My first regular sermon for quite a long time, preached at St Mary's Garsington 22nd Sept and based on the lectionary readings, James 3.13 – 4.3, 7-8aMark 9.30-37
Sunday 22nd Sept 2024
In my spare time I enjoy watching tennis, for armchair tennis fans like me the last few years have provided rich pickings. This has been a great era to watch greats like Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, the Williams sisters. All of them have become all time greats each with their own claims to be the GOAT. (Greatest of all time). How you decide these things is a complex argument, how can you compare different eras, different levels of fitness, genders, racquet science.
For what it’s worth I would put my money on Serena Williams, not just for what she has achieved but for what she has overcome to get there. It is subjective though, just how can you decide who is the greatest tennis player, musician, poet playwright. All these things are rightly open for discussion with many different interpretations possible.
It seems that the disciples in this morning’s reading were having that sort of discussion about each other, just who was the greatest! Do you ever wonder what they are arguing about? Who has seen the best miracle? Whose turn is it to sit next to Jesus?
This discussion has arisen following some foreshadowing by Jesus with a second prediction of the death he would face. It is as if the disciples are not yet ready to face the truth about who Jesus is, who could be! Jesus though cuts through the quarrel quickly and turns any traditional idea of greatness on its head.
The central character of today’s gospel is a voiceless child with no name (we don’t even know if it is a girl or a boy!). Jesus takes a little child in his arms turns to the quarrelling disciples and says, ‘whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who has sent me’. In lifting a small child, he is pointing to someone of no legal status. Here the child stands for everyone of no account. In welcoming those little ones, whatever their age, we welcome God.
The great people in any community are those who serve the little ones of no status, the homeless, the abused, the trodden on, the refugees. Not those of us who grab the limelight but those who put themselves out shopping for others, helping at coffee mornings, day centres and lunch clubs, those who quietly get on with things and make the world a better place.
There is a web of the vital, unseen and underappreciated, who we could not manage without. I love the story of a visitor to NASA in the 1960’s who asked a cleaner what he did, he replied that he was working on a mission to get to the moon. He was correct, that is exactly what he was doing. He probably never got the credit, but he was a vital cog, nonetheless.
In this passage Jesus is saying to his disciples who have been arguing in a childish manner about who was the greatest that if you welcome this child in my name, then you welcome, me and the one who sent me. It is a beautiful moving image of God’s kingdom is present in the smallest most vulnerable child. If we live out this calling our churches and communities will be the sort of place where the voiceless and the vulnerable should feel affirmed, safe, welcome and loved.
These words by commentator David Lose hit home for me. The definition of greatness Jesus offers seems crazy initially because it is so completely, utterly counter-cultural. He calls us to imagine that true greatness lies in service by taking care of those who are most vulnerable – those with little influence or power, those the culture is most likely to ignore.
This without a doubt offers us a vision for our congregational life. But it also applies more personally. How are we doing, that is, with measuring our success, our greatness, not by what we take in but by what we give away, not by the influence we wield but by the service we offer, not by accumulating more but by sharing what we already have, not by being first but by being eager to work hard in order to see others move ahead?
Make no mistake. This is hard stuff, absolutely and totally different than what the culture – whether in the first century or the twenty-first – tells us. And so, it was hard for the disciples and it’s hard for us. They didn’t understand what Jesus meant, and so fell into the trap of putting themselves ahead of everyone else. We will often do the same, looking out for ourselves rather than others, trusting less in God for our security than we do our wealth. (David Lose)
This passage is another one where we are shown the counter cultural nature of God’s reign, God’s kingdom. What would our churches, and our institutions look like if we really let today’s gospel shape our society? What if we talked less about leadership and styles of leading (important though they are) and more about discipleship and faithfulness.
We have a duty to organise our lives and order our society so that we can protect the most vulnerable. We need principled experienced people to do that. Something of the how is addressed by James in his Epistle.
The text draws distinctions between two distinct attitudes. 6For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
James seems to be talking into a context where things have gone a bit astray. It is a call back to those gospel values of gentleness and humility, a call to be known by values that have always been counter cultural to a degree, but a way in which love is grown and true value nurtured.
The truth will find a way, sometimes after decades, witness the headlines this week about staff suffering horrendous abuses of power at the hands of the then owner of Harrods.
I find that the abiding image of Jesus with a child can help us by reminding us that in welcoming the voiceless and the vulnerable we welcome God.
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