“Are You On The Way?”

Mark 9:30-37

You may have noticed that the sign on our new church bus has been fixed. The slogan “Tellico Village Community Bus – Reaching Out With The Love of Christ” is how it was delivered to us a short while ago. And that’s a nice thought – that the whole Tellico Village Community is reaching out with the love of Christ. But that’s not for us to say. And the Property Owners Association would probably want to know who we think WE are, buying THEM a bus! So this week the signs on the sides of the bus were changed to read, “Tellico Village Community CHURCH – Reaching Out With The Love of Christ” which is what we wanted in the first place.

Signs and slogans are important. They reveal a lot about who we are and what we stand for.

So I’ve been wondering lately what slogan Jesus and the disciples might have slapped on the side of their church bus – if they had one. There are a lot of cool slogans out there to choose from.

In fact, last week, I was intrigued by a rather puzzling bumper sticker on the back of an old, rusty Chevy S-10 pickup truck that was in my neighborhood. It said, “Tattoos…While You Wait!” Hmmmm. I mean, I didn’t know there was any other way to GET a tattoo!

But Jesus and the disciples would surely choose a slogan that’s a little more religious than, “Tattoos While You Wait!” So I’ve been trying to remember some of the bumper sticker slogans I’ve seen over the years that contain some Christian content.

How about this one: The next time you think you’re perfect, YOU try walking on water!

Or this one: Want a taste of religion? Bite a minister!

Or this billboard message in Pasadena, California: “Lord, give me patience…but HURRY!”

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs! And they reveal a lot about who we are and what we’re up to. On our way to New England back in August, Sandy and I found ourselves driving along with a caravan of cars filled with kids and covered with signs that said something like, “Mechanicsville 10-year old Youth Baseball – on the way to another regional championship.”

And that got me to thinking about today’s Scripture text from Mark 9.

No, there’s nothing about Mechanicsville in the passage, and no mention of baseball, or any kind of championship. But what jumped out at me were the three words “on the way.”

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but the lectionary is taking us these days through a block of material from Mark 8:27 all the way through Mark 10:45. The passages are offered over the course of six Sundays, beginning with the text Steve preached around last week. This is a section of Mark’s Gospel that represents a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. The theme is Jesus’ prediction of his death, the disciples’ inability to understand or accept it, and Jesus’ attempt to lead them into the meaning of true discipleship.

And all through these verses, there is a recurring phrase that sets up each of the stories.

And the phrase is this: ON THE WAY.

Listen:

“They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because ON THE WAY they had argued about who was the greatest.”

Those three little words appear four separate times in this section of text, and tie all the stories together. It is a slogan – if you will – that tells us a lot about Jesus and his followers.

First of all, it tells us that Jesus was ON THE WAY to his life’s destiny. Oh, we love to hear about all the Jesus things that happened in Bethlehem so long ago. We love the boyhood stories of his life from when he grew up in Nazareth. We remember his baptism in the Jordan River, and his ministry of healing throughout the lake region of Galilee. We are still today influenced by the Sermon he preached on the Mount. And all these places and experiences are important! But now, as we look back, we realize they were only stops along the way to another, higher place.

All along, Jesus was ON THE WAY to the Cross.

Now the disciples didn’t understand that. What sense did it make that Jesus had to die? Surely his teachings were changing the world! Let him teach on! The healings and miraculous signs that he did were turning people back to God, and making everyone happy! Let the healings continue! His presence with them had given them new meaning, and for the first time in their lives they were SOMEBODIES who mattered and whose lives were full of success, popularity, and blessing! Let the good times keep rolling!

But Jesus is ON THE WAY to the Cross.

And the disciples don’t understand because – whether they realize it or not – they are ON THE WAY, too! Not to death on the Cross with Jesus, mind you. No, they are ON THE WAY to true discipleship.

Now I want you to get the picture here. They’ve been with Jesus for three years of intense, personal training. You know, after four years of college, I went to seminary for three more years. That’s why seminary education is three years long – because that’s how long Jesus trained his disciples. Three years of intense study and learning. And when they let me loose – three years later – I’m happy to report that I had arrived at a point in discipleship where I knew everything about everything! Really! Just ask my wife Sandy!

But not so with the original disciples. Jesus paints a different picture of them. After a lifetime of work in the real world – in the school of hard knocks - and then three years of living and learning - not in a seminary where people teach you ABOUT Jesus - but with Jesus himself…these twelve guys, according to our text from Mark don’t even really qualify yet as disciples. They are ON THE WAY…but they are not there yet.

And maybe I –knowing everything about everything - need to hear that message. And maybe you do, too.

Today’s message is simply this: it is good that you’ve made a commitment to Jesus Christ – it is good that you love the Lord and try to follow him – it is good that you center your life on Christian values and morals - it is good that your faith gives you strength to deal with your problems – it is good that you try to love your neighbors - and it is good that you have a hope for the coming of the kingdom of God. All these things are good.

But you’re not a disciple YET!

They were ON THE WAY. And so am I. And so are you.

But, how do you know when you’ve become a true disciple of Christ? Well, this is what Jesus is teaching in this whole section. Last week, Steve preached from Mark 8 that true discipleship is not found by merely walking up the aisle to confess Christ as your Savior. True discipleship is when you turn around and march yourself down the aisle as a result of that confession to go out into the world and lay down your life for the sake of the Gospel.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.”

I’ll always remember the day in church – not this one - when some visitor came in and somehow sat down in George’s pew. In fact, not just in George’s pew, but in George’s actual SEAT in George’s pew. Well, there was a mumbling and a stirring and all sorts of consternation among the natives. Someone asked, “How could the ushers let that happen? Because, you see, the true job of ushers is not really to help people get seated, but to keep people from sitting in people like George’s seat. And obviously, they had failed miserably. So everyone held their collective breath, just waiting for George to arrive.

What a wonderful true-life parable! It might lead us to ask the question, “If you cannot give up your SEAT for the sake of the Gospel, how in the world are you ever going to give up your PRIDE to forgive someone who hurts you, or your MONEY to advance the kingdom, or your COMFORT to take an unpopular stand on Christian values…or your LIFE if called to lay it down?”

You see, true disciples know that the most important thing in all of life is for God to be able to reach people with his healing and redeeming love – and if it takes me giving up my seat, or my parking space, or my money, or my time, or my popularity, or my personal comfort, or my reputation, or my opinion…all the way up to giving up my LIFE, I will do it – for the sake of the Gospel.

Are you there yet? Or are you – like me – only ON THE WAY to becoming a disciple?

In today’s text, Jesus offers another glimpse into true discipleship. True disciples, Jesus teaches, find greatness not in being first, but in being last – the servant of all.

Now listen to Jesus here. True disciples actively seek to serve others. It’s their full-time job!

For me, one of the great experiences of arriving to serve at this church seven years ago came when Lee Rhinemiller, Jim Fella and a few others showed up in my office one day after some terrible floods had inflicted much damage up in the Ohio River valley. Lee and Jim said, “Marty, we’ve got to do something for those people!” And out of that conversation grew a wonderful effort by a number of people in this church to bring some relief to those flood victims.

This is what Jesus had in mind for his disciples. True disciples always have their antennae up, actively seeking ways to serve and represent Christ to others.

Now, you don’t always run into that kind of attitude in churches, you know. Most often, you run into people who have all sorts of ideas about what the church can and ought to do to make things more pleasant for themselves. A friend of mine who serves a large church of close to 2,000 members says that if you could mathematically calculate the ratio of church members who are there to SERVE against those who are there to BE SERVED, it would not be a pretty picture! Only a handful of people out of that big crowd, he says, seem to see serving others as their full-time job. I wonder what the ratio would be in our church?

Are you a true disciple yet? Or are you ON THE WAY?

Now Jesus does something neat in this passage. As his followers are thinking about how to get started being last rather than first, and serving rather than being served, Jesus takes a little child, puts him in the middle of all his followers, and says, “If you want a good place to start serving others, start here.”

Start by serving the needs of children.

Do you know that one of the most important things you can do when you come to church on a Sunday morning is to seek out one of our children and greet them? Before you take a seat – even if it means you lose your seat – to find one of our kids and greet them.

“I’m so glad you’re here today! You’re getting bigger and more beautiful every week! If you need any help with your schoolwork, let me know!”

The most important ministry area you can get involved with has nothing to do with managing finances, properties, or even preaching. The most important ministry in our church – according to Jesus - is the ministry to and with children. We have a Sunday School, and it can use your help. And a LOGOS program, and it needs volunteers. We work with a Child Advocacy Center, and you can make a difference. We need mentors for children in the schools. I have photographs of orphaned children who could use the loving support of a Christian like you.

Jesus tells us to get started ON THE WAY to true discipleship by giving up parts of ourselves to serve others in his name, and most especially by sacrificially focusing our Christian love on children.

Are you willing to give it a go?

Now, let me close today by going back to the parable of George whose seat at church some visitor who didn’t know any better sat in. When we left them, the congregation was holding its collective breath for when George arrived to see the terrible sin that had been committed. The ushers were quaking in their boots.

Well, the door into the sanctuary creaked opened, and in came George. An eerie silence fell upon the church as the Head Usher ran over to tell George what had happened. He profusely apologized for the mistake. He acknowledged that George was entitled to that seat having sat in it every Sunday morning since 1947. He offered to go and tell the transgressors to move.

George said, “You gave away MY seat?”

“Y-y-y-essss!” quaked the Head Usher.

And then George said, “Well, I’ll just sit over there!”

And he did! And after the service, George welcomed the newcomers and told them they had the best seat in the house!

You see, George was ON THE WAY to true discipleship!

Are you?