I was thinking of my old friend Bill this past week. He died a couple of years ago at the age of 82. I first met him when he invited me to join him and his wife to a dinner theatre performance of The Sound of Music. He picked me up in his Buick. We talked about cars. Bill was an avid member of the Buick Club of America.
I never knew there was a Buick Club until I met Bill. He was very enthusiastic about it. He went to Buick meets, joined in with Buick Club tours whenever he could. Bill had a barn on his property which held a variety of Buicks, so part of the fun was deciding which one to drive when he went to Buick Club events.
The Buick Club was not his whole life, though. He was also a Free Mason, and had several other affiliations, including the Presbyterian Church. Membership was a significant part of Bill’s life; he was an organization man, in the best sense of the word; a man of his generation. He worked for corporations, he joined clubs and fraternities, and he believed in the mutual benefits of being a member.
Many of his friends from the Buick Club came to his funeral, all of them wearing their club jackets. They were friendly with everyone, but they mostly stayed together, sort of huddled in a circle. You could see they had a good camaraderie, a sense of belonging with one another.
I thought about Bill because I was thinking about membership. The gospel today takes us to another somewhat absurd conversation between Jesus and his disciples – another day in which the disciples demonstrate for us how immune they are to learning – when James and John announce that they want Jesus to do for them whatever they ask of him. Like he’s their personal genie in a bottle. When I think of all the comebacks Jesus might have given them, what he actually said is not among them. He says, very good-naturedly, “What is it you want me to do for you?”
And given this opening they jump right in, saying, “We want you to let us sit right in the front with you, on your left and your right.” They want to be the teacher’s pets. His right- and left-hand men. The first and second runners up in glory. They want to be considered special, set apart from the others.
And when they hear about it, the other disciples get mad – not because they disapproved of what James and John did, but because they wished they had gotten there first. If rewards were being handed out, they didn’t want to be left out. They, too, wanted the benefits of membership in the insider’s club.
The Jesus Insiders Club. whatever that is.
A couple of weeks ago we had an inquirer’s class here at the church – an opportunity for those who are considering membership to learn something about it. We talked about a variety of things – our personal faith histories, practices and beliefs in the Presbyterian Church. But something we did not discuss was the benefits of membership.
I didn’t tell them that when you become a member of WPC you get your own pew, which becomes your personal property for life – in fact, you may bestow this property as a legacy to your descendants, should they become members of WPC. This privilege also confers on you the right to kick out any unwitting newcomers who don’t know any better than to sit there. You can walk right up to them, give them a cold stare and say, “You’re in my seat.”
I didn’t tell them that when you become a member you get a reserved parking space. Or that membership gives you the authority to chew out anyone who puts the silverware in the wrong drawer, passes the offering plate the wrong way, or makes some other unforgiveable faux-pas.
Lording it over and behaving as tyrants – these are the things Jesus says about the gentiles and their leaders.
I did not tell the folks in our inquirer’s class any of these things because, alas, they are not true. Membership in the church of Jesus Christ doesn’t really come with any of these benefits. You don’t even get a membership card. No club jackets, either.
I don’t know why we have this tendency to think that membership gives you some status. That when you become an “insider” you now have something to lord over those who are still outsiders. Maybe it’s because we have a fear of being left out, ourselves; of being outsiders.
When I was a psychology undergrad I learned that human beings are motivated by three innate needs: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. It isn’t hard to see how these needs sometimes affect the ways we behave with one another. James and John, and I assume the others too, have a need to achieve. They want everyone else to see them as being special. They also have a need to affiliate, to show that they belong. And finally, they need power. They wrestled with this need for power in the group and their desire to lord it over the others. In spite of everything Jesus says, they continue to wrestle with their need for power.
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they have been listening to Jesus throughout their journey together. They have heard him say in so many ways that, in his kingdom, the first shall be last and the last first. They have heard him say that, contrary to their hopes and expectations, he is not going to march into Jerusalem and overthrow the empire; he is destined to suffer and die at the hands of the empire. And that any who follow him are called to demonstrate God’s love by serving others, even submitting to humiliation and suffering themselves.
I want to believe they have heard these things, as we have heard them. But, like us, they find them very hard to accept. They, like us, tend to resist these truths. They, like us, will hear in one moment that Jesus will be handed over to the authorities, condemned, and killed. And in the next moment they, like us, will say, “Jesus, give me whatever I ask for.”
Jesus, give me what I am asking for.
Jesus recognizes this problem. He looks at James and John when they say, “We want you to give us whatever we ask for,” and he says, “You don’t know what you are asking for.” Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? Do you really understand what you are asking for?
Can you go where I am going? Are you able to drink the cup?
The cup is bittersweet. It holds both sacrifice and celebration; obedience and freedom; persecution and treasure. The cup holds both death and life.
To drink the cup means drinking all of it. You can’t push the bitterness over to one side, like you might push your Brussels sprouts over to the side of the plate. You drink all of it. Where do you imagine you find the courage to do that?
I will tell you where: in the fellowship of Christ. In the community of the church. Because this community, at its best, is a communion of servants, those who are devoted to serving one another and the least of God’s children. It is a communion of discipleship, as we learn together to practice humility, to extend forgiveness and mercy.
If you want to know the benefits of membership in the church, this is it. It is the community in which we may practice growing in Christ’s likeness. The community in which we are free to expose our weaknesses because, when we dare to do this, we may benefit from the strength of the community holding us up.
Now we don’t always reflect those great qualities, to be blunt. We too often look like the ones who lord it over others, or like James and John in their weaker moments, shoving our way to the front of the line. We too often say, Jesus give us what we want, when we don’t really know what we need.
My old friend Bill shared with me once his concern that young people didn’t seem to want to join – either his clubs or his church. He was a little mystified by this, and also sorry for what he thought they were missing.
I can’t speak for the clubs. But maybe, in the church, we haven’t been clear enough about those real benefits. Not the private pew or the right to judge others; I’m talking about the love and support, both given and received.
May we keep our eye on the true benefits of membership;
May we embrace them fully;
May we draw courage from the strength of one another; our fellowship in Christ.
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