PRESCRIPTION FOR GREATNESS
Luke 22:24-27
May 24, 1981

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One of my abiding interests is the lowland gorillasof

West Africa. | The species is severely endangered: | some think
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the end is in sight and in recent years a flurry of zoolo-
ne.

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gical and anthropolical study has produced some utterly
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fascinating reading. \ I am intrigued, for instance, by the
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sophisticated social organization which exists in a~ amt iy «
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of gorillas. | The” family consists of perhaps a dozen males,

females and youngsters, led by a mature silver-back male.
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He iS sememmemt.—berekteasi. The others d@fer to him. | He
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decides when to stop foragging and steep. | He uses elaborate

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Signals to communicate danger, fear, aggression, caring.
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He is the boss.\ He has greatness, status, prestige and
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he thoroughly enjoys it.
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In fact the more I read about social stratification and

the prerogatives of status in gorilla society, the more I am
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convinced that the difference between the inner-personal
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behavioral dynamics in a family of go orillas anda Zoe of

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lawyers or business people or ministers, ceipeuaeieliiaian ae
timintititimiammomm~@® . My reading leads me to believe that

the gorillas may be more gentle with one another but that,

all in all, rank, privilege, status, greatness, are essential

dynamics for everyone involved.

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There is no more important nor interesting human charac-—
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teristic, Status and its prerogatives permeate our culture,
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@onspicuous symbols such as the clothes you wear, the

automobile you drive and the house in which you live tell
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about your status Less conspicuous symbols tell even more:

your choice of wine \ vacation spot\ and according to the
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Preppy Handbook, the dog you_own and the decor of your den.

Clergy have a real problem with the whole matter of
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the wigke concept of raM—, privilege and status.\ Charles

rank.| we represent, it is assumed, a philosophy which rejects
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Merrill Smith in his hilarious How to Become a Bishop Without

Being Religious, advised us to chose our status symbols with
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great care. \Obviously no one will trust a minister who drives
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a flashy car, or is married to a flashy spouse or who vacations
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for a month each year in Las Vegas \ Smith urged other-worldly
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status symbols, slightly ethereal, always inexpensive.
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"Books I have read")JI have discovered is an accepted symbol
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of clergy status. “Professors under whom I have studied, a4

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Universities I have attended do very nicely. |(-sous I have
saved" jis not effective for Presbyterians; \''Money I have
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raised’] is a little heavy handed, but successful stewardship

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and/or evangelism programs will earn admiring glances from

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vadue® peers.| For awhile, mostly in the sixties, considerable
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Lys. ¢: status surrounded the category of (situations from which

lbwqe” I was fired,J or a variation on the theme("pulpit committees

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who were horrified by my commitment to social justice." )

The impulse toward status and privilege is deep in us.
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Our society, at bedrock level, grants greatness to those

who excel. | It is not, in this society, a matter of family,

rigid classification, inherited privilege.\ You can earn
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it here. \If you can pitch a baseball faster than anybody
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else, sell more automobiles, or build better mousetraps,
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you will enjoy status. \The impulse toward status becomes,
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in our society, the impulse to excel and to enjoy the

prenogsttrog. | lhe impact on our part of human civilization
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has been emuiammm rewcrc able

That dynamic is so real in our humanity that repeated
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efforts to eliminate it have failed rather miserably. | I

have cited the imagination clergy use in divising acceptable

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symbols of status. \ Even the s got caught _in tia

@ status seeking based on humility, outdoing one another in
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charity and devotion. | On a grand scale Marxism has tried to

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strike a blow at the very heart of the dynamic. | The Marxist
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ideais a classless state: | no status, no privilege, all
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contributing on the basis of ability, all receiving on the
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basis of need. | But ood, = Harvard study located ten —. Zack, with .
j sible symbols
identifiab Soviet ty. /You can Vise Z
identifiable social gimme in Soviety society A ‘hs ole
change the vocabulary, but apparently there is something preresertives..
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in us that strenously resists the elimination of all ranking.

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In fact, that is so deeply a part of us that a counter

dynamic occurs on occasion. | Sometimes it is appropriate to

telegraph your position by deliberately rejecting the

commonly accepted symbols of greatness. | scsi:
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qapets: for acter . “Fiere has

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always been a certain iy. to the Chief Executive Officer
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who drives a Pinto and the University President who wears

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ene, | The counter dynamic is "if you really have, #,
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feet!
ave to flaunt it."
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you don't
There is something of this in our text this morning.
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The story is in Matthew, Mark and Luke with slight variation

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nly. Matth Mar the inci t
only a ew and Mark place e incident on the road to

Teruaiens} Luke puts it at the Last Supper. [ Matthew has

ae epeciel primlege for her sms:
the mother of James and John ask t i -

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Mark and Luke tell us the argument arose among the disciples.
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The common thread was that the disciples timing was atrocious,
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and their sense of appropriateness almost embarrassing.

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The situntionte—tuttof tenstope [Jesus has just broken the

bread and poured the wine Jin the last meal they will eat

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ie ie | he sublime nadhissstiea) words -{"This is my body.
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This cup is God's new covenantg" fhave just been uttered.
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A reference to betrayal has stunned them and at that moment , Loke wor hs,
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"an argument broke out among the disciples as to which of
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right embarrassing, tasteless’ the kind of thing our children
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do to us, fighting over who gets to sit by the window on the
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way to th6_tuneve1 ; |disputing about who gets the biggest
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piece of cake before grace is conciuded. \ Jesus is talking
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about communion, covenant, death, betrayal and his dearest
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them should be thought of as the greatest." That's down-

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and best friends are arguing over who is the ——s

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The scholars suggest that the disciples thought they
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were on their way to a coup de etat; (that they fully expected

Jesus' entrance to the city on Friday to set off the revolu-
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tion which would result in them ending up with real political
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power.\ You can't prove that of course, but it is at least
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plausible that the men who were arguing thought that they

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were about to become the new rulers of Jerusalem.
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In any event at we think should happen doesn't.

Jesus does not critize the disciples for their tastelessness.
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He does not go after the fact that the very premise of the

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discussion, namely that disciples of Jesus
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in@eyegimmis greatness, is wrong. | That's how we would do it.

We'd let thewmt a: et know the exact

nature of their error. \ Instead of that, however, Jesus
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actually extends the conversation \ Greatness in the world,

he tells them, has to do with power_and authority.] Not so

with you. \ If you want to be great, you will have to be like
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a servant \ In fact, the greatest one among you - the topic
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of your argumentwill be the servant of all.
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It's not that the impulse to excel is wrong, that is
\re's not that it's inappropriate to want to be

to say.
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great. \ It's not the impulse but the definition. | Basic

humanity keeps looking OK when reflected by Jesus. t's
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the nuance, the subtlety, the definition that becomes the
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Theres Aellany inheceuta wry «Seve our rastivets.

vehicle of sin. \ Greatness - the impulse toward greatness -
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isn't bad. | It's just thatatim definition, remmimemeniseendsieaeden
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I flinch, frankly, whenever I hear someone refer to a
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church as "great.' | I flinch because I have learned that
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what people mean when they say that is that a church has
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important people on its membership ro1is,| or that it has
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a big building,jor a lot of money or great music, or that
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it is growing by leaps and bounds. | I flinch because the
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church, too often, simply allows the culture to write the
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dictionary. "The cultural captivity of the Gospel")is what
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the theologians call it and what it means is that the
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churches often simply think of themselves as small General

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Motors ,Cespemmtaegs who can be evaluated on the basis of
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production, sales and profit.\ Thus, great churches look
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and feel like successful businesses ;| strong, muscular,
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vita Beware when churches are called great! | Not,
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please understand, because it is inherently wrong for a
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church to be strong and successful: [not at an:| It's
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just that there is only one kind of greatness that matters

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if we're talking about churches and not industries or
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symphony orchestras or teams and that is service. |
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( Seledieehatete I believe Broad Street Presbyterian

Church is a great church. | I take delight in its greatness.
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I love the fact of its strength. \ 1 appreciate its tremendous
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resources.| I'm particularly (grateful for its history of
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faithfulness and its willingness to strengthen itself in

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each succeeding generation. \ What a privilege to be part
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of it! What an exciting privilege to be here through the

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chapter of the story that began an hour ago!
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But it seems to me to be imperative, particularly

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today to hear and to understand that the only greatness
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that matters at all has to do with service.\ We propose
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to raise and spend a lot of money.\ We believe that to do
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it will strengthen this church for continued life into
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another generation. And /it is very important to hear and

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understand that the Ain for it all is not the greatness
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that accompanies bricks and mortar, budgets and architec-
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tural beauty, but the greatness which belongs to the
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servant of all.
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fe In a very good book on the Theology of the Church,

Colin Williams of Yale Divinity School, writes that the

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church is best characterized as "an on-going service
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roject." \That surprised me when I read it. \We have heard

many times that the church is not a building.\ We have beer been
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taught that the word "church" refers to people: \, the comm communion

of saints, the invisible body of Christ throughout the

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world today.\ How interesting to think about church as a
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project, a continuing activity the essential nature of which
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is service.\ Williams observes that there was a time, not

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long ago, when the church was very much a part of the
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establishment ; Jwhen it could command and ecteot. | That time

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is gone now and all that is left for us, he writes, is to

serve - which is what we are about anyway." } (New Directions

in Theology Today, Vol. IV, The Church)

There is evidence that we are learning how to live
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without the cultural status which once simply came with the
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territory.| There is evidence that we are rediscovering Vowu'
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the power and joy of servanthood. | Mother Teresa has become Agee

the symbol of a new Christian greatness. \|Of<¢} yi — ord rt
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Sisters of Charity pick up off the streets of Calcwtta she one

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says,|'"We want them to know that there are. people .who really yw Aut
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want them, who really a at least for the few hours eae gv

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that the have to ‘Live er) re brought to die within the ae

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sight of a Tevine iting o fi Muggeridge, Something
Beautiful for God, Ds That, , } submit, is the greatness be
that matters. | — /
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The limitation of preaching, of course, is sett evident, were .
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Saying it does not make it happen.\ The preacher can point
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to the consistancy of the motif throughout the history of
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th eople of G d th f Bible.} T ie) h
e people 7Od an e pages of the Bible \ he_preacher

can show how a radical Keraacl idea grew to full flower in
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the writings of Isaiah and how, 2500 years ago, the people
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of God began to hear that God's will for his creation has
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something to do with service ;\ service that often carries
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with it a very dear price. | Bat Fron the beginning one
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thing further has been necessary - namely conversion.
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May I suggest that conversion is exactly what the topic
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requizes? |

Conversion means changing, turning around and
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going in another direction, becoming something new. | It_does
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not necessarily mean an instantaneous, emotional upheaval.

But it must happen | Becoming 4 Christian is a life 1 ng
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task of being converted and may I suggest that the cutting

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edge o at ersona hange one's behavior,
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8 itudes rioriti
valugse ott liudes, priorities, goals and plans come more

and more under the Lordshi

That's not a simple process,*or an easy one. | Hugh

EC
T. Kerr, editor of Theology Today, wrote once that (“the

summons to Christian discipleship is not an invitation to

a tea party," believe it is a summons to conversion, an

invitation to a process of changing and growing and becoming

and I am convinced that the cutting edge is here: } at the
erent

very point that we define greatness. \ I believe that the

most dramatic, dynamic and powerful, development in our

culture would be a new definition of greatness as servant—

hood \ 2 know that it would be the most vital thing that

could happen to a church.

——————

And I am convinced that there is nothing more important
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for anyone of us per sary.\ am convinced that Jesus

was right: | tnat he was right when he turned everything
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upside down by submitting that it is more Blessed to give
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than to receive | more happy to love than to be Loved, more

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gratifying to spend your life than to hoarde it. {I am
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convinced that the Kingdom of God which commanded so very
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much of his attention exists when people 1i like you — me
inPluuced ‘oy .\
begin to understand all that and befconverted Mi Eo om
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inf Liadhiiegielttieninia. I am convinced that he knew exactly
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what he was talking about when he said:
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"the greatest one among you must be like the youngest,

and the leader must be like the servant."

God of love, help us to change, to grow, to leave behind

stale, worn out values. Patient God, give us courage to

serve when everyone else is trying desparately to be served.
Stand with us: call new faith, new life out of us. Through |

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |

WAC

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