UNITED

 

Friday, June 10, 2022

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.  

Ephesians 4:1-6

There is a lot said about the need for being united as families, friends, citizens, churches, all the myriads of groups, organizations, and, in short, members of the human race.  There is also much written and spoken on the topic of how to achieve that in any culture.  The Apostle Paul’s words to people he loved dearly, the believers at Ephesus, contain the key to unity, a singularly-effective habit for cultivating unity…he encourages them to always be humble and gentle, patient, and magnanimous. 

This describes the character of those who are easy to be around.  The opposite of this would be bragging, raging, intolerant, and selfish.  And when you unpack it that way, easy to be around and difficult to be around are not hard to distinguish.  The former is a calm ride through a quiet park on a Sunday afternoon; the latter is a wild-ride on a carnival roller-coaster.  It’s hardly necessary to say it, but, while the latter may be more exciting, the former promotes peaceful ability to think.

Jesus put an eternal view on unity.  In fact His priestly prayer for each of us centers on how important God views our unity:

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.  I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.  And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.  “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.  I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.  John 17:20-23

Each of the characteristics Paul lists in his encouragement towards unity for the Ephesian believers (and us), humble, gentle, patient, and magnanimous, are the personal traits we are to cultivate – it has nothing at all to do with telling the other person how to behave, or faulting the other person for destroying unity.

Edgar Cayce put it this way: 

For You Today

Guess I’ll work on my patience today…gently…that would be magnanimous!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The Ambition of Humble Servants

[1]

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him.  “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.”  “What is your request?” he asked.  They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”  But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking!  Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?  Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?”  “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”  Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering.  But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left.   God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”  When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant.  So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them.  But among you it will be different.  Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Mark 10:35-45(NLT)

Have you ever played darts?  If you have, you know the idea is to hit the center of the target.  Some places on the target are worth lots of points, and some are worth little. 

When you play darts, you don’t aim at the low scores!  But that is a great problem many Christians have; we fear the cost of hitting the center of the target, because we might not be “worthy”.

Not so with James and John.  They asked Jesus for a promotion, and Jesus told them they’d better think twice, because they really didn’t know what they were getting into.  He reminded them of times he’d forecast persecution and hardship. 

The question was:  are you able to bear that?  They said “yes,” but they really didn’t understand; their eyes were glued to the prize of being right and left hand men to the King.  They pictured Jesus being crowned king; James and John wanted in on that glory! 

Jesus was opening the Kingdom of Heaven before their eyes, and all they could think about is cabinet positions; James wants Secretary of State, and John’s heart is set on being Secretary of War.  They’re grabbing for the prize without an understanding that it’s not a prize to be grabbed.  Jesus plainly tells them God the Father will determine who is appointed to what honor. 

And the reason they missed this target by a mile is they weren’t listening.  Jesus had been talking for days about suffering, hardship, and death; all the dynamic duo can think about is crowns, thrones and power.  Had they listened closely they might have sensed the importance Jesus placed on the cross. 

A colleague[2] of mine pointed out you should consider the two positions James and John asked for (to be on the left and right of Jesus) eventually were filled by two thieves who died with Jesus not too long after this conversation.  The two disciples really didn’t have a clue!

However, Jesus did have plans for the disciples that would include honor – they just couldn’t see it yet.  In fact, when the other disciples heard about James and John’s promotion bid, the anger and jealousy explosion caused Jesus to call a board meeting. 

Jesus used the occasion to lay out a prediction and an instruction.

The Prediction

Jesus told the 12 that they were indeed going share in his cup of suffering.  And so they did!  The disciples died violent deaths, persecuted for Christ; the sole exception was John, and he died in exile at hard labor in the coal mines of Patmos.  That was hardly a job “perk”!

The Instruction

…was to live for others out of love for Him…it is Christ’s great commandment to love others just like He loved us, and not just for a moment, or a brief period when it is convenient.  Jesus wants us to develop a lifestyle of loving that is consistent, unselfish, and intense enough to make a difference in our culture, and in ourselves:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  John 13:34(NLT)

The Jesus Principle of Magnanimity

The whole letter to the Hebrew Christians speaks of the sacrifice of our great High Priest, Jesus, and shows us the incredible upside-down-ness of the Kingdom of God:

·      the first is last, and the least become most

·      the meek are the real mighty ones 

·      the King dies for the sinner, and

·      the Master serves the slave. 

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ instruction to His followers is to be magnanimous; He wants them to throw their life’s darts at the center of the target. 

Jesus says to them: 

If you’re going to be great, learn humility; serve… 

and start with each other

The One Ambition of a True Servant is to Serve

Serving others, while living in a society that says forget others – get what you can, means you will swim against the tide.  That takes work.  If you’re going to live the way Jesus taught the disciples you will have to wage war on your own tendency towards pleasing self.  We have to fight that battle every day. 

Consider:

·      When you take a course in school – do you set your sight on learning…or do you just want a grade; a promotion?

·      When you go to work – are you building, producing, adding to value in society…or are you there for a paycheck?

·      When you consider the family from which you have come – do you aim to bless the family name and its contribution to mankind…or do you look to just take up space until your ship comes in?

·      When you are asked to be a leader or worker in the church organization – do you take it seriously, or is it just allowing the committee to plant your name in one more slot?

The choice is ever is to be a magnanimous servant or just settle for whatever comes your way that pleases you!

Application – Be a Kingdom person

To follow Jesus magnanimously means you must keep the Kingdom of God as priority.  Jesus did, and the writer to the Hebrews said Jesus became the source of eternal salvation. 

For us, individually and corporately as a church body, it means we probably need to scrap most of our schedules and to do lists in favor of what Jesus told the crowd gathered on the Olivet hillside:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else…Matthew 6:33(NLT)

That’s what a kingdom person, a true follower of Jesus Christ does.  It’s the one ambition of a humble servant.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image: © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / on Wikimedia

[2] Rev. Alan R. Bevere, Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Ashland, Ohio, How the Greatness of Life is Measured