- From the Hebrew Scriptures: Job 38:1-17, 34-41
- Psalm 104 (VU p.826)
- From the Gospel: Mark 10:35-45
The Hymns this week are:
- #603 In Loving Partnership We Come
- #593 Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love
- #372 Though I May Speak
- #567 Will You Come and Follow Me
The Sermon title is Me First!!!!
Early Thoughts: Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the excitement. Sometimes we think we have a privileged spot. Sometimes we get told otherwise.
James and John forgot which rules were in play. Either that or they were power hungry.
THey were working as if the rules of the world around them were in effect in the Kingdom of GOd. ANd under those rules you got preferential treatment if, like them, you had been with the powerful from the beginning. They were playing the status game that has been played, and still is played, in power structures around the world.
But of course Jesus is playing by a different set of rules. Jesus is playig by rules where saying "Me first!" put you at the end of the line. Jesus is playing by rules which call us to put the other person first, where status just doesn't count the same way.
Deciding which rules we are playing by is, in the end, a stewardship decision. When we decide to play by the rules of the world our stewardship decisions get based on asking "what's in it for me?". But when we play by the rules of the kingdom our stewardship decisions are based on the question "what's in it for them?".
How then shall we live? WHose rules about status and rank and privilege are in effect?
--Gord
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