Mark 9:30-37; James 3:16-4:6
Most people want to live a good life, wouldn't you say? A good life might be described by what we have and what we do. We value a well-kept home and nice car, a fulfilling job and a close family; we desire to take care of our health and our minds; we volunteer at our churches and schools, donate to charities, save for our children's education, and help our neighbors. We obey the rules, pay our taxes, provide for our families, pick up after ourselves, and purpose to be productive citizens. We put a good deal of effort into having and doing these things. We live a good life.
Living the good life is a good thing, so relax. We are not about to be upbraided for having what we have and doing what we do. The purpose of scripture, I believe, is not to beat us to a pulp; the purpose of the scripture is to tell us good news, and the good news from scripture today is that God wants us to live more than a good life: God wants us to live a GREAT life.
The quibbling point is, what we consider the “great life” to be and what God defines the “great life” to be lead to two very different destinies.
In this passage from Mark, Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for their debate about greatness; he teaches the disciples what true greatness is. If you want to be great, he says, then become like one of these [children]. Embrace them.
We love stories about Jesus and the children. Many a Christian has heard many a sermon and sung many a hymn about the little children coming to Jesus: “Little ones to him belong; they are weak but he is strong...” We become very sentimental when we think of Jesus with the children; we love to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” one of the most beloved hymns in all of Christendom. By the way, did you know that...
In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who found Kennedy and the survivors, remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who learned it from missionaries.
This hymn was titled "China" in some hymnals of the 19th century, and it was the inspiration for the name of the town of China, Maine.1
When Jesus called the child to him and told his disciples that they must become like “one of these” if they wanted to be great, what was he really saying? Nothing sweet and sentimental, that's for sure.
First-century children were extraordinarily vulnerable, not only physically but also culturally, due to
their low status in family and society. Most first-century children were not even expected to survive until adulthood, so it was only when they grew up that they became “real people.” Children had nothing to give and the only things they “took” were orders from adults. They really were WEAK.
So imagine disciples' confusion when they wanted to know who was the greatest, and Jesus showed them the weakest: “26 inches tall, limited in vocabulary, unemployed, zero net worth, [a] nobody.”2
In our present economical circumstances in this country, there are many adults who are now unemployed, have a low or zero net worth, and often feel like nobodies. The good life is disappearing for so many with no good news in sight. Once confident, productive and strong adults now feel powerless, weak, because the good life has been stolen from them. As one man said to me this week, “Where's my bailout?” He used to have a good life: he had a good job, a good apartment, a good car. Then he lost his job and now he's living in his van and he is hungry everyday. Even if he had food, it's very difficult to cook food in a van.
Imagine how excruciatingly difficult it is to ask for help in the first place when one is used to being self-sufficient and sheltered, strong and satisfied. Grown men have come here and wept for the sense of failure and devaluation they experience under the economical circumstances we face today. They feel defenseless, and they are powerless (weak) in contention with our culture.
Is Jesus teaching us that we must become powerless and weak? Yes. And so we find ourselves much as the disciples must have been, perplexed, disconcerted and disconnected, and certainly provoked. As I said, however, this is not a sermon to chastise us. In God's kingdom, if we want to find our “way to the top, we must lay claim to the last and lowest place.”3
You see, what Jesus is saying is that God's kingdom belongs to those to whom the world says nothing belongs. Does this mean we all give up our jobs, our 401ks, and live in our cars? Absolutely not. No one would choose to do such things. What Jesus wants us to choose is the lifestyle not of greatness but of gratitude; to have a heart for God's righteousness, not a mind for self-righteousness.
To be great in God's economy, we evaluate every system, every power, every choice based on what it will do for the most vulnerable, not those closest to us.”4 We are called to be “great” for those who experience prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination simply for desiring to have the same rights and privileges we all expect. We will be voting in November on this very thing. How will each of us vote, out of the good life or out of the great life?
Why does God want us to live this great life? So that those who are considered least in our society may be encouraged, empowered, and most of all, embraced. Jesus calls us to reflect God's extravagant welcome; hear it with your own ears; say it with me, with your own lips: “No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here” ...and not only welcomed, but embraced.
Jesus taught his disciples, and so he teaches us. Let there be no confusion. The message for us today is to live not just a good life, but the greatest life by welcoming the least, for when we welcome the least, we welcome Jesus, and not [just] Jesus, but the One who sent Jesus. Let's begin our new year with this call to greatness...and await what the Lord has in store for us, this Church, and the community God has placed us here to serve and to embrace. Amen.
September 20, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
