Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 20 October 2024.
• First Reading: Job 38: 1-7, 34-41 (The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm)
• Epistle: Hebrews 5: 1-10 (Every High Priest is selected from among the people)
• Gospel: Mark 10: 35-45 (The request of James and John)
Those of us who read David Copperfield will recall Uriah Heep. Very ‘umble he was – when not busy defrauding his master’s business.
Similarly we will recall Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister/ Prime Minister. ‘Yes, Minister, of course Minister. You have only to command, Minister …’ and so on. All the while ensuring that the machinery of government continued smoothly and with minimal interference from politicians.
A full state of authority and control, served up with an insinuating and even gratuitous but self-deprecating smile.
So: what it is to be humble – especially when you only have to pretend. The reality is something quite different.
So then we have Job, who had been protesting his innocence and demanding audience with God in order to make his case.
Eventually the Lord answered him, from out of the storm.
So: where were you when I formed the world? When I designed and placed the stars, gave life in the deepest oceans and built the highest mountain peaks? Who helped me place the stars?
This was not quite the interview that Job had expected, and he was reduced to silence and then a gibbering apology.
Job was never told the back-story to his torments and it was only when he accepted his situation at the hand of God that he began his journey back to normality.
The key was in not blaming God but trusting Him within the most demanding of situations. Whatever happened in his life was in the hands of God, especially when he did not understand it.
Yet it demanded trust and cooperation, not fatalistic resignation. He may indeed be tried and tested by his troubles but the real test was in whether he was going to turn his back on God, or trust Him from within the midst of his anguish.
And anyone who has been faced with profound disappointment or grief or anguish will also have had the same questions to answer. Stay with God – or leave? Trust Him or as Job’s wife put it, ‘Curse God and die’?
And these are realities for every generation in every land. Their form and circumstances may change but the central issues do not.
Then there were the requests of James and John. Modest ones of course: only to sit on either side of Jesus in His glory.
Well, if you are being ambitious, then aim for the top. Maybe those who came closest to this were the criminals crucified on either side of Jesus, though they did not know it. One indeed was saved but the other, lost.
So Jesus challenged them in turn? Could they undergo His baptism of suffering for the sins of the whole world and drink the same cup to its dregs? Oh yes, they said not really knowing just what this meant. They would find out.
Yet the serious point was that honours such this would be for those for whom they were appointed. They would be received but never bargained for. They would be part of His plan for heaven and humanity as a whole when that glory had been fulfilled, and the new heaven and new earth were formed.
But there is another aspect of this mystery. Those who aspire to greatness will find it by serving others and by being poured out themselves. It is the kind of greatness and glory that reflects that of Jesus Himself and which projects it into the situations where they are already serving.
It can never be a self-centred agenda.
But Jesus does have a further agenda for the church. It was never intended to be an institution with all the trappings of an institution. It was always to be the Body of Christ, living His life and speaking and acting on His agenda alone.
And gifts were given to that body to enable it and empower it in promoting Jesus’ priorities: the salvation of all of humanity.
These were and are the gifts and ministries of the Spirit.
Given, never earned; used in the spiritual realm, not the natural realm. Used to edify the church in its ministry of proclaiming the Good News rather than some other social or cultural agenda.
Above all, desired so that the Lord may be glorified as opposed to any political programme.
Given by Him, received by His people in order to proclaim His glory.
For it is as we desire Him in His fulness, that we find our own identity and purpose. Never otherwise.
And so our lessons show us opposite ends of this spectrum. Job, coming to terms with himself in the face of God’s will, never revealed to him and yet drawing him into itself. Learning that by receiving God’s will, he may yet thrive in it.
James and John, desiring the places of greatest prominence and yet only later understanding the nature and the dimensions of the cross of Jesus. Drinking the cup of Jesus and undergoing His baptism were never going to be places of personal fulfilment or advantage.
And for us: it is not enough to want people in our pews if their hearts and minds are far away. It is when we also seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness before and above all else that we will find our places within His purposes.
And those purposes start here, now, in our own hearts.
