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Good Shepherd Community of Faith |
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An American Baptist and United Church of Christ Welcoming and Affirming Congregation |
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Sermons |
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Current Sermon
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Who IS the Greatest? Psalm 1; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
Helen White, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, writes about the time she felt slighted. She says, “My beloved granddad and eight of us, his grandchildren, ran down the hill to the ‘rolling’ store, where Grandpa told us to each select a candy bar. I could hardly wait for my turn, but it never came. As a seven-year-old, I couldn’t understand why I had been left out. Maybe Grandpa didn’t like me as much as the others. Maybe it was because my dad occasionally gave me a piece of candy. And the maybes kept coming. Silently, I tried to hide my tears and hurt feelings. “After I was married and had children of my own, I told my granddad about the incident. He was pained to know that I had been hurt over his simple oversight. I assured him that I now understood how in the confusion I had been accidentally left out. As a child, I had lacked the wisdom to understand. Don’t we sometimes feel that God has overlooked us, that others are more blessed? However, through prayer and study of his Word, we will gain the wisdom to understand that God does not have favorites among his children.” I think that, even as adults, we don’t understand, and we ask the question Who IS the greatest. Remember the Smothers Brothers? Dick and Tom. Tom, I think it was, used to say, as part of their comedy/music routine, “Mom always liked you best.” Many of us who have siblings may have said that at one time or another. You may even have had arguments: “Mom likes ME best. I’m smarter than you are. I’m better than you are. Who IS the greatest? I am!” An article in a 2006 Sojourners magazine tells about the decision in Chicago to allocate $1 billion over six years to build 15 new elementary schools and nine new high schools. “From the Southside to the North Shore it [was] going to be new desks and fresh playgrounds, adding as many as 9,000 seats in elementary schools and 7,000 in high schools.” The article then postulated that “[t]he debates [would] commence about who gets what and what comes first, but this [was] a moment to picture Jesus, following an argument about who is the greatest, taking a child in his arms and saying, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ “One can imagine the persistence and wisdom it took from teachers, principals, parents, and neighborhoods to get money of this magnitude flowing toward the needs of children. There [was] a Jamesian wisdom that is ‘peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.’ What marvelous things happen when we are ‘willing to yield’ for the children, the poor, the broken, or the forgotten. When we go last.” “You’ll notice that the grounded meekness celebrated in James 3 is apparent in those who ‘delight in the law of the Lord’ [as it is put in Psalm 1]. They are not defeated ones, but watched over by God and prospering in their own way from their faithfulness. “Grounded meekness”—servant attitude—being last to become first. As I worked with this message, I couldn’t help but think of crowds. I have gotten so I can’t stand to be in big crowds. I’d even prefer to do my grocery shopping when there are few people in the store. Why? Because people are pushy—literally. When we took my sister to Niagara Falls during one of her visits, and we lined up to purchase tickets for the Maid of the Mist, people kept sneaking into the line ahead of us. Everyone is in such a big hurry to be first. Have you ever had someone race you to an open line at the grocery store? I’ve seen people actually run with their carts so they can get there before anyone else does. They seem to think they are more deserving of that special place in line than anyone else. Everyone wants to be first. As I thought about this, I couldn’t help but smile—envisioning the line into heaven and people pushing their way to the front. Me first! Me first! No, ME first! Then I see the hand of God reaching out to the one who is meek, the one who has been a servant, the one who is last—the hand of God bringing that person to the front of the line and the voice of God saying, “Well done, faithful servant. Well done!” Did you notice in the reading from Mark that when Jesus asked what the disciples had been arguing about, they suddenly became silent? They didn’t want to admit that they had been arguing about who was the greatest. I guess they were ashamed of their behavior as well they should have been. Of course, Jesus knew what they had been arguing about. He really didn’t need to ask. Thus, his response to their silence was, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he takes the little child into his lap, embraces the child, and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” The Quest Study Bible asks what welcoming a child has to do with spiritual greatness. The author’s reply is, “People often ignore those who have no influence and they play up to those who do. We rub shoulders with the great in order to boost our own egos and status in the eyes of others. Jesus calls for us to humble ourselves. We should care nothing about the world’s status symbols because the true way to greatness is humility. One sign of this humility is to welcome those the world would consider insignificant.” And this brings us again to the words of James. Really, the letter of James is a sermon. I could just have you read it, and I wouldn’t need to deliver a message. James says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom . . . do not be boastful and false to the truth . . . For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind . . . But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. “You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.” Like the disciples, you argue about who is the greatest, who should be first. But, according to The Message, “Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.” Who IS the greatest? Is it you? Is it me? I guess the answer to those questions can come only through evaluation of our lives—evaluation that can only be done by ourselves and by God. Psalm 1 says, “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread . . . their delight is in the law of the Lord.” The Message puts it this way: “How well God must like you—you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon; you don’t slink along Dead-End Road; you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God’s word.” And God’s word comes best through the advice of Jesus. (Remember those Red Letter Christians?) Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Servants of all don’t push their way to the front of the line. Servants of all are not boastful or false to the truth. Servants of all are willing to yield. They are full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. Servants of all are not trying to look better than others and do not have selfish ambition. Servants of all care about the children, about those the world would consider to be insignificant. The article from Sojourners magazine that I discussed carried a drawing of a man in a robe holding a dove. The drawing is reminiscent of St. Francis of Assisi. They say he was so humble that the wild animals would come right up to him; they did not fear him. Oh that we could be so humble and so committed to service to others. Thus, in closing, we pray: “O Lord, you are long-suffering and kind. You bear with us despite our weaknesses. Help us to be generous toward others, to think kind thoughts. Give us a sense of appreciation for every effort, no matter how small or large, that is made by anyone in our behalf. Grant that we may not become impatient, unkind, or selfish, but in all things, like true disciples, be thankful and kind. We pray for inspiration, for strength, for a full measure of your Spirit as we seek to minister to the needs of many. Grant that we may know the satisfaction of a task well done in your name and that we may come to understand fully that in order to be first we must be willing to be last—your humble servants always, so that we need not ask Who IS the greatest. Amen.
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