A Little Child

MARK 9:30-37

ME!  . . .

ME! . . .  

ME FIRST! . . .

How often have we heard children scream this when they wanted to be ‘special’? And let’s admit it, we adults also have the same reaction – albeit a little more subtle and pleading under our breath,  

(‘please let it be me’!).

Jesus heard the same thing while he and the disciples were walking through Gallilee. Each of the disciples was jockeying to be the ‘greatest’, the ‘favorite’ of Jesus. It is human nature to want to be at the top of the heap, whatever that heap is.

But Jesus admonished his disciples:

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

He then brought a little child into their midst and told them:

Here were all these grown men who had been following Jesus for a long time, and Jesus has the audacity to include a little child into their inner circle! Imagine how rejected they might have felt.

“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:37)

A little child!

What does a little child have to do with which one of them is the greatest, the favorite?

Children held an interesting place in the first century household for both Jews and Romans.  They represented the future—they would carry on the family name, provide for their aging parents, and produce the next generation. But as little children, they were a liability; small children were more likely to contract an illness and die. They couldn’t really help with daily life, and just represented another mouth to feed.

But, the child in this passage represents all of God’s people (no matter the age). The greatest people in God’s kingdom are not the rich and powerful, but the poor and helpless; not the ones with the most servants, but those who serve others the most. Jesus argued that if we help those who are humble, lowly, poor, or oppressed we will be ‘the greatest’ from his point of view.

Kids — munchkins — rug rats — ragamuffins — you have to love them, no matter what you may call them. And Jesus obviously did.

They are the ones Jesus commands us to welcome. With children, it is not a question of who is great and who is not, but instead a question of welcome. Jesus isn’t interested in who we say is the greatest or even who acts like the greatest or seems to be the greatest. Jesus is interested in who acts with the greatest grace, compassion, and love.

Every single human is born and blessed by God with an innocent spirit; but our life experiences expose us to attitudes, joys, sorrows, fears, and goals. The older we get, we become jaded by the world we live in. As we age, we unlearn what it means to be the original kind of human being God created us to be. The older we get, the more we believe somehow that we know best.

But Jesus reminds us of something very important. When it comes to knowing what it means to be authentically human, loving, and faithful, our best role models are our children.

Children don’t edit themselves; they just tell it as it is. A child can teach us to play, to return to our innocence. The child is not looking for power, or greatness, or status, or wealth. The child’s heart has a purity that is still innocent and loving and does not discriminate.

To receive as a child is to have a vision of the way the world is meant to be. In Jesus’ mind this is what it means to be a “great” disciple: loving, pure, authentic, honest, unspoiled by the negatives of life. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must re-learn this innocence, remember how to think and feel like a child.

You may know a story told of the physicist Albert Einstein. One of his neighbors, the mother of a ten-year-old girl, noticed that her child often visited Einstein’s house. The woman wondered at this, and the child explained: “I had trouble with my homework in arithmetic. People said that at No. 112 there lives a very big mathematician, who is also a very good man. I asked him to help me. He was very willing and explained everything very well. He said I should return whenever I find a problem too difficult.”

Alarmed at the child’s boldness, the girl’s mother went to Einstein to apologize. Einstein said, “You don’t have to apologize. I have learned more from the conversations with this child than she has from me.”[1]

Einstein, as famous and ‘great’ as he was, was more than willing to welcome this child into his home to help her with her arithmetic. That was a sign of true greatest!

Jesus drives home the seriousness of his message of welcoming as a child when he says,

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)

Jesus’ love for children is immense. In every adult, there is an inner child, full of wonder. It is only through the wonder that we can experience the glory and the greatness of God.

Our lives, as we reach adulthood and forward are filled with aspirations and challenges, experiences and pain that drag us down and discourage us from believing in beauty, love, kindness, and forgiveness. Before you know it, we can become bitter and cautious about others and guarded about ourselves.

But in Jesus, we have hope for new beginnings, new life, new innocence, and always new resurrections. For Jesus is Lord of Resurrection.

Greatness comes to us when we share with others who have nothing to share with us. Think of the young boy who shared his five loaves and two fishes with 5000 people who contributed nothing but their hunger (John 6:9). In Jesus’ eyes, this boy child was great.

So Jesus reminds us that

“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.”(Mark 9:37)

Let us think about how we, at Saint John’s, welcome the child – the child in each of us? How do we welcome strangers and each other that exemplifies the innocence of a child?

This is how we should welcome Jesus and everyone we come in contact with.

Let us pray:

God, grant me the courage

to go without armor

or the privilege of being right.

 

Give me the humility

to renounce my imagined rank,

and take the lowest place.

 

Give me the heart to love without power

and serve without status,

to be last and not first,

a child in a world of big people.

 

God, grant me

the faith to trust my belovedness,

the wisdom to rely on your Spirit’s power,

the humility to serve,

and the courage to love.

Amen.[2]

---

[1]      Richard Muller, Now — The Physics of Time

[2]      Steve Garnass- Holmes, Unfolding Light

 

 

Let Us Be ‘Jesus People’

MARK 8:27-38

“And His Name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”

The time is drawing near when we all sing those familiar and beloved words from Handel’s Messiah, describing Jesus as a ‘mighty God’, a royal ‘Prince of Peace’ – underlined with tympany drums and trumpets, exaggerated and joyous rhythms!

We hear in the Gospel that when Jesus asked his disciples who they think He is. Peter is the first to answer, identifying Jesus as the ‘Messiah’, the Hebrew word referring to the expected ‘Prince of the Chosen’, anointed by God to redeem his people, and foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. The Jews were now under the subjugation of the Romans, looked for a ‘savior’, a ‘Messiah’ to release them from their bondage.

Peter had great hopes for Jesus’ future. If Jesus was the ‘Messiah’, Peter wanted Him to assume the role of God’s Anointed, and become the long-awaited powerful leader of the Jews. Jews believed that

• the ‘Messiah’ would drive out the oppressive Romans through power ands war;
• the ‘Messiah’ would defeat all the enemies of the Jews,
• the ‘Messiah would provide justice in the land
• and the ‘Messiah would restore the general welfare of the Jewish nation

– meaning in reality, the Jewish people would at last rule the earth.

Peter envisioned a great and glorious future for Jesus the ‘Messiah’.

But this isn’t why Jesus had come. Jesus almost immediately began to teach his followers something completely different about the world, the Kingdom of Go and what His real power was. Rather than becoming a triumphant conqueror, Jesus would face great suffering; many prominent leaders of his own people (the Pharisees and Sadducees, the chief priests and scribes) would reject him. Jesus went on to shock His disciples by saying that he would be killed. Yes. Actually slain. They would see him die.

Jesus tells Peter, and the rest of the disciples:

“You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8:33)

That divine things were not power, domination, wealth, or status, but peace, love, generosity and caring for all God’s children. Those were stunning, stinging words, but they were words they needed to hear. And they are words that, more than ever, that we need to hear. It is human nature to get so caught up in our own desires and wishes, our own agendas for ourselves and our loved ones that we do not spend much time focusing on divine things, especially the message of God as taught by his Son, Jesus. But the truth is that it is only as we seek to know and do the path of God in all things, that we discover happiness and path for our lives.

Yet, if our main focus is often upon the marvelous dreams and hopes we have for our loved ones and ourselves? What can be wrong with that? An argument can well be made that we should have great hopes and visions for ourselves and our family members and friends. Surely there is nothing wrong and everything right with setting a goal to strive for.

There is only one caveat, one warning we should heed. Our goals and strivings need to be in line with the path God shows us. If they are not, in spite of whatever we might achieve, there will always be a feeling of something missing, something not quite right, in last,,,, status, power or wealth without inner joy.

It is quite clear that God wants us to choose carefully where we focus our minds and action. When Peter rebuked Jesus, Peter was focusing on his desire that Jesus be the militant and powerful ruler who would set things right in the world. Jesus, however, was intent on following the divine plan, the leadership of God wherever that lead. Even if the short-term future promised to be frightening and full of pain and suffering; even if a cross was in His future, Jesus taught and lived the path toward God’s Kingdom.

There is a great lesson here. When you and I make the proper choices, when we truly seek the mind of God as we travel down life’s road, we will find that we can handle whatever comes, even death itself.

However, if we decide instead to center on human things — on the temporary rather than the everlasting — well, we will find ourselves heading for chaos and disappointment. Sometimes we may discover our life totally out of control and in a desperate condition. Our lives will only be truly fruitful and meaningful as we center on the path to God set out 2,000 years ago by Jesus. As we go from day to day, we would do well to develop a pattern of seeking the mind of God regarding each choice we face.

In his first sermon, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reminded us:

“God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to show us the Way. He came to show us the Way to life, the Way to love. He came to show us the Way beyond what often can be the nightmares of our own devisings and into the dream of God’s intending.

This is the Jesus Movement, and we are The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal branch of Jesus’ movement in this world..” [1]

Perhaps we would do well to follow something like the guidelines for daily Christian living developed by the Trappist Monks in the Abbey of the Genesee. It reads as follows:

This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I’m exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.

You and I are free to live our lives as we please, if we choose. But those who are spiritually wise know that the precious gift of a free will is only truly meaningful and joyous when we surrender completely, day by day, to the One who knows best how our lives are meant to be lived.

Rather than as a powerful ruler, Jesus spent His life as one of service, of humility, and sacrifice. Jesus came to earth to serve, not be served. His service ultimately cost him his life. And in so loving and dying – as a humble and loving servant, He showed us the way to find salvation – inestimable joy and meaning in our lives!

“Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29)

That’s the question Jesus asks each of us. He doesn’t want to know what we would like him to be, or want him to be … or even need him to be. Jesus wants a relationship with us so that we can know “who” he is.

We answer that question each day of our lives with our choices and priorities.

The lyrics of a popular contemporary song by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland that communicates what Christ is ready to do for us and through us.

“When I am down and, oh my soul so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then I am still and wait here in silence,
Until You come and sit awhile with me.

There is no life, no life without its hunger.
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly,
But when You come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains,
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas,
I am strong when I am on Your shoulders,
You raise me up to more than I can be.” [2]

Jesus speaking this, His Holy Spirit is there for each of us, whose example has assured us eternal life. We are beloved children of God, all brothers and sisters of Jesus. If we live His way, as His people, our communities, nation and planet will be a brighter, happier place – and our lives will be more full and rich than we ever dreamed possible!

Let us go forth into the world each day, being ‘Jesus People’.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

     

[1]   Delivered at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City, November 2, 2015

[2]   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzshoYSull

 

Delivered at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Worthington and Parts Adjacent, Worthington, OH; 16 September 2018