The Call to Downward Mobility

Everybody wants to be somebody. Since the dawn history, human beings have been trying to move up the scale of importance. The clincher used by the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve was “when you eat of the tree of good and evil, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5). My professor at Yale Divinity School, Henri Nouwen taught us that ever since, humanity has been tempted to replace love with power:

 “The long painful history of the Church is the history of of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led.” -- From his book, The selfless Way of Christ: Downward mobility and the spiritual life.

Henri Nouwen

This is a theme running through the Bible, through human history and through our own psyche. Most famous example of this in the New Testament occurs when James and John ask Jesus to make sure that they got to sit next to Jesus for eternity once his earthly mission was completed.(Mark 10:35-45). Shared glory, honored positions, closeness to powerful people these are universal means of being somebody. If we can’t be the glory or the one with power, then being close by is the next best thing. Some of the glory may spill over on us.

Religion is fertile soil in which the seeds of ambition subtly grow. Being close to God has deadly dangers. Some of history’s most dastardly deeds have been done by those who claimed to be sitting on God’s right or left hand. It is easy to assume that relationship with God translates into entitlement. Clergy are I think particularly susceptible to this. Career advancement, upward mobility, calls to bigger churches with larger salaries and more prestige are popular expectations of clergy- who are by the way fiercely competitive, I know!

Jesus’ response to James and John challenges popular assumptions about greatness, power, and prominence: “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” The other disciples were angry perhaps afraid that James and John would be given
positions which they had sought. But Jesus said to all the disciples, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be a slave of all. For the Son of Man came not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The cup which Jesus drank is self-emptying love, the giving on one’s own life for others. The baptism with which he was baptized is a burial of the old ways with its power games and rising of God’s reign of forgiveness, generosity and joy. This is downward mobility.

The world’s image of greatness is hierarchical, with the greatest at the pinnacle of the pyramid and God hovering over the top. The closer one gets to the pinnacle, the closer one is to greatness and to the image of God. Success, upward mobility and being served are signs of faithfulness to a hierarchical god. The way of Jesus leads in another direction. Nouwen writes:

"The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which the world has invested so much but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross... it is not a leadership of power and control but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ is made manifest.”

What a joy it has been for me to serve with you this past year! Certainly you will be in my thought and prayers and Christ Church’s new chapter unfolds. You have identified qualities and gifts that you are looking for in your new Rector. Personally I hope you call a person who most of all has the gift of humility- a foot washer.

Blessings and Peace to you all,
Jeffrey