Mark 9: 33-37 Growing in Faith - Learning What?s the Main Thing         E/DC/GR            Sept. 24, 2006

1.      Three children are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers and mothers. The first child says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50." The second child says, "That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, and they give him $100."  The third child says, "I got you both beat. My Mom scribbles a few words on a piece of paper.  She calls it a sermon. And it takes eight people to collect all the money!"

2.      ?My family?s better than yours.  I?m more important than you.  Me first.?  Common human games, and Jesus? disciples got caught in today?s story.  You know that sinking feeling when you?re saying something you don?t want someone to hear, and suddenly they walk in and ask, ?What were you talking about??  Big time sinking feeling.  They?d been arguing about who was the greatest as a follower of Jesus.  They?ve missed the main thing Jesus has been teaching.  Leonard Sweet, a teacher of ministers has a powerful statement about our faith journey.  ?The main thing is to keep the main thing about the main thing.?  So what?s the main thing? 

3.      The disciples have left everything to follow Jesus.  One might think he was the main thing for them.  But when they were quarreling about who would be first and best, Jesus is very clear they?ve missed the main thing about him.  ?Whoever would be first must be last of all and servant of all.?  Then he took a child in his arms, and said, ?Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.?  If the disciples would make Jesus their main thing, then servanthood is the main thing. 

4.      As the people gathered here, who say we follow the Christ, how do we make servanthood our main thing?  Martin Luther King, Jr., said of this story.  ?There?s your new definition of greatness?It means that everybody can be great.  Because everybody can serve.  You don?t have to have a college degree to serve?You don?t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in Physics to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace [forgiveness and generosity].  A soul generated by love.  And you can be that servant.?[i]  It means at very least we don?t wait for it to be our turn.  We don?t wait for the other to go half way.  Or any part of the way.  We serve in our church and our community, because that is who we are.  It is the main thing we do.

5.      Another piece of this teaching includes welcoming even one child.  In the Roman world that Mark was writing for, it would have been very startling.  Certainly families loved their children, but children were not honoured as pupils or citizens.  There would have been no recognition as we did last week that we learn from children as well as teach.  So for them to have the place of honour, to say that when we welcome a child, we welcome the Christ, and the Holy One who sent him, would have been quite shocking.

6.      We live in a society that values children, and honours their rights as well as their parents.  Some might say our society has in places moved too far in the pendulum swing to care for the needs of children, and failed to set the needed limits.  Many of the children we know are loved and cherished, and given every opportunity.  But what of those who are not?  What is our responsibility to them?

7.      I was reminded of a poem by Ann Weems, ?The Greenless Child?[ii]

I watched her go uncelebrated into the second grade,

A greenless child,

Gray among the orange and yellow,

Attached too much to corners and to other people?s sunshine.

She colors the rainbow brown

And leaves balloons unopened in their packages.

Oh who will touch this greenless child?

Who will plant alleluias in her heart?

And send her dancing into all the colors of God?

Or will she be left like an unwrapped package on the kitchen table-

Too dull for anyone to take the trouble?

Does God think we?re her keeper?

8.      Does God think we?re her keeper?  Yes.  And not just that child, or even all the world?s children.  Jesus brings all those who are silenced, vulnerable and on the edges to the center.  Who in this community can we welcome in a different way?

9.      Who can we reach out to?  You probably heard, as I did last week and this, people trying to make meaning of the tragedy at Dawson College in Montreal.  What could lead a young man to such willful, painful destruction?  And for everyone who had a theory, there was a voice to negate that theory.  Or say you can?t blame it all on?.whatever.  Very true.  Blaming is a useless waste of time.  But looking for root causes, working to change them, that seems like a good use of our time.  With the emphasis on the plural.  Causes.  We can see so many things that went wrong for that young man.  So we work on all of the causes, all the ones we are able.  One thing I was struck by.  It kept coming back to how alone he was.  One woman who works with young people, begged for us to reach out to those who are alone in our communities.  It?s not like we think they are all going to go on a rampage.  But they are suffering.  They need to know someone cares, someone will help.  Our children may be fortunate enough to have families that let them know they are special, loved, valued.  That doesn?t make them or us superior.  Get to the end of the line on that one too, Jesus says!  And step up to serve those who don?t have that same gift.

10.  Of course there is a caution.  We could pour ourselves out serving and wear ourselves out.  Balance is the key.  We have a great formula for that balance.  The greatest commandment.  Love God, self and neighbour.  Balance through spending time with God to renew.  Time for ourselves so we have something to give.  And of course the balance of others ? family, friends, those on the edges.  But there?s another gift when we reach out in servanthood, isn?t there?   It?s not why we do it; it?s a blessing that comes.  There?s a young woman and her family that my friend has befriended over the years.  She?s a challenge to walk with.  She?s a single mom of 3 boys 7-19.  My friend?s daughter is one year younger, and has a 2-year-old son.  When life gets busy, it?s easy to let the phone calls and visits slip by.  This week my friend finally went for coffee.  This young woman, an abuse survivor, is working 2 jobs to stay off welfare, and provide for her family.  She invited her visitor into the living room to use the dining room table, as her kitchen table is gone.  Her neighbour didn?t have one.  ?You don?t need two,? said the younger woman.  Another friend had given her a couple of tablecloths as she had two she didn?t need.  They laughed together, and shared their lives.  They were both renewed.

11.  The main thing.  Keeping Jesus in the center, and watching who he draws in.  The children, the weak, the vulnerable.  And we keep Jesus our main thing, by living our lives with a heart full of gratitude, and a life that is generated by our God whose very name is love.  We empty ourselves, as did the Christ, of both pride and low self-worth, so there is only room for the love that enables us to serve with joy!