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Sermon - October 29th, 2006
True Greatness
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Mark 10:35-45, 9:35-37
Children’s Sabbath
Jesus loved children. While other people, like the disciples tended to ignore anyone shorter than the tie around their waist, Jesus saw what was going on down there. He saw the toddlers hanging onto their mother’s skirt He saw them trying to keep up with grown-ups when they walked. He saw that people looked at them as fillers, NOT the main event. They were gifts of God who would be useful someday--to look after their parents, to hold down responsible jobs, to have children of their own--but meanwhile they were non-entities--like cute fuzzy caterpillars to be fed and sheltered until they could turn into butterflies.
However, Jesus seemed to like them just the way they were, which was unusual. He had no children of his own and he was not afraid of babies. He took them in his arms and blessed them. He knew how to put his hand behind their wobbly heads. How to pass them carefully back to their mothers. Even the two-year-olds did not bother him. He never asked their parents please to take them to the nursery. On the contrary, when his disicples scolded people for bringing their children to church, Jesus was indignant. The kingdom belongs to such as these, he said. They are full-fledged citizens of God’s realm--not later but right now.
This partiality may not sound as strange now as it did back them, because we are much more tuned into children than first century Palestinians were. Far from ignoring children, middle-class Americans tend to idealize them. Maybe we lavish the attention on them we wish someone had lavished on us, but in any case children are much more visible (and audible) in the adult world than they have ever been before.
However, it is not about Jesus holding children up as moral example when he took children in his arms and blessed them. He did not say we should imitate them, after all. He just said that when we welcome them in his name we welcome him, and that when we welcome him we welcome God. That is a pretty amazing equation, if you think about it.
Do you want to spend time with God? Then get down on the floor with little Julie Anne over there. Get fingerpaint all over your clothes and laugh at her little jokes and never mind that you have more important things to do, like finishing the laundry or earning a living. She is not a filler. She is the main event. Opening yourself up to her is better for your soul than finishing a project or getting a raise or even reading a whole book in the Bible. (Oh my gosh, did your pastor really say that?)
There will be no payback. Oh, she may shout your name next time she sees you and run to hug your knees, but you cannot list her as a job reference or ask her to lend you a hundred dollars to get your car fixed. She is not good for anything like that. She is not in charge of anything, she cannot buy you anything, she will not even remember your birthday or invite you over for supper with some friends. She has no status, no influence, no income, which makes her great in God’s eyes. She is just what you need. And you, you are able to work on your own greatness by understanding that it is what you do when you think no one is looking, with someone who does not count, for no reward, that ushers you into the presence of God.
Do you see what Jesus is up to here? It is one more of his lessons on the topsy-turny kingdom of God, where the first shall be last and the last shall be first and everyone who thinks he or she is on the top of the heap is in for a big surprise. He is not just talking about children, either. He is talking about all the little ones in this world with no status, no influence, no income. He is daring us to welcome them as bearers of God, to believe that God’s hierarchy is the reverse of ours and that greatness is only available to those with no ambition to be great. This is a very challenging statement for those of us who think we have made it in this world--VERY challenging! I think Jesus would go as far as telling us that if we do not welcome and embrace the little ones, those with no status, we are in danger of not meeting God. Right here! Right now!
It was the Sunday after 9/11, 2001 at the Dallas United Methodist Church, my previous church. The church was full as were most churches, synagogues, and worshiping places that week. I came that Sunday with no special words of wisdom. I was prepared to acknowledge reality in a sacred space, that’s all. I had prepared a sermon, but it did not feel like enough. We had opened the service with a Call to Worship that said we had come with “songs aching to be sung” and “wounds aching to be healed and fears aching to be released.” Our unison prayer ended with the words, “Remind us, holy God, that you hold us in the palm of your hand.”
Silence always followed the unison prayer. In that time of silence was when something happened. This little voice started singing. It was not very loud, but the sound filled the silence. He was clearly singing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” His mom moved to quiet him, but she stopped herself as tears filled her eyes. A wave of emotion moved through the congregation, as this little angelic voice filled the sanctuary and filled our hearts.
The only response was to join him in song. We did, with tears in our eyes and chills running down my back. The Spirit was present! God had spoken to us through a four-year-old boy named Forrest. That was the message we needed to hear that morning and it came loud and clear.... and a little child led us. The Sunday morning after 9/11 a little child led the Dallas congregation toward hope and healing. I don’t even remember my sermon that day. But I will never forget that we met God that morning through a child.
In our topsy-turvy kingdom of God--the children, the ones who are stuck at the end of the line, the ones who are sobbing on someone’s shoulder because they are always, always last, the ones who sing during the time of silence--the most unlikely people are most likely to be agents of God.
In God’s world, things are different. Children run the United Nations. Toddlers are bishops and second sons get to go first, while servants sit down at tables they used to polish and the greatest disciple is the one who waits on them, the one whose name you can never remember. If you want to enter this kingdom, there is a way: go find a nobody to put your arms around and say hello to God.
Amen.