New show – Glee
About a high school glee club
Teacher who once upon a time was a student at the school & has returned to teach
*Glee club was cool then; went to nationals;
When other glee club teacher leaves, he takes over
Wants to restore it to his glory days
Only problem – only 5 kids sign up
and they're a bunch of misfits
As the cheerleading coach, glee club's nemesis says, there's a social elevator in high school – and glee club gets off at the sub-basement level
And all the kids know it, but they join anyway, because they love to sing
It's amazing the things that people will do to keep their own status intact.
It's easy to point at a group of high school kids on TV or in real life and see this playing out
- how we jockey for position
- how we worry about where we rank compared to everybody else
- how we base our sense of identity and self-worth on who and what the world says we are
But we never really outgrow it – not totally, not completely
So much of the world based on who is better than who –
who will be the #1 draft, who's got the best music video
and on a more day-to-day level,
who has the biggest, nicest house,
the best car,
who got the bigger bonus at work or the better promotion
We compare ourselves to others to see where we stand –
and we feel better or worse about ourselves based on that comparison
Don't you love it when the Bible reminds us
that the disciples were just regular people like you & me?
Because while they were “on the way” with Jesus again this week,
walking from one town to the next,
they were arguing among themselves.
Jesus has just told them again,
for the 2nd time in as many weeks,
that he is going to be betrayed and killed and on the 3rd day rise again
They don't understand what he was saying
(and who can blame them?)
and were afraid to ask.
So, it seems they changed the subject
And they got into a debate about who was the greatest
Perhaps who was the better pray-er
Or who had cast out the most unclean spirits
Or who could fast the longest
Or who had introduced more people to Jesus
Who knows exactly what the topic was –
all we know is the the disciples were comparing themselves to each other
& trying to outdo each other,
jockeying for position, jostling for rank,
trying to secure their place at the top of their social ladder
Instead of focusing on Jesus & his radical plan to turn the world upside down,
they were focused on themselves,
seeing themselves & each other through the world's eyes
Couldn't see what Jesus was doing
So when they get to Capernaum & get inside the house,
Jesus calls the 12 disciples all together
And he reminds them,
“This thing we've got going on here, it's not all about you!”
You're busy worrying about who is the greatest,
about who's number 1,
but we've got bigger fish to fry!
There's more at stake here!
You want to be first?
Then you must be last of all & servant of all
You want to rank at the top?
Then you have to welcome in those who have no rank at all
And he took a little child & put it among them
Because children were in the sub-basement;
they had no status at all.
Children were the most vulnerable, the weakest members of society
They were voiceless; useless –
had nothing of value to contribute to the welfare of the family.
And Jesus says to the disciples,
stop worrying so much about yourselves
– because it's not about you!
You'll find your true self when you get yourself out of the way!
Find your true worth when you start serving,
when you start welcoming the least of these in my name
This past week's episode of Glee was revealing
Cheerios (3 cheerleaders) have joined
1 to keep an eye on her boyfriend, the football player the glee teacher strong-armed into joining
But all 3 because the cheerleading coach wants them to bring Glee Club down from the inside.
So they start planting seeds of division;
reminding the group that they're really not that good,
that they'll never beat the current regional champions,
suggesting things that on the surface look like they have the group's best interest at heart,
but really just driving them apart
they got them focused on their insecurity,
played on that sense of comparison and competition that is so strong
Got the group to hire a professional choreographer,
the one who had led the regional champs to victory
And he came in and looked the group over
And immediately starts kicking people off the team
the boy in the wheelchair – you're gone!
The girl who's overweight – gone
The goth girl who stutters whenever she talks – gone
The talented, but rather obnoxious, self-identified leader of the group – gone
Because they don't measure up to his image
of what they should look like,
of who they should be,
what they should do
And while they are all focused on themselves, it almost works!
The Cheerios almost manage to break up the group
Because we spend so much time worrying
about who we are & how others see us
that we let ourselves get distracted from the main thing
It's amazing to me
this community Jesus is talking about,
the one where the voiceless & the vulnerable are welcomed and embraced
– that's what the glee club was made up of;
The misfits found a home there
and they almost lost it
Until they realize that it's not about them!
It's not about each individual
and their egos
& their pride
They're part of something bigger than themselves
something that brings them joy,
that draws them up out of themselves
something that helps them to know who they are
– because when they are part of this group,
when they stop focusing on themselves,
something beautiful happens.
And that's what Jesus is saying to us this morning:
Stop worrying so much about yourselves & how everybody else sees you
When you compare and compete,
you'll always find people who are better or worse than you
It's a changing standard
It's the world's standard
But who we are,
our value and worth as people,
is not based on the world's standards
It's rooted in who Jesus says we are
And he says to us,
You're already accepted and acceptable.
You already have a place at my table
You're already in with the in-crowd
But there are others out there who don't know it yet
Others who, like this child, are standing on the edges,
on the outside looking in,
longing to know that they matter,
that there's a place they can belong,
longing to know that they have worth and value
because Jesus says so,
And his opinion is the only one that really matters
And we find him when we look up from ourselves & look at the world around us
and see the children, the voiceless, the vulnerable
and seeing them, welcome them in
And that's when something beautiful happens,
when we know we've stumbled into something bigger than ourselves -
And in that serving & welcoming, find our true selves, by following Jesus
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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