In 2019 a TUC report showed that graduates with parents in ‘professional and routine’ jobs were more than twice as likely as working-class graduates to start on a high salary, no matter what degree level they attain. The TUC’s General Secretary Frances O’Grady commented: ‘Everyone knows that getting that dream job is too often a case of who you know, not what you know.’
Is that well-known saying true? It seems that it might well be! In 2022 a paper entitled “A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties,” appeared in Science magazine and appeared to confirm its truth. The paper detailed the results of a study which involved millions of users of LinkedIn, the social networking site that helps users connect with colleagues, find jobs, and advance their careers.
The research upheld an idea first posited nearly 50 years ago; that weak ties to other people have a value that strong ties do not. The people you know best may have social networks that closely resemble your own and thus may not add much new job-seeking value for you. Your more casual acquaintances, on the other hand, have social networks that overlap less with yours and may provide connections or information you would not otherwise be able to access. As a result, tapping the knowledge and contacts of people in our networks who we know less well than our core friends is more likely to help us find a new job.
Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 35-45) suggests that 'in-crowds' and 'favours' were also a part of thinking and practices in Jesus' time. James and John asked Jesus for a favour in the way that Frances O’Grady alleges favours can be granted in work today. They wanted to be privileged over and above the others in the group and used a private conversation to make their request.
What James and John were after was another perennial temptation for us as human beings; the desire for prestige, in this case, the request to sit on the right and left of Jesus in glory. Similarly, within the kind of networks we noted at the beginning of this sermon, it is suggested that there may be pathways to prestige which are essentially open on the basis of birth, wealth or power.
Jesus calls this whole approach into question with his response to James and John. Today we would characterise what he says in relation to discussions of rights and responsibilities.
Jesus says firstly that places of prestige are not available without sacrifice (i.e. no rights without responsibilities), in other words there is no entitlement because of birth, schooling, friendships, networks. What matters in the kingdom of God is service and sacrifice and these not for the sake of future prestige and glory, but for their own sake and for the love of others: ‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Jesus turns the search for prestige on its head. Instead of the prestige of being first being the goal and the reward, those who are great in the kingdom of God are those who make themselves the least; those who are prepared to serve in same way as Jesus, by laying down their life for others.
Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, in his statement on the coronavirus outbreak and how we might live in and through it, drew on just this thinking. He said that: ‘Jesus came among us in the first place, to show us … how to live not simply as collections of individual self-interest, but how to live as the human family of God. That’s why he said love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. Because in that is hope for all of us to be the human family of God … So look out for your neighbors, look out for each other. Look out for yourselves. Listen to those who have knowledge that can help to guide us medically and help to guide us socially. Do everything that we can to do this together, to respond to each other’s needs and to respond to our own needs.’
James and John say they are prepared to do this but it is ultimately about deeds, not words, and their action in asking for a favour on their behalf clearly shows that they hadn't understood his teaching and practice at this stage in their relationship with him.
Where are we in relation to these issues? Are we chasing after worldly rewards and prestige; seeking it through favours or paying for prestige? Maybe, like James and John, we have brought the values of the world into the kingdom of God and are trying to follow Jesus for some form of personal gain?
Let’s take the opportunity that this passage provides for self-reflection on these issues and consider the possibility of aligning our thinking, values and deeds with those of Jesus as we become the servants or slaves of others in order that we serve instead of being served and give our lives for the sake of others. Amen.
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Big Star - The Ballad Of El Goodo.
