Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
At the beginning of The Lion King, Simba, son the King Mufasa, is obsessed with gaining eventually gaining power and recognition and sitting on the throne, so to speak, of his pride, that is his lion clan. As a bright-eyed cub, he goes around singing "Oh I just can't wait to be king."
And then life happens. His father, Mufasa, is killed. Simba runs away in exile. He finds a new home and new friends and has no desire to return, partly out of fear and misplaced guilt over his father's death. It takes hearing what has happened to his pride's land and the spirit of his father saying "remember who you are" to draw him back.
"Remember who you are." Mufasa, in life, tried to instill in Simba what it meant to be king. It wasn't the recognition that made one a good king, it was maintain the balance of life in the land. It was doing good not just for the pride but for all life around them. It took a great deal of time and tragedy before Simba could come to realize that being king is a matter of responsibility, not recognition.
What Jesus says to the disciples this morning is similar. He's trying to talk to them about His death and resurrection, the things that ultimately matter. But when He turns around, they are more focused on who is the greatest among them.
This is an issue we all face. We want our church to be the best. We can so easily be focused on the numbers (and I include myself in that), not the things that really matter.
"Remember who you are." That is essentially what Jesus is saying to the disciples. It's not about who is greater than who. It's not about receiving recognition or power. As God's servants in the world, we are called to serve. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We're called to be like Jesus, and take the children in our arms. We're called to help lead our children to be better than us. We're called to make sure that those who follow us are better servants of God than we could ever hope to be.
That's why Jesus is trying to get them to understand what is to come. He's trying to get them to focus on the love He showed on the cross. He's trying to get them to understand that He loves them, and will die for them so that they don't have to. He wants to prepare them to show that love to others so that all the world can feel the love of Jesus in their lives too.
Jesus calls us to do the same. He calls us to put aside our concern for being the best and focus more on how can we better share Jesus' love for us with the world. He calls us to remember who we are as Christians.
I often say we at St. Paul's are doing a good job, but that we should still strive to do better. That is another part of Jesus' call to us. When we are concerned about how great we are, we remain in the same spot, or sometimes we can slip into being worse. If our focus is not on our own glory, but instead is focused on serving God the best we can, then we will always strive to be better. We will always push forward so that we're not just doing what we should be doing, but that we are continuing to grow so that we can keep serving God more fully and deeply throughout our lives, however long that may be.