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Thought
for the Week Sunday 20 September – Trinity 15
Coded
messages have been around for a long time, we just have to get them
right. “Send reinforcements we’re
going to advance” can soon became, “Send 3 and 4 pence, we’re going to a
dance.” if we are not careful. So here are the disciples seeking to
understand the coded message that Jesus is giving them ------ when in fact
there is no such coded message. Jesus is letting them have it straight this
time. But were they to know that? Do
you ever feel sorry for the disciples? For the majority of his ministry Jesus
has talked in parables which the crowd has understood superficially, as have
the disciples, but then Jesus would take the disciples aside and explain in
detail the deeper meaning behind the parable. At Matthew 13 we read in verse
34 that “Jesus spoke these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say
anything to them without using a parable.” At verse 36 the disciples ask him
to explain the parable of the weeds in the field to them. At verse 15 in
chapter 15 Peter says to Jesus “explain the parable to us” Poor Peter he gets
short shrift before the explanation “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asks. Then
after the feeding of the four thousand “You of little faith why are you
talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not see or
understand?” Mark 8 tells us. So
often Jesus is seen taking the disciples aside and explaining things to them. You
can understand why the disciples are thinking Jesus is talking to them in
code in our reading today, for their perception of who what and why the
Messiah is, does not include that Messiah being put to death. The Son of Man
stands of course in place of I in our reading –that much they understood but
for them the Messiah was he who was going to liberate the Jewish nation from
the Roman yoke not be put to death. That
the disciples were still thinking like that seems apparent from the next
section where they are arguing amongst themselves as to who was the greatest,
although when asked by Jesus what they were arguing about they kept
quiet------no doubt out of embarrassment. Although
it was common in the culture of the time and questions of rank and status
played an important role in Jewish groups, so that the disciples were having
this sort of discussion is perhaps not as surprising as it may seem. The
state of mind of the disciples is apparent from a couple of comments about
their behaviour. Firstly they were afraid to ask Jesus what he meant when he
said that he would be killed and rise again after three days. No coded
message here ---- Jesus meant exactly what he said with out any hidden
meaning. Then we have them keeping quiet when Jesus asks them what they were
arguing about. In both cases Jesus turns the way of the world on its head. Jesus
was teaching the disciples and told them straight that he was going to be
betrayed, killed and, then comes the turning the world on its head bit, then
would rise after three days. Of course the disciples didn’t understand. If
you are dead you are dead and after three days in that climate the process of
decomposition would be on its way. No one had ever risen from the dead. and
in any event how could the Messiah who was to save the Jewish people die? Then
we come to the teaching about who would be first must in fact be last and a
servant too everybody. The very opposite to the way the world thinks. Status
is nothing, having two stripes on your arm means nothing, being a reader
means nothing, being a priest, dare I say it, means nothing. In fact it means
that you are everybody’s servant, it means putting everybody’s interest
before your own. It means swallowing pride. That is exactly what Jesus was
talking about when he took that little child and said who ever welcomes the
little child welcomes not only Jesus but God himself. It’s
important to understand where a child stood to get a flavour of what Jesus
was saying. A child was totally unimportant in that society ---yes of course
to the family it was important, especially a boy child ---- but, to society
as a whole, a child had little or no standing, outside the family context the
child was as nothing. There
is another incident in the next Chapter of Mark when Jesus says let the
little children come to me, and he goes on to say “ … do not hinder them for
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who
will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
They are tough words also addressed to the disciples and it was a tough lesson
for the disciples to learn; a lesson they had not apparently learned from the
reading we have today, for the incident in the next chapter is found at verse
13 of chapter 10. Both
this and the incident in chapter 10 were to teach the disciples a lesson in
humility. You see here they are arguing about who is the most important
amongst them and in Chapter 10 they were rebuking people for bringing their
children to Jesus for a blessing – really from the disciples point of view
nothing wrong in that since children were counted as nothing. In both cases
however Jesus highlights the importance to him and to the Father of little
children thus giving a lesson to the disciples about pride, arrogance and
humility. It
is not in both cases a question of being childish but child like. What does
that mean? Well there seem to be three possibilities ·
A child’s innocence.---- unlikely because Judaism at
this time did not emphasis a child’s innocence but rather it’s stupidity and
immaturity. ·
A child’s trust, openness and receptivity -----
Although true of little children and followers of Jesus need these
characteristics there is nothing in our passage this morning nor in chapter
10 that leads to this conclusion. ·
A child’s humility --- a child’s humble position.
This seems the likely answer for in both cases the disciples have been
showing themselves as being particularly arrogant and full of pride. In our
case arguing about whom was the most important among them. So the lesson for the disciples and
indeed us is, it seems to me, very definitely that of humility before God.
The first being last and the servant of all would appear to substantiate that
interpretation. Our reading from James reinforces this
argument by telling us that the really wise person, the person full of wisdom,
is the one who practices humility. The warning from James cannot be more
clear. Envy and selfish ambition is earthly, unspiritual and of the devil but
he goes further –here you will find disorder. Disorder is not of God for 1
Cor. 14 tells us that God is not a God of disorder but of peace. The wisdom
that comes from heaven is submissive ---- i.e. not boastful, not filled with its own
importance. In fact wisdom brings us back to our gospel reading from Mark for
being the servant of all is the very essence of being submissive, not being
filled with your own importance is a characteristic of wisdom. Thus the wise
man is he who is, in the eyes of the world, last in the queue but in fact is
first in the eyes of God. So being as children but not childish,
that is to say being filled with humility and therefore capable of welcoming
a child rather than shunning it brings us closer to God. It is interesting isn’t it how Jesus
brings us always back to earth for in welcoming the poor, the outcast, the
rejected, the inadequate, the child, -------- the very people we are likely
to shun, we are in fact welcoming Jesus.
There is another class of people who we
tend to be embarrassed about. Those that used to go to church and now don’t
---don’t for a variety of reasons. They fell out with the vicar, they weren’t
given the sympathy they were of the opinion they deserved, they were not made
welcome, they were left to there own devices, they were upset by something
someone in the congregation said to them or about them to another. There are
any number of reasons that people stop going or coming to church and each
reason very real. There are those who have decided, for whatever reason, that
you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian – in fact I agree, you don’t
have to go to church to be a Christian. In fact Christianity has very little
to do with going or coming to church. There is a lot of truth in the saying
that often Christians give God a bad name because often it is something we as
Christians have done or failed to do that causes a person to give up going to
church. Not always of course but often. And often it is for the very reason
that Jesus is berating the disciples ------ because pride has got in the way
of our seeing Christ in the other and acting accordingly. Thus there is a
lesson for us in today’s reading. But equally, to those who say you don’t
have to go to church to be a Christian I would say yes, but more often than
not it is necessary to go to church to learn, to have fellowship with others
and thus share. In this way your faith can be strengthened, whereas if you
refrain from going to church then you are likely to become like the cinder
that falls from the fire. It looses its intensity, its heat and eventually
goes out; whereas if it remains in the fire with the other cinders it
continues to glow and retain its heat. Today is also Compassion Sunday. We as a
Chaplaincy support the charity Compassion, which is all about seeing that
children in developing countries get an education and don’t suffer. It is
also a charity that we can support as individuals by “adopting” a child and
being responsible for that child’s education with the simple payment of £21
per month. It is a way of welcoming a child in Jesus’ name and thus as our
reading says welcoming the One who sent Him. Amen. Mel Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy
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