The Gospel According to You

“The Gospel According to You”
Mark 10: 35-45

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 22, 2006
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

So Jesus called them and said to them, "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; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

* * *

“Empire is the Way,” disciples say.
Jesus responds, “Servanthood is the Way.”

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” The two disciples, James and John, want to make sure that they get their share of reward when Jesus and his followers achieve their goal in establishing the reign of God. They understand the coming reign of God as very similar to what they see from the Empire of their time. Jesus will become the good king and the disciples will share the glory by holding powers of the Empire.

“We want power when we make it big” is what I hear them saying. People’s imaginations are limited in many ways. Our imaginations are usually limited to what we have seen. So disciples imagine that the end result of God’s reign Jesus and they are trying to bring will more or less look like the powers and the principalities of the world they have experienced thus far in their lives.

But Jesus tells them once again that “whoever wishes to become great among them must be their servant, and whoever wishes to be first among them must be slave of all.” Jesus seems to imagine something that no one has seen in their lives. The kind of the world Jesus envisions is outside of the world the disciples could ever imagine. Jesus imagines a world where becoming the best would require a person to become the least of all in one’s world. Jesus states once again to his disciples that his calling is not to be served but to serve, even to the extent that he would sacrifice his own life to achieve that mission.

The conversation between Jesus and the disciples reflects conflicts within Christian history. Some believe that Jesus was not trying to establish an organised religion. They believe that Jesus, as a Jew, was a revolutionary rabbi who was trying to bring God closer to people. The Way of Jesus was a movement of the people and not about establishing a religious institution. Then, there are others who believe that Christian Church ought to establish itself as a strong institution, like the Empires of the world.

Here is a brief history of Christianity according to Richard.
After the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the followers of Jesus were persecuted by religious and political authorities. The legend tells us that each one of the disciples, other than Judas Iscariot, was martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. Legend has it that the Apostle Paul was crucified upside down on the cross. The mission of the followers of Jesus was to change the world according to the values and principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The persecution of Christians continued until the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity as State religion. There are pros and cons of Christianity becoming a state religion.

Here are some positive consequences of Christianity becoming a State religion of the Roman Empire.
Christians no longer had to live in fear of torture and death for their faith.
Christianity became a popular religion, a religion of the Empire.
Christianity was able to be organised in order to be more effective and efficient in disseminating the ideologies of the leaders of the religion.

Here are some of the downsides of becoming a State religion of the Roman Empire.
Christianity began to embrace much of the values of the Roman Empire rather than challenging those values to bring changes.
Christianity became an organised institution that embodies the values and ideals of the political structures of the Roman Empire.
Christianity became a religion that worships power rather than following the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls for the liberation of people from all forms of oppression in the world.

Over time, Christianity spread to “the end of the earth” as Jesus commissioned his disciples. The problem is that the idolising the power of Empire went hand in had with the dissemination of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Archbishop Tutu often said that “When the White Europeans came to Africa, they had the Bible and we, Africans, had the land. Now, they have the land and we have the Bible.” It is true in many parts of the global village where the Gospel of Jesus Christ arrived with guns and the army of the European and North American countries.

The problem I see is that many of Christian Churches around the world have now become indistinguishable from the Empire they live in. Many Churches are not only in the Empire but also of the Empire. Many churches around the global village can no longer point a finger at the Empire for worshiping sheer power. Far too many Christian Churches have become an Empire unto itself. When religion becomes an Empire, it no longer can live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Christianity reflects the values of the Empire, it no longer lives to bring the reign of God Jesus sought to bring.

“We were them.” “We were the government.” “Many of those powerful politician and civil servants who devised and carried out cultural genocide against the First Nations Peoples were the members of The United Church of Canada.” These were the words of the Rev. Brian Thorpe when he preached at a General Council Executive meeting when our Church was struggling with the Indian Residential School lawsuits in the late 90s.

Many of know about what happened to young children from the First Nations communities in Canada. The idea was a simple one. “Let’s provide education for the First Nations children so that they could function in a productive manner in Canadian society.” Churches in Canada, including our own denomination, participated in the education programme. Many schools were operated under the auspices of the United Church. Many teachers and staff were members of the United Church. A friend of mine who taught at one of the Indian Residential Schools told me that he taught at the School with a conviction that he was helping the children’s education.

What we do not hear, or what we do not want to hear is the other side of the idea behind the Indian Residential School system. “Getting the Indian-ness out of the Indian” was quoted as one of the principles of the Indian Residential School system. The United Church during its glory days participated in a system that was designed to eradicate the cultures and humanity of the First Nations’ Peoples in Canada. The consequences of the Indian Residential School system over generations have devastating effect in the First Nations communities in Canada. And yet, those of us who are not from First Nations communities would rather move on and not talk about the disastrous effects of how Church and government colluded to destroy people’s culture and humanity.

I believe that history repeats when people refuse to acknowledge the wrongs done, learn from the wrongs committed, and make enough changes to ensure that the same wrong does not happen. When Church refuses to hear the voice of the victims and does not commit itself to turn around, the Church has become an Empire which stands against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I remember what the Very Reverend Stan McKay, the 34th Moderator of our Church, said in a video designed to share information on the impact of the Indian Residential School in relation to the healing of all Canadians from the legacy of the Indian Residential School. As a young child, he used to look beyond the School fence and wonder what it would be like to go home to his family after school each day.

I was thinking about my daughters when I was listening to Stan talk about his pain of being torn away from his family as a young child. How could I live with my children taken away from me? How could I endure such pain of separation if it happened to me and my parents and children? How would I be able to keep faith in Jesus and trust his Church if such things were done to me and my family members through generations?

One of the most difficult things I had to decide when I was part of the General Secretaries Group was on the Indian Residential School law suit.

trying to handle the issue of the lawsuit arising from sexual abuses at the Indian Residential School was whether I should put on a bureaucrat’s hat and defend the Church or think as a follower of Jesus struggling to live out my faith.

In the end, I shared with the rest of the eight General Secretaries that I will not defend the Church, an institution, at the expense of my faith. I shared with them that I believed that Church has committed sin by participating in the Indian Residential School where children were taken away from their families in order to eradicate from them their culture, language, and heritage. Our Church participated in having power over the First Nations’ Peoples through the Indian Residential School system. Jesus envisioned a world where power could be harnessed into serving others rather than demanding to be served.

What is your gospel? How do you decide and act upon your decision on matters that requires a discernment of your faith? Here is a poem by an unknown author that might help you for such discernment.

The Gospel According to You

There is a wonderful story
Written in a time long gone.
It is the gospel according to
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The gospels were given to show us
The power of God’s love divine.
May that story be told again
In the life of your life and mine.

People read and admire the gospel,
With its love so inspiring and true,
But what do they say and think of
The gospel according to you?

We are writing a gospel,
A chapter every day,
By deeds that we do,
Bu words that we say.

We are writing each day a gospel.
Take care that the writing is true,
For the only gospel some will read
Is the gospel according to you.

- Author Unknown

From “Rolling Waters and Roaring Wind: A Celebration of the Woman Song.”
Edited by Lynda Katsuno-Ishii and Edna J. Orteza, A WCC Publication.