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An Easy Text that is Hard

Mark 9:30-37

September 24, 2006         (Click the date to see the bulletin)

by Rev. J. Rodgers Spencer

As you are aware Pastor Ann’s sermon schedule for this month and next is, in her words "grab-bag" of "Hard Text " which you have submitted. When I saw the tentative schedule as published in the Shield, I said, "I see you didn’t assign me one. Afraid I couldn’t handle one?"  "No, No" she replied, "if you want one have one for you." I saw the twinkle in her eye, I knew she had something very special for me. "No thanks," I said, "I’ll do my own thing. Thank you very much."

So I looked at the lectionary text for today and said, people probably have a good idea as to what this text means, therefore it is an easy text. But the more I thought about the text, it occurred to me that this might just be an easy text that is hard.

Some form of this text is found each of the first three gospels. In Matthew 18 we read, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…" Each of the gospel writers has their own version. One might be tempted to say that this is Jesus’ " Children’s sermon" except Jesus is not talking to the children, he is talking about children.

In general then, what is Jesus talking about. Obviously, he is not saying that we should be childish, even though we are far too often childish. There is too much childish action and not enough child like action. If the game is not going the way we want it to go, we pick up our marbles and go home. There are many variations of this but they generally boil down to "my way or no way." No, Jesus is not suggesting that we be childish. We are that way without any suggestions.

Yet, if a child has been brought up in a loving environment, that child will usually trust the adults around him. If fact we have to teach children to be careful, don’t accept a ride from someone you don’t know. Don’t take candy from strangers. These warning are sad commentaries on our times not on our children.

What would our world look like if there was more trust?

Some of you probably saw the Newsweek cover story of a couple of weeks ago regarding the Chairman of the Board of HP Patricia Dunn who didn’t trust her board of directors and in essence had them spied upon. That’s not the only case in the corporate world where trust has been none existent, just the latest example.

Or look around the world –consider the UN "peace keeping" forces. Why are they were they are? Because each side does not trust the other so a third party has to keep the peace. Or try to keep peace.

And what are the political polls showing? A greater number of persons, for one reason or another, are not trusting our leaders.

And this lack of trust which seem to be permeating our society is also within the church. We can say the issue is this or that, but behind the issues is the lack of trust.

Am I being too simplistic? Maybe but I don’t see this lack of trust going away any time soon. And before we know it this lack of trust can slip over into our theology.-our own beliefs about God.

The weekend of September 10, while driving to St. Andrews I had the car radio tuned to NPR. They were doing a 5 year follow up on 9/11. How had the events of that day changed your life. One person that they interviewed said that she had become an atheist. Her line of thought, if I correctly remember, went something like this: she had a very close friend who just happen to have an appointment that morning that took here to one of the towers. Normally she would have been miles away but not that particular morning. She was killed. The person’s conclusion, life is too random, too much chance, God has no control therefore there is no God, or if there is, God is not for me. I am now an atheist. Life has no purpose. The next week, in the hearers response time, one wrote that this person was right on target and that 9/11would cause other atheists to, as he put it, "to come out of the closet." And I though, what a shame, when you have a misplaced trust it can certainly mess up things.

It would seem that these persons had a trust that God would somehow "protect" them from all harm and dangers. The Psalmist said, "even though I walk through the valley of deep shadows, thou art with me." The Psalmist did not say, I will lead you around the valley of deep shadows, and getting to the green pastures may mean climbing some steep ravines. We have to know what God does promise as well as what God does not promise.

I had a seminary Old Testament professor who spoke of "the mighty acts of God."

He saw the stories in the Old Testament as God’s mighty acts, Abraham believed, trusted God and responded moving his people hundreds of miles to the new land. The binding of Isaac by Abraham was further testimony of Abraham’s complete confidence and trust in God. Moses protested yet trusted God would stand with him as he lead his people. One could go on but the point is that in the face of over whelming odds God could be trusted.

God did not and does not promise any thing that God cannot provide. We may want God to promise something else, but we need to be very clear as what it is that God does promised.

I find it interesting that these three passages concerning Jesus and the children are grouped under the heading of "understanding greatness."

It is as though true greatness is not in our power or our strength, or any of the things that this world considers ‘great and powerful’, but rather greatness and power are found in the weak, the vulnerable, those know and understand their limitations and trust another with their life. They trust in the face of disbelief.

Is it any wonder then that I call this a easy text that is hard. It is hard because we are no longer in control .

I am reminded of the scene in "The Last Crusade" where Indiana Jones comes to a great chiasm, no way across, but a leap of faith, finally he steps out and the camera shows him with one leg reaching out , the beginning of a step, and as the leg comes down a bridge suddenly appears and he crosses over.
Its one thing to see this in a movie when you know the hero will survive, it is something else when it comes to our own life and we are called to trust God and take the leap of faith.

A not so easy text that is hard to live, but that is what we are called to do.

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