Kids in 4-H are usually involved in some kind of rural, agricultural activities. They raise sheep and goats, chickens, rabbits, and llamas. The 4-H fair has horse shows and dog shows and judging contests all designed to measure the abilities of the kids and their critters.

Just as the Boy Scouts have their well-known pledge, the 4-H-ers have their own pledge and commitment. In fact the 4-H motto is the reason for the designation "4-H." The four h's are head, heart, hand, and health and a 4-H-er promises to pledge their head to clearer thinking, their heart to greater loyalty, their hands to larger service, and their health to better living.

The integration of Heart, Head, Hand into Health may seem a bit grandiose for a kid raising a sheep or a puppy. But as a goal for integrating all the various components of our lives, its right on track.

The old 4-H pledge recognizes that human beings are animated by different, and sometimes conflicting, aspects of the self. Intellect and reason rule the head. Passions and compassion move the heart. But it takes the actions of our hands to bring our thoughts and feelings to fruition in this world.

The disciples in today's gospel text definitely have their thinking caps on. They have been puzzling out how best they might improve their status, their standing among the twelve when their master is at last recognized as Messiah and given the glory he so richly deserves.

Their plotting and planning appears almost embarrassingly transparent to our twenty-first century savvy sensibilities. Quite obviously James and John could never have mastered some of the more Machiavellian machinations that define corporate structures and hierarchies today. But for their day, these brothers have it all figured out. They hit up Jesus before he had been acknowledged by the world, by the principalities and powers, as the Messianic figure he was. At this early date, the brothers reason, there must yet be open-seating at the table in glory. Why not, they cerebrate, ask for the best seats in the house at the right and left hand of the Messiah himself?

Jesus' rebuttal to the brothers is not so much "You asked for the wrong thing" as "You used the wrong yardstick" or "You've got the wrong parameters."

The role of disciple doesn't require an agile, always alert mind, skillfully discerning the best and quickest way to glory. And contrary to many make-'em-feel-bad-to-feel-good evangelistic techniques, neither does discipleship require a broken, bleeding, guilty heart. Heart-felt faith in and of itself is not the mark of genuine discipleship.

Jesus' words to all his disciples at the end of today's text reminds his followers that it's service , the work of our hands, that reveals the true disciple, the committed follower of Christ.

Pilate's heart was full of guilt. His head knew that allowing the crowd to condemn Jesus was wrong. But Pilate choose to wash his hands not use his hands to set free Jesus from the chains that bound him. Head and heart aren't enough.

In Roman Catholic iconography one of the most treasured symbols is of Jesus as the Sacred Heart. But the Jesus figure always has his hand on his heart graphically illustrating that the hand and the heart must be bound together.

It has been said that the greatest distance in the universe is the 18 inches that separate the head and the heart. Let's see if we can travel that distance.

[Put your hand on your head, and then connect it to your heart.]

What connects your head and your heart?

Your hand.

Only our hand, working at the command of both the head and the heart, can connect the greatest distance in the universe.

Jesus gave us the Great Commandment: We're to Love the Lord our God with all our heart and head . . . and our neighbor as ourselves (that's the hand part).

There's a wonderful story about a hospital nurse who saw a tired, anxious young man outside the room of an elderly man. So she took his arm, ushered him to the man's bedside, and stooped down and whispered in the man's ear, "Your son is here."

She repeated this several times before the patient's eyes opened. He was heavily sedated and he dimly saw the figure of the young man standing beside the bed. He reached out his hand, and the young man tightly wrapped his fingers around it, squeezing a message of encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair to the bedside and, all through the night, the young man sat, holding the old man's hand, and offering general words of hope.

The dying man said nothing. As dawn approached, the patient died. The young man gently placed on the bed the lifeless hand he had been holding. Then he went to notify the nurse.

The nurse began to offer words of sympathy to the young man, but he interrupted her. "Who was that man?" he asked. The puzzled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father."

"No," the young man replied. "I never saw him before in my life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" the nurse asked.

He replied, "I sensed that he really needed his son, and that his son just wasn't here. Then I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son. And I knew how much he needed me."

God wants to use your hands to touch the world.

Will your hands connect the head and the heart? Will you stretch out your hands, connecting the head and heart of our world?

When Moses stretched out his hand, the waters turned to blood, and later parted.

When Jesus stretched out his hand, Peter was rescued as he was sinking in the water.

When Jesus stretched out his hand on the cross, he saved the world.