GREATNESS REDEFINED

October 23, 1988
11:00 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Mark 10:35-45

",..whoever would be great among you must be your servant..."
-Mark 10:43 (RSV)

The topic this morning is success, power, prestige, status. .Jesus
said:

"Whoever would be great among you must be your servant."

And, as is often the case, what he said stands in the sharpest
contrast to the way things are for you and me...

We live in a culture in which the pursuit of position, prestige,
status, is a virtual obsession.

Corporately, we cannot conceive of being anything but “number one"...
Those who study us conclude that most of us, who are not ever going to be
“number one," still are very much motivated by the possibility; however
remote... so much so that, subtly, the image of greatness ~ or status - can
become more important than the reality, and certainly a lot more
accessible. <

That is the premise, stated with directness and unembarrassed candor,
of a book, Winning Images, whose subtitle is, "Nothing Succeeds Like the
Appearance of Success." The book jacket makes several stunning
assertions...

"Every winner has had a winning image. Moses had one. And Jesus.
So did Babe Ruth, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rudolph Valentino and John F. Kennedy.
So does Coors Beer, IBM and Robert Redford.

“Whatever you cal] it, it's the way other people perceive you: | it's
the picture of yourself which you put in their minds that makes them like
you, admire you, believe you, want to do what you say."

In order to create the “appearance of success," in case you are not
altogether successful, the book makes specific suggestions: "Always 20
first class, purchase the best quality business card, choose the most
reputable interior decorator and make sure that attractive pictures of your
family are evident amidst your diplomas and awards on the wall. And -
appear to be busy... Never let your clients know how few appointments you
have." After al], the author asks, “Would you entrust your face to a
plastic surgeon whose appointment book is empty? And raise your fees to
the price that makes you look expensive, because it will say that you are
also good."

Now if you are skeptical and think my friend's book is a gross
overstatement of the way things are; that we are not so gullible as to be
taken in by images created out of thin air, rather than reality - ponder
for a moment how terribly successful the current negative advertising
strategies of the national political campaign have been, and how utterly
committed the brains in both parties are to it. It's so important that the
image makers are on the cover of TIME instead of the issues ‘and the
candidates. I'm distressed and depressed that it works, and that the book,
in fact, describes something true about us.

It was in 1959, the era of the gray flannel suit, that Vance Packard
wrote a book which made us aware of the symbols of prestige. The Status
Seekers pointed out that post-war Americans were "continually striving to
surround themselves with the visible evidence of the superior status they
are claiming." Packard identified those "status symbols" as: proper
address, occupation, the right friends, clubs, religion, clothing, cars and
of course, having one's own key to the executive washroom. He quoted a
British observer who described the new American as “a person borrowing
money he can barely pay back to buy something he doesn't really want, to
impress someone he can barely stand."

There are variations of the theme. In high paying occupations, the
game may be played with no holds barred. But, more modest professions must
devise different symbols if the honorable search for status is to continue.
College professors, for example, don't join the jet set. In the academic
world status has to do with books written, journal articles published, and
consulting jobs. In some professions, such as the ministry, which everyone
assumes has something to do with both poverty and humility, the search
becomes positively tortuous. Size of membership, budgets are effective,
but too blatant to parade. More important are things like school,
professors I know, books I have read, and world class theologians who know
my name... "The last time I talked to Hans Kung," for instance, is a good
one. For Presbyterians, time spent in Scotland, I have discovered, is a
very good number.

Studies have shown that the same phenomenon occurs in Communist
countries. Marxism, of course, has no provision at all for rank and
privilege. The official ideal - the goal - is a classless society. A
Harvard project, however, concluded that Marxism has simply stimulated
people to be a little more innovative about status seeking: that there are
in fact, no fewer than ten identifiable class ranks in Soviet society.

AIN/9DAIRA

And as if on cue, last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, included an
article om “Kids In The Fast Lane." In California, at least, a four -year-
old is nowhere without his karate class and kiwi in his lunch box. The
author tells how youngsters at lunchtime in pre-school wow one another
with spaghetti with pesto, champagne grapes, Chinese chicken salad — only a
few eat peanut butter and jelly.

Now, we can have some fun with this - but - the dynamic is not
superficial. In a serious study, In Search of Excellence, Thomas Peters
and Robert Watterman suggest that corporate success is often an expression
of a deep human longing. The authors quote a psychologist to make their
point:

"Man transcends death by finding meaning

for his life. It is the burning desire of

the creature to count. What man really fears

is not so much extinction but extinction

without significance."

[Ernest Becker, In Search For Excellence, p. xxiii]

It would appear that we are here talking about something very close
to the essence of our humanity, which leads back to the starting point for
this exercise - which is the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to St.
Mark. What a wonderfully human incident! Jesus and his disciples are on
the road to Jerusalem. The decision to go is a major turning point in the
story. The pace quickens. The things he says on the road are hard,
uncompromising, almost harsh. Tension is mounting. The disciples, who
have never fully understood who he was or what he was about, sense that
something very important is happening. Some of them are afraid. He seems,
after all, to be intentionally precipitating a crisis.

And it is at this moment, with exquisitely bad timing, that James and
John say to him, “Grant us to sit at your right hand and your left hand
when you come into your glory." They don't mean "heavenly glory." They
still think they're on their way to a revolution, a political coup d'etat.
They still think the end of this journey will be Jesus of Nazareth sitting
on the throne of David... And when that happens they'd very much like to
share the spoils of victory. They want the status of their new position.
The other ten disciples, when they hear this untimely and inappropriate
request are "indignant." The reason is simply that James and John got
there first and asked for what they all wanted.

Jesus' response to them is intriguing. You'd think Jesus would tire
of their posturing, their dullness, or be offended by their callousness.
He's on his way to his death and they're talking about status. But he
doesn't criticize. What he does is gather them all and use their request
to teach a new truth... “those who rule the gentiles, Lord it over them...
but not with you... whoever would be great among you must be your servant."

J am intrigued by that. He did not teach that it was wrong to want
to be great. If he wanted to teach that being a Christian means leaving
behind all ambition, all striving for excellence, he missed a great
opportunity. In fact, he does not suggest that his followers are immune to
ambition. What he seems to be doing is redefining. As he did so often, he

is here taking a component part of our humanness and giving it a new shape,
a new being - converting it. It's all right to want to be great, he was
saying. It's just that you've got the wrong definition of greatness. It's
not what you think it is. It's not power and authority and prestige, even
though the whole world operates on that premise. True greatness is a
product of service.

Think how often Jesus did that ~ turned upside down some venerable
human tradition.

“In order to enjoy life you have to learn to give it away."
"In order to experience love, you have ta risk your own."
“In order to live, you have to die.’

“In order to receive, you must give."

"In order to be yourself, you must be for others."

"In order to be great, you must be a servant."

In three short years, Jesus overturned the accumulated tradition of
religion and morality in a way we still struggle to comprehend.

Righteousness is not a matter of legalism, he taught. Goodness is
not simply a matter of avoiding evil. It is the active pursuit of good.

Morality is not abstention from evil so much as it is being helpful,
doing kind things, feeding people, sharing what you have. It is as new and
startling today as it once was. We need this reminder. The church needs
this reminder that Jesus defines "greatness," not the world. Gibson Winter
once wrote about the "cultural captivity of the Christian church," and by
that he meant that the church is always tempted to let the culture define
success. A great church, when the culture does the defining, looks like an
ecclesiastical Bloomingdales or AMOCO - big, strong, powerful, wealthy.

But when Jesus does the defining, a great church, regardless of its size,
is a church which serves.

We need a‘ personal reminder that one of the things being a Christian
means is that we operate with a radically different definition of success
and greatness. It is an unfortunate misunderstanding to conclude that
Christian faith and success in the world are incompatible; that only people
of ordinary or modest accomplishment can be faithful disciples. I'm not
sure we have thought about this one nearly creatively enough. I'm grateful
that Dave Brubeck has been striving for greatness all his life. I'm
grateful for surgeons who are driven to be the best. Christian faith
should applaud and support the effort to become all that we can be, to use
to the fullest God given skills, intelligence. And it seems to me that we
need to be grateful for corporate excellence, for executive greatness which
enables the complex and magnificent culture of ours to function. I don't
think there has to be a contradiction between the striving for excellence
and our faith.

10/23/88

I do think we who espouse Christian faith have a responsibility,
however, to be a counter culture — particularly those of us who practice
and celebrate aur faith on North Michigan Avenue. TI think we who are
successful very much need to remember the greatness of service ~ not only.
by serving - but also by celebrating those who choose service vocations as
an expression of faith.

I want to celebrate excellence in the brokerage but also the public
schools where the symbols of success are very modest. My heroes and
heroines: my “great people" are dedicated teachers and police and social
workers who decide that at the end of the day the rewards that matter have
to do with people helped and healed and fed and housed. And in my own
profession, they are the faithful men and women who work in and lead the
hundreds and hundreds of small] congregations which faithfully serve their
communities. If you want to be great, you must be a servant.

Now there is an internal dynamic here which has the power to
transform this entire topic. I'm not sure we understand it thoroughly.
But I know that when the Gospel sounds like a prescription for colorless,
lifeless, obligatory service to the human race, most people tune out.
Jesus didn't put it that way. He didn't say that it is wrong for you to
want to be great. He didn't say that it's wrong to want to live a full and
happy life. It's just that we're inclined to let the world define
greatness and fuliness and happiness instead of him.

In his wonderful spiritual autobiography, to which I have referred
before, Dan Wakefield tells about his pilgrimage from a fast-laned
Hollywood life filled with the symbols of success and also the consequent
tragedies - to a fuller, much healthier life centered around his
relationship with God and the church which he had rejected years ago. The
church to which he found himself drawn, began not only to minister to him,
but to ask him to do things. You know how that goes. You walk in one day,
show a little interest and the next thing you know you're on a committee.
We're expert at that. And there is an internal logic and wisdom beneath
it.

In Wakefield's case he was asked first, very tentatively, if he would
help make chili for a group that was meeting in the church. He writes -
“The most filling part for me wasn't the meal but cooking... I was-given
the most important gift of ail, the chance to serve." And then Wakefield,
with his journalist's integrity, says what intrigues me about this topic.
"I responded not from ‘selfiessness' but a sort of ‘enlightened
selfishness,' not because it made me holy but it made me happy."

[Returning, p. 226, 227]

He had kept, for years, for some reason, a poster with an Albert
Schweitzer quote on it. Suddenly it made sense. Schweitzer had said —

"T don't know what your destiny will be
but one thing I know, the only ones among
you who will be really happy are those
who have sought and found a way to serve."

a

We deprive the Gospel of its power if we understate that. We miss
the power of the Gospel to change our }ives - to recreate us ~- if we
understate the radical demands of Jesus. To follow Jesus is to be
converted. To believe in him is to change the way you live. It is to
march to a different drummer. It is to pick up burdens you don't have to
pick up. To believe in him is to volunteer for discomfort. It is to be
emotionally vulnerable - ta feel the pain of others.

To follow him is to live - not for self but for others. It is to
pour out your life for something other than your own amusement or
advancement. You know this greatness when you witness it - when you see
someone living for and serving an aging parent, a difficult spouse, a
special child, a needy friend.

Over the years I have had the privilege of knowing many “great
people.“ Let me tell you about one of them. Horace "Holly" Mitchell was a
successful business man and faithful Christian. In his eighties, he had
stood by his wife as she descended slowly but surely into Alzheimier's
Disease. When she finally was placed in a nursing home Holly visited her
every day. Long after she stopped recognizing him, long after the visits
had become very unpleasant, he continued to visit her, every day. I asked
once, why he did it. "After all, Holly, she doesn't recognize you. Why
not spare yourself this pain?" "I go," he said, "because I promised to
stay with her a long time ago. Besides, I'm not alone. When I go to visit
her, someone is with me."

It is ta give time away - to invest precious hours doing something
useful for another human being. Regardless of who we are - we are called
to serve. It is tutoring, or cooking, or visiting, or building, or meeting
on an evening when the couch and a book beckons. It is gradually to
turn your life around. And the promise is that you will make the amazing
discovery that he knew what he was talking about when he said there is
greatness in service, and there is an abundance of life in giving life
away. The last thing he said to them was: "The Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve..."

At the center of it all is the indescribable mystery of his life and
death. The compeliing thing about Jesus is that he lived it. Jesus lived
for others. He was the Man for others... Jesus demonstrated what it means
to live life by-giving life away.

The compelling thing about Jesus is that he died to show them, and
you and me I believe, that there is nothing greater that any of us can be
than a servant of all. It is the central mystery of our faith - that his
life was poured out, that his servanthood was expressed finally and
terribly and beautifully by his dying for us and that in that dying we have
been given new life... It is the central mystery of this Christ-life to
which we aspire —- that if we want to be great, we must somehow be servants
of one another, and together, servants of the world he loved. That is the
challenge — the imperative - and the promise. "Whoever would be great.
among you, must be your servant."

Amen.

10/23/88