TWO PICTURES

Hello All! We are on the verge of getting the internet reconnected to the church office. Then we will be back to our normal level of communication.

WORSHIP: SEPTEMBER 24, 2006
TWO PICTURES

The gospel on Sunday portrays the inner circle of Jesus and his disciples. We have two principal sets of teaching stories in the gospels. One set Jesus is teaching the crowds and his disciples are standing around as support people, or as not that supportive people, saying, "Hey Jesus, it's time to go now." The other set is Jesus with his disciples in their time alone, their quiet time. This Sunday's gospel from Mark 9:30-37 portray two such moments. One is apparently on the road, and the other in the house. We get hints that the cortege of Jesus moving from city to city can be pretty much like a parade. People are talking in groups, and looking, it is possible, very much like any group on a stroll on a country road. When Jesus teaches them again of his impending death and resurrection the disciples do not understand. They do not say anything, perhaps remembering the last time Peter commented on this message, perhaps just in an attempt to save pride. Then when they get to the house, and Jesus asks, "What were you talking about on the road? (the word in Greek is more neutral than the word "argue")", they do not respond because they were discussing who was the greatest, and they had already paid attention enough to know this is an innappropriate question. Jesus takes a child, a person who is both helpless to fend for self, but who is also free to become the person we would like or NOT, and says who ever receives such a child in my name recieves me and receives the one who sent me. Jesus is saying that greatness comes from service, comes from serving those who the world does not consider important or powerful, and that in that process we meet Jesus, and in meeting Jesus God. Service leads us into the presence of God.

The contrasting picture is in the book of Wisdom 1:16ff. This book is attempting to persuade people that belief in an afterlife is essential for proper devotion to God. It is saying life must be looked like from an eternal perspective. It paints the picture of a capable, intelligent person (possibly the Preacher from another biblical book, Ecclesisates) who on seeing that death is inevitable chooses to make the most out of life. While this policy is not necesarily a bad one, in fact I personally would commend it, the author of Wisdom points out that the problem is when this becomes the most important thing in our life. If we attempt to grab as much pleasure out of life before death, thinking death our end, it is very easy to head down a slippery slope leading first to complete self-centeredness, then to downright indifference to others, next to active exploitation of others, and finally to a mockery and even persecution of those who remind us of the values of godly justice, love and responsibility. This picture is one that leads us into further and further alienation from others and God. It is the contrast of what Jesus says the life of service leads toward.

Our desire as a church is to make our life ressemble the picture of service that Jesus points out in the gospel. Certainly parts of our life reflect both the grasping picture of Wisdom and the serving picture of Jesus. Yet in this picture of Jesus with his disciples we see that he patiently teaches and guides them. Jesus is not the controlling person who looks for a "gotcha" moment in order to dismiss you as a person. Jesus patiently teaches and works with his disciples to lead them into the way of service, into a way of life that brings us into relationship with our neighbors, especially the vulnerable ones, into relationship with Jesus and with the one who sent him. It is not by our efforts that we will reach the life of service. It is the power of God leading, guiding, forming us into the divine life of boundless generosity.