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Well, welcome to you one and all as we begin this new academic year and to all of you who are signing the book tonight and are launching off on this new adventure, we've been waiting for you

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. Even as from very far away, your footsteps have been purposefully making strides toward this place for some good long while you're here now and that is good . It is my duty and joy to preach from

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this pulpit every year in this service, the first Eucharist of the academic year and I come tonight with a great text from the Gospel of Mark. In this text, Jesus and his disciples are walking on

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their way toward Jerusalem, Jesus knows far better than the disciples. That is not going to be a vacation there in Jerusalem, it's going to be work for jesus, the work he was ordained into see

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, he tells them the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death, and then they will hand him over to the gentiles. They will

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mock him, they will spit upon him and flog him and will kill him. And after three days he will rise again. James and john, two brothers who are also disciples of jesus, sidle up

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to him as they're making their way along that road to Jerusalem and teacher. They say we want you to do for us, whatever we ask of you . Apparently James and john were not blessed with the

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gift of good timing. He's been talking about what he can expect in Jerusalem and they've been thinking about the seating at a banquet and who gets to sit at the head table. And so they say to

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jesus grayness to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. They've got the wrong idea about what's going to be happening in Jerusalem. Matthew and his gospel didn't have the

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wrong idea. When Matthew was reading Mark as he was writing his own gospel, Matthew works hard to preserve James and john's reputations in his version of the same story, it's their mother who makes this request

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and some scholars have suggested that Matthew wrote her into the story in order to protect these two disciples reputations . Let's blame the woman. Don't you see whoever asked the question, jesus gave this answer. You

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don't know what you're asking? Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? The Company is talking about stands for all the suffering of the passion and for the suffering, death of jesus and what's

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more for all the suffering and death of the world , back and forth through time, the suffering of the people in the Bahamas in the wake of this hurricane. The suffering of those Children and their parents

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down at the border. The suffering of those families who have lost beloved ones in one of however many mass shootings in this country we've had in this last year. Two of them shootings just recently in this

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state. Just weeks apart, are you able to drink that cup? He asked them. There are so many people here right now. People who know who have drunk from that cup, maybe who are

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drinking it now. And you know how hard that is one Thanksgiving a few years ago, back in the days when George W. Bush was president, my family and I left Austin and spent a week

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together in paris. One of our daughters was already there, spending a semester abroad and her sister and Kay and I were there visiting. We went all over paris, we saw the museums, we saw

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the restaurants, we saw the points of interest. We went everywhere to the Louvre, to Versailles to Moammar to to the Eiffel Tower and the Notre dame Cathedral and the two ice cream shops that everybody brags

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about. But the most moving experience I had that whole week was being in church together on thanksgiving day celebrating an american holiday in a foreign country. We went to the american Cathedral there an Episcopal Church for

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american expats there in paris and the american cathedral and the american presbyterian church swap off. Who does the service? It was at the cathedral in that particular year and I loved the liturgy and the words of

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the hems and the privilege of having one daughter sitting on my right and the other daughter sitting on my left. But here is what moved me most of all. During the announcements, the dean of the

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cathedral invited this man to come forward and read the thanksgiving day proclamation that had been issued by President Bush . The man rose from the first few. He walked up to the lectern, obviously a member of

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that congregation, clearly a regular. He seemed a bit from Philly, dressed his pants, needing to be pressed, his hair needing to be combed. He began reading the proclamation, but his emotions got

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the better of him when he got to the paragraph calling for prayer for our troops in harm's way. He was clearly moved by those particular words and he had to take a moment. It took some time

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for him to gain his composure. And I figured out during the rest of the problem, proclamation that he was craig Stapleton in those days. The United States ambassador to France. What moved me, So

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was the human side of government, not so much the imperial stuff and the trappings and the triumphalism of power and not the political stuff. Highly charged arguments about who's right and who's wrong about this or that

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policy. None of that. The man at this Lecter was positively what I don't think about when I think about printing power. No. He was there instead, in need of a dry cleaner and a

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haircut and losing his composure at the thoroughly human thought of harm for the troops and the vulnerability of life and maybe the spouses and Children and parents who still breathe for spouses and parents and Children lost in this

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or that conflict around the world. And then there in the chancel. Before he returned to his seat , he faced the altar and bowed to the cross . He paid homage to a power greater than any

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other power in the world. Later at Communion, he was just ahead of me in line and I saw him receive the host and drink deeply from the cup. Are you able to drink from the cup

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that I drink? Said jesus to James and john printing their in their own self importance. There's a great book of black and white photographs that I have in my office, taken by the journalists who chronicle

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so much of the civil rights movement. And my favorite picture in that book, taken in some american city, I don't know which may be shipped to Chicago. Maybe Detroit. This was a picture of

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the front line of people leading a march arms linked together. They were martin Luther King, Jr and Coretta scott king and a line of other marchers in that front row, other leaders and behind them,

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maybe thousands of others. It appears that the picture was taken just a second or so after a loud noise coming from somewhere. Was it a firecracker? Was it a gunshot? Was it a car slamming

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into another car. Was it something hitting a sidewalk after falling out of a window? We don't know what you see in the picture, is that every soul in that front line is looking every which away

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urgently toward where the sound may have come from. Everyone that is except King himself, and while the rest of them are distracted, he stares resolutely straight ahead, his jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed,

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his face set toward Jerusalem, and that appears to be all that matters to him. Are you able to drink from the cup that I drink? I had the privilege of studying this very text. Once

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in a small group setting with fred craddock, the late new testament, professor and preacher who from the seminary at Emory University, taught generations of seminary students had to preach. We're all going around the table

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printing for each other because we were all legends in our own minds, making gash asleep, profound observations about the text. And finally, finally critic who had clearly been amused watching all of the pontification in

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our parts, opened his mouth and asked us if I ask you to do something for me, would you do it? He was thinking about the question that James and john had asked and we sat there

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quietly and he spoke again. Sometimes people say more than what they say and mean more than what they mean. We here are you able to drink from the cup when we're 17 and we say yes,

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but we have in mind something great. That's easier by far, he said. And the dribbling on and on of commitment. We sat there just marinating in that wisdom and fred spoke up again, but

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to drink the cup in one swallow, he said , is far easier than sipping on it for 40 years. The dribbling on and on of commitment. He was thinking surely about the 40 years of ministry

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that most of you in this room are likely to have to drink. The cup in one swallow, critic said, Is far easier than sipping on it for 40 years. No dramatic event when photographers come

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and take a picture of the moment. No, not that. Instead you go to bed, you say your prayers, you support your family, you visit in the hospital, you comfort people in trouble

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, you baptize and mary and bury your there for your flock. You don't write one big check, you write a succession of little checks all through your life. And sometimes we feel left out because there

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was a time we think when ministry was more exciting and there was lightning flashing all around, we feel off the track somehow the big stuff isn't happening. The glory days are here no more. Sometimes as

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a seminary president I get phone calls from search committees looking for pastors and I get phone calls from pastures looking for search committees. Often the search committees will tell me we need someone who can fill this place

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up again, fill it up with what I sometimes ask. We don't care. They sometimes such we just want to grow like we grew when good old dr So and so was here. Everybody in this

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room remembers dr so and so he or she has served at some time or other in every single church represented in this service tonight. Either recently or a couple of centuries ago. Dr so and so dr

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so and so lives and reigns in the imagination of at least one member of any search committee in any church. Good old dr so and so Yeah. And when the pastors call me, they report that

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they've been in their first church and now they're ready to move and I'll say, what are you looking for? And what I mean by that question is , what do you think your vocation is leading you

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toward pastoral care, social justice ministries, chaplain sees the task of preaching the task of serving the poor . What? And sometimes the answer will come back , oh, Nothing smaller than say 1500 members,

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seven figure budget, something like that. I'll mention a church in a small county seat town. I know that church, It's a great church with good people and I'll say these people need a pastor and

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over the phone sometimes what I hear next is laughter . No, thank you, been there, done that. It's James and john all over again as if service to the church, as if service to

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the gospel as if anything worth doing is always about lightning flashing around. But more often than not, it's not that at all, not always what we want. Just the day in and day out of

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being prosaically faithful. I think what jesus was saying about James and john was that they were vying for front row seats when the big stuff started happening again , when the photographer showed up again, when the

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glory days came back, when the march to the capital was about to begin again. And until that happened, they would just sit out the part about the cup and the baptism into the life and death

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of christ and the whole business about doing the most good you possibly can in the world. The dribbling on of commitment credit called it not always the heroics , not always what we want just the day in

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and day out of being prosaically faithful, but would like more than that. Honestly, sometimes I would like more than that. I'm preaching a sermon somewhere and a little girl waits in line afterward to hand

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me something. She drew on her bulletin about a story I told and she's hoping I will take it home and put it on my refrigerator. And there are times when I cannot acknowledge the privilege of receiving

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that gesture because I want more than that. Somebody from out in the hinterlands emails me and asks me if I'll read her sermon for next sunday and offer some comments about how to make it better. And

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I do it. But I want more than that . A spontaneous conversation in the hallway and the next day a staff person writes me a note that says , thank you. You really helped me yesterday and

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I want more than that. I want more. God help me than those occasional conversations about the faith that I get to have with my Children. I want at least 15 minutes of fame. I want

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the photographers in the glory days and people taking notes on what I'm saying from the Pulpit and CNN covering my sound bites at the March and what Jesus offers us instead and swears that it's worth. It is

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40 years more or less of sipping from the cup . 40 years of living out your baptismal identity in july of last year, K and I did something different for our vacation. More often than not,

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we go to our cottage in the mountains of north Carolina Montreat for several weeks, but last year we spent a month or so in the United Kingdom, Week in London, at the beginning of it,

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a week in Edinburgh at the end. And for two weeks in the middle, we went on this cruise around the british isles, the beauty of Guernsey and Ireland and the isle of man and Scotland.

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It was wonderful one stunning stop after another and on top of that tickets for the last day of the british open. But speaking for myself, the most amazing thing we did on one day when we were

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at sea for the whole day was to take a special two hour,$60 per person tour of the ship. We saw what you don't see on the surface of things. We saw the massive operation for

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preparing food. We saw the massive laundry operation and the engine room and the way they recycle almost everything and the security team and how they work and all the stuff that is necessary for a floating city of

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700 people. And then finally we saw the bridge , that wonderful spot from which the ship is piloted , that critical room with windows all around and sites in every direction. And the captain was there,

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somebody very passionate about his work. There were about 20 of us on this tour of the ship and he told us about everything. And then there were questions and some of the questions in my judgment were

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sort of show off the questions as if James and john were on the tour. Tell me about the chart system. Tell me about the distress calling equipment . Tell me about the maximum speed. Tell me

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about the autopilot system. Tell me about the GPS navigation device. Lots of questions like that. I had a question, but to be honest, I was kind of intimidated by all of those other questions

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and then it was time for him to get back to work. We were sailing between the outer and inner Hebrides up toward the top of the british isles , just getting nearer to that point in a narrowing

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body of water, where the land mass to the right, juts out into the sea, and the land mass to the left juts out into the sea and they form a kind of narrow lane through which

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we had to navigate. It was a little tricky , so he wanted us out of there so he could concentrate. We were walking out of the bridge . The captain stood at the door, shaking hands

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, felt kind of like church and when I passed him I decided to ask my question. It was a short question. I said, do you ever get tired of this view? He smiled and he

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said, never. He said, I have the best job in the world. I get to see all this beauty that has been placed around all of us. And on top of that it's a privilege

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to care for all of the souls on this trip . I love it when captains refer to their passengers as souls and you know, he said that so many of them care for me, He said,

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For me, these people are like family and this journey that we take together is so important. As I walked on past him, I noticed on that big wide counter behind which the captain's navigate the ship

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. There was this framed print of an old painting propped up against the counter. It was a painting probably from the 19th century, of a ship captain in uniform standing behind a big giant wheel, the

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old school way that captains used to steer, and behind that captain, with a hand on each of his shoulders, jesus christ. What forms us, what enriches our lives so profoundly? What makes us

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disciples? Is the knowledge, those hands or on our shoulders too, for all the years of our journey, For all the years of your journey, as you and all the souls you will someday serve

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, sip each day from the cup of committing in the name of God creator, christ and holy spirit