Sunday September 22th, 2024 Worship

I have a confession to make… When I was a little kid, I often got in trouble for my desire to always be first. I was the kid that would race to the bus stop each morning just to beat the other two kids onto the bus, and I also possibly pushed them aside sometimes to get there. Mind you, these were even kids I considered friends. And, I was always the kid that was sent back to their desk to double check their work because I would race up to the teacher’s desk with my way too quickly completed work. I loved the pride in being the best, the fastest, the first. So, today’s Gospel reading is a bit convicting for me today.
We still live in a culture surrounded by these pushes to be the best, the greatest, the wealthiest, the most powerful, or the most important. It’s something that we are taught to aspire to, whether that would make us happy or not. Instead of a mentality of gratitude, we are taught to strive for better, to push for more, and it doesn’t matter who is harmed in the process. Even the disciples today get caught up in the conversation trying to figure out who among them is the greatest, and they are ashamed that this is what they spent their time talking about (Mark 9: 34). It consumes so much of our time and energy, when we are only thinking about what else we can do or have in the future instead of being present in the moments we are actually living in. How much of life passes us by because we can’t stop striving to be better or to have more.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have goals and aspirations. That we must always be content where we are and with the way we inhabit the world, but like a few weeks ago when the conversation was around intent, why is it that we want to focus on those things? Is it because improving will help us better care for our families and neighbors? Is it to gain the recognition and prestige that come with our titles? Is it to allow ourselves more control in a broken system to begin the work of dismantling and reshaping it? Why are we so focused on doing these things and who will be harmed in the process?
There are many reasons why I love that Jesus uses the little child as the example in today’s Gospel because I think there is so much that we can learn from children and the ways that they inhabit the world. They bring a sense of joy, wonder, and curiosity. They ask questions and don’t like to do things if there isn’t a good reason for why they should do them. They are much better than adults at living in the moment and inviting space for play. They demonstrate a willingness and eagerness to learn, as they aren’t so set in their ways yet.
And, when Jesus uses the child as the example today, he is pulling into the narrative a whole group of people who is often overlooked and dismissed. Jesus is flipping the script on what it means to be valued and important. Likely no one would have looked at this child and thought, surely this is the greatest of all of us here; what could they have possibly done to be so great?
Jesus nudges his disciples into seeing that their ideas of power and greatness are not at all related to God’s understanding of such. His explanation breaks down the need for people to do amazing things and be considered great in order to be of any value to those around them. But, with the example of the little child, Jesus is making a clear point that all people are valued simply because they were created in the image of God and should be seen and welcomed as such. It’s a blow to our system of worth and value based on our economic standing or our job title. It’s a more equitable way of living in the world too because it allows people to be people and not machines. To know that each of our bodies functions differently and that our value isn’t solely determined by what and how much we produce. That’s a radically different way of living in the world.
And, we can’t disconnect this conversation from the discourse Jesus is having about his upcoming crucifixion because through Christ’s death and resurrection, God is again flipping the script on what it means to be powerful. Because everyone is expecting this battle between Jesus and the Roman Empire, this epic military defeat, and a restoration of control to Israel. But, instead Jesus keeps saying that he is going to be hung on a cross, die, and then rise again. And the disciples do not understand. They can’t fathom that this is what the one sent to save them would be doing because how can he just accept defeat like that?
And what does he mean that whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all? (Mark 9: 35). Again, it comes back to this flipping of the script about what does it means to be of value in the world. Because typically servants were viewed so lowly that anyone of importance would be horrified at the idea of being a servant to anyone. We all have probably witnessed a person or two in a restaurant who is just mean to the servers because they have a mentality that their place in the world is to be served when and how they want and that they are more important than everyone else that server is responsible for.
But, to serve someone else in the way that Jesus is talking about is to begin by seeing the other as a person and then seeing what we can do to accompany them in life. People are going to need all sorts of things but being a servant in Christ’s sense means doing the work to figure out what each person needs instead of assuming that all people are the same. It means truly caring for our neighbor instead of witnessing their struggles and saying, “well that’s too bad.” Jesus is telling his disciples that in order to be the greatest, you have to stop seeing yourself as the greatest. It doesn’t mean that we must stop caring about ourselves entirely or we have to give so much to the world that we have nothing left in us to take care of ourselves, but what Jesus is doing here is setting the foundation for a community of care. How different is that from our world today?!
In hearing these stories though, I think it’s easy to feel like we can’t have any sense of importance about ourselves. And, it’s not telling us that we lose all sense of self-worth in the process of becoming a servant to all, but I think it calls us back to this question of whose we are and who we are. We are already called worthy and beloved because of our identity as children of God! But, this discourse today is helping us to see that all of God’s children and all of creation is equally deserving of being called worthy and beloved. It is reminding us not to put ourselves up on a pedestal because we were all given different gifts and skills, but we are all part of one community. It’s calling us to move away from our individualistic understanding of the world back to our communal nature.
At the heart of today’s Gospel is a reminder that we are built for community and that we are called to be different than the world around us that prescribes our worth based on how much we own and what we can do. After all, it gets rather lonely when you keep trying to set yourself apart from everyone else. And, the titles and prestige are great, until you don’t know if people are your friends because they care about you or if they just want to be associated with you for the benefits it brings to them. We have already been called beloved and worthy, and those titles won’t be taken away from us. They are inscribed in our hearts by God, but I know that it can be so difficult to remember that in the face of everything else. So, if you’ve tuned me out or gotten nothing else from this sermon, may you be reminded that you are loved, and may we all embrace the childlike qualities of wonder and play as we see what they have to teach us about being ourselves in this world.