Column by Mary Lee Talbot
“You know somethin’ ain’t right when two grown men send their mother to do their dirty work,” said the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers at the 9:15 a.m. Friday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Her sermon title was “Drink This Cup,” and the scripture reading was Matthew 20:20–28.
As she had done all week, Spellers began her sermon with a song. “Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down, Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down. / Life is sweeter, oh much sweeter, since I lay my burden down, Life is sweeter, oh much sweeter, since I lay my burden down. / I feel better, so much better since I lay my burden down, I feel better, so much better since I lay my burden down. / Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down, Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down.” The congregation, already standing, joined in clapping and singing along.
Jesus had told all the disciples what kind of leader he would be. In his kingdom, the last would be first, and the first would be last. Yet, James and John did not get it. Spellers shared a dialogue describing what might have happened.
“So, Mom, we think you should talk to Jesus,” the brothers said. “Why?” she asked. “Because he trusts women more than men,” they replied. “But he will be a different kind of leader,” she told them. “We heard that, but with so much power, we want to be seated with him,” they said.
So Mom went to talk with Jesus because her sons figured that Jesus would be like all the other kings, the ones who judge the people and get the spoils. They wanted part of the action.
Jesus asked them if they could drink the cup that he was going to drink. “They had visions of gold cups with jewels on them,” Spellers said. “They said, ‘Oh, yeah!’ But Jesus said, ‘You don’t know what you are asking. I am not here to lord it over everyone but to be a slave and give my life away.’ ”
Spellers continued: “James and John did get it. That was not the cup they wanted to drink or the God they wanted to follow.”
All of Week Five, Chautauquans have wrestled with capitalism, the Protestant work ethic and the question of how to ensure prosperity, how this quest drives our lives and communities. “If you ask Jesus, you know what he will say — this is not the God we would choose and not the cup we really want to drink,” Spellers said.
Jesus was born in a stable to an unwed teenage mother. He spent his life in the company of laborers and took water from an unreputable woman at a well. He ate with tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes, and he drank gall from a soaked branch. “ ‘Go and do likewise,’ he said. Do we really want to drink this cup?” Spellers asked the congregation.
She noted that the pastor in the Baptist church she grew up in drove fine cars and had fancy suits while her mother drove a beat-up old Chevy. “That church kept telling the parishioners to be generous with the church, and they would be rewarded,” Spellers said. “This prosperity gospel is not like Jesus, but it is the popular face of that gospel.”
When Spellers moved away from that church, she went to Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches who were not like that church, but they had “piles of money, with million dollar organs and historic stained glass windows. How much we venerate God, on the one hand, is also a sign of our ambivalence to the poverty of Jesus,” she said. “His message is humility, generosity and simplicity, not prosperity.”
She continued, “This may not be the cup we really want to drink, but this is the God who came and loved us. He has the cup we need.”
Spellers said she needed the cup of humility. “I have the title of canon, which means my work is an extension of the bishop’s ministry. I am a big deal, and a canon goes boom. Jesus’ cup is to lift others up and not lord over them, to be curious about life, not right. I need that cup; if you do too, say ‘Amen.’ ” And the congregation responded, “Amen.”
The cup of solidarity reminds us that we should not be impressed by Christianity that oppresses people, she told the congregation. Jesus redistributed power and cast his lot with the folk on the bottom. “I need this cup — do you need it, too? Amen.” The congregation said, “Amen.”
The cup of generosity reverses the economic flow of the world. The rules, Spellers told the congregation, say if you are at the top, you get a boost, but if you are at the bottom, you must have done something wrong. This idea is diffused into every part of American life.
Spellers’ brother is presently in jail awaiting trial. He has been there for four months. “It is a system designed to keep power and to keep people poor. It costs me $6.10 to send him $60. He pays $10 for a generic Advil. If you are too poor to pay bail, you stay in a system where a poor crop of executives are making a killing and prey on the most desperate,” she said.
She continued, “Jesus’ cup should break our hearts open to support taxation to push opportunities to those who suffer. Jesus’ cup aims us toward simplicity, toward what is truly enough. I need this cup — do you need it, too? Amen.” Again the congregation responded, “Amen.”
As she concluded, Spellers said, “I want to leave you with a simple word. Remember Jesus’ cup is not a royal cup with gold and jewels; it is not a cup of the powerful and prosperous. It is the cup of generosity, humility, simplicity and forgiveness. It empties us as it fills us with freedom, joy and the fullness of life, even if we tremble when we take it. May God give you, give us, hope and courage to take this cup, to drink the cup of love and be set free.”
Spellers continued, “Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down, Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I lay my burden down. Lay it down, drink this cup. Amen.” The congregation applauded.
The Rev. John Morgan, senior pastor of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, presided. The Rev. James Paul Womack, former senior pastor of Hurlbut Memorial Community United Methodist Church, read the scripture. The prelude, played by Owen Reyda, organ scholar, on the Massey Memorial Organ, was “Andantino,” by César Franck. The Motet Choir performed “He Comes to Us as One Unknown,” by Jane Marshall, for the anthem. The choir was under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, and accompanied by Reyda on the Massey organ. For the postlude, Stafford performed “Toccata,” from Symphony No. 5, by Charles-Marie Widor. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching was provided by the John William Tyrrell Endowment for Religion.
