. "You do not know what you are asking," says Jesus to the aspiring great ones, James and John. "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (v. 38). Jesus senses that they are confused about what they are getting into, and he makes clear that the path to glory goes straight through the wilderness of suffering.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, asks Jesus; the cup of my blood, shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sin? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; the baptism of dying and rising, one in which suffering and death always precede joy and new life? John and James reply, "We are able". The two come across as supremely confident, but we have to suspect that they don't know what they're talking about. They're still confused about the path that lies ahead. Their sense of self-importance reminds me of an incident that happened in an airport waiting area last year. Bad weather had caused delays and cancellations throughout the country. Thousands of anxious travelers were on standby. One of these passengers, a senior business executive, was desperate to get on a plane so he wouldn't be late for a meeting. He kept crowding the counter, trying to get the airline staff to do something to move his name higher up the standby list.

The agent had just put down the microphone, having said to the crowd for the third or fourth time: "Those of you who are on standby, please sit down and we will call your name when we have a seat for you." But this was a man who would not take "maybe" for an answer. He kept pestering the agent, explaining how important it was that he get on the next flight. Finally, in exasperation, he asked her, "Do you know who I am?"

The agent had had enough. Picking up the microphone, she announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a man here who does not know who he is. Would someone please claim him, offer him a seat in the waiting area, and tell him I'll talk to him when it's his turn?"

Jesus doesn't shoot James and John down, though. Instead, he nods in agreement. "The cup that I drink you will drink," he promises; "and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized" (v. 39). He knows that they are walking the way of the cross. It will lead to suffering for all and to death for some. The book of Acts tells us that James was later put to death by the sword, on the order of King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:2). The first of the apostles to be martyred for the faith, he came to be known as James the Greater, to differentiate him from the other James, the son of Alphaeus, who is known as James the Lesser.

As for John, he too suffered under the persecution of Herod Agrippa, but survived. Tradition tells us that he lived to very old age and died of natural causes in Ephesus. He didn’t have to give up his life for the faith, but he did give his life to the faith. In the beginning, both James and John had aspired to be seen as great. They had suffered from illusion and confusion. But by the end, both the illusion and confusion that go with that aspiration to be seen as great had long since been stripped away.

So, what’s the difference between aspiring to be seen as great, and aspiring to greatness itself? Jesus tells us. The other disciples hear what John and James are asking, and they blow up at the Sons of Thunder. Jesus uses this squabble for what those of us who have been educators call a teaching moment. He clears up the confusion about the true meaning of greatness. He begins by pointing to the way that the leaders of the Gentiles act as tyrants, lording it over their people (v. 42). "But it is not so among you;" he says; "but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (vv. 43-44). Clearly, the key to real greatness is to be a servant of others.

Since Jesus refuses to preach what he will not himself practice, he reveals that he is the model for this approach: "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve." It is at this point, other Gospel writers tell us, that Jesus puts on a towel and washes the disciple’s feet. Greatness is measured by service.

See if you can guess who said this. "Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people?" Any guesses? It‘s Muhammad Ali; same guy as that first quote. Well, maybe not the same guy, exactly. The two statements could hardly be more different. The first is Ali's boyish bluster from 1964, just after he defeated Sonny Liston for the first time. The second is something he wrote in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly, in 2004. Forty years separate the two quotations. Forty years of living. A lot can change in half a lifetime.

Another quotation by Ali explains it: "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has just wasted the last 30 years of his life." Afflicted by Parkinson's disease since 1984, a condition likely brought on by the pummeling his body received in the ring, Ali is busy today as a global good-will ambassador, peace activist and advocate for the developing world. By one estimate, he has provided over 232 million meals to feed the hungry. He remains one of the most easily-recognized celebrities on the planet. Ali's idea of greatness appears to have changed over time.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., reflecting on this very Gospel lesson, said it best, "Everybody can be great," he said "because anybody can serve… You only need a heart full of grace, and a soul generated by love." Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. True for James. True for John. True for you and me. Don't aspire to be seen as great. Aspire to greatness. Serve!

by The Rev. Stephen Lewis

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

What does a person have to do to become an insignificant leader? Why don't we ever hear people say, "You are destined to be really insignificant!" Perhaps it is because many of us are socially wired to aspire to become great leaders. But what if greatness looks totally different to God than our aspirations and practices of greatness?

These are the questions that I have been wrestling with for quite some time. However, they are not my questions alone. They are the questions the disciples are grappling with in our story. They are the questions of the conscientious church leaders and young people who are trying to make sense of their one precious life in service to God. While we all have a deep longing to discover the answers to these questions, the more important question is: Will we muster the courage to live into the answers? This is the question that was placed before me earlier this summer in a way that I could not escape.

It happened when I went with a group of FTE Ministry Fellows to visit Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., a model for leadership and congregational life that is very different. And we were privileged to sit "in the house" with Gordon Cosby, the ninety-two year old founder of this intentional Christian community formed around the call of every person. In a simple circle, there we sat with this frail little man with a gentle voice turning our ideas of church and ministry upside down.

He warned us at the outset that he would respond to our questions--that are very much alive in him--in ways that we were not accustomed to. We were not prepared for what he said. To be called, he said, is a calling to be a new creature in Christ; to be a new being. So the vocation question for him is, "Will you become who you are intended to be?"

Cosby's focus is on the being of leadership--the who of leadership--and not the doing. "Doing is easier," he said. There are some questions to be asked regarding this becoming: Are you holding on to control--can you relinquish control? Do you feel safe enough to let go--are you fearless? Are you enlarging the family--are you welcoming strangers and little children? Are you deepening those relationships? Then he told us, contemplative prayer, practicing letting Jesus into our lives, is the way to prepare for a life in these questions. He said nothing about most things that we think about to prepare for greatness, leadership or ministry. His responses were counter-intuitive to what are deeply internal, yet perennial, questions about what greatness is in ministry and church leadership.

Our society suffers from a debilitating addiction to a "greatness" understanding of leadership. Families feed this addiction to their children. And an addiction to being the best or greatest in ministry, whether it is about leadership or building institutions, is a pandemic virus in the church. The earliest strand of this deadly addiction can be traced back to the church's origin. It is the very question the disciples are arguing about in this text.

Fortunately, Jesus has a response: he provides some answers about how we might break free from our addiction to unhealthy forms of greatness by re-imagining church leadership. This re-imagining is a necessary revolution, an insurrection, a rebellion, an uprising against our traditional understandings of greatness. It is a revolution that invites us to embrace counter-intuitive forms of leadership and practices that we find modeled in the life of Jesus. And what is at stake is our alienation and access to the presence of God in our individual and communal lives.

In our lesson, we find Jesus schooling the disciples on what greatness looks like in his ministry. He says to the disciples, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all." Notice, he does not say do, but be, which raises two questions regarding identity. Who must we be as a result of our participation in Jesus' ministry? Jesus says that we must be last. How do we live deeply into this collective identity of being last of all? Perhaps the answer requires us to wrestle with a familiar saying--saving the best for last--that has less to do with one's position or station in life. Being last has more to do with the idea that we have an opportunity to learn from those who have gone before us in hopes of building upon their efforts and perfecting our collective efforts over time. In Jesus' ministry, the community of disciples practices greatness by being observant learners of all.

Jesus then tells his disciples, "Whoever wants to be first must be servant of all." Notice that he does not say servant to all, but servant of all, which suggests that the disciples are called to be servant leaders regardless of what other people seek to be. Servant leaders practice greatness by being givers who serve together through shared leadership, responsibility and accountability.

Jesus then models what leadership looks like for the disciples. He summons a young child to come to him. Children symbolize God's blessing. Children, especially boys, symbolize the continuance of their family's salvation and inheritance into the future. In the Gospels, children also symbolize the character a person must possess to enter the city of God (Mark 10:15). In spite of the symbolic status children hold, we find their voices silent for the most part throughout the Bible. I want to suggest that children symbolize the voiceless, those at the margin of the community.

Jesus welcomes the child to the center of the community and wraps his arm around her--the voiceless one--and suggests that if we want to be great, then we must practice welcoming the voiceless to the very center of the community. Expand the community's center to include those people at the margins. Make the margins the new center of the community because this is where the welcoming presence of God dwells. Otherwise, we alienate ourselves from the very presence of Jesus and the One who sent him. This is what greatness looks like in Jesus' ministry. It is an insignificant greatness.

So what does this mean for us? We who love our churches, denominational bodies and traditions, must re-imagine our ambitions and concepts of greatness. We must adopt new practices of insignificant greatness. We must cultivate the next generation of church leaders to exhibit these practices. Why? Because, ultimately, what is at stake is the church's future, its witness and its relevance in the world. A church that fails to be the welcoming presence of God ceases to be the church.

We hear the call to re-imagine greatness all across the land in the face of our current economic, denominational and church leadership crises. We hear the call to be leaders of insignificant greatness in hopes that the church might escape from society's seductive grasp. Some have answered the call. Some have left positions of status. Others have been chided by their ministry colleagues. But these leaders of insignificant greatness represent a grassroots movement of those who long to help the church live deeply into its vocation to be a transformative agent of God's peace and healing in the world. While they may appear to be insignificant in the eyes of society, the significance of their prophetic imagination and practices of greatness do not go unnoticed. This movement is growing and now invites you to join it.

So this is an invitation to you to re-imagine what the practices of greatness look like in your church. It is an invitation to re-imagine the kind of church leadership that cares about the ongoing formation and practices of the next generation of church leaders. This is also an invitation to imagine practices that cultivate your capacity to develop a community of disciples who share authentic leadership.

•To create a safe space for Christians to explore their vocation in the world.
•To spend more time asking provocative questions rather than giving patent answers.
•To model what greatness really looks like in Jesus' ministry.
•To welcome the voices and the vocations of young people in the community.
•To expand your community's center to include the voiceless.
•And to make the margins of the community the new centers of congregational and denominational life.

These are the practices of insignificantly great leaders.

This invitation is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those who are concerned with being popular. There might even be some economic reprisal if you join this movement. Some of you might face a social crucifixion. Some of you will undercut your upward mobility into the priestly class and denominational leadership. However, what is at stake is our alienation from the presence of God, a divided and unhealthy life and a community of gifted people who will continue to be underutilized in God's grand vision for the church in service to the world if we disregard this invitation and do nothing.

This is the invitation to re-imagine greatness; it is the call of the Gospel. So how in this world do we muster the courage to join this movement and become who we are intended to be?

Let us pray [1].

Gracious God, we long to know your Presence,
To feel the movement of your spirit.

Lead us, O God, into practices from which our spirits shrink
because the demand is so great.

Give to us quiet confidence, just a simple trust.

Let us be true to that which you have entrusted to our keeping,
The integrity of our own soul. For us, God, this is enough.

Amen.

Note:

[1] Prayer adapted from Howard Thurman, Temptations of Jesus, Friends United Press, Richmond, IN, 1962.

About The Author:

The Rev. Stephen Lewis is the National Director of the Calling Congregations initiative of the The Fund for Theological Education, based in Atlanta, GA.