The Primates in Dublin

I'm not sure anyone really cares except for those of us who are Episcopalians and Anglicans, but the Primates of the Anglican Communion are meeting in Dublin this week. It's early, and they haven't had much to say so far.  According to the first briefing:

Before the Primates attended Night Prayers, Archbishop Rowan gave a short reflection on primatial leadership using the text of Mark 10:35-45.

An interesting choice on the Archbishop's part. Mark 10:35-45 reads

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but 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.’*

Last week at the Trinity Institute Theological Conference Gerald West led us through a short version of Contextual Bible Study, which has been used extensively in South Africa. In this method of study, the group also looks at the passages immediately preceding and immediately after the first one.

The passage right before the Archbishop's selection (10: 32-35) is Jesus telling the twelve what will happen when they get to Jerusalem (arrest, condemnation, crucifixion). The passage immediately following it is the healing of Bartimaeus (10:46-52).

I wonder what the Archbishop would have said about primatial leadership had he looked at the larger context. And after my experience at the conference, I wonder what the Primates themselves would have discovered if they had engaged the scripture this way?

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*New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.