Song “There is an everlasting kindness”
The world belongs to God
The earth and all its people
How good and lovely it is
To live together in unity
Love and faith come together
Justice and peace join hands
Let us in silence remember our faults and failings
Christ have mercy on us, and deliver us from our sins and may we amend our lives
Amen.
The Lords Prayer in our own language
Song “Lord I lift your name on high”
Mark 9v30-37
Jesus didn't want the people to know where he was because he needed to spend time with his disciples. Boundaries. Sometimes we have to put them up to do what is needed.
Jesus explained what discipleship is really about. Whoever wants to be first must be last and and become like a servant. The greatest disciple is like a child! Humble, dependent, vulnerable.
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He asks them what were they were arguing about. But they kept quiet because they were embarrassed that they were arguing about status. Have you ever been embarrassed by your words? I have!
Jesus sat down, the normal posture for a Rabbi, he sits to teach and his disciples stand to hear. He shouted. "If he wants to be first he must be last”. This is cross bearing discipleship.
The second saying Jesus actions by taking the child into the middle of the circle of the disciples, picking her up, and hugging her, illustrating the servant-like attitude that he wishes to inculcate .
The service / servanthood that Jesus is referring to is the receiving / welcoming / accepting of a member of lost and broken humanity who experiences Gods kindness/ mercy. The child represents the vulnerable and the disciples are encouraged to receive them as Jesus has, illustrated now in the child. Such is servanthood of the Jesus kind. Insignificant humanity are important to God.
In Aramaic the word for "servant" and "child" is the same. Whoever does not welcome them does not welcome me! (Liberation Theologies “Option for the Poor!)
Jesus had a nasty habit. He took people on the edge and brought them centre stage. People who were silenced or silent or unclean or foreign or sick or immoral. The blind beggar, the disabled man, the foreign woman, the woman who was hemorrhaging all the time, the tax collector, the prostitute-the child. All those who were outsiders through no fault of their own. They were given a voice. Do we do this? Do our churches?
Genesis tells us that we are all made in the image of God-all of us. We are all made with the sign/mark of Gods image. We are all equal in Gods sight. It inspires us to seek peace and justice not just for people like us, but for those worse off than ourselves, the poor, the stranger, the outsider, those of a different colour and culture to our own and the people we dislike.
The gospel is uncomfortable even shocking. It forces us to go places we don’t want to go. But we have a heavenly mandate, a vision. We are not tied down by ordinary human prejudices or the behaviour of people around us. We are called to move those on the edge to the centre because we are one people, Gods people.
Song “There is a hope”
Our Prayers for our world, our communities, our friends and families.
Song “You raise me up”
The blessing of God be upon you
On those you love and those you meet
This day and forevermore. Amen
With thanks to the ©Iona Community adapted
