Sep 23 2024 13 mins
Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
I’m so glad to be with you, to have this opportunity to serve Christ alongside you, the congregation of St. Michael’s, for a season. I look forward to getting to know each one of you. And I’m grateful that we are celebrating the season of Creation here at St. Michael’s.
Creation, by its very existence, is blessed by God and is a blessing to us.
And as we move through this season/time, we remember ourselves as a part of creation, rather than it being here to serve our needs. In this we find our belovedness as a part of the whole.
A creation-centered tradition I learned about recently comes out of the nations that lived in ancient Americas. It is a way of communal decision making – called the Children’s Fire. As the community gathers for decision making, they kindle, at the center of their circle, the center of their gathering, a Children’s Fire.
This fire is a pledge. A promise made by them to themselves that no law, no action shall be allowed that will harm the children’s future. So as all the chiefs, the powerful people of their nations – people of all genders – gather to make decisions, the Children’s Fire is their first priority.
The pledge they make is a pledge to life itself. So that life itself can continue past our own short stay here on this planet, we cannot place ourselves in the center of the circle. We must allow life – the future of all life – to be at the center of the circle.
It’s a humbling of human intellect and skill. A reigning-in of our power and of technology. And a recognition of our vital responsibility to be stewards and servants.
In our Gospel message today, we see this same effort at refocusing come from our teacher, our savior, Jesus. The one who saves us from ourselves. And our own short-sightedness.
In the Gospel, Jesus has been traveling with his disciples to Capernaum and when they arrive at their destination, Jesus asks, “What were you all arguing about?” But they didn’t answer.
I think we can conjecture that Jesus already knew the subject of their discussion and was just trying to get them to admit their behavior. Because he called them together and sat them down. And said:
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” And he picked up a child. And in the middle of their gathering, he held this child so that all could see. And he said: “Whoever welcomes one such child, welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.”
The one who sent Jesus – God. The creator. The father and mother of all. The one who welcomes this child, who cares for this child, who serves the welfare and the future of this child, is the one who welcomes God.
Children being the ones in any society with absolutely no rights, no personhood, and no way of advocating for themselves. They are the most vulnerable. So they are the easiest to forget.
And in this act of Jesus’, he demonstrates that God’s blessing does not come through worldly power or an easy life of privilege. Having it all together is not a sign that we have been blessed by God – a concept that echoes the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke. Both filled with similar seemingly paradoxical statements as this message in today’s Gospel. What is Jesus doing in this passage? Why is he making this point?
I know that inside of me, there is a part of myself that wants to believe that if God loves me, then God will bless me. And, if I’m struggling, if I am among “the least of these,” then I’ve done something to deserve it. Perhaps you have this part too.
What I know, is that this is the part of us that doesn’t believe we deserve God’s love simply because we breathe. Simply because we are. This is the part that doesn’t believe we don’t have to earn love. This is the part that doesn’t believe that love is always there waiting for us to recognize it.
So it may sound like Jesus is judging the disciples, because this is also the part that is already judging us. But really, I think Jesus is just trying to get us to refocus. Because… wealth, prestige, power… all of it. This is not God’s blessing.
These are the rewards of playing the world’s game well. The game that makes us believe that the one with all the toys at the end wins.
God’s blessing comes as we let go of our need for and attachment to all of that. God’s blessing comes through the thriving of life. The uplifting of others. The placing of the Children’s Fire at the center of our decisions.
This is the paradox, the reversal that Jesus is trying to explain to his students. And it’s connected directly to last week’s Gospel question: “Who do you say that I am?” Which is to say, who do we think we are following?
Because it’s clear the disciples want a powerful messiah who will be contemptable on behalf of their own interests so that they can wage war against the powers that be. But this is not who Jesus is. This is not the salvation Jesus offers.
The salvation Jesus offers is the reversal of our need for power. And Jesus offers this here because the disciples had just been arguing about who was the greatest. They were arguing about power and skill and intellect.
And Jesus says, in this pronouncement, it’s not like you think it is. (paraphrasing…) I’m teaching you about the God of Life. The God who is Love. And God does not care about power and skill and intellect if it’s used for profit or promotion or other short-sighted, self-focused efforts. God wants us to use our gifts to care about life itself.
So, whoever wants to be first, must be last of all and servant of all.
And whoever welcomes this child as a servant of this child, is one who welcomes God. To me, it sounds a lot like the wisdom of those who lived in the ancient Americas.
What would it look like if we made the Children’s Fire the center of our decision making? What would it look like if we honored life itself and made our decisions based on how all life may thrive – especially those who come after us?
I recognize this isn’t easy most of the time. We live in a society that is about power-over-others, and we learn quickly that we need to advocate for ourselves before we are mown over.
But I think the disciples were facing a similar situation. Oppressed by the Roman Empire for nearly a century. Oppressed by their own religious hierarchy after centuries of power-mongering and war led by their political leaders. People having to make sure they got their own needs taken care of because they were in survival mode.
And sometimes I think that it’s inevitable, that this is just humanity and the Gospel is a pipedream. And then I read about how the peoples of the ancient Americas created the Children’s Fire, the center of collective decision making. And I wonder if it’s possible to start where we are to make changes where we can.
We may not have much access to the places of wealth, power, or privilege where decisions are made. Or maybe we do. But we do make decisions for ourselves. And we do have influence in our circles of family and friends.
Now, I don’t know you good people of St. Michael’s yet so I don’t know the kinds of ways you have influence on the systems and structures in your lives. So, if you will, take a moment now and consider where are those places for you? The organizations of which we are a member in some way. The businesses – both the ones we lead and the ones we support by being consumers. The non-profits. And, of course, here at St. Michael’s.
How many decisions we make are made on behalf of those who will come after us? On behalf of life itself? And how many are based solely on our own immediate need? And what is the right balance?
As Christians, we don’t exactly have a Children’s Fire. We have Jesus the Christ. The incarnate love that connects us one to another across time and space. The one who teaches us how to listen to the voice of the God of Life and we re-center ourselves around Christ.
Because Jesus is telling us here that this is about paying attention to the most vulnerable and making all our decisions as if they were at the center. This is the only way we will de-center power and privilege and wealth.
To de-center ourselves, even, and make our decisions as if we are a part of the lives of those around us, and for the lives of those who will come after us. Because we are a part of those lives. We are already and always a part of that community.
Our hope is not in ourselves alone. Our hope is and always will be in Christ and the interconnectedness of all life. Our hope is in those who come after us. And so, their hope, right now, is in us. In the decisions we make today.
Our true blessing then, is in learning how to serve the most vulnerable among us. Because Jesus tells us: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
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