1^st October 2012

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 23 September 2012

Lessons - Psalm 1; James 3:13-18; Mark 9:30-37

Jesus said, 'Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and
servant of all.' (Mark 9:35)

Still the disciples fail to understand Jesus, and their calling (v31)!

Surely, thinks Peter in 8:32, the coming of 'the Christ' to put sin and evil in their place will be accompanied by great and heroic deeds! Not so.
For a second time Jesus tells them that God's victory is to be accomplished by way of his rejection and crucifixion (v32) - love triumphant through suffering!

Despite their failure to understand, Jesus does not fail them. As the Son of Man, who came not to be served but to serve, he continues to teach these self-important men (v34) what it means to 'take up the cross' (8:34-
38) and be open, receptive and humble servants of 'the one who sent him'
(v37b).

On this occasion Jesus jolts them out of their complacency in simple, dramatic fashion. He takes a 'little child' in his arms to impress upon them their calling to serve those who are widely regarded as insignificant. There is an absence of sentimentality, no nostalgia for a bygone age. In this case, the child is not a virtuous example for disciples to follow. It represents all who have no religious, moral or social standing in the community.

The point is clear. Jesus' disciples 'have no need to aspire to great exploits of moral or religious virtue to prove their faith through heroic acts of self-abasement or to seek fame and publicity before the world' (W Clarnette, The Year of Mark, p46). True greatness is found, paradoxically, in 'receiving (RSV) or 'welcoming' (NRSV) little ones such as this child'
(v37). In this simple, dramatic act Jesus both judges arrogance and invites us to share in his self-giving love for people who are generally thought to be unimportant.

This word needs to be heard today. The desire to identify with important film and TV celebrities, social high-fliers and sporting heroes can easily result in neglect of the little ones who are not in the public eye. Such self-giving love for the insignificant is a radical and much needed virtue in this environment. Simple, unheralded acts of charity are signs of God's
love embodied in Jesus.

Now this would be seriously misunderstood, however, if we thought that, instead of being self-important in doing great things, we should be proud of being 'last of all' in the service of others. There is a kind of self- importance that delights in being humble! Not for us greatness associated with bold public acts of faith. like those about which Jesus ' disciples were probably thinking. Better to show-off our humility by serving the little ones. 'Be 'umble,' said Uriah Heep in Charles Dicken's David Copperfield, 'and you'll get on.'

This attitude is often found among those who think that Christianity is basically about us being conscious of doing good works. The other person then becomes an 'object' of our concern - a means by which to show 'our'
faith. Needy people may be targeted and social justice causes trumpeted in self-conscious displays of faith. The temptation to draw attention to our own 'greatness' is not diminished if, instead of heroic acts of faith, we self-consciously focus on individuals or groups who are widely neglected.

Therefore, as our text says, true greatness, that is embodied in Christ and which he calls his disciples to share, must be protected from serious
misunderstanding:

* At the outset, we learn that Jesus shuns public adulation. 'He did not want anyone to know where he was (v30).' Why? Because true greatness is demonstrated, not simply in stunning miracles and not in military power, but in costly, triumphant love. If we do not see the grace of 'the one who sent him' (v37) in the whole of Jesus' ministry, crucifixion and resurrection, our concern for the 'little ones' will be spoiled by self- conscious reflection on our own imagined goodness.

* The point of the story is not simply to get disciples to focus on another social group - the little instead of the big - but to get them to think in a completely different way about what it means to follow the crucified and risen Lord.

This becomes very clear when Jesus 'puts the child in their midst and takes it in his arms (v36). He does not tell the disciple to target the little ones but to 'receive' them 'in his name' (v37). The emphasis is not on our self-conscious good deeds in helping the disadvantaged, but on simply welcoming them into the community of faith. The accent is not on us 'actively' going to them to prove our faith, but on 'passively' receiving them.

Nor do we accept them because their insignificance makes them more worthy of concern but because they are welcomed without having any status or virtue of their own. Nothing is said about the child's good deeds or faith. It is simply received and welcomed by Jesus without having any achievement of its own!

Jesus cuts the ground from under every attempt to make ourselves 'great'
in the service of God. By placing the child in the midst of pious men arguing about their own importance, he enacts a parable of grace. Thus he strips them of their arrogance and opens them to welcome into the community of grace folk who do not have any merit of their own.

In doing so Jesus reminds the disciples that they, too, have been 'received' into the community of faith, not because of any goodness of their own but by grace alone. Once we see that, like the child, we belong to Christ's Church only because the 'one who sent him' has welcomed us by grace, then thought of our 'greatness' vanishes. Stripped of pride in our moral, religious and social achievements we are free to treat others - the important and insignificant alike - as fellow recipients of God's costly and triumphant grace.

The magnificence of grace enacted in this simple, dramatic episode is echoed in our Service of Infant Baptism, particularly in the words from the French Reformed liturgy addressed to the child: 'Little child, for you Jesus Christ has come, has lived, has suffered; for you, he has endured the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of Calvary; for you, he has uttered the cry, "It is accomplished!" For you, he prays at God's right hand; all for you little child, even though you do not know it. In baptism, the word of the apostle is fulfilled, "We love, because God first loved us." (1 John 4:19)'

In the baptism of a child we not only pledge ourselves to 'receive this little one into the holy catholic church according to Christ's command'.
We are also reminded that we, too, are welcomed into the 'faith and family of Jesus Christ' by grace alone. When we are grasped by the 'greatness' of God's love that has been embodied in the ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, all thought of our greatness disappears. Then we are free to 'welcome' others who, like us, are undeserved 'recipients of grace'.

So may we, in words adapted from Australian Hymn Book 327, confidently
pray: 'Come Holy Spirit, renew us in the truth that Christ makes known, come yourself to make us live through the gift of grace you give.'

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.