The Greatest Nation & the Servant-Ideal

A Sermon for October 21, 2012 (RCL B Proper 24)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:           Hebrews 5:1-10; Psalm 104:1-9,25,37b; Mark 10:35-45

Themes:        service to others, self-sacrifice

Title:             Whoever Wishes to Become Great

Earlier this morning, nearly 4,400 miles to the east of this place, the Bishop of Rome officially canonized a woman who had consecrated her life to God as a Sister of Saint Francis and who is exalted because of her service at a leper colony in Hawaii, nearly 4,900 miles to our west.

Saint Marianne Cope is how the Roman church refers to her now, though most of her life she was known as Mother Marianne. In July 1883, while serving as the mother superior of her community in Syracuse New York, Mother Marianne received an Emissary from the Hawaiian government who was sent throughout North America in hopes of finding religious sisters who would relocate to Hawaii in order to offer medical care to a colony of people with Hansen’s Disease – which is the official name for leprosy.

Faithful to the spirit of St. Francis, and in memory of his famous encounter with a leper on the road outside of Assisi, Mother Marianne agreed to accept this challenge. Three months later, Mother Marianne and six other sisters set out for the island of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Before setting out, Mother Marianne made a bold promise to her sisters: no one, she said, who was willing to minister to lepers in the name of Christ would ever contract that horrible disease. The risk was very real indeed. This leper colony had been established hastily in the 1840s because of the sudden arrival and rapid spread of the disease. People in Hawaii were afraid, and every one with Hansen’s Disease was immediately exiled to this remote peninsula, completely cut off from the rest of Hawaii by the highest sea cliffs in the world which fall straight down into the ocean.

The Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokai

Mother Marianne and the sisters risked their lives to help these isolated, desperate souls who had no help, no supplies, no homes – about 1200 people in total, all suffering from a deadly and debilitating disease. They risked a painful and gruesome death in order to serve these people, but, amazingly, no Sister among them ever did become infected.    

When the sons of Zebedee made their infamous request to sit at the right and left hands of Jesus when he took his place as King, they had no idea what they were requesting.

To drink the cup of Jesus does not ever lead one to a position of royal, earthly power like that which James and John had requested. But it does lead one to a position of service to the poor, the needy, the sick, the outcasts.

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10:44).

It may be that Mother Marianne’s example of living out the servant-ideal of Christ is, perhaps, an extreme one. But it is a faithful example, and it teaches us much about the kind of risk-taking and self-sacrifice that is part-and-parcel of following Jesus.

Last week, we considered together the importance of reading and meditating upon Holy Scripture on a regular, daily basis, because “the word of God is living active” (Hebrews 4:12).

This is crucial for our daily lives as individual Christ-followers, but it doesn’t stop there. What we learn in the Scriptures has implications for every facet of human life.

Right now, I am going to push to the edge of what is culturally acceptable by talking a bit about politics. I do this because it is true that what we learn from the scriptures has bearing not only upon our individual lives but also upon how we conduct ourselves as a nation.

Now, let me be perfectly clear at the onset by stating that I do not believe that America is a Christian nation.

I do not believe that it ever has been such, nor do I even think that a Christian nation is a true possibility, to be entirely honest.

But if it were – if we were to set out to live collectively as a Christian nation, as a entire country dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus – what might that look like?

What might we learn from the Gospels that would shape our policy as a nation?

What about from today’s Gospel reading?

What would it look like to be a nation which intentionally took the position of servant to the other nations of the world? A nation which took extreme care to ensure that we never lorded it over others, never threw our weight around, and never demanded from others what we are unwilling to do ourselves?

What would it look like to have a foreign policy shaped by this teaching of Christ?

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

Thankfully, I am not a politician, nor am I a policy adviser to any. But it doesn’t take expert eyes to notice immediately the stark contrast between the servant-ideal of Christ and the foreign policy of this nation.

To be a servant of others, like Mother Marianne Cope, means that you are willing and ready to lay aside your own needs and interests in order to focus instead upon the needs and interests of others.

This is sacrificial service and it is costly. To willingly accept the baptism of Jesus is to join him in his sacrificial service on behalf of the world.

I do not have any clear and easy prescriptions for how this ought to be applied in our relations with the other nations of the world, but this is how I understand – on a personal level – the teachings of Jesus regarding self-defense and the legitimate use of violence.

As a follower of Christ, it is NEVER appropriate to defense myself.

The one who gave himself up to death on the cross on MY behalf calls me to follow his same path, to carry my cross, to offer myself as a sacrifice for others.

That is what we call agape love. As a Christian, I can NEVER hurt another human being in order to protect myself or to protect my honor.

This is what it means to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give away my cloak also.

However, as a Christian, I have a duty to protect the innocent and the needy.

If I were ever to see someone harming a child or abusing a woman, I would not hesitate a moment to inflict serious pain upon the perpetrator.

By taking up the defense of those who are defenseless, I am risking myself and my safety and security in order to serve someone in need, and I personally am willing to do that at any moment, whenever called upon.

As a student of the Bible, I understand this distinction between self-defense and the defense of others to be clear and decisive.

Again: I believe that the Bible is clear that I never have any right to cause harm in defending myself, and at the same time that I have a moral obligation to defend others who are in need. And in that case, force may be necessary and is therefore justified.

So how does this distinction work for a nation as a whole who might seek to follow Jesus as our Master, Savior, Lord?

If we actually wanted the policies of our nation to be shaped by the teachings of Christ, how would we carry out this distinction in the use of force? How would we see ourselves as the servants of others?

Tomorrow night, during the last scheduled debate between the two leading candidates for President, there will be a lot of talk about the use of force by our nation.

After all, the principal subject is slated to be foreign policy.

You will hear these two men speak often about doing what it is in the interests of the nation, about protecting our national interests, and about projecting our power throughout the world.

I invite you, as a Christ-follower who might be observing this discussion – or talking about this debate among you family or co-workers – as you do this, I invite you to hold in your mind this clear teaching of Christ about the servant-ideal, and to remember also the example of Mother Marianne in her sacrificial service to the lepers in Hawaii.

As you listen, consider the Bible’s teaching that force and violence are never to be used in self-defense but only in service of those who are powerless, of those who are in need, of those who are defenseless.

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Thanks be to God that the Son of Man has served us, and has ransomed our lives, so that we might show off his glory and greatness throughout the world. Amen.