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09.20.09

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

IN STEP WITH JESUS

PSALM 1; MARK 9:30-37

• The Beat of the Drum
• Marching Band
• When I was in high school, I played a trumpet in the band
• While all of us thoroughly enjoyed our concert band season, one of the necessary evils of being a band member was marching band
• During football season every year, the band performed a half-time show at every football game, as well as a pre-game show at all of our home games, along with various parades in the fall and spring
• Preparation for marching band began several weeks before the start of school with two weeks of Band Camp
• The first week was held at the high school, where we would begin to learn marching techniques and the music we would play for each of the shows
• One of the most difficult things to master was how to play the songs and march at the same time
• What made it difficult was that many of the students, especially the new freshman class, had difficulty walking and chewing gum at the same time
• For the second week of Band Camp, we went away to a YMCA Camp in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania for a week of intense drilling
• It was there that we memorized all our music and polished our drills for three different half-time shows and two different pre-game shows that we would perform during the football season
• Mr. Thomsen, our band director, had nicknamed the band “The Blue Machine” because our uniforms were blue and gold
• It was his desire that when the second week of Band Camp was finished, we would have honed our skills so much that the band would move onto the field as one finely tuned precision machine
• One of the challenges Mr. Thomsen faced every year was teaching us to march in an eight-to-five formation—that’s eight steps for every five yards
• That meant that each of us, no matter how short or long our legs were, had to make every step 18 ½ inches long so we could hit the next yard line in step with the rest of the band
• Mr. Thomsen was a stickler about each of us being exactly in step 100% of the time, which was no easy feat for 90 band members and 20 color guard and majorettes
• To the surprise of us all, by the end of Band Camp, The Blue Machine was well oiled and ready to take the field
• We had mastered the techniques necessary to function as a single unit with 110 different parts working in sync with each other
• Hearing A Different Drummer
• Granted, there is much to be said about those who march to the beat of a different drummer, who are out of step with the status quo
• If it were not for free thinkers such as this who weren’t afraid to try new things in new ways, many of our greatest discoveries would never have occurred
• Jesus was one such person
• He lived his entire life counter to the culture of his day
• Had he not done so, the world would be the same as it always had been
• But Jesus was not afraid to challenge his culture, to question recognized authority, to live his life from a different set of standards than the rest of the population around him
• Jesus’ standard of living was not to seek only what was convenient and comfortable, to seek to satisfy his own selfish desires at the expense of others
• His standard of living was to do the will of God, and the will of God is always out of step with the will of the world
• For those of us who consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus, we must live our lives in step with Jesus
• To be in step with Jesus is to be out of steep with the rest of the world
• Part of our calling as Christians is to be eccentric
• Eccentricity in the Christian life is not a bad thing
• It doesn’t mean that we are crazy or rebellious or out of touch
• It simply means that we choose to live our life differently—differently enough so that people will notice
• Rather than fitting in with the crowd, we ought to stand out in the crowd
• Rather than marching to the drumbeat of the world’s standards, we march to the drumbeat of the will of God
• The Drumbeat of God
• Two Ways of Living
• The writer of Psalm 1 tells about the difference between those who live life in step with God and those who live life in step with the world
• He calls “Blessed” those who take delight in following the will of God, just as Jesus called “Blessed” those who live life from a different standard in the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount
• To those who seek faithfulness to God over faithfulness to the world comes the blessing of a strong and fruitful life
• Like a well watered tree that grows tall and strong and produces much fruit, those who faithfully seek to follow the way and the will of God will prosper
• The Psalmist contrasts that kind of living to those who seek to follow a path that is different from the path God has set for us
• As those who follow God’s path are “Blessed,” those who do not are not
• Instead of having deep roots that drink deeply from the water of life God provides, those who march to the ways of the world will literally be blown away like dust in the wind
• While they may appear to thrive for a time, ultimately they will come to a bitter end, for the way of God will always triumph over the ways of the world
• Servant Living
• As we pick up the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, he and his disciples are getting ever closer to Jerusalem and to the cross
• For the second time, he tells them what’s in store for him once they arrive there—in more graphic detail than the first—and still they do not understand
• Not only do they not understand, they were ashamed to admit that they didn’t understand
• They were afraid to question Jesus about what he meant because they feared he might chastise them for their lack of faith and trust
• When they arrived at the house in Capernaum, Jesus questioned them about the discussion they were having amongst themselves as they traveled
• The Greek word for “arguing” here means “something that is said in secret”
• They were having a debate that they didn’t intend Jesus to overhear
• When they realized that they had been overheard, they were ashamed and speechless because their debate was about which one of them was the greatest disciple, and which one deserved the place of honor in Jesus’ kingdom
• Both of these events—their fear to admit to Jesus that they didn’t understand, and their debate over who was the greatest disciple—indicate that, even at this late date, they were still not in step with Jesus
• They were still thinking like citizens of the world, and they still expected Jesus’ kingdom to be an earthly kingdom
• They didn’t understand Jesus’ words about  death and resurrection because death on a cross was not the path to greatness for an earthly ruler
• If Jesus were to be an earthly ruler, he would need an able-bodied person to assist him, and it was their desire to be that person that motivated their debate about which of them was the greatest disciple
• That Jesus marched to the beat of a different drum, and that he expected his disciples to march in step with him, is indicated in the words that Jesus says next: If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all
• This is a complete reversal of the standards of the world
• The life of Jesus sets the world on its head
• The world says that those who are great are the ones who have made it to the top; but Jesus says those who are great are those who are happy near the bottom
• The world says that those who are great are those who have others to serve them; but Jesus says those who are great are those who are willing to serve rather than be served
• The Child In Our Midst
• To illustrate this point, Jesus brought a child into their midst and embraced him
• “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
• Children had no place in the culture of Jesus’ day
• They had a lower standing than slaves
• They were more of a bother than anything else until they reached the age when they could start contributing to the life of the family and community
• They were just too needy
• That Jesus embraced this child was a significant act
• It indicated that those who had no place in society had a place in the kingdom of God, whether they were children, widows, the infirmed, the poor, the outcasts, the sinners
• By embracing this child, Jesus embraced all who had no voice, all who could not fend for themselves, all who were in need, whether they were actual children or not
• Jesus viewed everyone as a child of God who needed to experience the loving embrace of God
• The model of true greatness is to serve the needs of others, to give ourselves for the sake of the downtrodden, just as Jesus gave himself for each one of us
• To march in step with Jesus is to do as Jesus does
• To live in step with Jesus is to love as Jesus loves
• Who is the “child” that you are being called to embrace?
• Is it the homeless person on the street corner, the battered spouse next door, the shut-in across the street?
• Is it the person who had just lost their spouse, either to death or divorce, the dirty little child whose parents don’t care what happens to him, the drug addict or the alcoholic?
• There is a place in God’s heart for each of them, but they may never know it unless you reach out your arms to embrace them
• Life From the Bottom Up
• Jesus challenges us to look at life from the bottom up rather than from the top down
• “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name,” Jesus says, “welcomes me.”
• To do this is to give people their dignity, the dignity they deserve as people who are made in God’s image
• In California, there ii an annual March for Human Dignity, which includes an underwear drive for the homeless
• Hundreds of volunteers collect thousands of pairs of underwear and socks for people served by the Los Angeles Mission
• While it may sound funny, it’s a very serious matter for those involved in the project
• The gist of clean underwear can help a homeless person regain a sense of self-respect
• It can be an important step in recovery and self-sufficiency
• It’s a small but significant one—one that treats the people on our streets with the dignity they deserve
• What it really takes to be great is to serve others as children of God
• To live in step with Jesus is to do as Jesus does, but to be in step with Jesus is to be out of step with the world
• The choice is yours—the choice between the blessings of a life well lived according to the will of God, or the fleeting fame of a life lived by the standards of the world
• It’s the choice of being in step with the world and out of step with Jesus, or in step with Jesus and out of step with the world.