"Radical Individualism: The Real American Idol"

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
July 9th 2006

Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Radical Individualism: The Real American Idol”
Mark 6:1-13

I am curious if anyone here this morning knows who made the term rugged individualism famous? This question was posed to a group of political science majors during a senior seminar course of which I was a participant. Much to the teacher’s dismay, not one person in the room could answer the question. It turns out that the term rugged individualism was made famous by presidential candidate Herbert Hoover in 1928 as he brought his campaign to a close. We were all rightly embarrassed since we had just studied that material the previous semester.
Rugged individualism is an ideology which believes that all individuals can succeed on their own without help from others, and certainly without help or interference from the government. The belief that our country was built simply through the hard work of individuals is part of this great American myth called rugged individualism. While this is one great American myth that needs to be de-mythologized, we have better things to do this morning. Instead, we will briefly compare our faith with the ideology of rugged individualism.
The first six verses from our passage this morning could be interpreted in such a way that Jesus ends up looking like the ultimate rugged individualist. After all, Jesus leaves behind; his family, his profession, and his hometown, in order to save the world all by himself. This story could have easily come from a John Wayne movie. What better model for this ideology could we find? However, this is not the end of this story. Instead, something else is at work.
It is true that Jesus did leave his hometown, his occupation, and his family in order to fulfill his God given mission. However, Jesus does not do any of this alone. Long before Jesus stands up and teaches in his hometown, he was busy traveling with, and teaching the disciples. When Jesus leaves his family behind he does not go out into the world by himself. When Jesus leaves behind his community he enters another community of support and nurture. Jesus ministry, and the ministry of Jesus followers, is always communal.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the second half of our passage. After leaving his hometown, Jesus calls the disciples together and sends them out to do ministry in the world. They are sent in groups of two and are instructed to take nothing but a staff for the journey. Do not pack anything: No bread, no bag, no money, and no extra clothes! This sounds like absolute madness. Doesn’t Jesus know that disciples cannot help the poor unless they have a lot of money? It is foolish, naive, and idealistic to think otherwise.
It is important to know that in the ancient world, hospitality was one of the highest virtues. If anyone was in need of food, lodging or assistance, custom dictated that people would open their homes and provide for peoples needs. In fact, many times this hospitality would go well beyond basic needs. Taking care of the stranger, of those in need, was not seen as an imposition or something for which one deserved credit but simply what human beings were supposed to do for one another. This is clearly a world which is radically foreign to those of us who live in the United States. However, despite these cultural differences, Jesus’ requirement that disciples take nothing on the journey has something important to teach us today.
When the disciples are sent to do ministry, they were required to be utterly dependent upon the hospitality of strangers. It was an important lesson. Despite being able to share the good news, cast out demons, and heal the sick they would not be able to remain self-sufficient. Despite their deeds of power, they would still be utterly dependent upon other people to survive. This dependency would teach them the simple lesson that all followers of Jesus must learn. In order for us to be good servants in the way of Jesus Christ, we must give up enough control so that we may be served as well. Discipleship is about mutuality.
Two years ago this week, before coming to Saint Louis, I led a youth group on a mission trip to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. It is a city located on the border between the United States and Mexico. During the week we did basic repairs and re-painted the church, while some in our group worked in a dental clinic. Each night we gathered with those from the local church. Members of the church cooked for us, served us our meals, and joined us as we ate. After dinner everyone would all play games, (we taught them basketball, they embarrassed us in soccer), we would sing and worship together. Those evenings will always hold a special place in my heart.
After the first night, our group gathered for our evening devotional. One of the participants shared how he had a hard time having ‘these poor people’ cook and serve food for us, after all, it was we who were supposed to be helping them. Near the end of the week that same young man shared how much he was going to miss the evening meals, times of fellowship and even the worship time. He had never experienced this type of community in his hometown. That young man had every material good that money could buy, but needed ‘these poor people’ to show him the power of a nurturing community. While our group believed that we would go to Mexico to help the poor, it was we who learned the extent of our own poverty. Their gift to us was being welcomed into the real richness of their community.
In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey discusses what he calls the maturity continuum. Covey says that through our lives we move along a continuum which begins with us being utterly dependent on other people. While many people believe independence is the ultimate goal in life, Covey says it is actually a mark of immaturity. The mark of a fully mature person is one who recognizes and embraces the reality that we are all interdependent. The truth is that in this life no one is self-made. None of us decided that we would be born. None of us were born knowing how to change our own diapers, and none of us came into this world able to feed ourselves. And, the hard truth is that many of us will end our lives needing help from others in order to eat and use the restroom. This is just the simple truth.
Despite this reality our culture acts as if none of this is true. Much of our culture is really stuck in the immature belief that we are meant to be completely independent of all other people. The idea that we are all in this life together is so radically foreign that any speech of this kind gets one labeled as fanatic, naive or worse, liberal. However, regardless of the immaturity of our culture, the message of the gospel calls us to the way of maturity, the way of interdependence.
Jesus call is abundantly clear. Following Jesus is not the way of rugged individualism but the way of mutual interdependence. We need other people on this journey of faith. We cannot do it alone. And despite what we may hear to the contrary, our need for other people is good news. It is God’s plan. Amen.