The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost --- 20 September 2015

Mark 9:30-37

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. 33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

"Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

·        We have heard this saying for our entire lives. We know it applies to Jesus Christ and we’ve been told it applies to the leadership of the Church right across the board. “Whoever want to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” No doubt that was part of the criteria for choosing pastors. In some circles, people speak of pastors and others having a “servant heart.” (I really wish I knew what that meant.)

·        Are servants those who pick up after everybody else? Maybe, but I’ve been told that that would be someone called “Mother.” Is a servant someone who does things without expectation of notice or reward? Most people in service positions have every right to expect payment for their service and in many cases, even a tip for superior service.

·        In this case, servanthood has to do with accepting the same role as Jesus Christ, who said he came to serve and not to be served. To serve as Christ did means to become Christ-like, to become a “little Christ” as it were. Not a replacement or a substitute, but one who works and does things in the name of another or with another’s authority.

·        What would it mean to serve in this way? It can be sacrificial in many ways, for Jesus sacrificed much to serve his Father’s will and to serve those who followed him. Many of us here know what sacrifice is and what it entails.

·        It would often mean leaving ourselves and our personal desires behind. The Gospels call this “denying the self.” It means more than giving up candy or an occasional TV show, a lot more.

·        But what if someone doesn’t want to be first? What if they want to be part of the faceless pack and go unnoticed? There may be people like that.

·        I don’t think that Jesus was speaking about those people. I don’t think that there are such people. To live a life without interference from others or without reference to others might be the highest form of self-aggrandizement possible. The poet, John Donne said that no man is an island. To think otherwise is a fantasy or a sickness. In truth, we all want to be first and that might be the original sin… making ourselves a god.

·        Jesus was speaking in response to the discussion of the disciples who were arguing over who was the greatest, another sickness stemming from the original sin. The remedy for this is becoming last rather than first and becoming the servant of all.

·        Any desire to become like Christ asks us to serve and that servanthood can take on many forms.

·        It can be leadership, a form of servanthood that has its own set of problems. A leader can be a servant, depending on the attitude the person brings to the role. It is important for such a leader to put on the mind of Christ and leave themselves behind, a task that is never easy at the best of times.

·        It can be stewardship, which means to take care of something left in a person’s care rather than something owned. Each of us is a steward – of the Good News of grace, of our bodies, of our families, of each other.

·        It can be evangelization, which is serving the Good News by teaching others. This is the role of the Church, the entire Church. It cannot be delegated to the pastors and church teachers. Every parent is a servant of the Word in teaching their own children about the faith.

·        It can be a desire for justice, where any of us can serve both God and our neighbors in working for what is best for all.

·        It can be servanthood in caring for the least of all – the sick, the troubled, the lost, the homeless, or those in mourning. This list can go on and on. Whether we do this as a profession or as the act of a friend, it is servanthood.

·        Servanthood takes the last place without a desire to become first. That would be a prideful act, like cartoon character who declares that he will be the “best” at being the least.

·        All this talk of humility and making oneself the last can sound depressing. Many take it as a devaluation of the person. However, running yourself down is not true humility. True humility is to be exactly who and what you are, to be what God made you, no more and no less. This includes the acceptance of one’s own sinfulness as well as the acceptance that each of us is dear to God and has been redeemed at great cost by Jesus.

·        Do we want to be first or last? Do we want to be leader or servant? Does it matter? Servant leadership is a particular call from God while servanthood is part and parcel of all discipleship. The first place is held by Jesus, of course, who served all and fulfilled the Father’s will for the good of all.

·        Leadership and servanthood… it’s all grace. As Jesus told his disciples about welcoming a little child, it is not so much what a little one can do for you, but that in welcoming the small and the least, the hurting and the lost, you welcome him. It’s how we live out the grace that we have been given.

·        First or last, we are the Lord’s.  Note how Jesus does not use the terms “greatest” or “master” when talking to his disciples, using the terms “first” and “last” instead.

·        Think about it; who is the greatest? Who is the master? None of us… but Christ and Christ alone. There is the beginning of humility and servanthood, for the greatest humility is seen in this: The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again. In this is our hope and our salvation.

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost ----- 13 September 2015

Mark 8:27-38

27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" 28 And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29 He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."

·        Jesus doesn’t appear to be impressed with the guesses that people are making about him and who he is. John the Baptist… Elijah… one of the other prophets… All of these people are very important in the history of the people of Israel.

·        John the Baptist was a contemporary of Jesus and caused quite a stir through his preaching and ministry. Many people thought he might be the Messiah, and John went to great lengths to set them straight. He said he was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”, someone unworthy to untie the sandal of the one who would follow.

·        Elijah was the greatest of the prophets of the early history of Israel. He faced a lot of opposition for his dedication to the one God of Israel. He was said to have never died, but was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, leaving his follower Elisha to carry on the prophetic ministry with “a double portion of his spirit.” It was believed that Elijah would return to herald the Messiah.

·        The other prophets all held a special place in the mind and spirit of the people. Prophets were quite important to the people of Israel. At one time, they were the leaders of the nation, chosen by God. As always, they told the people of the will of God then and there, rather than focusing on coming events in the way many of us understand prophecy today.

·        All in all, Jesus seems more interested in who his disciple say he is. Peter steps up and calls him the Messiah. Jesus then tells them not to speak of this to anyone. He goes on to tell them of his specific way of being the Messiah which Peter does not agree with at all.

·        Remember, for the Jewish people of the time, the Messiah was a kingly figure who would raise the nation up to a leading place in the world. He was understood to be a political-military leader who would lead the people of Israel – the Righteous among sinners – to a role of example and world leadership. There would be peace and the Messiah would be in control.

·        It appears that Jesus did not want to follow this script. He speaks of a suffering Messiah - rejected, troubled, murdered, and resurrected. This is not what was expected and Peter steps up again and says so.

·        So Jesus teaches the unexpected: He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

·        This lesson is ours today. In our own day and time, Jesus continues to be “not who you expect.”

·        We have Son of God who lays it all aside and comes into the world as a helpless baby.

·        We have a teacher of wisdom who expects to be misunderstood and misinterpreted.

·        We have a king who proclaims a kingdom “not of this world.”

·        We have a teacher of righteousness who turned conventional morality on its head and spent his time with cheats, prostitutes, scoff-laws, paupers, and the folks that “good” people deemed worthless and sinful.

·        We have an innocent saviour who suffers a most humiliating death, the death of a criminal and a traitor.

·        We have a person who to this very day asks the question of each of us: “But who do you say that I am?”

·        In our own day, he is called a teacher of morality, a naive pacifist, an advocate of Socialism, a strict and unforgiving judge, and even a myth or a fairy tale, a person who never existed. That is who some people say Jesus is.

·        But who do we as disciples say he is?

·        Disciples of course take a different view as compared to the average person. A disciple is a follower of a mentor or a teacher, one who has taken on the discipline of that teacher. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we accept what the Bible tells us about him, namely that he is, as the opening of the Gospel of Mark says, the Son of God. With that in mind then, it is our place to act as a disciple of the Son of God might act, to put the teachings of our teacher into action.

·        He came among us as a helpless child, so we are called to help the helpless and act justly on their behalf.

·        His teachings were misunderstood and misinterpreted, as they are to this day. We are called to teach constantly, in word and work, about the love of God that motivated all that Jesus did.

·        He remains particularly concerned for the poor, the outcast, the unworthy, the sinful, even though many who claim to be his disciples are powerful and in high places.

·        He died on the cross for the sin of the world and in opposition to oppression. We are called to take up our own cross and to lose our own life for his sake and for the sake of the Gospel. This goes beyond accepting the suffering that any person might undergo. As good as that might be, this refers to taking up our cross for Jesus’s sake and for the sake of the Good News, because we are disciples of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:19b-20)

·        Ultimately, we need to answer that question – Who do you say that I am? – one way or another. The most difficult way to answer the question and possible the most real answer we can give is to answer the question with our lives and how we attempt to live them.

·        I say attempt because we will all fall short of what we’d like to be and do. But even in that, we lose our lives and take up our cross by returning over and over again to the power of Jesus’ cross and the forgiveness found there, remembering that is on grace and God’s free gift of salvation that we depend. If we lose our life, it is found in Christ, and if we take up our cross, it joins us to Christ all the more.

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost --- 6 September 2015

Mark 7:24-37

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter." 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. 31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice

·        It sounds like Jesus was tired, both physically tired and tired of the notoriety his ministry brought him. Mark has said elsewhere that so many people were coming and going around Jesus that there was no time to eat.

·        We might say that this weariness was the reason that Jesus was so short with the Syrophoenician woman who came seeking a healing for her possessed daughter. It would also be unusual for a woman to approach someone like Jesus with no invitation and without a man as her protector.

·        We could say that Jesus was acting out of the presumptions of his culture, a culture that down-played the worth and value of Gentiles, even to the point of calling them “dogs.” In our culture, dogs are valued to some extent, but in the Judean culture Jesus was raised in, the animal was not valued and to be called a dog was a true insult.

·        There are those who have said that Jesus was testing the woman, seeing how much she really wanted the release of her daughter from the grip of the unclean spirit. The exchange that follows Jesus’ insult to the woman might then take on a colour of a witty exchange between two thinking people.

·        Truth to tell, we don’t know what really was going through Jesus’ head in meeting this worried mother. Yes, she approached Jesus while he was trying to keep a low profile. Yes, she was a Gentile and not part of the people of Israel. And yes, she took the spoken slap and turned it around with a really good example of verbal Judo.

·        What we do know is that Jesus responded in a rather positive way, telling her "For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter."

·        As Jesus moves on, through an area where he might still be less known, a deaf man is brought to him for healing. Jesus does heal him, but he does it away out of sight and ear-shot of the crowd. He also does it using the accepted healing procedures of the day – spitting, touching the ears and tongue, groaning and sighing, and saying “Be opened!” Others who claimed to be healing might do the same thing, but with Jesus, it worked and the deaf man could hear and could speak plainly.

·        So do we chalk another healing up to Jesus? Or is there more going on here?

·        Look at who Jesus works with. The Syrophoenician woman is a woman, a Gentile, and a rather bold person in asking for a release from evil for her daughter. Jesus originally said that his ministry was to the people of Israel: "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." The woman continues to ask… and receives what she asks for.

·        The deaf man cannot speak for himself. The story implies that he cannot speak at all. Jesus takes and heals him. Of course, Jesus tells them to keep quiet about all this, but the crowd tells it anyway, the usual response to Jesus’ admonition to quiet in Mark’s Gospel.

·        The two cases are similar. Both people are outcasts – the Gentile woman and the handicapped man. Both are without hope and are in great need in a society that didn’t take well to those in need. In fact, the religious people of the day would ask what sin had been committed to bring on such need and suffering.

·        Did Jesus repent and get beyond some sort of prejudice against Gentiles? Was he slyly testing the woman? We’ll never know and that is not the point of the story. The point of the story involves the beginning of a wider ministry to the world beyond the people of Israel for Jesus. Once again, Jesus’ compassion and care is given to those outside the expected circle of God.

·        Let’s face it; if Jesus did not minister to Gentiles and reserved his preaching, teaching, and healing to the people of Israel only, would any of us be here? Would any of us be disciple of Jesus?

·        Jesus’ care and love is not limited to only certain groups. Nor is his care and love limited to those who have “accepted” him, who have lived according to any number of rules, or who have somehow “earned” his love. It seems that the Gentiles, the poor, the suffering, all those who are left out are actually receiving special and particular care. This is a specific sign that the Kingdom of God was working its way into the world as people knew the world. That holds true for us today.

·        This was Jesus’ mission as it developed during his ministry. He did come to bring the Good News to the people of Israel. He did come to fulfill all the promised the Father had made to the people of Israel through the patriarchs and prophets.

·        He did come to extend those promises and the presence of the Kingdom of God to all people, even as the prophets had said God would.

·        To all who have been left out, who have been made less, who have suffered loss and pain, who have been oppressed and laid low, the healing brought by Jesus is given. We have known this and it is then our mission to proclaim this to one another and to the entire world. Not my mission alone, but OUR mission.

·        I want to leave you with a quote from Martin Luther who saw this as his mission as well: God is the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted, the oppressed, the desperate, and those who have been brought to nothing.

·        Whether we wish to acknowledge this or not, that is who we are… and for us and for all in need, God is there.