“Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Text: Philippians 2:5-8
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine who ministers in the Philadelphia area, told me that he was invited to a fundraiser for a small Chamber Orchestra. He said that it was a lovely evening, the fundraiser and auction brought a significant amount of money into the orchestra's coffers. He admitted, however, that he had also found the evening frustrating. It was a bit of a struggle for him because he and his wife were in no position to support the orchestra. They spoke, on their drive home, about their own financial situation, struggling with mortgage payments, car payments, and a couple of children at university. Mark lamented how he had met someone there who had gone through the same undergraduate program in finance that he had, and who was now evidently earning a significant multiple of his salary and he shared with me of how, sometimes, it is difficult not to wish that he had chosen another path in life. But, he continued, “I remembered how, years ago, God lifted me up from a difficult spot and gave me a new direction.” He quoted the 40th Psalm, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God…”. Mark remembered giving his life to God's service, how he turned down a post with a major investment firm, and the incredulity of the HR person who had offered him the job when he said, “No,” and that he was going to study for the ministry. Mark is generally content in ministry but every so often, he said, “Something comes along like that fundraiser-evening that tempts me, makes me feel a bit of regret about choices I have made, and I have to rehearse my story, I have to go over why I am doing what I am doing, re-focus myself on God and why I march to the beat of a different drum.”
It reminds me of a story about a young man who went into the British Army. He trained and trained with them and one day was among those who marched through the streets of London to commemorate the Queen's Birthday. The young man's mother came out to watch that day and as her young son's battalion marched by, she was heard to proudly say to her friend. “O, look at that, all those soldiers are out of step except my wee Johnny.” Johnny, it seems, marched to the beat of a different drum that day.
It is now quite a number of years since the tragic loss of Princess Diana. You will remember how not only the British nation, but many others, came to a halt as millions of people tuned in to watch Diana's funeral on their televisions. Elton John sang, Candle in the Wind, “Goodbye England's Rose” for “the fairy-tale princess.” Her life and accomplishments were lauded like few before her. The emotions of millions were fuelled by a collective sadness about her ever so public marital break-up, ongoing troubles with the royal family, and just the loss of a person of great beauty in the prime of life.
Within a few weeks, the world mourned the death of another woman almost as much, but not quite. She was not as beautiful in appearance, she had not been the target of paparazzi, she did not live among the “jet-set.” But she had given her life to God and followed his call to live among the poorest of the poor, the sickest of the sick, the lowest of the low. Her love, devotion and sacrifice went far beyond the call of duty, and I would venture to say that though her funeral was not as grand, the name of this small, seemingly frail woman in her later years, will live on century after century for all that she has done. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, she marched to the beat of a different drum and somewhere in our collective consciousness, humanity recognizes the significance of what she did and the life she lived.
Today's scripture represents a kind of march. On this last Sunday in the Epiphany season, we think yet again of the God who has come and how the divine Son descended from the heavens to earth. Though he was in his very nature God, he came seeking no power or wealth or earthly kingdom. He came to a humble stable and in his grown years sought to serve his Father in heaven even if it meant servitude and suffering. Three of our gospels are know as synoptic gospels because of the close relationship they have with one another: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Together they portray Jesus' ministry as this long march toward Jerusalem. He begins in Galilee, winds his way through Judaea, sort of like the Olympic torch was winding its way through many parts of Canada recently. and when he says, “I am going up to Jerusalem,” he does not mean that he is going to the big city to see the lights, he was on a march, a different sort of march. He had a date with a cross, and his destiny was ultimately the service of humankind. This was a life that was very different than that sought out by most human beings.
Think about it. What do most of us want? What is innately a part of us? What is sometimes instilled in us by parents and community and society? I would venture to say that most of us want security, we want to be safe. We want food on the table, clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads. We want to provide for our own. We want to do well and live well, have wealth and wellbeing; we want others to think highly of us. We want to be a somebody.
One of the popular terms, a decade or so ago, was the word “yuppie.” If someone was a yuppie, he or she was a young, upwardly mobile person. A yuppie was usually a professional moving ahead, reaching for the next level. But whereas the yuppie was a person on the way up, the only way we can look at Jesus was as a person on the way down. Jesus began from a place on high and went down to earth and into the lowest levels of human experience. Downwardly mobile, that was the direction of Jesus' parade, he marched to the beat of a different drum.
And just to bring what he did home to us today, a couple of thousand years after Jesus, we tend to glamorize his life and his death, even the cross. Crosses today are often used as decorative images. Some of us use them to say we are Christians, but for many they are just pieces of jewellery. We build churches and cathedrals, places of worship that are clean and ornate and set up beautifully crafted crosses. I love the finery as much as anyone, but George McLeod reminds us that, “Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candle sticks; but on a cross between two thieves, on the town's garbage heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write his title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek…at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. That is where he died and what he died about, and that is where the church ought to be and what church people ought to be about,” says McLeod.
Jesus really did march to the beat of a different drum and the scripture comes to us this morning, >B>“Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God…emptied himself… humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross (Phil.2:5-8).”
This beat, this self-emptying, downward mobility, is against just about everything that is taught, practiced, and felt in our world. It's as if Jesus comes and models the very antithesis of all we want for ourselves and the apostle says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…?” He's encouraging us to imitate Jesus. “Are we listening?” Jesus could have come to rule but instead donned a towel, bore a basin of water, and washed the feet of others. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” When asked by one of his disciples about who was the greatest, Jesus replied that whoever would be great among you must be the least, he who would lead must serve (Mk.9:33ff., Lk.22:26ff. etc.). Jesus called people to listen, listen carefully, to hear the beat of a different drum, a drum that's played by a different drummer, the same drummer he marched to, his Father in heaven.
I suppose with Valentine's Day, we are all thinking about love. In God, we encounter the greatest love story the world has ever known. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Greater love has no man than this than that he lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus did just that. He gave his life that we might live. He modelled for us the way of humility, self-denial, and sacrifice. It's a different beat, a different drum, a different drummer. “Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus…”
But, I suppose, someone might ask, “Are no Christians to lead? Are there to be no Christian prime-ministers, premiers, mayors, CEOs, business leaders? Are we all to be like Mother Theresa if we follow Christ?” And perhaps there would be some biblical scholars who would say, “Yes, the duty of the Christian is to serve.” But I would differ and say that duty of the Christian is primarily to be what God wants them to be, to use the gifts they are given within that context to imitate and follow Christ. Christians are to be as active in the various aspects of life as anyone and God calls some to be leaders and some to be followers, some to be managers and some to work in the office, some to be foremen and some to be labourers, some to chair boards and some to be an employee. God calls some to be ministers and some to be prime-ministers, some to serve him in a full-time capacity and some to support their call. So yes, there will be some who serve like the Mother Theresas but most will work in the midst of the world and do what they can to serve there. And that is the key, to do what you can to serve wherever you are. It is the Christian's duty to follow Christ, to listen for the beat of the different drum, to follow God wherever you are.
Of course, that makes us different. We will see others compromise, flatter, and step over others to get ahead but Christians will determine to travel a different path. Maybe there are some people here today who are moving up. You're gifted and may have found already, or certainly will at some point that the day will come when someone will look across a big table and wink and speak of “the way we do things in this firm.” Perhaps, it will be over cocktails, someone will sigh about how things ought to be but then firmly assert, of course, you've got to face facts, go along to get along, right?“ And as a Christian you will have to battle within your heart about those things and decide what is the path of Christ.” It is not easy. It is challenging to hear the world's beat so loudly and then try to hear God's beat in the midst of it. It's challenging to lead and to serve at the same time, to gain riches but be generous, to be successful but not compromise. We're marching to the beat of a different drum. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”
It's almost paradoxical, for at the end of today's passage, Jesus is actually exalted, he is downwardly mobile, but then God exalts him so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess. It is amazing how much power there is in this different beat. I think it happens and works itself out in the world. I'm thinking of Nelson Mandela, who stuck to his principles, who refused to deny what he thought was right even if it meant more years in prison. Doing gained him immense power as the leader of South Africans. When the Nationalist Party eventually caved, he likewise refused to enact retribution and again his power grew. I think it can be said of Nelson Mandela that he marched to the beat of a different drum.
And Mother Theresa, frail though she may have been, especially later in life, people listened. Mother Theresa's power was not in herself, it was in the drummer.
And you, how will you march? What beat will you hear? What drum will you follow? I would say if you march to the same drummer that Christ marched to you can make a difference in this world. Some people think that they can't make a difference, that they are too small, too weak. But we can, because our power isn't in ourselves but the drummer. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” Amen.