Mark\u2019s Gospel was the first written. It is the shortest. Likely it was a one-person play, something that was first memorized and shared via oral tradition. Only in time did it go from one-person dramatic storytelling to gospel text, written down, copied, and eventually read throughout the Church and the world. Mark\u2019s Greek is quick and to the point, not as elegant or poetic as Luke. Jesus and his disciples are always on the move, with Mark constantly saying, \u201cand then.\u201d Mark and the storytellers who gave us his words have a sense of urgency about the whole of Jesus\u2019 life and teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This quick, urgent storytelling also yields excerpts of stories that are very direct and to the point. With such directness and pointedness, the Church in the 21st century can be left asking, \u201cSo what?\u201d or \u201cWhat else is there to take from this?\u201d This is particularly tempting or easy to do if the story is one of familiarity \u2014 the likelihood of which increases if a version of the passage is contained in Matthew, Mark, and Luke\u2026like today\u2019s excerpt is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus is walking through Galilee with his disciples. He\u2019s gathered those closest to him to teach them (not a crowd), and he tells them for a second time what\u2019s to come: that he will die and be raised again. Last week the Church heard Jesus say that the first time in Mark. In the space between last week\u2019s text and this week\u2019s text, Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray and Peter, James, and John see him transfigured with Moses and Elijah there to offer their approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the way down the mountain, Jesus tells those three not to say anything because it\u2019s not time yet. This week he and the disciples are on the move so that others don\u2019t hear the teaching, \u201cThe Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.\u201d Despite Jesus doing a really good job of using his words, saying almost the exact same thing for a second time, having a transfiguration transformation experience, and just healing a demoniac, the disciples don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how revolutionary the Resurrection is. Jesus says exactly what he means, and yet the disciples don\u2019t understand. As Christians who find our hope of all things being made right at the end of time in the Resurrection \u2014 that death itself has been defeated \u2014 we know that Jesus means exactly what he says. The disciples, so used to seeing one self-appointed messiah come and go while their occupation under the Romans remains, can\u2019t fathom that Jesus actually means that he will die and that he will be raised up. It\u2019s not even what they\u2019re looking for! Their imaginations are limited to hoping for a king to lead an army against Caesar, not a man to open his arms on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This lack of imagination about how the world might be, a world where death isn\u2019t the end, is what fuels the next part of the story from Mark. Jesus and the disciples reach Capernaum and he asks them what they were arguing about. Do you remember being a child and having some argument with your siblings that you were sure your parents didn\u2019t know about? Maybe it was mostly in facial expressions or hushed tones. You may have known it would be something your parents didn\u2019t want you fighting about \u2014 or thought wasn\u2019t even worth fighting about \u2014 so you kept it a secret. Then they asked you at the end of the car ride or at dinner, \u201cWhat was that commotion about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s the disciples with Jesus when they reach Capernaum. He asks what they\u2019ve been arguing about among themselves and they don\u2019t answer him. They probably felt sheepish and might have looked at their feet or food or off into the distance (still inside the house), pretending not to hear him. Again, he sits the twelve down. This is not a crowd or a medium-sized group. This is the twelve, the twelve who have committed to following him \u2014 literally following him around the countryside \u2014 to whom he is giving the next two teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.\u201d The disciples \u2014 unable to imagine a world where death has been defeated, empire overthrown, and all of creation restored to right relationship \u2014 are fighting over who will be first, and Jesus tells them who will be first: the person who doesn\u2019t want to be, the person looked at as not having ambition, the person who shows vulnerability and servanthood rather than seeking their own glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he takes a child, puts that child in the midst of them, and says, \u201cWhoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.\u201d Children weren\u2019t welcomed in the first century. They were tolerated. They played like all kids do, but children were an economic asset, able and expected to work. They were property until they were either old enough to own property themselves \u2014 boys \u2014 or sold in marriage to another male \u2014 girls. They couldn\u2019t speak for themselves and had no power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, a child \u2014 powerless against the world around her, vulnerable to the powers that existed, and unable to defend herself \u2014 is who Jesus tells the disciples to welcome: the powerless, the vulnerable, the ones whose voices are ignored in the world. Jesus says that by welcoming people like that, the ones who can\u2019t influence society and don\u2019t strive to be in charge, they welcome Jesus. Not only do they welcome him, they welcome God who sent him. Welcoming the powerless is a far cry from arguing over who is the greatest!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how these two excerpts of Mark fit together though, the snippet about walking through Galilee and the snippet about being in Capernaum in a house together. When they get to the destination, when the Church continues to come together to a place for understanding, Jesus helps them to see a little more of what he is about and what he\u2019s not about. He\u2019s not about being the greatest. He\u2019s about being a servant of all. He\u2019s not about winning friends and influencing people. He\u2019s about welcoming the vulnerable to be among him and his followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus tells his disciples that when they welcome the vulnerable, they welcome him. They\u2019re looking for a leader on a war horse to overthrow the empire. They\u2019re not looking for a vulnerable child. They haven\u2019t been looking for that since he was born, fully God and fully human, as a child himself. Yet Jesus tells him that in welcoming the vulnerable, they welcome him. Jesus tells the Church that in being vulnerable, we are like him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being vulnerable, being a servant, being like a child, is what Jesus tells his disciples he\u2019s come to do when he predicts his death and resurrection for a second time. He\u2019s not coming to take over the empire. He\u2019s come to do more than that, something so revolutionary the disciples can\u2019t imagine it: defeat death itself. Death isn\u2019t defeated with a sword, and his revolution is not with generals and battles. Death is defeated with a cross, with Jesus\u2019 cross. And it was defeated in his rising again \u2014 just like he told the disciples it would be, even if they didn\u2019t understand him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by the Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews<\/strong>. Mark\u2019s Gospel was the first written. It is the shortest. Likely it was a one-person play, something that was first memorized and shared via oral tradition. Only in time did it go from one-person dramatic storytelling to gospel text, written down, copied, and eventually read throughout the Church and the world. Mark\u2019s Greek is quick…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[348],"class_list":["post-512365","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-20b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":348,"label":"Proper 20B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477401,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512365\/revisions\/3477401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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