Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 19, 2003


What household tool is the most appropriate for a disciple?

Behold, the household plunger. Great for fixing drains in sacristies. Wonderful for unplugging the kitchen sink when the garbage disposal stops working. Great for making thrones useable again. And great for any disciple who would sit upon a throne in glory. Let me propose it is the most appropriate tool for a disciple. Why? A few reasons.

1)There is no way to carry this ‘proudly’. You certainly don’t want to grip it on the rubber part – I mean, you know where it’s been and where it’s going. It looks rather silly to carry it like this: (Visual image of carrying it as if it were a crown on a pillow). The closest you come is like this (holding near the bottom, as if it were a sword) but then you look like a soldier in the idiot army. By it’s physical design, it’s almost impossible to look important while you are carrying it.

2)Because of what the plunger does, it’s hard to FEEL important when carrying it to your assigned task. Unlike the business briefcase, the cell phone, the palm pilot which bear with them a sense of power and prestige, no one carries a plunger thinking: “Look at me – I’m important. I’m carrying a plunger.” Plus, unlike cell phones designs which are very chick and very trendy, the plunger hasn’t changed shapes or style almost since inception. (You never hear people say: Look at this, the latest in plunger models, the Plunger 210 – isn’t she a beaut?)

3)Then, there are the types of jobs that you are doing when using the plunger. Non glorious. You have to get your hands dirty. Involved. ‘Nuff said.

4)When the job is over, no one looks at the plunger and says ‘good job’. They look at the sink that is now flowing, the throne now working, or the drain now unstopped and give thanks that THOSE items are now working. It’s not about the plunger, it’s about the sink, the drain, the throne. The plunger is placed in the back of the closet, without further ado.

“You know those recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority felt. It shall not be so among you.” It shall not be so among you… Iron hard words from Jesus. Because in that one simple sentence he undercuts the merit system of religion – that Deuteronomic system where enjoying the good things of life was a just reward from God and a sign that you were living right. Turning that on its head, Jesus tells us greatness is only measured in service. Only measured in service. And those who know the secret of the plunger, know also how to best be disciples. For just as it is not about the plunger, so it is not about the disciple.

As I was praying this week about all this, a very vivid image from my childhood floated back into my mind. It was of my grandpa Kempf, at my grandma’s bedside, giving her a drink from a straw. Grandma had leukemia, and was confined the last 8 years of her life to a bed. And there was grandpa, opening that straw, bringing it to her lips, letting her drink and then easing her back down into the bed. As he had done countless times. Without conscious thought. He didn’t even have to ask if she was thirsty. He just knew when it was time. And there was grandma, a very active woman in her younger days, letting him serve her with equal magnanimity. Suddenly, I realized, here were two people who had learned the secret of the plunger – the secret of serving the other first, the secret of loving the other first. Whoever wishes to be great among you, will be your servant.

This week, take a lesson from the plunger. Take it out of the closet, or from under the sink, and put it on your dining room table. Or at the foot of the cross that is on your living room wall. Or wherever you will notice it on a daily basis. And let it teach you its secret – the secret of the Son of Man, who came, not to be served, but to serve…