Selfish Ambition or Service Motive?

20 Pentecost Cycle b Proper 20 September 19, 2021

Jeremiah 11:18-20  Ps. 54
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37

Lectionary Link

Having been a chaplain in preschools for 20 years, I have observed some very young children.  They hold hands and hug whether black or white or Asian or Latino.  But they also fight irrespective of color of skin if their little egos get involved.  So in their innocent friendships and in their fighting, they are impartial as to color of skin.

So how and when do children grow into adults who become highly aware of black and white and Asian and Latino?  How do we arrive at becoming adults with pronounced partiality?

In our Gospel reading for today, we read one example of many of the child motifs used by Jesus for teaching purposes.

The teaching from the Gospel lesson has to do with the motive for association with Jesus the Messiah.  Can you imagine the behind the back discussions among the disciples?  Can you imagine Andrew saying, "Peter since I was called to follow Jesus before you and I recruited you, I should be the prime minister in the administration of Jesus when he takes over Palestine."  James and John disagree, "No Andrew, we were before you and our dad Zebedee helped finance the movement Galilee.  Surely that counts for our high appointments in the administration of Jesus, the Messiah?"

Once again, we find that the Gospels present the pre-Risen Christ disciples as misunderstanding what kind of Messiah Jesus was.  And it shows that they are motivated by selfish ambition.  Jesus uses the child to highlight the selfish ambition of the disciples.  The writer of the epistle of James wrote: "For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind."

We should not over-romanticize children and babies.  They can be selfish in very individual ways; it is just that they are not old enough to be selfish for corporate and social ambition like adults can become.

In the adult developmental psychology of Erik Erikson, the young adult has task of achieving intimacy in personal relationships, but often in work relationships the behaviors become very political because the young adult is trying to get to the top of his or her field.  And often work relationships become competitive and young adults are often encouraged to be selfishly ambitious in order to get to the top of their fields.  Young adults are not often mentoring because to give away their skills and their experience to someone else is seen as a weakness that might cost them rising on the corporate ladder.

Erikson, wrote that the task of the middle age adult is generativity or what we call "mentoring."  At a certain age one has peaked out in terms of promotions and so one begins to feel comfortable with giving away one's knowledge to younger colleagues.

But Jesus of Nazareth was asking his disciples to skip the natural adult psychological patterns through the experience of the Holy Spirit of the kingdom of God.  With the Holy Spirit, one is called to service and mentoring from day one, free from selfish ambition in wanting to be those who are the bosses calling all the shots.

You notice many of the heroes from the Scriptures were those who did not want the big jobs they ended up doing.  People like Moses, David, and the prophets did not want their positions.  They had to be chosen and coaxed into doing what they were called to do.

The lesson Jesus was trying to teach and the lesson which the early churches were trying to promote for leadership was God's will and God's call involves humility and it involves service to others.  If your motive is wanting to sit on thrones and wear fancy robes and have very public authority over other people, then you do not have the motives of the suffering servant Messiah.

And herein is the secret of the calling of God and in understanding God's will: Does it involve service of others?  If we are serving others with our life vocations, then we can be sure that we are in God's will.

And how do we do that?  We prepare ourselves to be born again, returning to that child-like aspect of our personalities which perceives the sheer joy of life, without regard to social position or financial gain.

Jesus was trying to tell his disciple that if they misunderstood the Messiah, they would also misunderstand their own vocation and calling.  If you think that the Messiah is a conquering king who is going to set up an earthly administration needing generals and ministers and presidents, then you're missing the point.

But if you understand the suffering servant Messiah, then you will take up your cross in identity with the cross of Christ and this will give you the internal power to die to the ego self that tends toward selfish ambition.  This will give you the power of humility to make service the motivation for your calling and vocation in life.

And what is the great calling and vocation of life?  To love God and to love one's neighbor.  And to do that well, one has to learn to check the ego and enter into the will of God in articulating one's life as service to others.

May God help us as persons, as a parish, as a city, state, country and as people of the world to come to the service motive for living for each other and the fullest benefit of humanity.  The survival of the world depends upon it.  Amen.