Competing with Reality TV

Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Wisdom 2.12, 17-20 Psalm 54 James 3.16-4.3 Mark 9.30-37

Over the past several years, there has been a definite trend in the kind of shows that occupy primetime television: you might call this the era of reality TV. And while there are some exceptions, most of reality TV boils down to one thing: competition. From Survivor to America’s Got Talent, from Dancing with the Stars to Iron Chef, from The Biggest Loser to America’s Next Top Model. We have become obsessed with watching regular, every-day people compete against one another on national television – and it’s even better when we get to vote for who we want to win. And who knows, someday we might be there – singing on American Idol or traveling across the world on The Amazing Race or in the boardroom on The Apprentice. And if we’re not there, in front of the cameras, at least we get to watch – we get to live vicariously through the televised contests of both celebrities and regular Americans. It’s entertainment at its best. And a lot of it is all about competition – deciding who is the greatest.

Some things never change. Even the disciples had that argument. They tried to hide it from Jesus, but he knew what their conversations were about, he knew that they were arguing among themselves over which one of them was the greatest, the favorite, the most likely to succeed. So what’s this all about? Why the obsession with putting ourselves up against one another? It seems that underneath all our comparing and competing is a need to be loved and accepted. Acceptance is so hard to come by that we feel like we need to look a certain way or be accomplished at a certain talent or win some kind of award, or else we’re just mediocre – and who wants to be mediocre? And then, if we can’t find success and acceptance by our own performance, we get so obsessed with watching other people perform that our lives become meaningful based on their success. How many people’s moods will change based on who wins the Governor’s Cup? Once again, it’s all about competition – who is the greatest.

Now this isn’t to say that competition is bad. But the danger of an obsession with competition is that when everyone is so determined to be first, then more often than not, God ends up being last. When we spend all our time either competing or watching other people compete, there is very little room left for God. Which is why Jesus tells the disciples, and us, that we should be like servants and children. If we really want to be great and first, then we must humble ourselves and become the last and the least. Healthy, fun competition is good – it makes us stronger, better people, it calls us to live up to high standards, it makes us determined and passionate. But in the end, the winners and losers are all the same – they are all loved equally by God, they are all given the same opportunities for grace and love, they are all offered the same gift of heaven. Some choose to accept God’s gifts, and others ignore him. It is that choice that divides the world. But in the competition for our souls, there is only one winner – God himself. The rest of us are simply his children, equally loved and equally redeemed by Christ. And I would much rather be a child of God than the next American Idol.