SUNDAY SERMON: What does it take to be great?
By Rev. Stephen Baldwin,
OT: Job 38.1-7
NT: Mark 10.35-45
What does it take to be great?
Back in the 90s, there was a t-shirt company called “No Fear.” They had sayings on them like, “If you can’t win, don’t play,” and “Second Place is the First Loser.” It was a very black-and-white, Macho-Man-Randy-Savage view of the world.
Michael Jordan lives by similar values. In “The Last Dance,” a documentary which came out just a few years ago about the Chicago Bulls, he talked about his desire to win above all else.
“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost,” Jordan said. “Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. And I earned that right because [other] teammates came after me. They didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn’t going to take anything less.”
It’s hard to argue with the results. Jordan did a lot of winning. He won six championships and is still seen as the greatest of all time. But people close to him, didn’t really like him.
“People were afraid of him,” former teammate Jud Buechler said of Jordan. “We were his teammates, and we were afraid of him. And there was just fear. The fear factor of MJ was so, so thick.”
So for the documentary, they asked Jordan about it. Do you regret wanting to win at any cost?
He responded, “When people see this, they’ll say, ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted [my teammates] to win and be a part of that as well.”
In other words, no regrets. No fear. If you can’t win, don’t play. Second place is the first loser. Win at any cost.
What does it take to be great? The most successful people in the world will tell you all about hard work, determination, principle, skill, and winning. They’re not wrong. It takes all those things, sustained over a long period of time, to be great at anything in this world–whether it’s sports or business or baking or farming.
Yet, in today’s reading, when the disciples want to be great, what does Jesus tell them it takes?
Whoever wishes to become great among you must first be your servant.
He doesn’t mention hard work. Doesn’t mention skill. Doesn’t mention winning. He only mentions serving others.
Jesus concedes that in the world outside the church, those who are great are powerful. Here are verses 42 and 43: “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.”
James and John thought Jesus was going to be king of the world, and they wanted to be his princes. So he says, “You don’t have any idea what you’re asking. If you want to be great, you must be a slave.” Slaves were at the very bottom of the social ladder. Yet Jesus instructs his disciples to be slaves when they ask him to sit beside him in glory.
That’s mirrored in one of my favorite sayings when he says, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” One of the reasons I think that’s so beautiful is because it’s so noble. Jesus chooses to lose. He chooses to be last. He chooses to be among the least. He not only proves that the good guys don’t always win…he questions if they should even want to.
We can’t help but think of Job from today’s Old Testament reading–another good guy who finished last. Despite being a faithful soul, he experienced tragedy unimaginable. For thirty-seven chapters in the book of Job, we heard all about Job’s trials and tribulations, his complaints to God, and his friend’s counsel to him during the tumult…before in today’s reading we finally hear from God. The same Father of Jesus who sent him not to be served but to serve.
Like the Son so often does with his disciples, the Father doesn’t directly answer Job’s complaints. Instead, he says what really matters. “I will question you,” not the other way around. I can only imagine what God would have said if James and John had said to God, “We want you to do whatever we ask of you.”
Then God reminds Job who laid the foundations of the earth, who hung the stars, and who numbers the clouds. God. Not Job. Not his friends, full of counsel as they might be. Not the disciples, full of demands as they might be. God. Not us. God.
The lesson is clear: We don’t get to make demands of God. Even if you’re Job or one of Jesus’ disciples. We don’t get to make demands with God.
These stories make it clear that only one partner in our relationship with God gets to make demands—God. And what does God demand? That we live not to be served, but to serve. Not to be served, but to serve.
How do we do that? As individuals. If you helped somebody this week, you know how meaningful that was. It was the thing that gave your life meaning this week. It’s important for us as individuals to help others as individuals. But God teaches us an even more powerful way to serve. As a faith community. Because we can do much more good together than we can separately.
We gather up our offerings together to support missions all across the world. I’m so proud of the fact that you save up money to help others and when disasters strike the very first thing you think of is: How can we use what we have to help? Individuals have given to flood relief after Helene, and you as a church have as well.
I was reminded of the ongoing gravity of the situation was this weel upon seeing a post from our college friend, who is a midwife in Asheville, this week. She posted an update, her first since the storms hit, to tell folks she is ok, but she said, “We are not OK. We won’t be for a long time. We can’t let ourselves feel the overwhelming grief without collapsing, so we just let a little of it in at a time for now. What has gotten me through these last few weeks is the kindness and generosity of people, even total strangers, and our mutual dependence on each other.” Friends, we cannot forget our brothers and sisters to the south who will need our prayers and our resources for months and years to come. I’m so grateful that you’ve made it a priority to help.
What does it take to be great? To be good.
Like Job, like James and John, sometimes you have to be willing to lose. Sometimes you have to take second place so that you can help elevate those around you to first place. Sometimes you have to live not to be served, but to serve.
Jesus taught us greatness, and it is nothing like the world teaches. Who will we follow? Amen.
