New Testament Reading—Mark 2: 13-17
With the election of a new president this past week, we have witnessed images that will undoubtedly engrave themselves into our nation’s collective memory. Beyond the images of the president elect, perhaps the equally, if not more enduring images, will be of the crowds that gathered on election night. Regardless of the party to which one gives allegiance, I think many can appreciate the racial dimension of the pride and jubilation felt that night. As Manning Marable, a scholar of black history and political science said in reference to black America, “Some of us would say that we’ve been waiting for this victory since 1619,” the year slaves first arrived in North America. Marable continued, “It’s been about 400 years for African Americans to really feel a part of American democracy.” He added that it has been exactly forty years since the majority of black people were able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.
Looking at the crowds on election night also says something about the future of this country, regardless of one’s political affiliation. After all, who predominantly made up the crowds shown on TV? Obama did not win because of the white vote. He lost the majority of white voters to McCain. Sure, white people were in the crowds, but who were they? Obama’s edge came from three principle constituencies: blacks, Latinos, and whites under thirty. As Marable pointed out, the changing racial demographics of our country made such an election inevitable at some point, although many may not have expected it so soon. Within the next thirty years, the majority of people in the United States will be people of color. The evolving demographics of our country are something our denomination will increasingly have to think about as it considers its own future relevance and fate.
So this morning it is the crowds I want to talk about. An important part of our scripture today is the crowd that followed Jesus. Don’t worry I won’t be comparing Obama to Jesus. As the PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley suggested on election night, despite the adoration of some of his voters, Obama cannot walk on water nor raise the dead. In considering the crowds of Jesus’s time and the crowds of today, my perspective has been shaped by someone who sadly passed away a little over a week ago at the age of 96. I’m referring to the legendary Studs Terkel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Terkel or Studs, as he liked to be called, he was a radio host who became nationally famous for his interviews with everyone from celebrities to working class citizens. He published 18 books and won such prominent awards as the Pulitzer Prize and a Presidential Medal. Despite his European ancestry, he is also the only white writer to be inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. As this award indicates, Studs had a unique ability to touch people from all walks of life as he recorded oral histories and wrote about such topics as race, class, the great depression, World War II, jazz, and even death.
Studs’s unique contribution to the world of broadcasting and writing was that he pioneered what one writer describes as “People’s Journalism.” In other words, “he put the stories and wisdom of poor and working class” people “on tape and the printed page.” While the rest of the media saw worth and value only in those who lived in the glitz and glamour of fame, Studs saw worth and value in the lives of ordinary people. I cannot but help to see in Studs’s perspective and disposition something akin to that of Jesus in our scripture for today.
The gospel of Mark portrays Jesus as ministering to what our translation calls “crowds.” In its original Greek, Mark’s choice of words is interesting. He chose an uncommon word for describing such an audience. He chose a word that commonly referred to both rank and file soldiers and the non-combat menial laborers who followed them. In essence, he chose a word that describes those who were at the bottom of the Roman Empire’s governmental hierarchy. The choice of words is fitting when one considers that Jesus had come to proclaim news of a different empire, God’s empire, an empire in which the last shall be first and the first shall be servant to all.
I wonder how we might describe a gathering of Jesus’ followers today. Perhaps, a political speechwriter might describe them as a bunch of Joe Six-Packs or Joe Plumbers—at least the ones in the lower tax brackets. Still, perhaps, our imagined crowd should be described as more marginal and less mainstream than a bunch of Joe Plumbers. After all, the people Jesus invited to follow him were the despised sinners and tax collectors of his time. Here we might imagine a difference between modern campaign crowds and the crowds that followed Jesus. It is hard to imagine a political speechwriter of today trumpeting that a candidate’s crowds are full of sinners and tax collectors. I can just see the candidates competing for photo ops. Who would they would pose with to set the right tone of sinfulness? Prostitutes? Drug dealers? Death row prisoners? And, I imagine it would be hard to convince voters that their taxes won’t be raised after drinking a few beers with IRS agents as the cameras roll.
Jesus clearly was not looking to be seen with those who would increase his poll numbers. So, what exactly was Jesus doing? What was he thinking when he looked out into the crowd and recruited his followers? If you think about it, by modern day standards, he was going about it all wrong. If he wanted to build a movement that would last well beyond his own physical life, he should have been focused on recruiting people with more marketable skills, more assets, better credentials and resumes. He should have been recruiting people that knew how to win friends and influence people rather than be shunned and pushed to the margins.
Come to think of it, maybe what Jesus should have done from this perspective is also what we should do to recruit members and bolster our stewardship. Maybe we should select new members based upon whether their resumes demonstrate marketable skills and perhaps even a certain income level. But before we institute new membership criteria, let’s first consider why Jesus’s apparent strategy did not doom the early Christian movement. I think when Jesus was looking out into the crowd and when he was recruiting followers he was looking through a lens quite different than the common cultural lens of his time. I think Jesus was looking through a lens that his Jewish ancestors knew all about. It was a lens that looked at someone, anyone, and saw them for who they really were: a person made in the image of God, a child of God. Jesus saw people for their inherent worth, their inherent potential. Regardless of where they were in society and what they had done in the past, Jesus saw them as people to be cherished and valued.
In other words, Jesus saw people as gifts. Gifts waiting to be unpacked and revealed. Gifts waiting to be shared with the world. Gifts waiting to be celebrated. Ultimately, that is what our stewardship season is about this year. It is about knowing that each of us is a gift. It is about knowing that each of us has a sparkle of divinity within us waiting to be shared. And, it is about celebrating a church bursting with gifts. Knowing your gifts is the first step in becoming a part of God’s mission. It’s the first step in realizing that you have the opportunity to become part of something larger than yourself in working to help bring about God’s will here on earth. To the outside world, we might look like just another crowd of people, but know this: know we are more than that. As you worship today, know that you are a part of the body of Christ, that you are in a church filled with the gifts of God. Then, you will know that you are a part of something that is truly historic, truly world changing, and truly meaningful. Amen.