September 23, 2012: FREE JESUS

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Mark 9:30-37

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie B. Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning the Bethany community is blessed to be celebrating the baptism of not one, not two, but five new sisters and brothers in Christ! Thanks be to God! Amen! 

Because our worship service has already been focused on children this morning—and because Jesus has something to say about children in our Gospel text as well—I thought it appropriate to share with you one of my family’s favorite picture books.

The book is called “Millions of Cats”, and it is actually the oldest American picture book still in print. We rescued ours from a library book sale for 25 cents, and as you can see we have added several layers of masking tape since that time to protect our investment.

The story is a simple one. A very old couple is lonely, so the very old man goes out to find the very old woman a beautiful cat to keep them company. After traveling far away from home, he finds a hillside covered in "Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats..."

The very old man tried to choose the most beautiful cat, but he couldn’t decide, so he went back over the sunny hills and down through the cool valleys, with all those hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats following him.

Of course, when the very old woman sees how many cats he has brought home, she is none too happy. “We can never feed them all! They will eat us out of house and home!” So they thought they would let the cats decide, and they called out: “Which one of you is the prettiest?” Hearing that, the cats began to quarrel, starting a cat fight so intense that the man and woman ran into the house for safety while the hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats argued over which one is the prettiest.

But after awhile the noise stopped and the very old man and the very old woman peeped out of the window to see what had happened. They could not see a single cat! Apparently, in their quarrel to decide who is the prettiest of them all, the cats had completely eaten each other up.

Then the very old man sees one little frightened kitten, thin and scraggly, sitting in some high grass. He was just a homely little cat, so when they asked who was the prettiest, he didn’t say anything at all, and no one bothered to fight with him.

They took the kitten into the house, and gave him a bath and fed him warm milk until he was quite plump and happy. He turned out to be a very pretty cat after all. “And I ought to know” said the very old man. “For I’ve seen hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats—and not one was as pretty as this one.”

Do you think Wanda Gag, the author of this little picture book, had been reading the Gospel of Mark? Whenever I imagine those hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats arguing over which one was the prettiest, I can’t help seeing the disciples on the road with Jesus, arguing over who was the greatest. Of course, the disciples didn’t eat each other up, but I think they were fairly eaten up with embarrassment when Jesus looked at them and said, with a straight face: “So, what were you arguing about there on the road?”

And the disciples were silent. They just don’t get it.

They don’t get it, because they’re busy trying to save themselves. They don’t get it, because they’re constantly jockeying for the best position in the kingdom. They don’t get it, because they’d rather argue about who is the greatest, who is the holiest, and which disciple should get the corner office. Just like those millions of cats in our picture book, the twelve disciples are caught up in the same “dog-eat-dog” culture we live in, where people look out only for their own interests, and only the prettiest cat gets to live in the big house.

And this is when Jesus decides to stop talking to the disciples and start using pictures to teach them. Sitting down, he gathers the twelve around him and says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” And then he takes a little child and puts it among them; and taking the child in his arms, he says to them, “Pay attention! This is what I’m talking about! Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

I must say, as tempting as it might be for me to link today’s five baptisms to this one lovely verse about welcoming children, I’m afraid this Gospel text isn’t really about children. It’s about access to Jesus.
Who gets to be near Jesus? Who does he listen to? Whose prayers get answered? Who gets forgiveness? Who deserves love? What can I do to improve my chances?

These are the questions the disciples were afraid to ask. Truthfully, these are probably the questions we all want to ask. And the answer is as difficult for us to accept today as it was two thousand years ago! It’s very simple, really: Being the best, the brightest, the holiest, the smartest, the fastest, the prettiest, the oldest member, the biggest giver, or the finest preacher will never gain you special access to Jesus. And if you continue fighting over these things, you will eat yourselves up. You will be eaten up with worry, with work, with dieting, with addiction, with anger, or with jealousy, until there’s simply nothing left.

The Good News is this: We don’t have to beat others out of the way to gain access to Jesus. Jesus is God’s free gift to all, from the best and brightest to the last and the least. Amen!

Jesus is for all. However, Jesus goes on to say: If you want to be first, you must be last of all and servant of all. If you want to get to know me better, then find the voiceless, the powerless, the poor, and the invisible among you, and invite them along too. Whoever welcomes one of these, welcomes me. Serve them, and you will know me.

Now in 1st century Palestine, a child was the perfect object lesson for Jesus’ sermon. The disciples were constantly shooing children away, in spite of Jesus’ protests, because their culture considered children even lower than slaves. They definitely considered children non-essential to the Jesus movement.

But in our suburban, child-centered culture, I’m not sure a child would make the same point. So who might it be? Who might Jesus bring into the middle of the church this morning as our living example of a voiceless, powerless, invisible, “almost-person?”

A PADS client, whom we would rather leave in the basement?

A transgender person, whose very presence might make us uncomfortable?

A person with Alzheimer’s, who might be inappropriate in the service?

Or…could a child still fit the bill, even in far suburban Chicago? After all, they might not understand the sermon. They might not sit still. They might drop some communion bread.

Who do we find it hardest to serve? Who do we find it most difficult to believe Jesus would want to have hanging around his house and representing his movement?

Whoever that is, Jesus invites us to take a second look. We just might see our Savior there.

The issue of who has access to Jesus was made vivid in the middle of Denver this Friday. Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber and her church, The House for All Sinners and Saints, decided to participate in the 2012 Parking Day. Parking Day is an annual worldwide event where artists, designers and citizens transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks and community space.

However, instead of turning their parking space into a park, House for All Sinners and Saints turned a city parking space into a church. There, amidst the traffic and the noise, blocked off only with orange traffic cones and a sign over the parking meter which said “FREE JESUS”, Pastor Nadia and church members took liturgy to the streets. They invited passersby to write prayers on slips of paper and hang them on a clothesline—prayers for the city, for the world, and for themselves. They shared the Good News. And they celebrated communion.

There was no organ, no altar paraments, no ushers, no choir anthem, no worship bulletin, and absolutely no barriers to receiving the gift of Jesus in the bread and the wine. Passersby were welcomed in, no matter how they were dressed, what they believed, how long they had been away from church, and whether they looked Lutheran or looked completely lost. The gifts of God, free and for all! Amen!

Sisters and brothers, today we have had the great honor of welcoming children into our community through baptism. We rejoice in the free gift of grace they have each received today, through Water and the Word. Remember today your own baptism, and the radical welcome you have received through Jesus Christ. And then, as we are sent out from this place, let us boldly proclaim that Jesus is for all. All are forgiven. All are loved. All are made whole. All are welcome. Free Jesus! Amen!