05.13.2018

 

SERMON SUMMARY: It’s easy to serve our own needs, isn’t it? After all, they are immediate and instinctive. If we are hungry, we eat; thirsty, we drink; tired, we sleep. But to consider the needs of another takes work. It takes putting your own needs on hold until the other has been served. Mark tells us that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve his people. He calls some leaders in the church to be lead-servants by modeling service in the way of the Cross. These leaders are called Deacons, and this Sunday we will be ordaining two deacons to lead us in serving.

 

 

REFLECTION:

The world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation.

—David Foster Wallace

 

SCRIPTURE:

Mark 10:32–45

32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him,33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And 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, 40 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.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,  44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

Ordination Text: John 13:3–5; 12–14

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

 

 

CONFESSION OF SIN:

You have told us, O God, what is good;

And what do you require of us but

to do justice,

and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with our God?

We have not listened to you, O God.

Instead, we have

neglected justice,

and spurned kindness,

and proudly walked alone.

 

Silent confession

 

In your mercy, hear our cry.

Forgive our sins and give us ears to hear and believe.