David Orendorff        Mark 9:30-37        March 15, 2009

Who is the greatest among us?  Look around.  Think of those not present.  Who is the greatest?  Is it Ray Robinson - a world renowned orthopedic surgeon?  Or is it Brad Shoup - the team doctor for the Seattle Seahawks and nominated as Best Doctor in Western Washington on King 5 News (you can vote online)?  Maybe it is Ellen Boyer - the Chief Financial and Operations Officer for Kibble and Prentice with a remarkable career of aiding the company’s amazing growth?  Or could it be Tom Litchford, the Industry Director for Microsoft and soon to be a major member of the World Marketing Team?  Or what about Melinda Braun Holland -one of the founders of Wildlife Computers and now the Chief Executive Officer and Technical Director?  Who is the greatest among us?

The disciples are having this discussion among themselves.  If they or we are going to answer “who is greatest” we need to define what makes a person great.  Every culture has a definition.  The Mediterranean culture of Jesus time had what we now call a “patronage system.”  This system is still functioning in the Mideast and maybe among us.  See if it sounds familiar.

The patronage system was based on honor and shame, sort of a way of keeping score for greatness.  If you were wealthy that was honorable but if you were poor that was shameful.  If you were involved in public service that was honorable but if you were a thief that was shameful.  If you were educated and literate that was honorable but it you were uneducated and illiterate that was shameful.  If you were handsome or beautiful and in good health that was honorable but if you were unattractive and in poor health that was dishonorable.   If you were male that was honorable but if you were female that was shameful. And if you were an adult that was honorable but if you were a child that was dishonorable.

So the greatest were healthy, handsome adult males who were educated, wealthy and gave public service.  And the least were ugly and ill children, especially girls who were poor and illiterate existing by the charity of others, prostitution, or some sort of thievery.  Based on this code, preference and honor were given to the greatest and the least were deprived and shunned.

Judaism also had its measure of greatness.  It was based on a purity system of blessings and curses, both of which came from God.  It was a blessing to be wealthy and a curse to be poor.  It was a blessing to be publically generous and a curse to be a thief.  It was a blessing to be educated in Torah and Hebrew and a curse to be illiterate.  It was a blessing to be healthy and beautiful and a curse to be malformed and ill.  It was a blessing to be a male and a curse to be a female.  It was a blessing to be an adult and a curse to be a child.  Those with the greater blessings were purer and preferred by God and so preferred company for society.  Those with greater curses were cast aside and even ritually cast away from community and God.

It is from the Mediterranean and Jewish understanding of greatness that the disciples argue their greatness.  Mark has literarily made this argument follow Jesus’ second time of teaching that the Son of Man will be handed over (betrayed), killed and then on the third day rise.  The Son of Man is a reference to Jesus as the messiah. But it also means humanity, every child born human.  Jesus will be betrayed, die and be raised and so shall we.  This literary juxtaposition highlights what Jesus teaches next, “If anyone would be first (greatest) he must be last of all and servant of all.”

To strengthen the point Jesus takes a child, the least of all humanity, goes to the very center of the gathered disciples, holds the child in his arms and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”

The language of hospitality is being intentionally used.  To receive (decemai) means to be hospitable.  It is to welcome someone into ones home and by that welcome, to do all in one’s power to give shelter, safety, food and clothing; to meet all of a guest’s basic needs.  But it is more than meeting basic needs; it is also to give peace and comfort, harmony and joy.  It is to make ones home a place of shalom.  It evokes the 23^rd Psalm:

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy

shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

my whole life long.

And it intentionally equates being completely hospitable to this child, this least of humanity, with receiving Jesus and receiving God; with receiving the who dies for us and the one who raises not only Jesus, but every child from death.

In trying to understand this I thought of my family life.  When I was single I was the greatest person in my family of one.  I got my preferred treatment. I went to the school to which I wanted to go.  I tried to date the girls I wanted to date.  I ate the foods, watched the movies, I wanted.  Whenever and wherever I felt like going I went.  I drove and hitchhiked all over Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Washington without the permission of anyone but myself.

Then I got married and things changed.  I was the co-greatest person in my life.  Now I had to consult with another on further schooling.  I couldn’t just get up and go.  I had to ask and arrange things by another’s time schedule.  Meals were planned according to two people’s preferences.  I was half servant to myself and half servant to Vickie.

Then we had children and things changed even more.  I left school, got a job, had to feed and house the family.  I quit randomly and spontaneously travelling.  And when we did travel it had to be well planned and orchestrated for potty and food stops, sleeping arrangements, endless hours of mindless children’s songs repeated again and again and again.  Personal greatness and self preference just wasn’t an option.  Growing up meant I had become the servant of my family before I served myself.

And then I was gifted a granddaughter.  I am now a complete slave.  When she says, “Stand Pop” I stand.  When she says, “Sit Pop” I sit.  When she says, “Read Pop” I read to her and when she says “Cheez-It Cracker Pop” I check with Nana (Vickie) to make sure it is OK and then sometimes just sneak it to her anyway.  If I had to die for her to live I would die.  If I have any greatness in me as defined by Jesus, it is as Pop.

God as Jesus becomes our Pop like slave.  Jesus loves us so much that he permits himself to be humiliated and crucified so that we might understand what love really means.  To let us know the depth of his love for us and the strength of his desire for us to be forgiven of even our betrayals, he dies.  That we might be set free from our past failures and be able to love with a divine passion, he dies.

And God as our creator is our Nana.  She embraces the dead body of her son and raises him to life anew.  God is obviously the greatest.  But God’s greatness is not because she is omnipotent, omniscient or any of the other “ents”.  God is the greatest because God is the great servant of creation.  God has chosen to be our slave.  How humbling is that; that God would choose to be our slave?  And the greatest of us are like God.  We are servant to all by giving life as best we can.

It comes down to this.  The greatest among us is the one who will give their life in a divine hospitality for the least honorable and the least blessed.  Jesus gives all of his life so that we might know the truth about God’s servant love for us; that we might grow in a trusting faith that God is for us and we can be godly for each other.  To follow Jesus is to use the power of the Holy Spirit that has entered into us, whatever gifts we have for making life, for those who need life.  To be the greatest is to be the present kingdom of God to our world just as Jesus is the present kingdom of God to us.  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”

Shalom and amen.