Soft Power and Hard Choices

This sermon was preached at our annual Blessing of the Animals service at St. Francis in the Keys church. The scriptures referred to are Hebrews 1:1-4 and Mark 9:38-50.

There is a cartoon by Dan Piraro that shows a man in heaven astounded to see on God's throne not a human figure but a dog in a white robe. And the dog says, “The joyful, loving, eternally forgiving nature of dogs never tipped you off?”

The Bible says that human beings were created in the image of God, not dogs. Yet it would be strange if animals did not reflect the nature of their creator to some extent. In fact, in the second chapter of Genesis God says, “It is not good for man to be alone,” and then he creates and presents to Adam animals and birds as possible companions. Eventually God decides to make man a mate instead. But this story underlines the fact that animals are good companions to us and are capable of love. Without some kind of love, life is hard. We often have pets in order to soften the harshness of our lives.

You could say that everything in this world is either soft or hard. A kitten is soft. A bird's beak is hard. A ripe fruit is soft. The tree it grew on is hard. Your bed is soft. The walls of your house are hard. Both hardness and softness are necessary. And few things are completely one or the other. A rock is all hardness. A jellyfish is all softness. But a kitten has bones. A bird has feathers. The fruit has seeds. The tree has sap. Hopefully your bed has some firmness. When I first slept on a really soft bed after 140 days of sleeping on hospital beds, the next morning my back felt as if someone had hit it with an ax.

Generally you want some measure of hardness to give things structure and protection and some measure of softness to make them livable. Even the knight wore soft padded garments under his armor to buffer the impact on his body. What softness affords us is some cushioning, some "give," some degree of adaptation to us and to our bodies. And we need both hardness and softness in every area of life.

Socially we need structure as well as some hard and fast rules: no killing, no stealing, no cheating. But we need some give, some adaptation to the fact that occasionally everybody messes up. We don't summarily execute people who drive 55 in a 45 mph zone. For that matter, we even recognize degrees of homicide. The law of Moses made provision for manslaughter, the unintentional, unpremeditated killing of a person. (Deuteronomy 4:41-42) While the Old Testament is usually seen as full of hard rules laid down by a hard deity, it also reveals that God has a soft spot for the disadvantaged. There are literally hundreds of verses about how God expects us not to mistreat but to help the poor, the alien, the sick, the disabled, the elderly, the fatherless, the widow. The word “mercy” appears in the Hebrew Bible more than 200 times. More than half of the uses of the word “love” occur in the first part of the Bible. The 2 Great Commandments to love God and our neighbor are found in the Torah, the core of the Jewish Bible. 

Remember, tiny Israel was surrounded by empires. So they primarily focused on God as their protector and on his law as a way to impose order on what would otherwise be a chaotic life. But God is also revealed to show parental love towards his people, to be concerned about justice for all and even to be willing to forgive foreigners who repent, like the morally clueless inhabitants of Nineveh, the capital of the ruthless Assyrian Empire. God says to his reluctant prophet Jonah, “...Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11) Notice that God cares about the cattle as well.

When we get to the New Testament, this side of God's nature is clearer, especially in the life and ministry of Jesus. In fact, Jesus' main opposition comes from those who have made the law of Moses even harder, by adding rules that make it more difficult for the disadvantaged. And Jesus goes out of his way to show that he is not the kind of hard, militaristic king most folks expect the Messiah to be. Jesus uses his power to heal, to forgive, to feed the hungry, not to conquer or force people to follow him. Jesus uses words and stories and uncommon wisdom to bring people to his point of view. It is what we call “soft power.”

This does not mean Jesus is a pushover or will ignore evil. In today's gospel his opponents try to force him into the middle of a controversy. At that time, and still today within Orthodox Judaism, divorce was something only a man could initiate. He could simply present his wife with a get, a certificate of divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1),  which basically says “She is not my wife and I am not her husband.” And with that the marriage is over. In Jesus' day, a man could, according to Rabbi Hillel, get a divorce for almost anything: for not pleasing him, or burning his meal, or if he found a younger woman. Whereas, in Matthew's version of this controversy, sexual immorality is the only reason Jesus allows for divorce. However, a Jewish woman could not divorce her husband for such reasons. Plus women were often treated as property. And a woman abandoned by her husband was on the bottom of the social and financial strata. Now remember that most marriages were arranged marriages so a woman had no say in whether or whom she would marry nor whether she would be divorced. That's why Jesus says this situation exists because of “your hardness of heart.” The woman was powerless and her well-being depended entirely on her husband's disposition back then. It may seem strange to us in the 21^st century but by opposing divorce Jesus was once again standing up for the disadvantaged.

Another glimpse of God's nature is seen in Jesus' concern with children. We noted a few weeks ago that he said that anyone who harms them would be better off flung into the ocean with a millstone around his neck. (Mark 9:42; cf. Matthew 18:5-6) In our gospel for today, the disciples are turning away parents bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed. They probably thought Jesus was too busy. We know it was hard for him to find time to eat and sleep. (Mark 4:37-39; 6:31) But Jesus was indignant. He says, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

In the Bible, belief is not so much about thinking a list of ideas are true as it is trusting God. Sadly, adults are not as trusting as children are. Adults get cynical. Adults think that they have outgrown their need for God. Adults think they must rely on themselves alone and don't need any help. Children know this isn't true. So do pets, who will paw your arm and look at you when they want something. They know they need help. They are smarter than we are.

“And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” Again we are seeing the softer side of God, who loves his creation and blesses his creatures, the way he does when he creates them in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1.

I don't want to leave you with the impression that Jesus was only soft. We see his strength when he defends people against their enemies. Perhaps the clearest example is the story of the woman taken in adultery. We just saw how strongly Jesus feels about adultery. Yet when an adulterous woman is dragged before him and her accusers are trying to get Jesus to agree that she be stoned, as is laid down in the law of Moses, he first stoops and writes in the dust. When they persist in asking him he stands and says, “Whoever among you is without sin may be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he stoops to write again. What he writes, we don't know. Perhaps it was a list of the sins of her accusers. Perhaps it is the question, “Where is the man?” Adultery generally takes two, you know. Was this a trap they set for the woman? Anyway her accusers drift away, one at a time. When they are all gone, Jesus asks the woman where her accusers are, she says that no one is left to condemn her. Jesus says, “I do not condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” Jesus didn't approve of what she did but he would not be party to the persecution and death of a vulnerable woman. Jesus was not a bully. He is God's love incarnate and love forgives and love protects.

And love makes sacrifices. In his death on the cross in our stead, we see most clearly God's love for us embodied in Jesus. As Paul says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Would you die for a bunch of people who would just as soon kill you to shut you up about the truth? That was a hard choice but Jesus made it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, before Judas found him, he prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) He could have run away. Bethany, where his friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary live, was just 2 miles away, on the other side of the Mount of Olives. Jesus could have slipped away under cover of darkness. He didn't. 

A dog will risk its life to save you without thinking. A human will find it harder to make such a sacrifice because he knows the nature of the danger. Unlike animals, we humans are acutely aware that we can and will die someday. Jesus knew exactly what kind of torturous death he faced. He knew how Rome punished those whom the crowds hailed as king. Yet he went through with it. To save us. Out of love.

If you want to know about the nature of God, look at Jesus. In him we see what God is really like. And because we are created in the image of God, though it may be buried under all our crap and disfigured by the self-destructive things we do, in Jesus we see what we can be, what God intends us to be. Basically, Christianity is about becoming more like Jesus by following him and letting his Spirit guide us and shape us.

There is a song that goes, “Lord, help me be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.” They think we are godlike. We say “Let there be light” and flip the switch and the lights go on. We travel in chariots to exciting places. We provide them with food. We tell them when they are bad and praise and pet them when they are good. We keep them healthy, even if it means some pain to them when they are getting shots or undergoing treatment. We can be hard for their good and for their protection and we can be soft when they need love and comfort. They trust us. We should be that way towards God. Because, as the old saying goes, D-O-G spelled backwards is still man's best friend.

Hindrances

The scriptures referred to are Mark 9:38-50.

I was watching one of my all-time favorite Sherlock Holmes movies this week, The Seven Percent Solution. Oddly enough, though, it is not based on a short story or novel written by Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it is so good that most Sherlockians would not object were it considered canon. The basic plot is that Dr. Watson lures his friend Holmes to Vienna to get him treated by a specialist in cocaine addiction, Dr. Sigmund Freud. And of course, they become embroiled in a mystery which requires the skills of both the detector of evil and the explorer of the dark corners of the human mind. Everything from the dialog to the actors to the cinematography to the gloriously lush movie score is perfect. I want to focus on the scene where they follow a suspect only to be led into a deadly trap. As they escape, Holmes realizes that they must get back to the woman whose mystery they are investigating. Freud asks if the suspect they had followed was told to lead them astray. Seeing that they were almost killed, Holmes says, “I gather his instructions were somewhat more specific. Nevertheless,'astray' will do.” Sure enough, when they get to their destination, the woman in question has been abducted by the bad guys and Holmes, Watson and Freud must work together to rescue her.

Holmes makes a crucial distinction. He thinks that the henchman was supposed to have them die, but if he could only divert them, that would give his boss the time he needed to pull off the kidnapping. Harming people is, of course, evil but hindering them from doing good can have the same effect. When considering whether to do or not do something we should ask if it is harmful or not. And that is important. God is not against sin and evil because he disapproves of them on personal or aesthetic grounds, the way your maiden aunt dislikes people with pierced ears or flashy clothes. God dislikes evil and sin because they are destructive—to ourselves, to others, to our relationship with him, and to his creation. YHWH is a God of creation and life. He does not want destruction and death.

But things get ethically murkier if you don't actually do harm to someone. What if you just make things harder for them? What if what you do or don't do just hinders them from getting help? How bad is that?

I once read a mystery in which the murderer did not stab or shoot or even poison his victim. He just knew the man was a brittle and non-compliant diabetic. He invited his victim to a private dinner at his home and served him all his favorite foods. The victim overindulged himself as expected and his blood sugar shot up to dangerous levels. Feeling the symptoms of hyperglycemia and knowing he was about to slip into a diabetic coma, the victim asked the man he considered a friend to get his insulin. The murderer does so but very slowly, knowing that simply being too late will do the trick. The man dies. It's chilling.

That's an extreme example of how hindering can prove to be harmful. But we all know that if you can't make certain forms of conduct impossible, making them difficult will reduce such behavior. We use this fact to make laws. We cannot make reckless driving impossible but we create laws that make it difficult and that also make it costly to those who violate such laws. In the same way, raising prices on cigarettes leads to a drop in smoking. Most car thieves will pass up a locked car for an unlocked one. And, sadly, you can hinder good actions by making them more difficult as well. For instance, if you make it illegal for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, that hinders people getting their medicine at affordable rates. If you reduce the number of polling stations, and the hours during which you can vote, and require a photo ID from people who don't drive, you can reduce voting. Unfortunately we have laws that hinder doing the right thing as well as laws that hinder wrongdoing.

Jesus frequently found himself coming up against laws hindering otherwise commendable conduct. Time and again he was confronted about healing on the Sabbath. Mind you, only work was prohibited on the Sabbath and Jesus' healings were not compensated but the Pharisees had elevated the Oral Law, extrapolations based on the written law, to the same level as the Torah. In some cases they went beyond what was needed to apply those centuries old laws to contemporary situations and let stand interpretations that went against the spirit of the law. Such as when they said that one's wealth could be dedicated to God and therefore retained instead of being used to support one's aged parents contrary to what God's word said. Jesus called them on that. (Mark 7:10-13)

In today's gospel, the disciples take it upon themselves to discourage a person who is healing people in Jesus' name because he was not officially one of Jesus' followers. They don't say he was trying to cast out demons; they say he was doing so. Which is interesting because the Twelve were not always able to perform such healings. Just a few verses earlier in the same chapter, in fact, the disciples were not able to heal a boy with a seizure disorder. Jesus had to step in and heal him. Were they, at least in part, jealous of a man who was successful where they were not?

And the man's success shows that he really did believe in Jesus, even though he did not join the group following him. Jesus realizes this and says, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Which has significance in a time where there are a great many Christian denominations. The history of churches treating other churches as full members of the body of Christ is poor, to say the least. Besides branding other Christians as heretics and even punishing them as such, wars were started over such differences. (Although politics always entered in. All the peace settlements after such wars were political and not theological. ) And I still meet people who identify themselves as "Christians, not Catholics!" Even if they mean Protestants, the truth is that Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox doctrine all agree that the Bible is God's word; they all affirm the articles of the Apostles Creed and as well as a commitment to the the 10 and 2 Great Commandments. We have a lot more in common than people think.

Fortunately a lot of Christians realize this and have been working on lessening our divisions. Our two denominations are in full communion, which means we are partners who recognize and can share each other's ministries, clergy and sacraments. The Episcopal Church is also in full communion with the Moravian Church, and various non-Anglican churches in Europe, the Philippines and India. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is in full communion with the Moravian Church, too, plus the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. And just last year the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church proposed full communion and are seeking approval at their next nationwide conventions.

But our divisions have hindered people from coming to Jesus, largely because some folks see the contradiction in people who say that God is loving and forgiving but who cannot seem to put those principles into practice, especially with other Christians. And most of the people rejecting Christianity because of this don't even know that on the night before he died Jesus explicitly said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) This is not optional. Jesus commanded us to do this.

Next in our gospel reading, Jesus moves from the partisanship that hinders people from following him to the personal issues that hinder us from following him. Jesus says that if a hand or foot or eye caused you to sin you should cut it off or pluck it out. This is one passage that even fundamentalists do not take literally or else we would have a denomination of people who have amputated parts of themselves because they caused them to sin. Besides, just 2 chapters earlier in Mark Jesus says that sin is not external but arises from within. So why is he now saying that feet and hands and eyes can cause us to sin?

Jesus is using hyperbole here. It's a common rhetorical device that emphasizes the seriousness of the point being made. So what is Jesus really getting at?

There are things in our life—a job, an activity, a relationship, even an addiction—that we feel so strongly about that we feel they are a part of us, of who we are. In Amy Winehouse's prophetic song “Rehab,” she says she will not give up the bottle even if it means losing her lover who tells her to get help. Many artists have felt that they would lose their creativity if they gave up their addictions or got treatment for their mental illnesses. Other people continue to do things that are definitely dangerous because they are apparently adrenaline junkies. Some folks identify themselves primarily by their career or position even if they hate their job. And in one of the most painful instances, some people will not give up relationships that are toxic. It may be that the relationship is violent or it may be that the relationship brings out the worst in one or both people. Sadly sometimes the relationship is a familial one, with a parent or a sibling. Giving up the harmful addiction or job or activity or relationship may feel like losing a hand or some other part of you. But those rare individuals who do manage to make the sacrifice come to the realization that it was well worth it. Robert Downey Jr. struggled with drug abuse for decades. His problems escalated from 1996 to 2001. He underwent multiple arrests, incarcerations and stints in rehab. He lost TV and movie roles and his marriage. Since attaining sobriety, he has remarried, rebuilt his career and become not only a popular star but a respected actor. He has not lost the talent that had made him an award winner even before his rehabilitation. His addiction did not help but hindered him.

Jesus is not one to sugarcoat the truth. If there is anything in our lives that is hindering us in following him, in becoming a more loving, more faithful, more forgiving, more Christlike follower, we must sacrifice it. Whatever hinders us from becoming the person God wants us to be and created us to become is ultimately harmful.

Jesus contrasts the consequences of making these sacrifices with not doing so. Not being able to give up the self-destructive things in our life means entering hell. The word for “hell” which Jesus uses is Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, southwest of Jerusalem. It is the site where in the past people sacrificed their children as burnt offerings to the pagan god Molech and which in Jesus' day had become the town dump. The refuse of the city continually burned and maggots consumed the carcasses of dead animals discarded there. We still use this imagery. We describe a chaotic, unmanageable, disastrous situation as being a “dumpster fire.” People who find themselves in a horrible place in life speak of their life being hell. We talk of a person who is tormented by certain issues in their life as “fighting their own demons.”

The first step in dealing with this is to take out the garbage in our life and remove the stumbling blocks from our walk with Christ. Jesus says if you cut out the thing that hinders you, then you will enter life. Being alive means being able to move and respond to the world and to the people around us and being able to grow. In verse 47 Jesus parallels "life" with "the kingdom of God" so he means eternal life as well. And the kingdom of God is not a future thing only. The kingdom starts now. Jesus said “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) It begins in this life and carries on into the next. It doesn't manifest itself in its fullness right away, though. It grows. Jesus said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” (Mark 4:26-29) In the future we will see the full extent of the kingdom but that doesn't mean it isn't growing right now, within and among us. We don't want to harm or hinder it; we want to help it.

Then Jesus switches metaphors and says something all commentators find confusing: “For everyone will be salted with fire.” To me the significant words are “everyone,” “salted,” and “fire.” By saying this happens to everyone, Jesus cannot mean the fires of hell. Some, he just said, enter life. And “salted” recalls how salt was used in Jesus' day: not merely to season but to preserve. There was no refrigeration. Salt was used to keep meat from going bad. As such it was commonly used as a symbol of the covenant. (Leviticus 2:13) Not only that but newborn babies were rubbed with salt. (Ezekiel 6:14) Salt, Jesus says, is good.

So how is fire similarly good for those subjected to it? Fire is used in purifying metals. The Bible speaks of the refiner's fire, used to melt gold and silver so their impurities may be skimmed off. (Isaiah 1:25; Malachi 3:2-3) And indeed sometimes experiences we perceive as negative at the time can have a positive effect. Exposure to germs helps your body build up your immunity. Simply having a dog helps children's immune systems. And of course vaccines, dead or weakened pathogens, protect us against stronger diseases. 

In addition, we tend to empathize more with people who have suffered the same afflictions we have. We can help such people in ways that otherwise might not have occurred to us. That is the basis for 12-step programs and support groups. By contrast people who have encountered relatively few obstacles in life rarely can understand, much less empathize with those whose life has been hard. Instead they tend to give clueless, useless advice.

Purifying fire is a frequent image used in the Bible. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16) Paul speaks of our works being tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). 1 Peter 4:12 tells us not to be surprised by fiery trials as that we encounter in following Jesus. But as Danish poet Piet Hein wrote, “Here is a fact that should help you fight a bit longer: Things that don't actually kill you outright make you stronger.” Just as surviving germs helps your immunity, surviving trials can help make you resilient.

As Christians we are not to harm people or to hinder them in finding spiritual and physical health and wellbeing, but to help them. And to do that we must remove anything that harms or hinders us in our life in Christ. How can we help others find peace if we are not at peace with ourselves, with each other and with God? How are we to show love to those who do not follow Jesus if we cannot love other Christians? The kingdom of God is growing within and among us. We want to encourage that. We want to plant seeds and water and nurture them until one day they sprout and bloom and cover the earth with the knowledge of God and the goodness and love and grace to be found in his son, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Last Things First

The scriptures referred to are James 3:13-4, 7-8a and Mark 9:30-37.

We are looking at the life of Jesus in our weekly Bible study and so I have been doing research. Since the backdrop of Jesus' life includes the Roman Empire, I have also been listening to podcasts and watching documentaries about the era and the people of the time. I saw this documentary on Julius Caesar, the man who destroyed the Roman Republic when he became its first dictator. He came from a wealthy family which fell on hard times. He joined the army and worked his way up, always with an eye on getting political power. For instance he wanted to merit a parade through Rome, which could only happen if he had a military triumph which killed at least 5000 of the enemy. So Caesar made sure he killed that many people. However his obvious ambition and ruthlessness created opposition to him. As he reentered Roman territory from Gaul without disbanding his troops, he triggered a civil war. He went up against Pompey, Rome's previous greatest general and Caesar's former supporter. Pompey, defeated, eventually fled to Egypt. Caesar pursued him there, only to be presented with Pompey's head compliments of the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was also very ambitious, wanting to rule the empire that Alexander the Great had ruled. She couldn't do that without conquering the Romans but she did the next best thing. She killed her brother, who was also her husband, seduced Caesar and had a child by him. However, her plans to have her son inherit his father's empire died when Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Forum. So she began an affair with Caesar's second-in-command, Marc Antony, getting pregnant by him. But when Antony had a falling out with Caesar's great nephew and adopted son, Octavius, those plans fell apart. Cleopatra tried to bribe Octavius but he didn't bite. As his troops besieged Alexandria and Antony and Cleopatra's armies failed to stop Octavius, the doomed lovers made a suicide pact. Cleopatra researched the best poison to use by testing them on prisoners and noting the results. As Antony reviewed his defeated troops, he received a message that Cleopatra was dead. He fell on his sword. But the Queen of Egypt was very much alive. Despite the fact that historians think Antony really was the love of her life, Cleopatra was still trying to become an empress. When Octavian captured her she tried to seduce him but he turned and walked out of her presence. Then 11 days after Antony had died, Cleopatra, fearing she would be paraded through the streets of Rome as Octavian's captive, took poison. Octavian murdered her children by Caesar and Antony and became the first official emperor of Rome, Augustus. It was during his reign that Jesus was born.

In today's lectionary both James and Jesus warn us of selfish ambition. And yet we admire the ambitious people of our time and revere ambitious men and women of the past. And I think it is because we don't distinguish between selfish ambition and other reasons to pursue excellence. In his management book Good to Great, Jim C. Collins presented his research on the factors that helps a good company go to a great one. A key factor is having a leader who is a “paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will,” driven not by the desire for personal aggrandizement but the desire to do what's best for the company. These folks are rarely the superstar CEOs who get all the attention in the press but men and women passionately focused on what the company is best in the world at doing and which also happens to make money. After his book came out, Collins was surprised to see it adopted by churches and non-profit organizations. One thing that interested them was what he called the “Level 5 Leader.” It is very similar to the concept of the “Servant Leader,” whom Robert K. Greenleaf wrote about. And in today's passage from Mark, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”

Let's face it, most leaders put themselves first. They are concerned about their power and their prestige and having not just their needs but their desires met. The Twelve were not above this. In the very next chapter of Mark, we find the disciples once again getting into a conflict on the matter of who was greatest and Jesus says, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45) And to make the point as vividly as possible, just before the last supper, John's gospel tells us how Jesus stripped off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist and washed his disciples' feet, a task usually given to the lowest of slaves. Afterward he says, “Do you understand what I have done for you?...You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:12-17)

As Jesus pointed out, most hierarchies put the leader before everyone and often everything else. Jesus says that, instead, the leader should put his people before himself. And Jesus didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk. Besides washing the disciple's feet, he stepped forward at his arrest and said, “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” (John 18:8) And of course, he goes to the cross to save humanity. Compare him to people like Hitler and Cleopatra, who were willing to throw anyone else under the bus to get what they wanted. Each sacrificed a viable future for their nation on the altar of a grandiose dream of an empire under themselves.

It feels odd to come out against ambition, though, at least here in America. Don't we want kids to dream big and reach their potential and accomplish great things? Yes but there is another motivator that has nothing to do with simply wanting to be top dog: love. Remember what Collins found out about the leaders who took good companies to being great ones; their passion was focused, not on themselves, but on doing what they do best. Most renowned scientists, movie makers, medical researchers, artists, reformers, teachers, and innovators achieve their greatest accomplishments because they are love what they do. I am reasonably sure that Jane Goodall did not think that studying chimpanzees was the road to fame. She was intensely interested in learning all she could about our closest relatives. That passion drove her to do what she did as well as she could. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his life; he was motivated by his passion to capture the beauty of what he saw. Dr. Jonas Salk did not patent his vaccine for polio which would have made him rich; instead he let everyone have it because he was passionate about wiping out this scourge that was crippling and killing people. They weren't chasing fame and money. They were pursuing their passions. By focusing on those things rather than themselves and by honing their skills and constantly improving how they did what they did they have made lasting contributions to the world.

And then we have the opposite: people who are famous just for being famous. Can you tell me one thing of excellence that the Kardashians have accomplished outside of merely living their life in the limelight? I don't even seek out news about them and yet I know more intimate stuff about them than some people I am interested in, because you simply cannot avoid hearing about them. Social media has made stars out of otherwise obscure people, again, not because they have made the world a better place but simply because they have made themselves heard. You don't even have to be literally loud. There is a woman on You Tube who narrates really boring mundane tasks and yet has 20 million subscribers because she speaks very softly and there are folks who get pleasure out listening to her voice. As an obsession, it is a relatively benign one but 20 million subscribers? Charlton Heston reading the Bible on You Tube only gets 8000 views. The Jesus movie, a Hollywood quality dramatization of the gospel of Luke, which you can watch in its entirety for free on You Tube, gets 4 ½ million views. A woman whispering for 4 hours got 15.8 million.

Small wonder people promote themselves, even if they haven't really done anything truly wonderful or life-changing. The world pays attention to the the flashy and the novel and the outrageous. We reward such behavior, even if it is not conduct we would tolerate in our friends or in our family. I saw this firsthand at a radio station I worked at in Brownsville, Texas. The station hired two shock jocks for the morning drive time. The outrageous, highly sexualized talk of these guys did raise the station profile. It brought the rock station from number 12 to number 6 in the ratings. But the problem is that to keep from getting stale shock jocks have to keep crossing the line of what is acceptable. And eventually they go too far even for the people who hired them. And then they get fired. There was one shock jock in my hometown of St. Louis who made the rounds of most of the rock stations that way. He'd create controversy and raise ratings, say something totally beyond the pale, get dumped by that radio station and get picked up by another, coveting the attention he would draw. Until he pushed the envelope too hard and the cycle would repeat. I once heard a DJ joke about the nudity of concentration camp prisoners in a Holocaust film. Too bad not all such vulgarians can simply be fired.

Jesus says that in the kingdom of God, those who come in first in this life will be relegated to the end of the line. Those who did not promote themselves will be elevated. It's quite possible that the most honored mere human in the new creation will be someone most of us never heard of or thought much about. Like one of those janitors or librarians who live frugally and then upon their death are discovered to have left a million dollars to some charity. They could have lived large but instead they showed themselves to have large hearts.

The key is putting others and their welfare ahead of yourself. This is what Jesus means by disowning oneself and taking up your cross. Jesus' didn't carry his cross for himself; he did it for us. Our cross is not our daily problems but the ones we take on in order to help others. As Paul said, “Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) Or as the 3 musketeers put it, “All for one and one for all.”

Following Jesus is about loving God and loving other people. In Paul's famous passage about love, he writes, “Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) Love is not about oneself but about others. Self-centered people don't really love others. They see them as a trophy or as an extension of themselves. The older rich man has a much younger, impossibly beautiful woman on his arm to advertise how successful he is. If he could he would emblazon his name on her as he does his films or products or companies. “This is mine,” he is saying.

We are to say to Jesus, “I am yours.” We are to look for Jesus in everyone we meet, even those whom we do not know. And we are to treat them as we would Jesus, especially those who need help. And just as you would not brag in front of or try to steal the spotlight from Jesus, you should not do so when you encounter other people. Instead focus on them and treat them as you would relatives of Jesus (Matthew 25:40), even if you think they are the black sheep of his family, so to speak. Jesus loves them and those loved by your beloved, you try to love as well.

One of the side effects of this is that, as the 12 step programs say, helping helps the helper. It takes you out of yourself. It shifts your focus from your problems to those of others. It can also help you realize that you are not alone in your problems. There are others that have the same struggles that you do. And if their problems are worse than yours, it can make you realize that perhaps you are being too whiny about the difficulties you let upend your life and maybe you should be more grateful for the troubles you don't have to wrestle with.

And using your knowledge, experience, and skills to help others can help you feel needed and useful. You learn that you can make a difference in the lives of others. It can lead you to discover your gifts and possibly even your purpose in life. Your purpose is usually found at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you are good at and what the world needs.

When we call Jesus the Christ or Messiah, we are essentially calling him our King. And yet our King came not to be served but to serve. He did not use his power to make his life more comfortable or easier or more opulent. He spent his time healing and feeding and teaching and forgiving others. His ministry was fueled not by ambition or selfishness but by love.

We may read about or dramatize the lives of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony or Cleopatra but nobody in their right mind wants to be like them. They titillate us but they don't inspire us. With the exception of the Julian calendar, the achievements they were most proud of have been buried in the dust of history. Yet Jesus, who never built a monument, or conquered a nation, or even wrote a book himself, is still energizing people and motivating them to make their lives and the lives of others and this world better, more just, more peaceful, more forgiving, more loving. They do it not by seeking to make a name for themselves. As a Jesuit named Fr. Strickland wrote more than 150 years ago, “A man may do an immense deal of good, if he does not care who gets the credit for it.” Let us do all the good we can and let the credit go to the one who personifies God's grace.

As Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Power of Words

The scriptures referred to are James 3:1-12.

Animals communicate in many ways. They do it visually, such as when a male peacock displays and shakes his tail in an elaborate mating ritual. They do it by touch, such as when monkeys groom each other to solidify their relationships. They do it chemically, such as when cats rub things to mark them with their scent. They do it vocally, by singing, howling, screaming, trumpeting, purring, barking, etc. But what they communicate is rather simple and straightforward. Bird song is primarily about proclaiming their territory and what a good mate they will be. Social animals warn each other about predators. They may growl or hiss to warn off a threat to them or their offspring. Animals even laugh. Really. It turns out you can tickle rats, dolphins, dogs, meerkats, owls and penguins and make them laugh.

So we are not the only species to communicate vocally. But differences in degree can be so great that they might as well be treated as differences in kind. The sheer number of things we humans can communicate verbally far outstrips what any other animal can do vocally. We can also change reality by what we say. For instance, if you didn't already know that penguins could laugh, that means I have just changed your brain. I have made a physical connection between 2 neurons that did not previously exist. I can say things that induce a positive emotional state in your consciousness, or a negative one. I can hurt your emotions. If I do it powerfully enough or often enough, I can damage you psychologically. Verbal abuse is really a form of physical abuse.

When we think of sins we tend to think of things like murder or certain sexual acts or theft. We don't usually think of what could be called sins of the tongue. Yet the Bible mentions the ways we can misuse the gift of speech more than 100 times. I've got to admit I didn't think seriously about some forms before researching this sermon.

Lying is the first thing that comes to mind. One of the Ten Commandments forbids giving false testimony against your neighbor. We naturally think of how bad it is to falsely accuse someone of a crime, but Proverbs 24:24 also condemns saying that a guilty party is innocent. Proverbs 12:22 says, “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are truthful.” In Zechariah God tells his people what he expects from them: “'These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,' declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

Recently I heard a discussion on NPR about the difference between lies and falsehoods. Lying is when you knowingly and intentionally say something that isn't true. A falsehood could be something you say without knowing that it is untrue. It could be the result of ignorance. But the Bible condemns that as well. Again Proverbs tells us, “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly....The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” (Proverbs 15:2, 14) In other words, know your facts before you disseminate them. Nowadays that is a lot easier since you have access to virtually all the knowledge of the world through your phone.

But saying what is factually wrong is not the only way you can misuse speech. The Bible also has problems with flattery and boasting. Flattery is not merely complimenting another person; it is giving false compliments to manipulate the person. The root of the Hebrew word for “flatter” is “to be smooth.” You flatter a person usually to make things smooth between you. And it is good to compliment someone on their real strengths. But none of us is perfect. The problem is that overpraising a person makes it harder when you need to be honest with them about their flaws. It's not true and not helpful to tell anyone that they are the smartest or greatest person ever or that they never make a mistake. When they inevitably fail, it may be difficult for both of you to admit it and to fix the resulting problem. Would you rather have a doctor lie and say you are in astonishingly excellent health or level with you about your blood pressure or problems your EKG reveals about your heart or how you need to change your diet because of a family history of diabetes?

Boasting can be thought of as self-flattery. As it says in Psalm 36 about the arrogant person, “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.” (Psalm 36:2) And the flipside of having an overinflated view of yourself is that you must denigrate others. If I am the greatest, anyone displaying similar greatness is a competitor and needs to be taken down a notch. As it says in Jude 16, “These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” Again it is not boasting to report you won an award or to say that you are pleased with something you accomplished. As usual, the sin is a distorted or exaggerated version of a virtue. It is accurate to say that John Legend, having won an Emmy for producing the recent televised version of Jesus Christ Superstar is the second youngest person and first black man to be an EGOT, that is, someone who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. That's a big honor. There are only 16 such people. It would be wildly over the top, however, to say that he is the best actor to have become an EGOT, seeing as he did not win for playing Jesus and other actors to have achieved EGOT status include John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, Whoopi Goldberg, Rita Moreno and Audrey Hepburn. Nor, I hasten to add, did he ever say such a thing. In fact, he was reluctant to adopt Legend as a stage name and only did so at the suggestion of poet J. Ivy.

If overly hyping others or oneself are bad, so is putting people down. The Bible says, “Do not accuse a man for no reason—when he has done you no harm.” (Proverbs 3:30) Jesus, Paul and James are in agreement with the Old Testament in condemning slander. We are not to defame anyone, especially if the report is false. It can do great damage. Fatty Arbuckle was the number one comic actor in the era of silent films, bigger than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to whom he gave their starts. And then an actress who had gotten sick at a party he threw died of peritonitis several days later and a friend of hers alleged that the comedian had assaulted the actress and ruptured her bladder. The accuser's story was so obviously false that although an ambitious DA prosecuted Arbuckle, he never called the accuser to the stand to testify. Instead the woman did newspaper interviews and told her story on the vaudeville circuit, ruining the comedian's reputation. Arbuckle was not only acquitted but the jury actually read an apology to him. Yet the scandal killed his career. And people still remember him for the blatantly false charge of having raped a woman to death with a Coke or champagne bottle. When I was a kid, I remember hearing the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” That is definitely not true. Slander can harm a person.

Gossip is another thing that can damage people's lives. A gossip may not have made up the stories he or she passes on but they make sure that everyone knows all the details. It is worse when the content was supposed to stay between two people. The book of Proverbs says, “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.” (Proverbs 11:13) Mind you, we are not talking about a whistleblower revealing hidden evil but a person who was told something with the understanding that it was not to be spread around. Let's say a friend confides in you that her or his marriage is going through a rough patch. That is nobody else's business and making it common knowledge might in fact harm efforts on the part of the couple to reconcile. Or let's say that delicate negotiations are going on. Letting everyone know the details being discussed could derail the negotiations. And gossips are not noted for their accuracy but for the juiciness of the details they pass on. If the real narrative is dull, the gossip will go for the more sexy, more scandalous version. It makes a better story.

Gossip can tear people apart. Again Proverbs says, “A contrary man spreads conflict and a gossip separates close friends.” (Proverbs 16:28) This naturally can lead to quarreling. One person confronts another over something they heard he or she had done or said. The other person denies it and gets defensive. Name calling commences and pretty soon the matter escalates. Others in the group or the families of the persons take sides and irreparable damage is done. As scripture says, “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” (Proverbs 26:20) When people stirred up things in the church at Corinth, Paul wrote, “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.” (2 Corinthians 12:20) Paul knew that gossip can destroy lives as well as groups like churches.

Another cause of quarreling and dissension is needless argument over matters that are neither essential nor important. Paul warned his colleagues Timothy and Titus about the person who “has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions...” (1 Timothy 6:4) He writes, “Do not have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” (2 Timothy 2:23). And again, “...avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9)

Sadly, you find this a lot among certain people, folks who not only love to get deep into the weeds about a matter but who cannot see the forest for the trees. They get obsessed with small details and define words and concepts narrowly and use them in ways that run contrary to how the majority of people use them. They construct highly artificial scenarios ("But what if...") and refuse to see how their assertions fail to describe or adhere to reality. If they can't impose their interpretation upon others they can at least create chaos and feel important that way. And such people are not found exclusively in religious circles. They thrive in law and politics and in fandom, where I first encountered them and developed an immunity to much of this. These are the people who get so worked up about details the movie got wrong about the original book or the fictional character that it drives them into a rage. They lose sight of the main reason for the movie or the book, which is entertainment. In the same way politicians of this stripe forget that the main purpose of politics is to govern wisely and justly for the common good. Religious people who are like this forget that the purpose of their faith is to get closer to God.

Finally, out of the 33,000 verses in the Bible I only find 2 that condemn filthy language. (Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 5:4) You may think this is a lost cause these days. We all have slipped and said something we shouldn't. And if you think you haven't, try taking care of that living recording and playback machine called a toddler! But certainly we should try not to pepper our speech with random obscenities. We all know people who use the F-word the way other people use “um” or “uh.” It can be wearying. More importantly, it can diminish what you say in the eyes of others. It sounds like you have an impoverished vocabulary. Dennis Miller was a comedian who could use clean language brilliantly on Saturday Night Live. When I saw him on his comedy special I was surprised and eventually irritated by the fact that instead of his usually dazzling display of verbal humor, he was muddying up his speech with more unnecessary curse words than a drunken sailor who stubbed his toe. Albert Brooks said that during his stand up days he knew that if his material was not going well he could always get an easy laugh by throwing in some bad language. But he'd rather try to get the laughs by legitimately coming up with funnier material. Rather than curse people should use better descriptive language. As Christians we should avoid saying anything that will distract or detract from our message, the gospel.

Speech is powerful. It can do a lot of good as well as a lot of evil. It can be used to hurt and even harm people or it can be used to help and to heal, to divide or to unify, to spread falsehoods or to spread the truth. As followers of Jesus, we need to use the gift of speech wisely and for the good of all. Therefore we are told, “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1) Towards enemies we are to “...bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:28) As for the vulnerable and powerless, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9) And in general, “Do not let any harmful talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up those in need, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29)

And of course we are to proclaim the gospel, literally the good news. Which means we have to understand it. We need to know what is truly essential about the gospel: who Jesus is, what he has done and is doing for us, and what our response should be. It means not letting ourselves get diverted into arguments that are ultimately useless. It means realizing we are not here to win debating points but to give life-changing and life-saving information to those who need it. Which means we need to be kind, gracious, wise and encouraging in all we say.

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” (Proverbs 16:24) As I wrote this I realized that our speech should be like that of an ideal nurse: truthful but not harsh, realistic but encouraging, informative but not bringing up every detail, especially if irrelevant. And I can't say that I was ever that ideal nurse. But I use the word “nurse” because we are not the Great Physician. We carry out his orders and act as an intermediary between him and the person needing healing and as an advocate for that person. Everything we do is to make people better.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” we are told. (Proverbs 18:21) Or as James says, a tongue is like a fire. It can cause a lot of pain and destruction if misused but if used wisely it can give light and warmth to a dark and cold world.