18th Sunday after Pentecost
September 22, 2024
Mark 9.30-37
If you were here a couple of weeks ago, you might remember thestory of Sebastian’s quick exit from Tron while we were at Disney. Well,that same day, one of my favorite moments of the trip happened. As Imentioned before, Bash was highly skeptical of any ride that could beconsidered “big.” It was his first time riding any rides like this, and so priorto any ride, the line experience would be filled with questions like, “Is therea hill?” “Is it fast?” “How fast?” “Is the hill big?” “Is this scary?” It wouldgo on and on in an effort to find reassurance that he could conquer whateverride lie at the end of the line.
Well, somewhere along the way, Bash decided that I was his rollercoaster partner. If it was “big” and he had questions, then he was riding withme. Not at all panic inducing when his skinny little body leave a large gapbetween him and the lap bar. So, near the end of our Magic Kingdom day,we are preparing to ride Snow White’s Mine Train. We have gone throughthe litany of questions and he is nervous but ready. We get on and get goingand you can tell this is a little faster than he was expecting and the nerves arekicking, until…the ride slows and we start going through the dwarves’ mine.There are glittering jewels everywhere and animatronics of all the dwarvessinging and it’s all pretty amazing.
Now, earlier in the week, we had done a character dinner where Bashgot to meet Grumpy and Dopey, so in his brain, he has a very solid grasp onthese characters, he’s met them. They were at our hotel. They were atdinner. So when he sees them in their mine on this ride, he gasped, lookedat me and went, “I didn’t know the dwarves were going to be here!” I don’tremember how I responded, but he then asked, “But how did they get here?”And I said, “It’s magic, bud,” and in the cutest little awed voice he went, “Iget it…the Magic Kingdom.” It was like the perfect moment of the Disneyexperience. All the magic coalesced in that moment, because in his sevenyear old brain, it all made sense. Magic made this happen, and for me, hisresponse made my experience more magical. I had ridden that ride tons oftimes, but seeing it through his eyes, it made all the difference.
Our gospel today features one of my favorite scenes to imagineplaying out like it’s on a movie screen. Jesus has now told the disciplestwice what lies ahead in his future—arrest, death, resurrection. James, Peter,and John have experienced the Transfiguration and now they’re on their wayto the next town. You can envisage Jesus walking a little ahead of the groupand like a parent with a bunch of teenagers in tow, he can hear mumbledbickering in the background. Every time he turns back they all scuffle backin place, hands behind their backs, whistling like nothing happened, and thenonce they keep walking, the noise picks back up again. Now, this is Jesus soyou have to imagine he has an inkling about what is causing the ruckusbehind him, but he waits for the opportune moment to find out what exactlywas going on while they walked.
They arrive at their destination, sit down to rest, and Jesus justcasually throws out there, “Hey, what were you guys talking about while wewere walking here?” Imagine the panicked looks between them, the “oh, ohthat? It was nothing” responses. No one wants to fess up because theyknow that Jesus is going to be less than impressed with the answer. Theirconversation featured that age old back and forth of “I’m the best,” “No, I’mthe best.” With I’m sure a few, “Yeah, well Jesus took us up the mountains”thrown in for good measure. After Jesus has just told them that he ispreparing his heart and soul for death, they’re arguing about which of themis the greatest. If the dwarves whistle while they work, the disciples bickerwhile they walk apparently.
Now, thank goodness I am not Jesus, because my reaction to thiswould have been laced with sarcasm and eye rolls and very little teachingwould have happened, but of course, Jesus uses this as the perfect teachablemoment because apparently the disciples still don’t get it. Jesus takes all ofthere who’s better talk and turns it around. The question is not who is better,the question is how can you all serve one another? He does the whole firstshall be last thing, but you have to imagine that Jesus, in his head, is like,“They’re totally going to be like yeah, but which one of us is first?” So hedecides the only thing for this is a visual example. They’re clearly staying ata family’s house, and so he invites one of the kids from the family into theircircle. Now, of course, our modern sensibilities are like oh, a baby!! It’scute and cuddly and of course you want the kids involved. That is not whatis going on here.
In Jesus’ time, kids were…kind of useless and thus unworthy ofattention or notice. Until they were of an age to work the fields, help aroundthe house, bring something to the table for the family, kids wereunimportant. So, what Jesus is saying is, your calling isn’t about which ofyou is the most important, your calling is about taking the most forgotten,ignored, declared unworthy person in God’s kingdom and serving them,making them the most important. They are the greatest. The ones who areon the margins, who are lost, who are forgotten and written off as irrelevantand worthless, they are who you are called to serve. And not only that, butyou are called to see the kingdom through their eyes. They are the ones whocan teach you something about this world we’re trying to create. See thekingdom through the eyes of the lost, of the ignored, and then see what youthink of servanthood, humility, grace, and the love of God for all.
Now, I don’t think that most of us on a daily basis go through thethought process of the disciples, like, clearly I am God’s favorite, but I dothink that more often than we would care to admit we do have the thoughtof, well, certainly God loves me more than them, or well, I certainly knowmore than them when it comes to faith. We have our own brand of writingpeople off when it comes to their relationship with God either because of ourown egos or because of our own prejudices and biases. We know the peoplethat if Jesus placed them in the middle of our circle and said that here is theexample of faith and the kingdom for you to observe, to serve, and to learnfrom we would be like, Jesus, you’re crazy. I don’t need to enumerate thembecause they’re playing through each of our minds now. If Jesus came up toyou and said by welcoming them you welcome me, we would be like *deepsigh* we are in so much trouble.
We are only interested in serving as much as it keeps us in ourcomfort zones and we are certainly only interested in serving as much as itallows us to hold tight to our assumptions and thoughts about the world andour neighbors. Which honestly means that we’re mostly only interested inserving ourselves, our own needs, thoughts, and opinions. Yet…what weforget is something that disciples forgot so easily too. If they would havetaken a step back, they would have realized how many would have looked atthem and been like, really Jesus? A bunch of fishermen, a tax collector,some kids who are going to argue about who is better, that’s who you’regoing to call? Ok. They had had their own experience of being pulled fromthe margins and told they were worthy and then quickly forget about it oncethey started to feel important.
How many of us have felt that way? Like we were lost, forgotten,lonely, marginalized to the point that no one saw us. Maybe because of ourpasts, because of who we love, because of things we struggle with, there areany number of reasons why the world would tell us that we aren’t enough,and yet Jesus is the one who pulled us into the circle and said you arewelcome here, so why are we so resistant to doing that for others? Why dowe refuse to share that kind of joy with those we see struggling to find aplace within the kingdom? Why would refuse to see the world through theeyes of a child who is willing to see magic, wonder, and welcome at everyturn? Dare to see yourselves through the eyes of that kind of wonder,through the eyes of God who looks at you and says, there’s the one I willwelcome, and then dare to turn those eyes out into God’s world and give thesame kind of welcome to another. There is more than enough room at thetable and we are called to not let anyone linger on the outside, but towelcome them in so that they can say with awe and happiness, “I get itnow…God’s kingdom come…” AMEN!!!