Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings – Proverbs 31: 10-31; Psalm 1; James 3: 13-4: 3, 7-8a; Mark 9: 30-37
Sometimes it seems we are in a world full of anxiety. Our television and screens are flooded with programs and political ads that build on our anxiety.
For example, attending a high school homecoming dance in Central Pennsylvania. The boy is from one high school and his date is from another. For her to attend his homecoming dance, the following is required—
a signed pass for the boy to attend,
a signed pass from his parents,
a signed pass for his date to attend,
a photo id. for his date,
a signed pass by her parents, and
a signed pass by her high school principal.
I understand all this is in the name of safety. We live in anxious times.
Anxiety is not unique to our time.
The author of our reading from Proverbs was anxious about his time. How to lower his anxiety – find a perfect wife as the passage describes. As someone recently quipped —
“Happy wife, Happy life”.
As our reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark, Jesus and his disciples returned from a team-building retreat in Tyre in ancient Phoenicia (today’s Lebanon). They passed through Galilee. Jesus continued to warn them. He was to be betrayed (by one of them). He was to be executed. Then, three days after his execution, he was to rise again. The retreat was over. It was back to contending with the scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees. The retreat was over; the anxiety among the disciples rose.
So, what did they do? They ignored the betrayal to come. They ignored the execution to come. They ignored the rising again to come. As the text states-
“… they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him”.
Instead, they
“argued with one another who was the greatest”.
So patient Jesus pulled them back together again and said
“whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”.
He talked to them again about Holy Greatness, about Holy Work, about Holy Service. He placed a child at the center of their circle, and then took the child in his arms. I wonder where the child came from.
Remember Capernaum was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, with an estimated population of 1,500 in the day. Tradition leads us to a house that was later turned into a church. Perhaps it was the home of St. Peter.
Capernaum was the site of the healing of St. Peter’s mother, of the healing of a servant of a Roman centurion, of the healing of a paralytic whose friends lowered him down to Jesus through the roof. Some scholars believe this fishing village was the center of the Jesus movement, the home base for his entire ministry. So, in all probably the child was known to the disciples, perhaps it was even St. Peter’s child that Jesus placed among them and embraced.
Like all children, this child needed to be cared for, needed to be nurtured, needed to be loved. Jesus was quite clear with them, and to us as well –
“whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and
whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me”.
The disciple’s anxiety-driven need to be the greatest was challenged and transformed by
“whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”.
Their anxiety of the future was challenged and transformed into caring for others, into nurturing others, into loving others, into serving others.
We know that serving others goes beyond doing good. We know what serving others goes beyond being kind. As our collect for today previewed, serving others helps us “not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly”.
Jesus called that motely crew gathered in small town Capernaum to change the world through serving, through providing for those in need, through loving others.
Jesus calls us, also a motely crew gathered here in small town Selinsgrove, to change the world through serving, through providing for those in need, through loving others.
Amen
