Last week we took a break from reading Mark, to hear the story of St. Matthew-the namesake of our parish. It was St. Matthew's day on the calendar and it's important to know a thing or two about the first half of our name-St Matthew Trinity. Had this been a hundred years ago, we would have read both texts and been in church another hour. Ah the good ole days of preaching your congregation to sleep. I had a Rabbi friend who told me that the size of his synagogue can sleep about 1,000 people.
The passage that we missed was a rather famous passage in Mark in which Jesus talks about a child. In Matthew it is plural, children. Many of you are familiar with that passage. One of our windows has the scene with children. Suffer, or allow, the little child to come to me for such is the kingdom of God.
The disciples have been acting rather childlike, discussing or arguing which one would be the greater in the Kingdom. To understand what’s going on here we must first understand what’s going on in 1st century society.
Micah Kiel -Ramsey MacMullen, in his book, Roman Social Relations: 50 B.C. to A.D. 284, describes a sense of class in the ancient world that, although recognizable to us today, was of a scale that we might have a hard time imagining. The ancient world had no middle class. Most of the wealth was accumulated at the very top of the social structure, and the bulk of people found themselves poor. Within the elite world, honor was incredibly important. The components of honor and shame were common: “The upper classes emphasized, for everyone to notice and acknowledge, the steep, steep social structure that they topped” (MacMullen, 109). The rich wanted to associate only with other rich, they would intentionally insult and demean those who were slightly less rich, and hoped to accumulate favor with those who were above them.
Against such a backdrop, the words of Jesus in Mark’s gospel stand out. Saying that the way to gain honor is to receive those who are without honor goes against the logic of the ancient society. The Kingdom of God assesses and assigns value differently than the human realm. God will receive those who receive the child. This will give access to true power, the power of the one who sent Jesus.
Children had no power, no money, little education and quite frankly, as many of you know, ate a lot in a world where scarcity of food was an issue.
Where our Gospel picks up today is in the conversation with John, Jesus is still holding the child in his lap. You only get that if you read the story in its entirety.
This story warns us to pay attention to the children who give us access to the presence of God. We are to do all within our power to protect and care for them within and outside of the community of faith. Sometimes we do damage to them actively. But just as often we, like John, simply lose track of those whom Jesus has put in the center of community. We become distracted by competition or our own status. Jesus calls us to be a community of peace where trusting children are cherished and the least among us is the center of our attention. Not ourselves.
He points out that religion is not a competition. I sometimes think that there is a little competition (not much) between us and All Saints-they have more money and bigger choir and so on. Pastor Elaine says that she hears we have a better youth program and of course an amazingly handsome pastor. It is not a competition. People should feel free to take part in either community because we are doing the same work in the name of Jesus. And as long as the work keeps the vulnerable and marginalized at the center-the one sitting on Jesus lap- THANKS BE TO GOD!
Mark tells us in chapter 4 that Jesus taught the disciples using parables. The idea of chopping your hand off is a parable, not meant to be taken literally-but it is strong language emphasizing that we are not about our own agenda but about God’s!
This is not to say that we ignore those around us who do great harm in Jesus name. The second lesson has some thoughts on that-thoughts on how we encourage and hold others accountable.
We had a fellow church in Hoboken clean at LTM yesterday. They do really good work in supporting our ministry. They do terrible work in theology. They witness to an understanding of God that is narrow and vengeful, they exclude people for who they are with a double dose of prejudice and phobia. We are to hold them accountable for this false witness. They also do some good things which we should praise and give thanks for.
Our own denomination has a similar history.
Jesus wants us to be about the work of bringing peace to the world and not peace to our egos. This Gospel reminds us of why we do this work and that it is pleasing to God. We have a holy mission to be peacemakers-to look after one another, to care for the poor, to welcome the immigrant, to comfort the sick, empower the powerless, and to speak truth to power. This is so important especially in these weeks before the election.
Our calling is special. Our lives are unique gifts designed to change the lives of those around us for the better. Let’s not forget that. God loves us so much that our Heavenly parent has called us, sanctified us to be the work of Christ in the world. It is a holy calling. Yours is a holy calling. Amen Come Lord Jesus.
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