Text of my sermon from Sunday, September 20th

The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 20, 2009
Park Avenue Presbyterian Church; Des Moines, Iowa
Texts: Proverbs 31: 10-31
Psalm 1
James 3: 13 – 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9: 30-37 *

“Learning the Embrace”

--} Today’s gospel reading begins a second time with Jesus “TEACHING” his disciples: “the Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Mark tells us that the disciples “didn’t understand” and “were afraid to ask;” instead, the “context” reminds us that the disciples had been arguing about “who was the greatest,” while Jesus was trying to TEACH them about being betrayed, killed, and raised. And that’s when “it” happens.

Jesus calls the disciples over, explaining AGAIN that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then, “Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” It’s an “object lesson.”

All at the same time, Jesus seems to be talking about a lot of things, because of the Greek word, {devcomai}. The best, easiest, simplest translation of, {devcomai} is “to take” or “to receive”—as in “taking” a cup in one’s hand, or “receiving” someone or something—as in a “guest” or a “gift.” When Jesus “took [the] little child” to “put it among them,” the word is another Greek word that means to “take one in one’s arms”—a more explicit image implying a kind of embrace where one’s arms first surround and then hold the child. THEN, {devcomai}is the word most translations offer as “welcome.”

For me, there are three actions here. Jesus “takes the child,” as in—“in his arms”—THEN, Jesus places the child among the disciples, saying, “whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” So there’s, “taking,” “placing,” and THEN, an act of “welcoming” or “receiving” that I believe Jesus “demonstrates.” It’s an object lesson—or, “here’s how you do it.

If we unpack these actions a bit, what Jesus seems to be saying is that when you {devcomai} a child, you {devcomai} Jesus; but your {devcomai} is not just for Jesus, because in doing it, you’re REALLY {devcomai}—ing God. “To receive,” or “welcome” are generally the appropriate terms to translate, {devcomai}; Jesus is saying, when you receive me, you receive God; when you welcome another, you welcome God. But “receiving” and “welcome” alone don’t connote everything I believe Jesus is implying. The word {devcomai} historically is used to imply “receiving”—especially in the sense of “hospitality” that was everywhere honored and held sacred in the ancient world. We see this in the Hebrew tradition, even to the extent that one can “receive God”—like Abraham “welcoming” visitors or Moses “receiving God’s word” in the burning bush. {devcomai} is the word Mark uses earlier in the gospel story to describe Jesus’ instructions for the disciples who are “sent out.” Where the disciples are “received”—or not—indicates a “receiving”—or not—of Jesus himself. If a community “receives” the disciples, they are to stay there and don’t have to “shake the dust from their feet.” Such “hospitality” is not just for the disciples, but for the one who “sent them.”

I’m sure this basic argument is why many translations of Mark 9:37 use the word, “welcome.” But here’s the problem. If we’re welcoming a “guest,” shall we say, there’s a protocol. We speak words of greeting, there are gestures like hand-shaking or hugging, we open our home, we prepare a meal—such is a “welcome” for friend or even foe. Actually, we have rule books like “Mrs. Manners” or official State Department Protocols that define how “welcome” is to be done. But just how do you “welcome” a child? Particularly a small or smallest child?—one who may yet be an infant?

Mark carefully describes the scene where Jesus takes this child in his arms, then places her among his disciples. The child, requiring first to be “taken in his arms,” seems small enough to imply an infant; but perhaps more importantly in the context, one that surely CONTRASTS the disciples presumptions about “greatness.” So I think Jesus takes an infant—an example of absolute human weakness—and puts it amongst the disciples as if saying, “this one is the greatest.” It’s an object lesson: “power, made perfect in weakness”—which seems to be Jesus’ point in teaching about being betrayed, killed, and raised.

So first, I believe we’re dealing with an infant. Then, the question becomes, “how do you ‘welcome’ or ‘receive’ an infant?” You can’t talk to him, or at least she can’t really talk back to you in the right “protocol” for a visitor. So, how do you welcome an infant? And I think some slightly different language would help us to complete the picture.

You can’t really “welcome” or “receive” an “infant” just by looking at her or talking to him; it requires—almost by necessity, when we do it rightly—an “embrace.” You have to literally—carefully take that “littlest one” in your arms and sort of cuddle it. Don’t you? Your “holding it” means your hands, your arms, your body must speak where your lips, mouth, and brain will be inadequate. It’s far more physical, I suppose, than not—like the meaning implied by the word, “embrace”—a kind of “demonstrative action.”

Jesus says, when you “embrace” one such infant, you are “embracing” God. When you “embrace” one such as an infant—weak, helpless, unable to defend himself or speak for herself, one whose behavior isn’t controlled by emotion or manners or rules about protocol, one who is frighteningly vulnerable, one who is almost alien to us as adults because we often live in more “adult ways” in an “adult world”—just ask any mother who needs some “adult time” to balance the days and nights spent at home with infants! So Jesus says first, “God’s embrace of us” FEELS, just like it does to us when we are “embracing” an infant; but it’s much more than that, isn’t?

Jesus invites his disciples to “embrace” the weakest one as if she were the “greatest.” Try that on for a bit. Before we ask “how,” we might need to know, “who”—are the “weakest” among us. And we could point to an infant, but we know it goes farther than that. Look at all the people Jesus talks to, treats with respect, heals, and restores—in his ministry. Jesus is TEACHING “FOLLOWERS” to treat “THEM” as we would treat an infant—to embrace them, care for them, hold them, love them, restore them. Yet, when we do that, we’re wrapping our hearts and hands and HEADS not just around some weak ones, or even Jesus, but around God himself!

Some people’s “image” of God is like “a doting grandfather.” Jesus says when we act the part of the doting Grandfather or Grandmother, we are in fact, then embracing God. But to do that , we must first “REVERSE” our image of God—finding God not in the greatest or best position (the grandparent), but instead as the weakest and most forlorn. It’s an “object lesson;” Jesus teaching us to believe and understand that we are only as “strong” as our “weakest one.”

Take that to this great healthcare yelling-match! I’ve come across people screaming only about what’s right for them; people who express vehemently their dissatisfaction at any kind of “public option,” presuming it will work out that they’ll have to be paying for the healthcare for people who “eat at McDonalds,” “smoke,” “don’t exercise enough,” or who otherwise “don’t take care of themselves.” Some people really want to believe we should pay for “health insurance” like “care insurance”—so that those who “drive like a maniac,” would rightfully pay more! But they fail to consider that some people drive WITHOUT insurance, and we ALL pay for that—more than we might if we ALL had coverage; or, that if people had access to health-care, there are demonstrated ways of helping people live “healthier” and in the long run that REDUCES costs for everyone—just like good driving would. By the way, regardless of which side wins or loses or how much WE get to pay for it, there will ALWAYS be too many vulnerable children—or weak ones—left out or uncovered. Perhaps Jesus would teach “followers” to be sure to stand up for “them”—the “weak ones”—before we stand up for ourselves.

In that way, this passage carries us beyond simple acts of kindness or justice. Because to “receive” God, is more than just giving God a hug. The other side of the word {devcomai} is to receive a teaching—to hear what one is saying, reacting positively toward a message given. So let’s say, for example, that we all ran out today and found someone “weaker” to “embrace,” and that in “embracing” that other person we are “embracing” God. In that “embrace” we offer, is God’s “embrace” of us, and with it, God’s “using us” because we have “embraced” what is God’s desire and made it our own. It’s not all self-serving from our side; it’s God being served in God’s ability to be within and among us, and for God ultimately to have God’s way because we have {devcomai}ed.

If the disciples wanted to know “who was the greatest,” Jesus tells them, “it’s the weakest one.”
If we are wanting to know how it is that we can “receive” Jesus and understand his teaching better than the disciples who “didn’t,” it means not looking for the greatest, but finding the weakest one and embracing him or her.
Because when we “embrace” the “weakest one,” we are “embracing” Jesus—receiving him, hearing his teaching, following his example. But we’re not just “{devcomai}--ing” Jesus either; when we “embrace” the weakest one, we are hugging—and being hugged back by—God.


--+ AMEN.