You know things are in bad shape in the Church when the story of Jesus “taking a child and putting his arms around it” gives you pause. Of course, bad news isn’t limited to the Church. There’s the seemingly endless war in the Middle East. 25,000 children die of hunger and disease every day. We are slowly killing our planet through global warming and pollution. There is plenty of money for guns and tanks but not enough for schools and hospitals. Drugs and violence have become a way of life in Chicago. Racism continues to poison our society. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. As if that weren’t enough, people are killing other people in the name of God and religion. No wonder that someone came up to me the other day and asked, wouldn’t now be a good time for Jesus to come again. It very well could be. But I suspect that when Jesus comes again it might look very different from what we expect. Our instinct, when we see something wrong in the world, is to send in the Marines. The cure for crime in our streets? Greater police force. Even things like hunger or damage to the environment — if we just apply enough force and energy to it things will improve. The human solution to problems is greater force. Jesus in the gospel suggest that the divine solution is not to use greater force but to use greater weakness. When Jesus comes He doesn’t fix things by unleashing twelve legions of angels. He saves the world using the cross as a key.
Remember St. Mark’s gospel from last week. Once Peter and the other disciples recognized who Jesus really was – not merely some miracle worker fixing this that or the other problem but the Christ of God– Jesus started to talk about the cross. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him.” Strange sort of talk for the Christ of God to say. After all, God is the almighty one, God can do anything. God is all powerful. What is this handing over and killing all about? How does that fit into the plan of an all-powerful God? We know it sounded strange to the apostles as well as to us because Jesus chided Peter. “You are thinking in human terms, not a divine one.” Human beings try to fix things with power. God uses the cross. Even after the exchange between Peter and Jesus the apostles still don’t get it. They are arguing about who is the greatest, who has the most power, who has the greatest influence, who is on top. “What were you arguing about on the way?” Jesus asks. Were you applying the divine logic to things? Were you discussing how dying leads to rising, that Good Friday becomes Easter Sunday, that after being killed the Son of Man will rise on the third day? Like little children caught red handed with their hand in the cookie jar, they could only remain silent. They were full of jealousy and selfish ambition. There were things that they wanted, that they coveted. And because of that there was arguing and conflict among them. So the apostles, and we, have to learn to think as God does, not as human beings do.
The scripture readings for this Sunday suggest three attitudes that we can adopt so that we can learn to think divine thoughts. First, Jesus tells us that “if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” God’s way of fixing things is not with power but with weakness, not by being in charge but by being of service. Think how that might apply to our lives. There are so many things that need fixing – our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our church. Jesus says the way to fix them is to serve them. God doesn’t expect us to barge in and take names and then everything will be all right. God does expect us to serve, to do our bit so that the divine power which flows from the cross will be unleashed. The neighborhood needs fixing – serve it with your care, your presence, your openness, your willingness. The school needs fixing – serve it by getting involved in those actions and activities which help to make things better bit by bit. The church needs fixing – serve it by becoming a good steward and using your time, talent and treasure in such a way that the body of Christ is built up in our midst. The way to be first, is to be the servant of all.
The second attitude which enables us to think as God does is exemplified by the action of Jesus in the gospel. “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.” To receive a child is to have no agenda, no expectation that you are going to get anything out of this person. If anything, receiving a child is going to cost you. “Hey pop-pop, give me a dollar.” To receive a child is simply to delight in this little person in all their uniqueness. Jesus makes the connection between that and the way that we receive God. “Whoever receives one such child receives the One who sent me.” We are not to rely on God as Mr. Fix-it, as the one we call on when we need help with a test, or money for a bill, or a good report from the doctor. We receive God for the sheer delight that comes in being in the presence of one who loves us. We don’t love God because of what God does but because of who God is.
That leads to the third attitude that we need to have in order to think as God thinks – an attitude of prayer. In the epistle of St. James our patron tells us “you do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” Well, what is the right way of asking, what is the right way of praying? The model for this type of prayer is Jesus in Gethsemane. “Father, if it is possible I’d like you to do this for me. But not my will, but yours be done.” The right way of asking, of praying, is with supreme confidence that what God wants for us is the best thing. We certainly have our preferences about how things should go. We’d like to be healthy. We’d like the family to be whole. So we ask that of God. But to ask rightly is not to expect or demand that God will use divine power to make everything all right. Rather, we ask with trust and hope that God’s way will really fix things. Church, following Jesus requires a radical revision of our ordinary way of thinking and operating. Instead of using power to force everything to be right, we use service. Instead of surrounding ourselves with the people who can make a difference we receive even the littlest person with open arms. Instead of presenting our list of demands to God, we present ourselves in hope and in love. When we think like that we learn that in weakness, power reaches perfection.
