18th Sunday after Pentecost – September 22, 2024

Mark 9:30-37

Miss Susan and I raised four children…and they are all wonderful adults…

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

So…here is what is happening:

Jesus and his disciples are on the road…and he starts talking some nonsense about how he will be betrayed and killed and raised from the dead and his disciples had no idea what that meant.
But they were too faint-hearted to ask…so instead…they just start trash talking with each other.

And then when they go inside Jesus just kind of stretched his arms out…yawned and said:

So… what were you guys arguing about on the road.
And they all totally freeze up…guilt stricken…
Since they were not exactly talking about how to care for the poor.
Or who might need some extra prayer.
They were talking about themselves…
And like insecure high school boys they were arguing about who was the greatest among them.
And then they were ashamed to tell the truth about that.

To which Jesus says: whoever wants to be great must be least.

So…he takes a small child and places that child among them.
And he takes the child into his arms and says: whoever welcomes such a child as this in his name welcomes him…and indeed…welcomes God.

But here is a caution.

Lest…when we hear this story…we picture a cute little well-dressed kid from an ad for the Gap.
We should consider how differently children were treated and perceived in Jesus’ day.
It is difficult to remember that the sentimentality we Westerners attach to childhood is a recent thing.
It really was not until the 18^th century that children were viewed as innocent and angelic.
These days our images of children come from Norman Rockwell paintings emblazoned in our minds.
But it was not like that in the first century.
In Jesus’ time…there was not a growing market for adorableness like there is today.

These children did not take bubble baths before being tucked into their Sesame Street bed sheets and read The Cat and The Hat.

There was no sentimentality about childhood because childhood was a time of terror.
Children in those days only had value as replacement adults.
Children were more like mongrel dogs than they were beloved members of a family.
Children died all the time.
Children were dirty and useless and often unwanted.
And to teach his disciples about greatness and hospitality…Jesus puts not a chubby-faced angel…
But this kind of child in the center.
Folds this kind of child into his arms and says…
When you welcome the likes of this child you welcome me.

That is a serious lesson in Christian welcome that Jesus is teaching us.

And we…like the disciples…should welcome the messy reality of having children among us as if we are welcoming God’s own self.
I often wonder if the distracting noise of children in worship is more pleasing to the ears of our Lord than even the most perfect choir anthem.

OK…here’s the thing:

What if the child is a stand-in for us…not a generic us…I mean us…here…in this place.
I started to wonder why it was…earlier in the story…that the disciples did not ask Jesus some simple clarifying questions.
Why were they having an argument about who was the greatest?
And why could they not admit to it later when he asked what they were talking about?
And that made me think about times when I had been too afraid to ask a question about something.
Feeling others would think it was a stupid question.
I thought about the times when I had been showoff-y like the disciples.
And the times when I was too ashamed to admit the truth about my smallness.

What I want to say is this:

I want to say that it is the parts of us that differ very little from 1^st century children which are welcomed into the arms of our loving savior.
The parts of us that are like a useless child who has dried mucus wiped across his unwashed face.
A child who cannot understand Jesus’ teaching at all.
A child who has nothing to offer.
Who no one else wants around.
Who no one else even notices is there.
A child who has zero ability to make himself worthy.
These are the very parts of us that Jesus folds into his arms and says…welcome.

Jesus folds us into his loving arms…that which is messy and worthless and unable to help itself…and God says “welcome”.