Year B
 Jeremiah 11:18-20
 Psalm 54
 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
 Mark 9:30-37

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Jesus told the disciples…  that there were schemes being devised against him…  that he would be betrayed into human hands…  and be killed…  and would rise on the third day…  but they didn’t understand…  and were afraid to ask…  because on the way…  they had argued with one another…  about who was the greatest…  not which of them could be the most successful servant of all…  not who could be the least among them…  as children were…  but who could be the greatest…  and they were afraid to ask…  because their teacher had just told them…  that he would not inherit…  what the world valued…  that his name would not be put up in lights…  or on buildings…  that he would not promote himself by seeking the wealth and power and authority that the world valued…  that all of that would not become his…  because he would die…

They were afraid to ask…  because what they had set their hearts and minds on…  was in complete opposition to who Jesus was…  and what he was all about…  ]  and while they did not…  could not…   understand how Jesus could meet this kind of end…  on some level…  they must have realized…  they must have known…   that what they were arguing about… what they desired…  was not what Jesus desired…  that the values that Jesus embodied…  the values that Jesus held dear…  were…  and are…  at odds with the values that the world holds dear…  otherwise…  they would have gladly and eagerly told him what they were arguing about…  and Jesus would have encouraged it…

And Jeremiah…  the prophet Jeremiah…  did not know that schemes were being devised against him…  but God made them known to him…  the people of Anathoth…  Jeremiah’s hometown…  wanted to kill him because of his prophetic messages…  because of their idolatry and disobedience… Jeremiah had been delivering harsh warnings of God’s impending judgment against them… and against Judah…   ]  and those prophecies…  particularly against Anathoth…  made him…  to say the least…  unpopular…   and a target…  for those who didn’t want to hear or believe his message…  because they told of disaster…  including the destruction of Jerusalem and  the Babylonian Exile…  and because they called for repentance…  and this is the first of Jeremiah’s seven laments…  in which he complains to God about his own suffering…  suffering caused by others…  who spoke falsehoods…  and who didn’t want to listen to the truth…

Up until pretty recently…  my daughter and son-in-law lived in Springfield, Ohio…  it seems to me they got out just in time…  because since early September…  Springfield has received more than 35 threats of violence…  including bomb threats…  which according to the mayor…  have prompted evacuations of elementary schools and supermarkets…   lockdowns of hospitals…  and a transition to remote learning at several local colleges…  including Wittenberg University…  a university with Lutheran roots…  all because unsubstantiated claims have been made…  that Haitian immigrants…  who live and work there…  were stealing pets…  and eating them…  even though city manager Bryan Heck has repeatedly said that there’s no credible evidence to show that any of this was true…

And we did not know…  that it was against us…  O Lord…  that they devised schemes…

The letter of James affirms that Wisdom from above is first pure…   then peaceable…   gentle…  willing to yield…  and full of mercy and good fruits…  without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy… and he warns against envy and self-ambition…  though in our time…  we live in a culture…   that in some ways…  depends on it… 

And as you know…  we’re approaching an election…  an election which will remain tense…  and be of unprecedented consequence…  and just as Martin Luther King, Jr. claimed that budgets are moral documents…  because they reveal what we value…  our ability to vote…  the right and responsibility we have to vote…  carries with it deep moral and theological implications…  because as in every election…  we are given opportunities to learn about the candidates…  and to discern…  pray…  and express our values…  by choosing those which we believe in our heart of hearts…  most closely reflect the values about which Jesus spoke…  and those for which he was killed…

Episcopal Priest Barbara Brown Taylor writes that James is unimpressed by the kind of wisdom and understanding that people use to pound one another…  or twist the truth to their own advantage…  as every election campaign may sometimes do…   but the only Wisdom that interests James…   is Wisdom from above… it has nothing to do with simply having good ideas…  and everything to do…  with living good lives…  ]  so when we think we experience the kind of envy and self-ambition that James describes…  how do we respond to it…  and when we think we experience the kind of peace and justice he describes…  how do we discern its source and promote it…

When we look at today’s Gospel… we may feel a bit embarrassed for the disciples who argued… argued about who was the greatest… because we can relate…  ] because we sometimes engage in this kind of arguing ourselves…  because we live in a culture that focuses on who… or what… is the greatest… the strongest… the winningest… the richest…  the most powerful… and the fastest… ]  and fortunes are made and lost on these values… and too many of us endure baseless hyperbole that plays on our weaknesses…  our fears…  and our sense of envy…   or injustice…  or ambition…

That’s why I don’t believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is compatible with how we understand the  American Dream…  how some have to lose so others can win…  ]  how a theology of self-emptying…  is at odds with a theology of acquisition…  a theology of servanthood… . is at odds with a theology of self-promotion…  a theology of vulnerability…  is at odds with a theology of intimidation… 

In both Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13…  Jesus says you cannot serve both God…  and wealth…  ]  now let’s be clear…  this doesn’t mean that money…  when used to promote the values that Jesus wants us to live out…  is evil… ]  what it means…  according to the first of Ten Commandments…  is that you shall have no gods…  before YHWH…  and it takes a certain kind of Wisdom…  to embody this and live it out…

Remember when the crowd wanted to take Jesus and make him King…  give him the greatest social status of all… and he slipped away…  ]  because God-in-Jesus is beyond social status… and when we welcome children…  and the marginalized…  and immigrants…  and any others who are the least of these… and serve them… we express the consciousness of a God who is beyond social status… when we welcome them… we welcome Jesus… and the One who sent him… our identity becomes re-aligned with the One who is greatest… by our willingness to be among the last…  ]  in serving those whom the world holds least… we become first in our identity in Christ… 

But the Good News is that Jesus showed us the Way… showed us the way of transformation and connection… showed us that the world doesn’t have to be the way it is…  but that it can be the way the Word is…  ]  that sometimes…  the bread and wine we consume at Eucharist may seem like just bread and wine…  but through them we are connected to each other…  and the separation we experience…  can be flattened into a kind of seamless unity…  so that as we are formed…  and when we’re dismissed from our worship… our service to all of our neighbors…  may bear good fruit…  holy God…  please make it so…