UCC Church of Charlotte

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Facing God
Job 38:1-7
Mark 10:35-45

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.
    
Here we have two examples of facing God.

The first is from Job.  Job has declared his innocence to his friends
and to God.  In spite of the poor wisdom of his friends and their
trust in the proverb that “the righteous prosper and the wicked
perish…,” Job demands an accounting by God, because life has not lived
up to that idea.
    
The verses this morning are the scary part: God shows up!  And when
God shows up, and Job wishes to hold God accountable, God is still
God.  Job wishes to question God, and God shows up and answers Job’s
questions with questions of God’s own.
    
(It reminds me of the old joke: is it true that pastors always answer
a question with a question?  Why do you ask?)
    
So God shows up, says, “Gird up your loins like a man, and I will question you!”
    
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?
Where were you when I stretched the heavens?
Where were you when I backed the mixer up and started pouring the
concrete for the Rocky Mountains, and traced the Nile, Jordan, Amazon,
and Euphrates rivers in the ground?
    
And the answer of course is silence.  We can demand accountability of
God to the promises of the covenant, but we also have to remember that
God is God.  Our relationship with God is mutual, but it is not even.
    
We are much more comfortable with the encounter of God we have in our
prayers, in our reading of the Gospel, in our worship.  It feels much
safer than the thought of demanding God’s presence, having God show up
and questioning us.
    
So we also have them boys of Zebedee: James and John.  They are at a
lot of the important scenes in the Gospel: the Transfiguration, the
Garden of Gethsemane, various healings when Jesus is there with just
Peter, James and John.  They get the nickname “Sons of Thunder” in the
Gospel, which indicates they are probably not the meek and mild types.
    
And here they come to Jesus, perhaps the way we come to the Lord in prayer.
    
And they ask of him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we
ask of you.”  After all, didn’t Jesus say to ask and seek and knock?
For those who ask will receive, those who seek shall find, and to
those who knock the door will be opened to them.  So they live up to
their nick name, and they come to Jesus and say, “Teacher, we want you
to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
    
Jesus is no fool.  He knows a set up when he sees one.  Surely if the
Pharisees can’t get anything over on him, what chance do his students
have?
    
“What do you want me to do for you?”
    
I am reminded of children asking their parents, “say yes to whatever I
ask you, okay?”
    
Or even better, the times my sister would ask my dad, “Daddy, do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love me enough to get me a kitty?”

“No.”

If we love someone, the answer is not always yes.  Or as a church
member here once explained to her daughter:  I love you so much that I
would gladly lay down my life for you; no, you may not have chocolate
for dinner.  That is still one of finest summations of the covenant I
have ever heard.
    
So Jesus asks what they want, and they answer, “When you come into
your kingdom, when you come into your glory, grant that we would sit
at your right and left!”
    
There are a couple of problems here.

First, they have no idea what Jesus’ kingdom will look like.  They are
expecting a throne in a palace up on the mountain in Jerusalem, where
the right and the left seats right next to the throne would be places
of honor and power and authority and might.
    
Second, they paid attention to the lesson on asking, but keep missing
the lessons on what it means to follow Jesus.  So he gives them
another chance.
    
Can you drink the cup I will drink?
Can you be baptized with my baptism?

When God shows up in Job it is much less subtle.  But here what Jesus
is really asking is:

Can you practice your trust in God and love of neighbor even when it
will cost you everything?
Can you suffer and keep your faith?
Can you die for the sake of your trust in God and your love of neighbor?

And the sons of Thunder, I don’t think they know quite what they are
saying.  I think they are giving the answer they think the teacher
wants to hear.  “Of course we can!”

So Jesus continues, “You will drink of the cup and be baptized with my
baptism, but to sit at the right or left is not mine to give, but only
God knows.”

What do you think the other ten thought of all this?  They were angry.
What do you mean you were trying to get special favors?  What do you
mean you want to sit up there with him and rule over us?  What makes
you think you are so special?

This is what some people call a teachable moment.  For in wanting to
sit at the right and left hand, and in the jealousy and anger that
followed, the disciples risk losing the kingdom completely.  It is a
good time for Jesus to remind the class what leadership means, what it
means to be a great disciple, a great follower of Jesus, a great
person of faith.

It doesn’t mean where we sit.
It doesn’t mean what titles we have.
It doesn’t mean what authority we have.
It doesn’t mean having money or power or prestige or position or anything else.

Being a great disciple means being a servant.  We call Jesus the
greatest not because of the signs and wonders, the miracles or the
healings, the sermons or the parables.  Jesus is the greatest because
he served everyone.
In our prayers, when we face God, how do we do it?

Do we start off listing all that we have done for God, for the church,
for our neighbor?
Do we ask God to do whatever we want of God?
What if God showed up in the middle of our prayer and started asking
us questions?  After we excuse ourselves to go change our undies, how
would we answer?

When we pray, let us start with the recognition that God already knows
us so thoroughly, that God is the one “unto whom all hearts are open,
all desires known, from whom no secrets are hid.”

So when we confess ourselves to God, there is no need to hide what God
already sees.

And let us pray not for titles and authority and power and might.

Let us pray for the strength to meet the needs of the day, the ability
to serve those in need, and the wisdom to do so to the best of our
ability.

So that when we finally face God, we can do so with a conscience
clear, and hear God say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Thanks be to God.
Amen.