| July 22, 2001 | Bruce Miller | |
| Proverbs 31:10-31, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37 | Greatness |
Every two years we have the opportunity of watching either the summer or winter Olympics. During this two-week period the whole world is watching. I suspect that includes most of you. There is something special about the Olympics. We are drawn to these quadrennial competitions between greatest athletes in the world. We love the drama and excitement of a gold medal and our national anthem being played as the flag is raised. If you are an athlete, it doesn't get any better than that.
BUT AS A CHILD OF GOD WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Do you notice how whatever television station is carrying the events that they are more interested in telling a story than in showing the competition. That they carefully edit and script the show we see. You can usually guess who is going to win an event even before it starts. It is not hard to figure out. Just before the competition, they always show a personal biography of the eventual champion.
During these up close and personal moments, you find out how the featured athlete started swimming when they were six months old and have spent ten hours a day in the pool every since. You see the incredible sacrifices they have made and the hard work that has led to their success. You meet their families and learn of their encouraging love and support and the sacrifices they have made. And then the network finally broadcasts the actual athletic event. Surprise, surprise! The person you just met up close and personal is the winner.
In a sense, these biographical moments chronology the secular path to success. They show us how to be a champion. They take us down the trail to greatness. The creators of these shows know that is something everyone wants to hear. We live in a culture that idolizes individual human achievement. We love glitter, glamor, and gold. Just about everyone wants to make a lot of money and move up the professional ladder.
BUT THE QUESTION REMAINS - HOW IS IT WITH YOUR SOUL?
How many books or magazines do you see whose topics are focused on Power, Money, Fame, Sex: You could almost say they are all Users Guides. They promise to tell you what magazines should adorn your coffee table, and how you should push yourself ahead in your profession. It promises clear explanations with illustrations, tips, and quizzes, ready to use Monday morning. It is nothing less than a guidebook down the secular path to greatness.
Even preachers care about this kind of greatness. There are denominations that report annually church's vital statistics to the annual conferences. These facts and figures are published as a volume as part of the Conference Journal. It is one of the most carefully read publications preachers receive each year. For in that volume, you can find printed the salaries paid to every pastor in the conference. You can find out how large their churches are and how many attend worship on Sunday morning. Preachers are no different than you and me, they want to win the corporate ladder race too.
I say that realizing that sometimes the opposite appears to be true. Sometimes a simple, humble servant to the Lord Jesus Christ like Mother Teresa achieves world recognition. She even won the Nobel Peace Prize. But our real secular values came out loud and clear at her death. Mother Teresa died September 5, 1997. That was five days after Princes Diana was killed in a high-speed car accident. You know where the media spotlight turned. It wasn't on Mother Teresa. The world was obsessed with the funeral and burial of Princes Diana, but it virtually ignored the passing of the saint of Calcutta.
If you want to be great in the eyes of the world, the path is still clear -- Make lots of money, or marry rich, or have a rich boy or girl friend. If you want to be great, work hard, swim lots of laps or work out on the parallel bars, until you are the best at your sport in the whole world. If you want to be great, just beat all the competition and always come in first. That is the image of greatness that lies behind today's Gospel lesson.
Jesus and his disciples are on the road and our Lord overhears a conversation between two of his disciples. They are arguing about which one will be the greatest in the Kingdom of God and which one will sit on Jesus' right and which one on his left. Have you ever had the experience of being in a crowd and saying something you should not have been repeating? There is noise all around you and you think the only one who can hear is the person closest to you. But then at precisely the wrong moment as you deliver the punch line the whole room is suddenly quiet. The sound of your voice goes everywhere.
I think it was in that kind of moment that Jesus heard the disciples talking on the road. He wasn't supposed to hear. Their words were not meant for him, but the word got through anyway. But for you and me it is a good thing it did. For Jesus this became another teaching moment.
So Jesus asked them, What were you talking about on the road? And unlike the other Gospels, Mark doesn't put all the blame on James and John. He simply says it was the disciples, and that includes all of them. That is why no one has anything to say. They knew he had heard them. They knew they had been caught. There was nothing else to be said.
So what did Jesus do? Jesus took a child and stood the child in their midst. He puts his arms around the child and holds it tight. If you want to be great, he says, you must first be a servant. If you take care of a child and love him, then you love me and the One who sent me.
And that, my friends, was one of the world's truly great gymnastic feats. In that moment, Jesus took all our secular attitudes about greatness and stood them on their head. With a strange inverted logic, he said that greatness is found at the bottom and not at the top. It is tied up in service and not in being served. It begins with a helpless, innocent, vulnerable child. And remember that children in that culture had absolutely no rights. There were no child labor laws. There was no child abuse and neglect legislation. Children belonged to their parents. They were regarded as property. Indeed the name for child and the name for a slave are interchangeable in the Greek dictionary at that time. A child was the lowest member of a society. They had no value for those concerned with secular greatness.
Except Jesus says they have everything to do with true greatness. For a Christian there is no more important work in the world than to care for God's little ones.What an appropriate thought the day before our Vacation Bible School.
I like the way Henri Nouwen put it, To choose the little people, the little joys, the little sorrows, and to trust that it is there that God will come close - that is the hard way of Jesus. (From "The Road to Daybreak" Doubleday 1988).
If you want to be close to God, look for the small things. Look for the forgotten people; the neglected, the abused, and the hurting people. Look for those who have no one else to turn to. Wrap your arms around them. For as you draw close them you will discover that God is drawing close to you.
I was recently reading an article about a minister who tells this true story about his first parish. (This story reminds me a little of our church not too long ago.) When he arrived at the church they only had thirty-five people in worship. After several years of faithful and effective leadership, the number grew to 60 or 70. The church almost felt full. But one woman challenged the preacher's estimate of the congregation's size. We do not have 60 or 70 people in worship, she argued. That is not possible. So the preacher began, row by row, to name those present. He started with a family of six sitting on the front pew. The woman immediately stopped him and said, you can't count the children! Why not? asked the preacher? She replied, You can't count them because they don't give any money. With that, the woman walked away confident she was right.
Not surprisingly, the number of children in that church began to dwindle. It wasn't long before there was only one child left. Now the two estimates of the worship attendance figures matched, but it is not hard to see why the church declined. The children had all gone somewhere else where they counted. You can't feel God's spirit when children do not count. The path to greatness begins with a child.
The path to greatness is here with our VBS. For VBS is not just for the children, it is for you also. And in a real sense, the path begins within each of us. For despite our outward appearances and apparent prosperity, every time we gather to worship, the fears and pains of a child overwhelm us. Some people come with fears about their survival. They have heard the doctor's verdict of cancer, if not for themselves then for someone they love. They know it can be treated but not cured. They feel like a weak, helpless child. And they wonder if they will hear anything in the worship service that makes a difference in their lives.
There are others who come facing economic uncertainties. They have watched as their business has declined, as fresh competition has stolen old customers, and as their portfolio has gone down.
They face retirement not knowing what to do with themselves, or they face a lay off not knowing from where they will receive their next paycheck. Their kids need braces. The family needs a new car. And the house mortgage is overdue.
Some come to church torn apart by family strife. Things may look happy to outsiders, but inside they are torn apart by hurt, anger, and betrayal. The love they once shared with their spouse is a distant memory. Their children do not want to have anything to do with them, and they feel utterly alone in the world.
I have my own theory why people come to church hear it is. Remember when a child calls out in the middle of the night. Who goes to them? You do. You place your arms around them, hug them, hold them, love them. You are their spiritual leader, teacher, and bestowing love upon them. You are the Link to OUR FATHER. Now as you get older we still call out in the night, but who comes to hold us now? Well as a parent you are still there for your children. Therefore we know who comes to put their arms around you. YOUR FATHER. We come to church for those hugs from God. For God is love.
We come to worship for different reasons, and with different heavy baggage, but we all come with a helpless hurting child inside. We come admitting that we cannot solve all our own problems. We cannot make it on our own. In our weakness we need God's strength. The good news is that when we come as a child, God does not disappoint us. God is present. God reaches out to us. God wraps loving arms around us. And God can transform us just when we need God most. And God does it in part by opening our eyes to the child in others. God has a way of pointing us toward others who are hurting, and crying, and struggling to get by. God invites us to love one another and to wrap our arms around someone as surely as Jesus wrapped his arms around a little child. And when we do, God reveals to us a mystery. It is the mystery of divinity.
Consider the flowers, watch the pebbles roll up and down with the tide, watch how they glisten, look at the way a bird walks, a squirrel figures out a way to get to the bird seed in the feeder, the way a baby works to pick up the Cheerio with their fingers, feel the sun beat down on you and how good it feels, laugh at your self- cry with your self love. Think of life as a terminal illness because if you do you will see and feel the little things that bring joy, and happiness the way life is meant to be lived.
God says again, Even as you have done it unto the least of these my brothers and sisters you have done it unto me. God is there with us and for us. And God walks by our side down the path that leads to true greatness.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, surely as we hug our children You are there to place your arms around us. For it is not how fast we run, how high we jump, or how many goals we score. It is not what we accomplish or how high on the corporate ladder we climb. What makes us great is our ability to open our heart and soul to you, so that you may enter and teach us your ways and then we go and share this love, wisdom and faith with one another. We thank you for your truth. Help us to see what is important, what is eternal, and what is lasting. Help us to put into practice the timeless truths found in your word. Thank you dear Lord for providing us this training so we may receive your gold medal.
Amen.