Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 20, 2009
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Sermon for September 20, 2009

Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Texts: Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37

Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator and from Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Over the past few years, I have had the joy of joining with several members of St. Peter’s in reading with students at Stony Brook School. We were invited into classrooms and had the opportunity to read with students, and also to listen as students were reading to us. I am sure I am not alone among those who volunteered in saying that this was an utter joy.

The gift of my time with those young people was that I learned infinitely more from them then I think that they learned from me. The lessons I learned from them were much like the lessons Jesus was teaching his disciples on that road so very long ago.

So let me tell you a little story about it. One day, this past Spring, I went to Stony Brook School to read. The teacher and the students greeted me, as they always did, with utter kindness and welcomed me to sit on a stool and to read. They got themselves settled and looked at me with eager anticipation. I sat at the front of the classroom feeling important and wise and great. Each day, before listening to students practicing reading, I would read a book that was written in both English and Spanish. Some days my Spanish was better than others. This day, despite my feeling so important on my stool, I was particularly bad, and, as I always corrected their pronunciation of English words as they read to me, they would also correct my Spanish.

We were reading a book that repeatedly had the phrase “que maravilloso!” which is the exclamation, “how marvelous!” Somehow, I could not say, “maravilloso!” correctly. Over and over again I said it wrong and over and over again they corrected me. I kept hoping, with each page turn, that the word was not there. Finally, I got to the end of the book and read the last page. The story concluded with “que maravilloso!” So I took a deep breath and said it... “que maravilloso!” There was a long silence and finally sweet young Hector said to me, “Pastora, you got it! Que maravilloso!” The whole classroom cheered.

And do you know what? It was not just the pronunciation of that word that I got that day, but I got – at least for a little bit – what Jesus might be talking about in his gospel. The greatest among you will become the least. Welcome a little child among you. It’s as if Jesus said to those disciples and to me, “It’s not about you. It’s not about you alone. Rather, it’s about the most vulnerable among you. It’s about who your are together as a community. And, in the end, it’s about Jesus, who loves all of you.”

As I sat there, knowing I was wrong and being corrected, repeatedly, by a group of 9 and 10 year olds, my inflated pride deflated. They were being neither impertinent nor disrespectful. They just wanted the word they knew and loved to be pronounced correctly and knew that if I, the adult they trusted and respected, practiced it enough I would get it right. For just that moment, the teacher became the student and the student the teacher. I fumbled with a few words and hopefully they were encouraged in all their fumbling as they learned a new language. I was reminded that all my self-inflated importance didn’t matter a whole lot unless it mattered for these young people and all those who matter, who are precious, in the eyes of God.

Jesus reminded his disciples, as he walked with them to the cross, that following him is not about who is the greatest, who can speak the best, or has the most influence, or who has the best degree or which congregation is the most successful. Instead Jesus calls them to a life which seeks not the biggest, the brightest or the best. Rather, Jesus calls them to a life of service, of being the littlest, the least and the loser. This is hard to hear. But it reminds us that Jesus has a whole different set of priorities for us. Jesus doesn’t place value on all the crazy things we do in this society.

Instead Jesus places value on a child. In Jesus’ day children were seen as property and really worthless until they could do something. Children were seen as dirty and disruptive and dishonorable, so to welcome a child was not what honorable people did. When Jesus pulled into the center of that community a child, he reminded them that our life is not about seeking our own ends for our own sake, but rather that our life is about living together, so that each one, especially the most vulnerable – like children – are cared for and lifted up.

In the end, Jesus reminds us that it is not about how great we are, how well we do, how successful we are as congregations or as individuals. Rather it is about Jesus. It is about Jesus, who has gone to the cross and risen from the dead. Jesus was the greatest who become the least. Jesus was the the most powerful, and yet, became human, so that each of us – from the greatest to the least, from the youngest to the oldest, the poorest to the richest, the most successful congregation to the one which is about to close – each of us, all of us, are brought into God’s grace, God’s goodness and God’s life.

Perhaps Jesus brought those little ones into the middle of them to remind the disciples that it was not these little ones’ pronunciation or their abilities that made Jesus love them. That their misunderstandings and arguments would not keep Jesus from loving them, too. Instead that little one is loved purely for his or her own sake, because he or she is created and made in God’s image. A parent doesn’t love a child because she has perfect penmanship or because he is excellent at banging pots and pans or playing Mozart on the piano. Rather, a parent loves a child because that child is theirs!

We, the beloved children of our heavenly parent are loved, not because of what we do or fail to do, not because of our greatness and all the important things we’ve done. We are loved because of who we are and because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. And the promise is bigger than that. We are loved despite the fact that we have so often failed, so often have forgotten those in need of love, and like those disciples, put our priorities in all the wrong places. Yet, we, too, are forgiven and corrected, and given new opportunities, new life and new ones to love.

We, like those children, are brought into the arms of Jesus, fed with his body and blood and given new life and forgiveness and grace. Jesus has become least so that we might know the greatest love. Jesus became a servant so that we might know the joys of his kingdom. Jesus died so that we might know life. To this we can say, properly pronounced or not, “How marvelous! Que maravilloso!”

Thanks be to God
Amen