IF ANYONE WANTS TO BE FIRST

 Mark 9:30-37

Is this argument appropriate in our days? I think not. I mean imagine it - trying to decide who is more important. What measuring would we use? Those who farm - are they the greatest because they produce the milk and food we need to eat?

Are the teachers among us the most important because they train people in the various jobs they must do and provide them with the tools they need to learn new things with? Or is it doctors because without them most diseases would be fatal? It is an endless argument once you get into it, and the disciples did well to remain silent about when confronted by the master.

Why this quest to determine who is most important?  Why this quest to be number one? I mean why bother wondering who is greatest? why this quest to be better or more powerful than other people?  why this desire to Lord it over our brothers and sisters as if that was somehow important to do?

Surely there is a different way of looking at life?  A more helpful way a way that totally avoids the question of greatness Jesus speaks of a different way of living and of thinking when after asking his disciples about what they were arguing about, calls all twelve of them together and says to them:

          "If anyone  wants to be first, he must be the very

          last, and the servant of all."

And then taking a little child and having him stand among them, he takes the child in his arms and says to  them: Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my  name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.

I have always liked that, both as an image, and as a teaching. Jesus calls the twelve - and he calls us - away from our arguments about who is greatest, and who deserves more and who should call the shots and turns our mind instead to the question of our attitude and how willing we are to humble ourselves and to serve one another.

Who are the children today? who are those people who are not highly regarded? who are those without a place of their own? those without a leg to stand on? those whose voices are heard not because they have a right to be heard, but only because the more powerful indulge them from time to time?

Who is seen as less important, by us, and by our society?

          Whoever welcomes one of these in my name, welcomes me;

          and whoever welcomes me, does not welcome me, but the

          one who sent me.

Jesus is saying that life in the Kingdom of God is not about being the greatest, or the first... but rather about seeing other people as important and this not in degree - not in measurement, but rather in an absolute way, a way that ignores all distinctions.

Life lived according to the way of Christ is a life of opening ones arms and welcoming people into our embrace - and showing them that we care. It is about opening the pipeline at both ends so nothing at all impedes the flow of peace, the flow of love.

It requires the recognition that it is really only God who is important, and that God is found in the simple things, in the lowly things, in the ordinary things. There is poem about the attitude that Jesus calls those who bear his name to have.  It goes like this:

When I say..."I am a Christian"

 I'm not shouting "I am saved"

 I'm whispering "I was lost"

 That is why I chose this way.

     

When I say ..."I am a Christian"

I don't speak of this with pride.

 I'm confessing that I stumble

 and need someone to be my guide.

              

 When I say..."I am a Christian"

 I'm not trying to be strong

 I'm professing that I'm weak

 and pray for strength to carry on.

           

 When I say..."I am a Christian"

 I'm not showing of success.

 I'm admitting I have failed

 and cannot ever pay the debt.

          

 When I say..."I am a Christian"

 I'm not claiming to be perfect,

 My faults are too visible

 But, God believes I'm worth it.

          

When I say..."I am a Christian"

 I do not wish to judge.

 I have no authority.

 I only know I'm loved.

I think that most of us looking for a better life for ourselves.

We would like to feel more at peace,

We would like to have more joy and happiness,

We would like to see an end to the world's problems

This can only come to us when we give up the world's standards of success

as they are measured by power, status, and money - and turn as humble

children to our Father in Heaven and learn from him.

Recall the words of our Psalm reading today:

     Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or

     take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

     but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they

     meditate day and night

As long as we discriminate between people,

as long as we judge some more important than others,

as long as we desire to be more important ourselves

as long as we, to use the words of James in today's reading, envy others

and have selfish ambitions,

we block out what God has in store for us, and our world.

Jesus came among us not as a Lord, not as a boss, not as an important

person but as servant.

He came to touch, to embrace, to heal, to forgive, to help, to love.

and this even when he knew it would take him to the cross.

Our prayer should not be "make me someone important",

nor should it be "give me wealth and success".

Rather, knowing that God is fully able and fully willing to give us what we

need in life, and that our God is found in those whom the world regards of

no account, our prayer should be like that of St. Francis.

     Make me a channel of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let me

     bring your love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is

     doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light; and where there is

     sadness, joy.