Serve Somebody - Sermon for 3 Lent

A Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Lent (RCL B) 3-11-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:             Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22

Themes:         the decalogue, the goodness of the law, true worship, the weakness of God
Title:               You're Gonna Have to Serve Somebody

Frank Sinatra versus Bob Dylan.

Now that sounds like an odd sparing match, doesn’t it?

Well, I for one have no desire to imagine those two duking it out in the boxing ring. I am thinking rather of their music – music representing not only two entirely different genres, but two very different views on reality.

Most of you probably know this as one of Sinatra’s most famous songs. But don’t worry. I will not do you the disservice of trying to sing it for you this morning.

Frank Sinatra, My Way, With Lyrics --BETTER VERSION-- - YouTube

“For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows and I did it my way!”

That was Sinatra’s vision of the good life, the happy life, the successful life:

“I faced it all and I stood tall and I did it my way.”

And, you know, there is something noble and admirable about that approach to life, but there is also something quite sinister about it as well. We’ll come back to that in a minute.

Now, for the sake of contrast, consider one of the famous songs by Bob Dylan, after his spiritual awakening in the 1970s. And no, I’m not going to sing this either! But here are some of the words:

You may be a construction worker working on a home.

You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome.
You might own guns and you might even own tanks.
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks.

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes

You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
 
Here, my friends, we find a much deeper spiritual insight into the reality of human life.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what the exterior circumstances of your life might be, because you will serve somebody. The only question in life then, is this: whom will you serve?

We began our liturgy this morning with a recitation of the Decalogue and a few minutes after that we heard a reading of this in the original text. It was the pre-supposition of the Hebrew people who recited and recorded these 10 commandments that we all are going to serve someone.

The decisive factor facing the people at Mount Sinai was choosing whom to serve.

“I am the Lord your God…You shall no other gods before me…for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

In the biblical worldview, the assumed status of each human being is that every one of us will serve some god or another, and that we each need to choose whom to serve.

So, you see, Bob Dylan got it right!  

And the problem with Frank Sinatra’s vision is that it places himself at the center of the universe – and not himself as he truly is, but as the idealized image of the strong, independent, invincible, unmovable, heroic man. This ideal man is the god who must be served.  

Sinatra is by no means alone in this vision of his. He has a host of compatriots – mostly men! - who share that vision of themselves. But this company does not make his vision any less dangerous.  

In 1984 Archbishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle toward a democratic South Africa free from apartheid. He explains that all Nobel laureates also received a book by Harald Ofstad entitled Our Contempt for Weakness, which had a deep impact on Tutu.  

This book is a thorough examination of the roots and core principles of the Nazi movement in Germany. And this is what Ofstad wrote:

“If we examine ourselves in the mirror of Nazism, we see our own traits – enlarged but so revealing for that very reason. Anti-Semitism is not the essence of Nazism.

Its essence is the doctrine that the ‘strong’ shall rule over the ‘weak’, and that the ‘weak’ are contemptible because they are ‘weak’. Nazism… expresses deeply rooted tendencies, which are constantly alive in and around us.

We admire those who fight their way to the top, and are contemptuous of the loser. We consider ourselves rid of Nazism because we abhor the gas chambers. [But] we forget that they were the ultimate product of a philosophy which despised the ‘weak’ and admired the ‘strong’.”  (God Has A Dream by Desmond Tutu, P. 39)

I do not want to suggest that Frank Sinatra was a supporter of the Nazi ideology, but you can see that the core principle is the same: “I faced it all and I stood tall and I did it my way.”

Why? Because I am strong, and I am not one of those weak losers who have to kneel and ask for forgiveness!

What a contrast this is from the message of the Cross! For what is it that St. Paul said?

“We proclaim Christ crucified.” The Messiah tortured and imprisoned and punished with the capital punishment reserved for criminals and rogues. This is the message we present to the world!

“God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” Did you hear that? God’s weakness.

You see, the cross is so common to us now that we completely forget what it meant to those who first wore it! On the surface, it was the sign of failure and weakness.

A story is told of one of the desert fathers in Egypt who was met by a few sons of the pagan Roman Emperor who had come out to Egypt for a hunting expedition. They used enormous nets to round up the wild animals, but it one of their nets they found this desert monk named Abba Milido.

The funny thing is that he had been in the desert so long, he was so wild and hairy now, that these princes couldn’t tell if he was a human or an animal or some kind of ghostly spirit!

So Abba Milido told them, “I am a man and I am a sinner, and I came out here to weep for my sins and to adore the Son of the Living God.”

To which the princes replied, “There is no god but sun and water and fire. Adore these, and sacrifice to them.”

“Oh no I will not!” said the monk. “You should acknowledge the true God who made these things.”

And now the princes laughed and said, “A condemned and crucified criminal is what you call a god!”

And they mocked him. (The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton, p.58).

What a ridiculous thought! These young men of power and wealth – to bow down in homage to a condemned and crucified criminal! How stupid! How foolish it seemed to them!

And how stupid and foolish it still appears to many even today!

We need to be careful not to stumble into this most common pitfall in human thinking – the mistake of celebrating and honoring the strong, the mighty, and the powerful, and of denigrating the weak, the poor, and the needy. Even those of us who wear the cross around our necks often fall into this trap.

But the weakness of God seen in this cross is stronger than any human strength! 

And it reminds us over and over again that we must choose.
We must always choose - which path we will take, which god we will serve.

You see, Dylan was right! And he sang it with wisdom and insight:

“You're gonna have to serve somebody,

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.”

May we all have the grace to choose to serve the Son of the Living God, the One condemned and crucified in weakness, but raised to new life in the power of the Spirit. Amen.