Proper 20B Sept. 23,
2012
Proverbs
31:10-31; Psalm 1
James
3:13-4:6
Mark 9:30-37
There are a lot of myths about children: that they are
helpless, self-centered, vulnerable, always happy, supremely innocent. There’s
also that pop psychology talk about how we adults must get back to our
"inner child."
The other side of the child myth is that they are violent,
uncontrollable and incapable of moral reasoning – and must be tried and
incarcerated as adults.
Myths like these are popular for good reason. There is some
truth in them: children are dependent on adults for health and well-being, and
many adults do carry with them the scars of a childhood damaged or robbed by
cruel circumstance. Children do fly into violent rages and they often do not
understand the consequences of their actions. But myths also can cloud reality,
helping us see more of what we want to see that what really may be there.
I think that is part of the point Jesus is trying to make in
the gospel. He tells the disciples -- again -- that he will suffer and die and
-- again -- they deny it. They don't understand, Mark tells us, and they are
afraid to ask Jesus what he means. But they must have been thinking about it
somewhat, because they got into a conversation about who was the greatest.
Jesus sits them down to teach them (and us!) a lesson: “Whoever wants to be
first must be last of all and servant of all." (Not what the quarrelling
disciples want to hear.) And then he takes a child in his arms: "Whoever welcomes
one such child in my name, welcomes me."
What is the importance of the child in what Jesus is trying
to teach his friends?
In Jesus’ day, children were at the bottom of the bottom.
They had no status or privilege, even within the family. For Jesus to use them
as an example of what it means to follow Jesus, to follow the way of the cross,
is to say that to be a disciple means to be as powerless and socially
unimportant as a child. Rather than squabbling over who would be the greatest
in the new realm of God, the disciples should model themselves on those who are
powerless and insignificant. Jesus is deliberately shocking them.
What shocks us today by the example of a child? What is it
about children today that might similarly shock and wake us up to what it means
to follow Jesus?
Children don’t have a lot of control over what happens to
them. Other people make their decisions and they are vulnerable to the wisdom
or foolishness of the adults who care for them. If Jesus were using a child as
an example for us, today, of discipleship, the shocking lesson for us might be
that we have to give up control over the future, over what happens to us, that
we would have to let go.
Wanting to control the future – to control God’s plans -- is
part of the disciples' denial of Jesus' statements on suffering and death. They
don't want to hear him say, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human
hands." Who would want to hear that? I would not, but by denying it, out
of fear or lack of understanding, I, too, would be betraying Jesus, for my
denial would reveal that I would rather that God follow my plan for Jesus --
that we all live happily and not too controversially ever after -- than I would
follow God's plan, which leaves far too much open to chance and danger.
When God became human in the person of Jesus, he opened
himself to a world of chance and change, of arbitrariness and unpredictability,
to a world filled with danger, grief, sorrow, loss and, inevitably, suffering
and death. Into this world God has poured hope. If we deny the suffering and
death, Jesus tells his disciples, we lose the chance of experiencing the hope.
Yet if we approach the world with the powerlessness of a child, we can live in
that new reality, in that community of equals, where in our powerlessness we can
know the true power of God.
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