September 24, 2000

Mark is the shortest of the Gospels so he doesn't have all that many descriptive phrases. As a result, he is very blunt. He can't work around things; he just goes straight to the heart of the matter. Today we pick with the disciples as they are moving toward Jerusalem. Jesus has left the crowds behind to take the twelve aside so he can teach them something, and he says to them, "We are going to Jerusalem. I am going to be killed, but don't worry. Three days later, I will be alive again."

They don't understand it. They never do. Mark always leaves us with the idea that they probably realize they don't get it because they are afraid to ask him what he meant. They knew there had to be a simple answer because it was always a simple answer when Jesus explained things to them. Then they would say, — "Oh, why didn't we think of that?"

So instead, they hang back from him a little bit on the trek, not to give him peace and quiet, but so they can argue about who is the favorite — "I'm better than you are." "I'm the one who is going to the left, and my brother will be on the right hand when Jesus gets to Jerusalem and overthrows the monarchy and takes himself as the king." They don't get it. They don't understand. They are afraid to ask and they argue over who is more important than whom.

What a waste of time, the same waste of time we get into over and over again. Jesus speaks to them and he speaks to us the same words — "If you are going to be great, you must be the least. If you are going to rule, you must be a servant." Well that doesn't fit into our style of thinking very well, does it? If we ask for a hero, some of us will immediately think of a statesman. If we ask for a hero, others of us will think of a great military leader. Others of us will think of a professor who opened up some new piece of knowledge in a profound way. Still others of us will think of the chief officer of some dot.com company who has really made it in the world, or some other corporation that has provided goods and services to millions. Others of us will think of some athlete.

Rarely, do we consider the ones Jesus speaks of, the ones who are the servants among us, the ones who go about quietly in their duties, those who lift each other up in prayers, lift all of us up in prayer quietly and behind the scenes. Few of us think of teachers, whether in our school or any other school, teachers who could probably make a lot more money out there doing something else, but whose task is so valuable to society, and knowing it's valuable are willing to work for a lot less money to raise our children intellectually, to give them hope for the future and the tools with which to greet the future.

Few of us will think of our sextons who keep this place clean and our grounds looking good so that we can have a comfortable, clean place to be. But our particular maintenance men, all three of them, are members of the same church. They are all devoted to the Lord, and each one is willing to give up one Sunday out of three to be here making sure things are in readiness for us. If you ever engage them in conversation, don't ask them about how they are keeping the cobwebs out of the building. Instead, ask them how their souls are and they will eloquently explain to you just how Christ has entered their lives.

How many of us think of our house servants and our yard people as ones who are the messengers of Christ in our lives? How many of us think of the clerks in the stores as people of worth and dignity? Rarely, do we consider the people who prepare and serve our meals in restaurants. I have to tell the story of another priest who worked in the Diocese of Arizona. We were having lunch one day in a restaurant called The Midtown Cafe. I went there because my son was their chief waiter. This other priest did not even look up as my son was taking our order — just sort of held the menu up in front of her as she read from it. Then I said, "By the way, have you met my son? He is standing right here. This is my son." You should have seen the other priest! I thought, "If the earth opens up she'll surely fall to the center of it in her embarrassment!"

How many of us look at the faces of the people who greet us on the street and who care so very much for us at mealtimes, or in the shops? And yet, Jesus says if you are going to be a leader, you must first be a servant. The examples of that are all around us. Jesus said, "If you are going to be great, you must be the least. You must think of others first, if you are going to be great in the world."

And then, Jesus takes a little child, places that child in the midst of the gathering and says, "Unless you welcome the child, this child and the child in you, unless you approach the world as a child does, you will never ever see the Kingdom of God. But, if you approach the world as a child does, then you will not only welcome me, but you will welcome him who sent me." Children are so trusting. Everything is for exploration. Everything is new, every day. Those of us who have raised small children know what it's like. Remember child-proofing your house? You thought you did, until the little toddler discovers the one door you forgot, or finds the one piece of porcelain not quite out of reach. We clean our houses for our children and they find that cricket under the sofa, don't they? Or they find that scrap of old food under the dining room table where we thought we had swept just this morning. And what do they do? — They taste it all!

A child explores everything. Everything is a new adventure. Jesus says for us to approach the world as an adventure. Approach the world through fresh eyes. Discover something. Don't look at things as trash; look at them as things you can learn and experience anew. What a tough thing that is for most of us who have been trained to know better (much to our detriment, I think).

The Gospel today, as simple as it is, and as brief as it is, raises a number of very difficult issues that we live with on a daily basis. One is to remember to honor the servants of God and the servants of man. Honoring these people is not an either/or proposition; it is a both/and proposition. We are to honor those who serve God and we are also to honor those, who in God's name, serve each other — whether that person is the President of the United States; whether that person is a sergeant in the Army; whether that person is on the Altar Guild; whether that person is the waiter, the server in the restaurant, or the attendant on the airplane.

We are also told another very difficult thing today by Jesus. He says that leadership is not so much about governments, about being in charge and issuing orders, as it is about seeking the greatest good for the greatest number. There is something in our own national psyche that demands that, and yet, so often we forget when we get into positions of authority and power that our purpose is not to gain personal power, but to serve the nation, the state, the community, the organizations we belong to and whose lives we share.

We are reminded by Jesus, as he places the child in front of us, that innocence is not so much about naivete — that it's not what he is calling us to. He is calling us to innocence, the kind of innocence that seeks Christ in all persons as we will again pledge ourselves to in a few moments. The kind of innocence that enables us to honor the dignity of every human being, another commitment that we will reiterate in a few moments during baptism. Being innocent is to approach each person around us as a child of God and to look for Christ in that life.

In that regard, James does provide us a benchmark in his letter today. "The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruit without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy, and a harvest of righteousness is sewn in peace for those who make peace." We can all do that in whatever calling God has brought us to, whatever profession we have entered in the name of Christ. We can make peace if we approach the world as God approaches the world — as his beloved children.

So, good old Mark and in the midst of all that stuff from wisdom, and in the midst of that fairly hard psalm, and in the midst of that difficult gospel and very difficult epistle, we find these words of hope — we find this challenge to lift our souls and our hearts to God. We will always do well when we consider our relationships, when we consider our actions. We will always do well to think on today's gospel and to remember this admonition of James in his letter. AMEN

The Rev. Dr. Robert Certain
rgcertain@stmargarets.org
24 September 2000