Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord this week on Sundays with Bishop Ken, our guest, Father Pete Gaspini, shares today's gospel with us, followed by one of Bishop Ken's homilies.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark, James and John. The sons of Zebedee came to Jesus and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Jesus replied, what do you wish me to do for you?
They answered him, grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.
Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
They said to him, we can.
Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.
But to sit at my right or my left is not mine to give, but is for those for whom it has been prepared.
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, you know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones make their authority over them felt, but it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
The gospel of the Lord the first thing to say is that what James and John did wasn't all that bad in itself. Particularly in the mid eastern culture of that time, honor was important, and James and John were trying to make their honor secure. I suppose we could compare it to someone who works in a modern corporation and is always watching out for an opportunity to move ahead and get a better position.
No one would fault that. It's normal.
If that person saw a possibility, they probably wouldn't go and tell everyone else about it. They'd try to secure it for themselves.
But in the gospel story, the other ten apostles get upset with James and John. What's going on?
Well, if we look earlier in Mark's gospel, we noticed that the first disciples Jesus called were four fishermen, Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
From Luke's gospel, we learn that all four of them were partners in a fishing business.
Now, that could make a difference.
Peter and Andrew might well have said, hey, we were partners why are you trying to pull this fast one on us? And they probably got the others stirred up.
The basic mistake of James and John is that they didn't understand what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom of God. They thought in terms of royalty and pictured it as a royal court somewhere with different levels of honor.
But Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as something that is taking shape here among us. Jesus had come to make the kingdom of God present in a new way, raise creation to a new level.
He wanted us to know that we all have a part in this.
He used the example of a tiny bit of yeast that leavens a large amount of dough or a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree.
Jesus preached a new way of life that would move the human race and all creation farther along toward becoming the kingdom of God.
He was enlisting people who would live and teach this new way of life.
The way of life Jesus taught was no longer an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Instead of getting even with someone who does evil, which simply adds more evil to the world, we are to absorb the evil and respond with forgiveness.
Instead of leaving the poor to wallow in their own misfortunes, we are to use our own resources to help them.
Instead of making war, we are to make peace, and so on.
That is how the kingdom of God comes about, and that is how we get a place in the kingdom.
To live that way can be risky. You can get hurt. If you are generous to others, sometimes you will get taken. If you forgive people, people can take advantage of you. If you turn the other cheek, you could get injured. If you respond to evil with goodness, you could get killed. That's why the logo of the kingdom is the cross.
James and John didn't understand that.
Four chapters later in Mark's Gospel, Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane, and he says, abba, father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will, but what you will.
It was the cup of suffering, and Jesus would drink it. So would James.
Here is another of the connections in the scriptures.
This time we have to go to the acts of the apostles, Luke's second volume, which tells the story of the early church.
Less than halfway through the book, Luke writes about that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.
Jesus taught us a way of life that is magnificent but also difficult to believe in. This way of life is to be in the minority of the world's population.
At times it can be difficult, even risky. We need to support one another.
That's one of the major reasons why we have the Sunday Eucharist.
But we don't go there on Sunday like people go to a movie theater.
We go like a family to grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner.
On thanksgiving at grandma's, we don't get out of the car and go right to the table and start in on the turkey.
No, we're greeted, welcomed. Then we relax together for a while and mingle. We catch up on a few things, renew relationships with some family members we haven't seen in a while.
It's not as though family members agree on everything, or as though all relationships are perfect and smooth.
But it's Thanksgiving, and we're family. There's a connection down deep that is more important than the differences.
The cross and the cup James and John learned what they really meant.
So have we.
That's why we come together like this on every Sunday.
The Cross and the cup.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for daily reflections during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, subscribe to the Little Books app found on the Apple or Google Play Stores. The podcast is brought to you free of charge from Little Books. To help support our ministry, please consider donating by clicking on the Donate button now. And of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast?
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