Sermon on Mark 9:30-37

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Today’s Gospel reading is the second in a pattern in Markwhere Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the disciples don’t get it, and then Jesus teaches them more about what it means to follow him.

Last week, we read the first one, and today, we read the second. There’s one more, which we won’t be reading next week, but you’ve probably caught on faster than the disciples.

In today’s story, the disciples were confused, but they didn’t want to ask Jesus any questions. Maybe they didn’t want to get another “Get behind me, Satan!” Maybe they didn’t want to look dumb in front of the other disciples. Maybe they were afraid of the answer Jesus would give them.

One way or another, they got sidetracked. They started arguing about which of them was the greatest.

Yet again, they had profoundly misunderstood Jesus’ mission. He was the Messiah, but his mission was not to defeat the Romans and establish an earthly empire.

Jesus had just described for a second time that he would be handed over to the authorities, killed, and would rise again. That doesn’t sound much like a military victory. That doesn’t sound like someone concerned with “greatness.”

And yet, there the disciples were, trying to one up each other, trying to establish their dominance.

That behavior so often comes from a sense of inferiority, though. We read right before this that the disciples were too scared to admit they didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.

So, they turned to each other to diffuse their discomfort. They put each other down to make themselves feel better for not understanding. They started focusing on the wrong thing.

It’s easy for us to shake our heads and roll our eyes at the clueless disciples.

But all these years later, doesn’t the Church do the same thing?

Congregations see other churches with greater worship attendance, larger Sunday school classes, bigger budgets, and flashier worship bands and start feeling insecure.

So, we start to put down other denominations, disparage larger churches, or voice pity about those poor congregations that are smaller than ours.

Or, we start blaming the culture, making demeaning remarks that entire generations don’t seem to care about church anymore.

In our insecurity, we start striving to prove that we are the greatest. We, like the disciples, start focusing on the wrong things.

It seems fitting that we’re reading this Gospel story on the first day of fall. We’re at the tipping point between seasons, when day and night are equal.

The disciples were at a kind of tipping point, too. They were at a tipping point in their understanding of Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark shows Jesus being pretty secretive. He often tells people not to share about him healing them or instructs his disciples not to tell people who he is. At this point, Jesus starts to reveal more to his disciples. He’s starting to prepare them for what’s to come and entrust them with more understanding of who he is and why he’s here.

But the disciples weren’t getting it. They were projecting their own expectations of Jesus getting earthly power and glory and were missing what he was actually saying.

Last week, he told them that following him involved taking up their crosses and being willing to lose their lives.

This week, he brought over a child and told them that welcoming a child was like welcoming Jesus, and therefore God.

Children were really low on the social scale. They had no power and no status. There’s a reason why the Hebrew Bible so often instructs God’s people to care for widows and orphans. Neither group had people to protect and support them(namely husbands or parents). They had the least power in society.

Jesus was teaching them to focus on who had the least power, not who was the greatest.

How they treated the least was how they treated their beloved rabbi and their God.

They were at a tipping point where they would either keep focusing on obtaining earthly power or start welcoming those who had the least.

And because they were human, sometimes they would get it and sometimes they wouldn’t. Just like us.

God knows we won’t get it right all the time. Sometimes our actions overflow with love for our neighbor. And sometimes, we’re insecure, petty, and selfish. Welcome to being simultaneously saints and sinners.

Our congregation does amazing work loving our neighbors every week through Caring Hands and supporting other organizations. We share our space with other congregations. We check on each other and pray for each other. We learn and worship and laugh and hope.

And sometimes, we too get caught up in insecurity and wondering if we’re enough. We remember times when we had more people in the pews, more pitter-patter of tiny feet, more programs, and a greater capacity to serve. It’s okay and even important to grieve our changing reality.

What we need to be careful of, though, is not letting our grief lead us to despair or to jealousy of other congregations.

Jesus reminds us that whenever two or three are gathered, he is there. And he reminded his disciples in today’s reading that what’s important is not “greatness” by worldly standards, but welcoming those with the least power and support among us. And this congregation’s mission is to do just that.

So, at this turning point in the seasons, let’s make sure we’re focusing on what’s really important.This congregation does that so well—let’s not forget that.Fall is a great time to reorient and refocus.

We’re about three quarters of the way through our Sabbath year—can you believe it?

What have you learned by practicing Sabbath this year?

How has it helped you focus on what’s most important?

I encourage you to share with each other today and in the weeks ahead what Sabbath means to you.

And as we move into this final quarter and round the bend toward Advent, Christmas, and the New Year, how can we continue or adapt our Sabbath practices into the future?

How can we keep our focus on welcoming our least likely neighbors and therefore welcoming God?

At this tipping point in the seasons, let’s let go of despair, insecurity, and striving for “greatness” and focus instead on loving our neighbors as we would welcome Jesus himself, who loves us more than anything.

Now, that is great.