- Jay Leno's prized possession as a teenager was his old Ford pickup. Bought
with his own money, every day after school, Leno would sand and paint and
buff that old truck. "As a present,' says Leno, "my parents got me brand-new
naugahyde upholstery for the seats."
Once, he said, he slammed a door a little too hard, and the window shattered. He didn't have any money to replace it but drove it anyway, including to school. One day it began to rain. Leno sat in class and watched his truck and his new upholstery get drenched through the broken window. Suddenly he saw his parents tear into the parking lot. They screeched up next to his truck and dragged a huge piece of plastic out of their car. Then in the pouring rain, they covered up the truck. His dad had left his office in the middle of the day, picked up Leno's mom, and bought this hunk of plastic to save his seats. He watched them do this and began crying right there in class.
Leno insists: "My parents were with me through every high and low in my life. I never think of them as gone. I've got all their stories, and that keeps them nearby always." (1)
These words were prompted by the apostles, who were arguing among themselves on the road as to who was the first among them.
A funny thing happened on the way to Capernaum. A group of grown men -- at least twelve -- had a serious argument. What were they arguing about? Not who had caught the biggest fish; not who had the bushiest beard or the mightiest muscles, the bluest eyes of the bluest blood. No, they were debating which of them was the most important!
Now these were not Middle East oil exporters or White House staffers. They were men who had been chosen by God-in-flesh to be his intimate circle, to spread his good news, to proclaim to Israel that its redemption was at hand. In telling the story, Mark gives no details; but I can almost hear Andrew telling his brother Peter: "I saw him before you did." And Peter retorting: "Okay, but he gave me the keys." And James interjecting: Don't forget, he took me up the mountain to meet Moses and Elias. Only three of us saw that; the rest of you guys ain't seen nuthin.'" And Judas with the last word: "Argue all you want, he gave me the money box. And if you've got the money, you've got it all - no moola, no Manischewitz!" (2)
Yes, they sound as childish as we sometimes do when we adults start arguing about rank. To put across his point, Jesus took a small child and said, "Whoever becomes a child such as this for my sake welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but him who sent me" (Mark 8:37)
We might think, "Wasn't that sweet of Jesus, to take a child? They're so precious." It might help us to take a look at the place children held in the time of Jesus. They were considered on about the same level as cattle.
Childhood in antiquity was a time of terror. Infant mortality rates sometimes reached 30 percent. Another 30 percent of live births were dead by age six, 60 percent were gone by age six, and 60 percent were gone by age sixteen. Children always suffered first from famine, war, disease, and dislocation .
Children had little status within the community of family. A minor child was on par with a slave, and only after reaching maturity was he/she a free person who could inherit the family estate. The term "child/children" could be used as a serious insult. (3)
This now gets us close to the heart of Jesus' action. When Jesus placed a child in his arms, it was not that the child was a cuddly, lovable creature in need of kindness. Rather, it was precisely that the child was unlovable, undesirable, socially unfit. .
- When John Lewis, a member of Congress from Georgia and civil rights worker
who was known as the marcher most often beaten by hostile whites, was asked
how he developed his great compassion for the poor and outcast, he pointed
to an experience in his childhood. Like many other blacks in the rural
South, he was raised in poverty on a farm with no plumbing or electricity in
a shack with a dirt yard. His parents put him in charge of the family's
chickens, and it was not long before John, a gentle person, was advocating
for the chickens, trying to persuade his parents not to kill them for food.
He said:
They seemed so defenseless. There was a subtle grace and dignity in every movement they made, at least through my eyes. But no one else saw them that way. To my parents, brothers and sisters, the chickens were just about the lowest form of life on the farm - stupid, smelly, nuisances. Awkward, comical birds good for nothing but laying eggs and providing meat for the table. Maybe it was that outcast status, the very fact that those chickens were so forsaken by everyone else, that drew me to them as well. I felt as if I had been trusted to care for God's chosen creatures. (4)
Jesus' enacted parable of welcoming a child warms our hearts. Breathes there a Church School so dead that it has not a picture of Christ welcoming the children? Let the congregation sing "Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so" and you will receive many smiles at the door after worship. Let the children's choir sing "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world," and you can hear "aahhs" exhaled all over the sanctuary. Suggest, however, a Director of Christian Education or ask someone to be a teacher in the religious education department of the church, and the result may not be quite so heart- warming. We adore children until they cost us something. Jesus, of course, was not just talking about children but using "one such child" to invite us to welcome all those who have no power and exert no other claim upon us but their need. (5)
Jesus takes a little child and says to the apostles that it is in how we receive this little child that you show whether or not you have received Jesus and have become part of his kingdom. I must confess that I was not ready to hear the story the way Mark tells it. When I first saw that the passage was about Jesus and the children, my mind leaped to the conclusion that that is where Jesus says for us to become like little children. When Matthew tells this story, Jesus does tell his disciples that unless you become like a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew the disciples of Jesus are urged to acquire the mind and heart of a child. But Mark does not say that. Mark says that the places of greatness in the kingdom of God are determined by our attitude towards a child. Greatness in the kingdom of God is judged on how we treat the child.
Who are the nobodies? I don't know. It would be great if I did. There are the people moving around our lives that we somehow never see. Maybe Hispanics workers moving into our community in ever growing numbers but who still are outside, under, around the system. Maybe the whole host of people who are said to be living in lean-to's, pup tents, under train trestles in our county. Maybe it is the invisible elderly who have no family living in nursing homes. Maybe part of the greatness is the ability to see these nobodies and to care for them.
There are lots of different definitions of greatness. Jesus just wants his disciples to know that if they want to talk about greatness in the kingdom of God, in his kingdom, then they need to know the standard by which greatness is measured. If anyone wants the place of honor, you must become a slave and serve others. The great ones in the kingdom of God are seen in how we receive and how we care for those who are invisible in society, those who aren't supposed to matter, those who are powerless, the insignificant. Because in the kingdom of God we are to care for them even as God in Jesus C hrist has cared for all the insignificant sinners of the world. We are to care for the nobodies because God has cared for us when we were nobodies. We are to offer them grace and love, because while we were yet sinners God loved us and redeemed us. Because to live in the kingdom of God is to know that we have been given more than we ever deserved and so we can give to those who do not now deserve the gifts of recognition, service and love, and in that service find our greatness. (6)
- Dr. Charles Mayo, with his father and brother, funded the world famous Mayo
clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. One time a group of European medical experts
were guests of Dr. Mayo at his home. According to the custom of their
homelands the guests placed their shoes outside their bedroom doors to be
polished during the night.
Dr. Charles was the last to retire. As he went to his room he noticed the shoes. It was too late to wake up any of the servants. With a sigh he gathered up all the foot wear, hauled them into the kitchen, and spent half the night polishing them. (7)
I always liked Erma Bombeck. She was a good mother and wrote winningly about the family. And certainly a mother knows how to be a servant and care for children. She wrote:
- If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained
and the sofa faded. I would have eaten popcorn in the "GOOD" living room. I
would never have insisted that the car windows be rolled up during the
summer because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. I would have sat on
the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains. I would have
gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a
holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. I would never have bought
anything because it was guaranteed to last a lifetime. Instead of wishing
away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment as my only
chance in life to assist God in a miracle. When my kids kissed me
impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now, go get washed for
dinner." There would have been more "I love you's" more "I'm sorry's,"
but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute, look at
it and really see it, live it and never waste it or give it back. (8)
References
1. Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn, "Life-affirmation and legacy," Pulpit Digest 81 (3): 59 (Pulpit Digest, Logos Productions Inc., 6160 Carmen Ave. E., Inver Grove Heights MN 55076-4422), July - September 2000.
2. Fr. Walter Burghardt, SJ, Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), pg. 115
3. Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992], p. 238.
4. John Lewis and Michael D'Orso, Walking with the Wind [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998) as quoted in Pulpit Resources, pg. 53.
5. Patrick J. Willson, "Preaching the lesson," Lectionary Homiletics 11 (10): 31 (Lectionary Homiletics, Inc., 13540 East Boundary Road, Building 2, Suite 105, Midlothian, VA 23112), Sept. 2000.
6. Rick Brand, "Who is great?" Lectionary Homiletics. Ppg. 32 and 17.
7. Msgr. Arthur J. Tonne, Five-Minute Homilies on the Gospels of Cycles A, B, C (Hillsboro KS: Multi Business Press, 1977), and pg. 105.
8. Rabbi Harvey J. Fields, "Living with eyes wide shut," Pulpit Digest, pg. 65-67.(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)