Sermon for 17th Pentecost
Hopeful for Children
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
The ninth chapter of Mark began with a glorious vision, the story we call the “Transfiguration.” Jesus shined in dazzling light on the mountain top. It must have been an amazing sight! Peter, James, and John shaded their eyes and saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. Then a cloud descended on the mountain, just like in the days of Moses, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, the Beloved: listen to him." What an experience that must have been for Peter and James and John!
After that experience, Peter and James and John must have been dying to tell the other disciples about that vision and that voice. They must have thought to themselves, since Jesus had strictly ordered them to say nothing to anyone, they must have thought to themselves that, if they had been able to talk, they surely would have convinced the other disciples that they were the greatest.
But, now in today’s Gospel lesson, we are later in Mark’s 9th chapter and the disciples are still arguing about greatness! Jesus had just told them again about his coming betrayal and death. This was the second time he had said this. They still ignored most of what Jesus had just said, but, perhaps, some of them heard the last line about Jesus rising again after his death. Once they got past the betraying and the dying, well, perhaps a few of them began to dream of being in high places with the risen Jesus.
When they got home to Capernaum, the chapter that began on the mountain top comes crashing down to earth. Jesus asked them, even though he clearly already knew the answer, Jesus asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" Then Jesus sat down and tried again to get through to his disciples: "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
The disciples had argued about who was greatest of all and Jesus called them to be last of all. No wonder they were silent. Their eyes probably started to glaze over. They had heard these opposites before--to save life/lose life, to be first you have to be last, to be great be a servant.
Jesus was always talking this way.
And Jesus could see that, once again, the disciples just did not get it. So, Jesus took a little child in his arms and put the child in the midst of them.
I wonder whose child Jesus chose? Perhaps the child of one of the women who was part of Jesus' community. Perhaps the child of one of the disciples or a relative of Jesus, because Jesus was now at home. Whoever the child was, Jesus saw the child. This child was as important to Jesus as the vision on the mountain. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." Peter, James, and John must have remembered the voice from the cloud. They knew who sent Jesus. While they were thinking about heavenly visions, they saw Jesus holding a child on his lap.
Jesus wanted them to see the child.
Jesus wants us to see the child, too--and welcome the child. Not because the child is innocent or perfect or pure or cute or curious or naturally religious. Jesus wanted them to welcome the child because the child was at the bottom of the social heap.
I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundblad for her thoughts in this sermon. Lundblad notes that, in Jesus’ day, children, loved by their parents, of course, in Jesus’ day, children were little more than tiny property. Many of them died before the age of 4 or 5. In Mark’s Gospel, children are often sick or disabled: Jairus' daughter is near death when her father kneels before Jesus; the Syrophoenician woman's little daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit; and just before today's text, a man brings his son to Jesus. The boy had experienced terrible convulsions since childhood and the disciples were not able to heal him. But Jesus commanded the terrible spirit to leave the boy, then lifted this child to new life.
Children in Mark are not symbols of holiness or innocence, but more often they are the victims of poverty and disease. Jesus brings the child from the margins into the very center. This child is not a symbol but a person, a little person easily overlooked, often unseen and unheard.
But surely, we are different.
Are we?
- It was not long ago that we put children coming across our border, children of parents who are often fleeing violence and abuse, we put their children in cages. But first we separated many of these children from their parents. And now many months later too many of these children are still unaccounted for.
- Texas recently approved the most limitations on abortion of any state in the USA – the new Texas law makes abortion illegal even in the case of rape, incest, health risk to the mother, even viability of the fetus. What is also so discouraging is that the same people who call themselves “pro-life,” these same people are too often those who oppose government help for poor young children.
- Perhaps the saddest widespread example of not caring for the child is debate across our nation over face masks for school children. This is certainly the worst example I can share with you of the lack of care for children. Children are dying of COVID-19 because adults are not masking up and getting vaccinated.
"Do you see this child?" Jesus is asking his disciples and us. "Whoever welcomes this child welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me."
Mt. Olive is a welcoming place for children. We are justifiably proud of this. Even when children are very noisy during worship, we have been kind and compassionate. I look forward to all that noise when we gather again for worship in person!
However, Jesus is calling us to be concerned about more children than our own, about hungry children, forgotten children, children who depend on government programs for their next meal, perhaps their only meal of the day. Maybe, maybe, maybe we can find it in our hearts to love these children as much as we love those who we welcome here at Mt. Olive for worship. If we can see them in worship, perhaps we will remember them when school boards debate mask mandates and legislatures discuss bills to limit women’s and voting rights. The children of this land only have us to be their advocates.
Was Jesus a hopeless romantic when he set a little child in the midst of the disciples that day in Capernaum? No, Jesus was not a hopeless romantic--he was a hopeful fanatic! Jesus was fanatic about opening up the kingdom of God to those nobody wanted to see; he was fanatic about extending hospitality to those considered no more than property. Jesus didn't follow the rubrics or the rules. He healed when he wasn't supposed to, touched people he shouldn't have touched and talked about suffering after a wonderful moment of glory on the mountain top. Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God is not up but down. All our arguments about greatness mean nothing if we do not stoop down low enough to see the invisible ones in our midst. That day in Capernaum Jesus held a little child in his arms and brought the words of heaven down to earth. I can imagine Jesus whispering in the child's ear: "You are God's Beloved Child."
Then Jesus looked over the child's shoulder at his disciples and even farther off, Jesus is looking at us. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Of course, this is not as simple as it sounds. It means caring for children even if we have none of our own. It means being committed to children's health programs and community face mask requirements, to refugee children and children entering our country seeking asylum. Jesus wants us to see not only our children and grandchildren but children of migrant workers sleeping in the field and the child who moves from shelter to shelter every night. This means bending down low enough to see the child who cannot see any higher than our knees.
We may not be able to do that at all--unless we're willing to become hopeful fanatics.
So, that’s my prayer for you and me today, that, for our children’s sake, we all become hopeful fanatics for Christ.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundblad).
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
September 19, 2021
