29th Sunday Ordinary Time
Fr. Ed Hampson
Preached: October 20, 2024
Election fever & decisions about who governs us and how are in the air. Our American neighbours go to the polls on Tuesday November 5th this year; we’ll do the same which could be anytime before next October, so we’re going to be hearing a lot about politics & winning. …. Elections are all about people trying to get elected, trying to win in order to be our leaders. It’s about gaining position, power, & influence… & sometimes.. sometimes.. a valuing of the greater good & even a desire to serve… .. sometimes.
What is on display for us in all of this is “climbing the ladder,” reaching up, higher & higher, rung by rung, gaining more ground, more influence, more recognition, leaving others behind ….. better & better, more & more. Along the way.. good things can happen; I thought, for instance, that Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech on Aug. 22nd for the Democratic nomination for the office of President was superb and, I hope, inspiring for some of my American relatives… In the end, however, our governments are based on winning & losing.. & on the temporary popularity of election fervour. … But ‘climbing the ladder’ isn’t just limited to politics. …… We even have games like “Snakes & Ladders” where you climb the ladder to get higher & higher & you try not to land on a snake where you’ll slide down.. sometimes quite a long way down.
The gospel today opens with James & John asking Jesus for something. We presume they’re adults at this point, but they sound a lot more like children: “promise me?” ® and then “we want you to….” ® They wanted to jump the rungs of the ladder & sail all the way to the top.. to sit one on Jesus right & the other on Jesus left in his glory. Jesus enters the conversation they’re trying to initiate. He asks them if they’re able to drink the cup he drinks or be baptized with the baptism he is baptized with… references to the costs & the suffering that are part of the road ahead… costs that are inevitably part of the long term commitment of being Jesus’ disciples… which they clearly hadn’t considered.
To all of this Jesus offers a kind of ‘course correction’ because (a) what they’re asking for belongs to God’s greater purpose & plan, & it’s not the sort of thing to be granted in response to a childish whim … but (b) even their asking of this favour is ‘off;’ because it’s not what Jesus is about & it’s not how the Kingdom of God works. ®
In the Bible, in Genesis 28, Jacob dreams of a “ladder” connecting heaven & earth, on which angels are ascending & descending… & it’s understood to be a connection between heaven & earth. … But for Jesus, his response to James & John’s request, turns their whole image of the ladder upside down. Instead of climbing the ladder to privilege & power… pushing oneself forward into ‘leadership’ or jumping the queue to secure a superior position Jesus tells them that the ladder they are concerning themselves with so much is not for climbing up. It’s for climbing down… down.. to a place of service, in their time like a slave.
Leadership in God’s world.. God’s kingdom.. God’s way of doing things.. can only be expressed in ‘otherness,’ service, loving service .. to others. For Jesus, when we encounter a ladder in our lives… as James & John thought they had…. it’s there for climbing down ….. away from our own position or influence or prestige down to where we can be present in places that need new life. But Jesus’ ‘course correction’ is not what we expect to do in life, is it? It’s not how we’ve been socialized. What Jesus is saying is counter cultural.
So the question for us is “how are we to live this?” … Jesus had talked about this in other places in the gospels. Like when he said “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, & those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk.14:11 & 18: 14) and “when someone invites you to a wedding feast do not take the place of honour, but when you are invited, take the lowest seat,” or when you give a luncheon or dinner “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Climb down to a different place where other things may be possible for other people… a different place… where even our own expectations can be changed… become different.
There’s an ancient hymn I love very much. I turn to it when I know I need a course correction.. or when I need to change my perspective on something that I have coming up that I have to deal with. I usually repeat it a few times in prayer. And what I’ve found is that if I have a conference or meeting or a clergy seminar or something to deal with that has ‘small scale political overtones’ … which I dislike & which I can sometimes become cynical about.. the words of this hymn somehow let me find the freedom I need to lower my expectations & be okay with that. And whenever I’ve done that, climbed down in that way… I’ve been able to go to the meeting or seminar or conference and actually get something good out of it… & I’ve been surprised.. & grateful. That hymn is called the ‘kenosis’ hymn. We know that our 1st & 2nd generation ancestors in the Christian faith sang this hymn because it’s words were etched into the walls of the catacombs with pictographs around them of people singing… & those very words are recorded in Philippians 2: 5-11.
The musical score for this hymn has long since been lost, but the words. the words.. we have: “Have this mind amongst yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus, who ‘though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus’ birth.. God choosing to be born amongst us.. God becoming one of us.. one amongst us.. so that we could see in Him the saving, sacrificial love God has for us… all of that.. was only possible because the Son of God emptied himself to become one of us. He climbed down to a place where He could meet us and be with us and live amongst us and meet us where we actually are. God Himself climbed down to be with us…. not up. So when we do this.. we are actually following the very example God himself has given us. And the thing is, this is something we CAN do. It feels different. It’s a different way of approaching things & being with others. For most of us, including me, it requires an adjustment … a different set of glasses. But it has so many applications in our lives it’s amazing.
In a book called Climbing Down the Ladder: A Journey to a Different Kind of Happy which came out just last year, author Laura Black writes about her own experience ascending the ladder of success & rising to the top ranks of business, all supported by the myth of ‘having it all.’ When she chose to end her career, her descent was marked by a loss of status and an emptiness she had not known. But she delved into her past for clues on moving forward and she discovered a contentment & purpose that led her to uncover a richer and different kind of happy. WE CAN CLIMB DOWN THOSE LADDERS.. IT IS POSSIBLE.
It’s there at our beginning, when we’re in infancy or early childhood. We’re in an utterly dependent position & we’re certainly not in any position to be climbing any ladders on our own… and yet, what did Jesus say? “Whoever humbles himself like this child.. is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt.18)
Throughout our lives we have so many opportunities to climb down that ladder, down, away from the privilege or power or position we sometimes entertain in our innermost sanctum, and move to a place where Christ the servant chooses to live & where we can be His Body, His presence in a world that needs that more than ever.
A faithful catholic who worked in business in Toronto found himself examining his conscience about this time one year . He decided it was time to take stock, reorder his values, put first things first; he decided it was time to do better & be better. So, early one morning he knelt by his bed at home and prayed “Lord, I’m going to be a loving Christian all day, even if it kills me!”
He began his day by rushing to the Go Station to catch a train into Toronto. He hurried through the station with his phone in one hand and an overnight bag in the other, almost too late for his train.. but still trying not to panic. Suddenly he realized the train was about to pull out. He started running toward the train, but just before he got to it he felt his overnight bag hit something. He looked down and saw that he had knocked a box out of a little boy’s hands. The contents of the box … hundreds of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle… spilled out onto the platform. The little boy started to cry. The train started to move. And just as this man started leaning towards the train he remembered his morning prayer. And that was enough to give him the freedom he needed to let go of reaching the train. He set his bags down, smiled at the little boy & said “I’ll pick it up for you son.” He bent down (climbed down,) gathered up all of those jigsaw pieces and put them back in the box. The little boy watched him more & more intently as he was doing that. When the man finished, the little boy spoke to him: “Mister, are you Jesus?” And the man realized that maybe Christ was there in that moment: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” . . . . ..Getting to that place means climbing down.
When we move in that direction, away from our places of favour & privilege & so called self made success & all the assumptions that go with that, we arrive in a place where we can be present with a love that comes from beyond ourselves. There, we are, quite literally, the Body of Christ. This climbing down ladders takes practice, it’s a spiritual exercise that takes ongoing work, but it can be done & we can do it. According to that ancient hymn that is exactly what God did and now, He invites us to do the same. Thanks be to God. Amen.