Being A Servant To All - Proper 20 - Year B

In the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at a number of scriptures from Marks Gospel and the letter of James. These scriptures have set a number of challenges for us to consider, and all of these challenges have centred on two things, are we hearers and doers of the word, and what is the cost of discipleship.

Neither James or Mark have pulled their punches, they have been crystal clear in their words and I hope that as we have looked at these topics, that we have taken the opportunity to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask searching questions.

As we begin to read from Mark, we once again see Jesus prophesy his death, there is no subtlety in the proclamation this time, it is all laid out for them to hear clearly, but whether they were thinking that He was speaking in parable or not, they didn’t question what he said, instead they moved onto a subject which was clearly pre-occupying them.

Their main concern and conversation along the road to Capernaum was who was going to be the top dog, which one of them was most important out of this varied and mismatched group of disciples? They clearly knew that it was an inappropriate topic to discuss, because when Jesus asked them about it, they fell silent.

As far as I can tell Christ had two options in how to deal with this, the first was to be upset by the fact that they were all vying for position or as we see the second option was to teach them about the true nature of Power.

If I asked today who were classed as the powerful people in the world, people such as the different world leaders, high roller from the business world, even dictators who subject their people to an intolerable rule of law, or even lawlessness would all probably come to mind. But their power is rooted in position, wealth or even the strength of their military, all worldly devices.

But Christ’s words were different, they weren’t talking about power in the same way that we might define it on a daily basis, remember the conversation between Jesus and Pilate about the true nature of Power, and how he would have none unless it had been given from above.

Some may even think that they have perceived power, through the subversive ways that they get others to do their dirty work, and this can happen at any level of society, but anything that has to live in the shadows will always been brought into the light and revealed for what it is.

You may be wondering why I say this, well it because of what Christ said to them next.

‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’

In those simple fourteen words, they and us are challenged into thinking in a counter cultural way. Jesus words and actions so far have been building to this point, he is reminding us that whether through our actions or our words, we must demonstrate an understanding of his words.

Essentially you could add a footnote at that part of the gospel and refer us to the passages that we have heard from the letter of James, where the writer has quite bluntly reminded us all that what need to be careful about how we use our words, how we treat others and even how we act in all of our dealings.

At the end of the epistle today, James drives home his point and reminds us what we must do ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.’

Now some of us may be uncomfortable with such a straight-talking statement which tells us to resist the Devil, but even though we may at times struggle to acknowledge him, brothers and sisters, he has no such issue, and if we feed him, then our problems will only increase.

We have considered the principle of what Christ is teaching the disciples, but he then re-enforces it through his actions in the final part of the scripture ‘Then he 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.’

This part of the scripture is key to our understanding of Christ’s teaching. Whilst the disciples are quarrelling amongst themselves about who is the greatest, they have missed the point and instead should be worrying about the weakest and humble members of their community, in this case the children.