Trinity Fifteen

I stand here this morning with a degree of trepidation! I have had the privilege here of being invited to preach now three times, however: on the first occasion the paramedics arrived, on the second the organ broke down and on the third …. Well lets’ hope nothing happens! Accept, that my opening prayer may be fulfilled … that God will set all our hearts on fire with love for him and one another.

I invite you to take up the service sheet and turn to our gospel reading. We’re still in Mark’s gospel, and I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that the lectionary allows us to travel some distance with Jesus in Mark, I think it helps us grasp something of the big picture Mark is painting for us. So Mark’s gospel: thought to be the first gospel written, sometime in the mid-first century by an author who remains an enigma. It is the shortest gospel; written in punchy language which focuses us on the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The author stresses Jesus death and suffering, rather than Jesus’ exalted identity and marvellous power. It’s as if the writer wants us to know who Jesus is, and what authentic discipleship really looks like. Mark shows us what it is to be a follower of Christ, surprisingly not by the example of the disciples, but minor characters and most profoundly by Jesus himself.

So, Mark 9:30-37, 7 verses for us to reflect on this morning. And here we are about half way into the gospel, we have been with Jesus in Galilee, we’ve read of the transfiguration and overheard the discussion about who people thought Jesus was. Today we learn that Jesus took the twelve with him through Galilee to Capernaum, to be alone with them. The story is a mile stone in the gospel, the move south:  away from Galilee, the safe and centre of operations for Jesus – away to Jerusalem and to the cross. On the way Jesus tells his disciples for the second time that “The son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days later after being killed he will rise again” This second announcement,  is found in all three synoptic gospels. The disciples just don’t get it; they don’t understand. And it seems they spent the journey arguing amongst themselves. Arguing about, who was the greatest?  So instead of seizing the opportunity to ask what Jesus meant by resurrection, they argue; walking along in a line behind their teacher, as was customary in the Middle East. So we have this picture of an arguing crocodile of disciples straggling along behind Jesus. Until that is, they come to their destination: a house in Capernaum, where we are told Jesus takes the pose of a teacher, by sitting down amongst them. The tables are turned, Jesus now quizzes them, “what were you arguing about on the way here?” and they in response, fall silent, perhaps embarrassed to admit, they’d been arguing about who was the most important amongst them. Jesus sees this as an opportunity to tell them some more about what it really means to be his followers. And I confess, from here on in, our passage becomes more than a little challenging, so hold on.

Over the past week I’ve been observing the many students who have come in the sunshine to sit outside here and enjoy conversations with friends on the green. The talk is invariably lively; there are a variety of outfits and a relaxed “getting to know you” sort of atmosphere. I can’t help but notice, how the various groups interact with one another. It is clear that many of the fresher’s are jostling for position with their piers, establishing who the leader in the group is, and who are the followers. Well, that’s what the disciples seem to have been doing here in our passage– arguing about, who was the most important, who would lead and who would follow. Then we hear these radical words from Jesus;  “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” and as if that wasn’t startling enough, Jesus goes on to act out what he means, driving his message.

It’s evening, Jesus calls presumably one of his hosts children to come to him. Children were in the culture considered to be one of the least and most insignificant in the community. Jesus takes the child  in his arms, literally,  holding them in the crook of his arm (engkalisamenos) and says “whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me”. Jesus introduces to the disciples and to us, a completely new social order – first last and last first.

The first last, and the last first. A remarkable statement. A complete reorientation for the followers of Jesus. Lowliness and service: two things that are to mark out those who follow Jesus. Now before we’re too hard on the disciples, who incidentally, time and time again Mark describes as simply “not getting it” we need to understand that in their context and culture arguing about position and greatness was really not so unusual. Indeed, within the Qumran community; (a religious community of Jesus’ day) It was usual to rank their members, according to their worthiness. One could observe I guess that it’s not so very dissimilar within the Christian Community today. For the ambition to rule: Jesus substitutes for the ambition to serve. It has been argued that if this radical ambition to serve was followed: every economic problem would be solved if I, if we all lived for what we could do for others and not for what we could get for ourselves and every political (small or large) problem would be solved if our ambition was only to serve and not to enhance our own prestige. Jesus stands human values upside down by saying that true primacy comes from putting everyone before oneself.

Frankly, I find this deeply disturbing and challenging: as Jesus’ followers, we are to be outstanding in the role of a servant. But greatness isn’t repudiated by Jesus, it is redefined. Greatness is being a voluntary servant to another and by doing so, being a voluntary servant for God. Greatness in God’s economy is not reserved for the gifted and privileged but rather it is found in the common task of service to others.  Exemplified supremely in Christ on the cross, which we come to both remember and celebrate in the sacrament this morning.

So, to sum up: Jesus turns upside down the worlds view of greatness, to be great in God’s kingdom, is to be a voluntary servant, putting others first. I’ve been pondering what that might mean for us here at St Mary’s this week and offer you these thoughts:

On one level, there’s a very real challenge for me and you as individuals; how do I, do we, daily seek to be the last, the servant of others as followers of Christ? 

On another, there’s a challenge for us as a community at St Mary’s. How do we seek as a community to be last, to be servants of others? Within the Stafford team what might that mean? To outsiders, or those who are different from us: who hold different traditions, views about God or come from different cultures?

One aspect of church life we’ve been discussing this week both with Lisa Knight our Children and Families Enabler and at the PCC on Wednesday night is children and families. How might we truly serve the young people in the congregation now? How can we might we serve the families and children brought for baptism? Or those we have links with in schools through the Open Door? And the pre-school children and their carers who wonder into church mid-week or we see around the town centre? How do we, or can we serve them as a church family? What might that mean for us here? It may mean starting up something new alongside our current patterns of worship, perhaps something we feel a little unsure about? Am I, are we ready put them before us? To support Lisa and others who seek to lead us in serving young families in Stafford town centre?  To show them God’s love and care? Am I open to listen if God might be asking me to serve in some way: in regular prayer for families and children or in offering time and energy in some way?

I invite you to ponder this over the next weeks and months.  I am sure we’ll hear more about that in the weeks ahead, as Lisa and others help us all to think through how we welcome children and their families amongst us. And if that doesn’t connect with you this morning, then I invite you with me, to ponder afresh as a follower of Christ,  what the new social order – first last and last first might mean today, as we gather together around the table to receive the sacrament, remembering Christ’s words that in welcoming others, we welcome God too. Amen.