We're Number One!

Proper 20B; Mk. 9:30-37; St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 9/20/2015

Jim Melnyk: “We’re Number One!”

Fall is one of my very favorite times of the year.  Aside from the cooler temperatures and the shorter days – which I enjoy greatly, the sports nut in me can go crazy.  Major League Baseball is in full pennant-drive mode.  College and Pro Football have smashed onto the scene like a defensive end crashing through a weak offensive line.  Pro Basketball and Hockey are knocking at the door.  And the annual chants of the faithful rock the house: “We’re number one!  We’re number one!”

           

The political world doesn’t get left out.  We’re in about what…the fifth year of the 2016 Presidential campaign?  Candidate debates have started on one side of the aisle and it seemed like the only talk in this past Thursday morning’s news cycle was about which candidate in the Wednesday night debate came out number one!  And there are debates galore still to come on both sides of the aisle.

           

We talk about where we rank as a nation or as a state in things like education, pay, and best vacation or retirement destinies.  There’s even a website that lists the top ten “redneck” towns in NC.  We argue about who’s the strongest, the smartest, or the most profitable.  We’re raised up to never play second fiddle to anyone.  We ask, “Who are your people?” or “What do you do for a living?” instead of “How are you and what can I do to help?”  Although one of the neat things about a small town is how much we do often look out for one another.

           

Being number one – the Big Cheese – the top of the heap – only has meaning when placed in the context of those who are not.  And while not finishing first in the sports world or the world of politics may be life-changing, it isn’t life-threatening.  Not being number one – or not even finishing in the top twenty-five in other aspects of life can be devastating.

           

Our love affair with being number one changes how we look at life.  It can become so absorbing that we miss out on what’s truly important in this world.  We can miss out on the wonder of the created order, on a real perspective of how and where we fit in the world around us, and the importance of relationships in our lives.  Being number one means someone else needs to be number two – or number three – or even unnumbered, for that matter.

           

We recall how in last week’s gospel lesson Jesus and his disciples face turning points in their lives.  The disciples, following Peter’s lead, proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah – número uno – top dog – the Christ of God.  Jesus, realizing his ministry is coming to an end, turns his face toward Jerusalem and the cross, and apparently without really understanding any of what Jesus was saying, his disciples turn toward Jerusalem with him.

           

Along the way Jesus seems to realize they really haven’t at all grasped what he had been saying about Jerusalem.  “Look,” he says, “Let me make this short and sweet for you – easy for you to understand.”  Jesus does some plain talking for some plain speaking folks.  "Listen to me.  The 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."  “This,” Jesus seems to be saying, “This is what being number one means in the kingdom of heaven – it means being willing to give up my life for the life of the world.”

Mark tells us the disciples still don’t get it.  How can they kill you for being number one?  How can you be number one if they can kill you?  So, rather than wrestle with that pretty major conundrum, they decide to visit that all too well known place called denial, and begin an argument about which one of them is the greatest of the disciples – which one of them will be number one in the kingdom. With apparently no vision or understanding of what awaits them all in Jerusalem, they begin debating who will be at the top with the Messiah. 

As one late colleague of mine put it, “Clamoring as to who is Number One on the way to the gallows in Jerusalem is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  They displace reality with fantasy; that way their denial will not allow them to see what is [actually] going on” (H. King Oehmig, Synthesis, 9/20/2015).

Now, when life was getting a bit out of hand when I was a youngster, my Ukrainian-American grandmother used to look at me and say, “Oi, oi, oi, Jimmy, what are we going to do?”  And I can just hear Jesus using the same words looking at his followers.  “Oi! What in the world am I going to do with you all?  What was all that arguing about anyway?”  This, of course, is followed with a lot of staring at the ground and foot shuffling in the dirt.  Perhaps a few tugs at the collar and looking off into the distance.  Arguing?  What arguing?  Shuffle, shuffle, cough, cough.

Another teaching moment has arisen for Jesus and his disciples.  Taking a child to his side, Jesus offers another one of his enacted parables.  Jesus takes a little child and places that child in the midst of them all.  Mark doesn’t tell us if that child is a little girl or a little boy, and therefore that child is symbolic of all children.  Jesus takes the child in his arms and says to his disciples, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (Mk. 9:37).  What in the world is Jesus trying to say to us?

Despite our competitive culture, Jesus teaches us that life isn’t all about who’s number one – who’s on the top – who’s in charge.  He tells his disciples – and he tells us – “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (9:35).  You see, as sweet and nice as it may seem, the child in this instance does not symbolize innocence and naiveté.  We may like it to – we may want it to be about being sweet and innocent – but it’s not.  Here the child represents vulnerability – represents a “secondary status” – a status of someone who is a “lesser human” being.  A lesser human being.  To see a child, with such lesser status, as a true representative of humanity, mirrors their willingness to receive “Jesus as sent from God” (The Jewish Annotated New Testament, note, page 79).  It’s all about affording status to those whom the world constantly chooses to deny status.  

It might obviously start for us with considering how we treat children in our society today – whether we talk about welcoming them in our churches or a doctor’s office – whether we talk about their education or food on their tables.  And while most of us in our culture don’t see children as “lesser human beings,” there are still those who are treated that way in society today.  Jesus tells us it’s about the last becoming first.  It’s about Jesus turning expectations and the conventional wisdom of his culture and day upside down – or perhaps, right-side up. 

How do we treat the most vulnerable among us?   As a society how do we even view vulnerability?  Where, we might ask, do we relegate others to the back of the line or the bottom of the pile?  What is happening to our neighbors and the strangers among us when we get too caught up in being number one?

Not too much later in Mark’s gospel James and John come to Jesus privately seeking a place at his right and left.  Jesus will call all the disciples together again for some remedial teaching.  Heavy sigh.  Let’s try it again folks.  “…Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (10:44-45).

What good is being number one when a spouse, a parent, or a child gets sick or, God, forbid, dies?  What good is being number one when the job goes away or the economy collapses? 

What good is being number one when a world is beset with people fleeing persecution and execution and thousands upon thousands of refugees find a world unwilling to welcome them – putting them at the bottom of the pile?

Jesus tells us being number one is only good when we use that status to serve – when we become a servant of all – when we are willing to give our lives as a ransom for many.  Jesus reminds us that when we serve the least among us we are serving him, and serving the One who sent him.  That’s what Jesus means by taking up our crosses and following him.

We’re number one!  We’re number one!  We like being number one.  We like the sound of it, don’t we?  We like the status of it, don’t we?  We’re number one!  And if that’s true, and if we wish to be true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if we really are number one, well then, it seems we truly have our work cut out for us.