The First Children's Sermon
Mark 9:30-37

  Jesus loves the little children…all the children of the world …red and yellow, black and white … they are precious in his sight … Jesus loves the little children of the world.

It’s hard to say those lines without singing them, isn’t it? And I love that stanza because I think it accurately reflects just how Jesus felt about children.

Children were important to Jesus. He told his earliest followers that they must receive the Kingdom of God like children. And in this morning’s text we read that we must welcome children as we would welcome God.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let’s go back to the beginning of our passage. It starts by informing us that Jesus and his disciples were traveling through Galilee.

Jesus was teaching his disciples about how the Son of Man (Jesus) was going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and be killed, and then on the third day rise again. The disciples didn’t understand what he meant - AND the text says that they were afraid to ask him about it.

Instead, they were arguing … arguing about who was the greatest.  They all wanted to have the privileged seat at the table with Jesus. 

When they arrived at Capernaum, Jesus asked them about it, saying: "So, what were you guys arguing about on the way here?”

The disciples didn't know what to say.  They were embarrassed.  They looked at the ground … shuffled their feet.  They felt like little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. 

Nobody answered.  Not even Peter, who always had a quick answer on the tip of his tongue.  Just silence!

Now, Jesus didn't say, "Hey, I know what you were talking about!"  He didn't rebuke them.  He just sat down and answered the question that had been in the back of their minds – “What must we do to be #1?” 

Jesus told them: "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

What? Say again! You know how it feels when your head is one place but the person to whom you are listening says something completely out of the blue. 

I can just imagine the disciples sitting around Jesus with this kind of dazed look on their face.

And then probably saying to Jesus: “Oh!  Oh!  Of course!  We knew that!” 

But, of course, they didn't!  They didn't have a clue.

Then Jesus calls over a little child and takes the child in his arms.  Now this surely surprised the disciples.

You need to know that in that time and place, a father might take his child into his arms, but rabbis didn't go around hugging children – of course, Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. 

Can’t you just imagine Jesus pulling that child close -- perhaps saying a kind word or asking a question. 

And if Jesus asked a question, you can be sure that he waited for the child to answer -- that Jesus listened -- that Jesus paid attention to the child. 

And while he did that, his disciples watched – still clueless.

Then Jesus said: "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not only me but also the one who sent me."

Ah, there you have it!  A little sermon!  The First Children's Sermon – if you will! 

Only it wasn't a sermon FOR children but a sermon ABOUT children.  It was what we call an "object lesson" -- but this time the object wasn't a ball or a cup of water or something else with which a child could identify.  This time the object WAS the child. 

We might think of it as a Backwards Children Sermon -- a sermon where Jesus used a child to teach the adults.

What did the sermon mean?  What was Jesus talking about when he said, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me." 

To begin with, in that culture, people had an obligation to practice hospitality.  When travelers came, you had an obligation to feed them -- to put them up overnight -- to protect them -- to treat them as family.  That's what it meant to welcome someone. 

It meant to take care of their needs -- to help them -- to feed them -- to make them FEEL welcome -- to make them feel like part of the family.

And isn’t that what we are supposed to do with our kids?  We do that, in part, because especially early on, they aren’t able to care for themselves.  It is OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

That’s why Jesus chose a child – not only to draw our attention to children in general, but also as a symbol for all those in need, helpless, or disadvantaged.

That means we should consider that Jesus is calling us to also welcome the homeless, the disabled, the mentally ill, the sick, the uneducated, the Third World person, and anyone else who cannot repay our hospitality or make it "worth our while." 

Jesus said, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." 

What is it that you want out of life? What is it you want from God? 

I think that most of us are looking for a better life for ourselves and our
families and our world. 

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. 

We would like to see our children, and our children's children be able
to grow up with enough to eat, and the ability to do what they want 
when they want to, and we hope that what they will want will be good 
for them and for those that they meet.

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 God and learn from him. 

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

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. 

 “Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to 
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love with 
all my soul. 

 “Make me a channel of your peace for it is in pardoning that I am 
pardoned; in giving that I receive; and in dying that I am born to eternal 
life.” 

Jesus said you who want to be great – must be servant of all. 

Let me close with a story about just such greatness. Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is famous for the work that she has done with people who are dying.  She revolutionized the care that people in hospitals and hospices receive as they are dying. 

Thousands -- perhaps millions of people have experienced gentler, kinder deaths because of her work.

Kubler-Ross noticed that a particular woman seemed to have a special touch with dying patients.  She was a maintenance woman who made beds and cleaned rooms and emptied bedpans -- but dying people always seemed to be more peaceful when she was around. 

Kubler-Ross asked the woman her secret.  Listen to what the woman said. 

"Well, I've been up the mountain and I've been down the mountain. I've lived in many valleys. The worst was when I went to a public clinic with my three year old daughter in my arms, and before we could see a doctor, she died of pneumonia."

The woman continued: "I could have become cynical and angry, but instead I decided to use my pain to help others. I'm no stranger to death, and that's why I'm not afraid to talk and touch those who are dying. I try to give them hope."

Kubler-Ross promoted her. She made the woman a special counselor to the dying in that hospital.

Would you like to be great?  Great in Jesus' eyes?  Great in God's eyes? 

Find someone who needs help -- someone who can't pay you back -- someone like a child -- or a homeless person -- or a sick person -- or a prisoner. 

Do what you can for them.  Do it in Jesus' name. 

If you will do that, Jesus will take it personally.  He will say, "You did it for me." 

And he will bless your life.

Amen.