Greatness — Sermon by Ralph Roberts

let us

pray Come Holy Spirit speak to our

hearts this morning open our hearts to

you and make us more like Jesus

amen please be

seated while I was growing up in De Mo

Iowa at some point the state of Iowa

introduced a new tax break for movies to

be filmed in Iowa and so we started

having more movies and TV shows and

things filmed there it never got to the

scale of what Georgia is but it was

still pretty exciting to see that kind

of thing happening and one day my

parents got a call from someone who

wanted to use parts of our house for a

movie they were filming and it was a

pretty sweet deal for us because they

paid my parents some amount of money and

they put our family up in a hotel for a

week but the best perk of all of this is

that we had the option of being extras

in the

movie and a lot of you are probably

sitting there wondering what movie this

is it was a small movie that I guarantee

no one in this room has ever heard of

and it was very poorly written you

wouldn't even want to see it if I told

you what the name of it was but I didn't

know any of that at the time and I

thought being an extra in a movie

sounded pretty awesome Not only was I

going to be in a movie but I got to miss

a day of school and I got paid minimum w

wage for my time there it was

great the scene that I was an extra in

was filmed at this soda fountain type of

restaurant and my role was to pick up a

tray of food and then walk with someone

next to me over to the table where we

were sitting at and put the food down

sit down at the table and then something

more interesting would happen you know

after we did that in front of the

camera and they filmed this several

times you know they filmed these short

little scenes over and over again so you

know each time we'd get the food walk

over put it down and then cut and we'd

all go back to where we were at the

start and in between one set of takes

I'm getting ready to walk back and bring

this tray back to the counter and

there's this guy standing in between the

tables in the way of where I need to

walk and he's wearing a leather jacket

and some dirty jeans that are a little

ripped he just seems like he's a local

guy I assume he's probably a friend of

the owner of the restaurant who's just

there checking it out he's excited that

they're filming a movie in his town um

but he wasn't paying attention to what

was going on around him he's standing in

the middle middle of the set here and

he's just kind of looking around

aimlessly and I feel a little frustrated

cuz you know everyone's rushing to their

spots trying to get back into position

to get filmed and I'm trying to listen

to the director telling me to go back

where I need to go and this guy is just

in my way totally unaware of what is

going on and I started thinking to

myself like I'm actually in this movie

this guy is just here to watch what's

happening and here he is getting in my

way so I say to him in a little bit of a

rude tone excuse me and he's like oh oh

sorry and gets out of my way and I move

back we do more

takes but after that day I would later

find out that this guy who was in my way

was the actor Ray Leota who was the star

of the

movie and there was as an extra getting

upset that the star of the movie was in

my

way I think if Ray Leota could have

looked into my head in that moment and

seen what I was thinking he'd probably

feel a little bit like Jesus feels in

Our Gospel reading today with his

disciples so turn with me to Mark

Mark 9 · chapter mention

chapter

9 Mark chapter

Mark 9 · chapter mention

9 so at the beginning of chapter nine

Jesus was transfigured up on the

mountain with Peter James and John with

him showing his glory and what is to

come and then after they come down the

mountain as father Craig preached about

last week Jesus and these three

disciples encounter the rest of the

disciples they're there arguing with a

group of scribes and those disciples are

unable to cast a demon out of a young

boy and Jesus steps in and is able to

free the boy from this demonic

oppression and and then after that we

pick up in verse 30 this morning as

Jesus is walking with his disciples and

he teaches them once again about his

coming death he says the son of man is

going to be delivered into the hands of

men and they will kill him and when he

is killed after 3 days he will

rise to all of us it's obvious in

hindsight that Jesus is going to die but

we have to remember that for his

disciples this wasn't the outcome they

expect Ed from his

ministry these men have the various

military and political victories of the

Old Testament in the back of their minds

particularly The Exodus where God

defeated Egypt and rescued his people

from

slavery so it's reasonable to assume

that the Messiah is going to come and

conquer the Roman oppressors who've been

oppressing the Jewish people that's why

just a chapter before this when Jesus

was predicting his death to his

disciples Peter pulls him aside and

rebukes him saying this is not what this

is all about this is not what your

ministry is leading

to but Jesus insists that he is going to

be arrested and killed and then after 3

days he'll rise from the

dead and we're told in verse 32 that his

disciples didn't understand what Jesus

was saying but they were too afraid to

ask him and Mark doesn't tell us exactly

why the discip IES were too afraid to

ask Jesus but I think we can make an

educated guess based on the context

because before this like we said Peter

uh had pulled Jesus aside rebuked him

saying this isn't what the Messiah is

about but Jesus had responded by

rebuking Peter in front of the rest of

the disciples saying get behind me Satan

for you are not setting your mind on the

things of God but on the things of

man now being called Satan is never a

good thing but I think being called

Satan by Jesus is probably even

worse so I'm sure the other 11 disciples

after seeing this happened to Peter uh

are a little hesitant to speak up in

case they might say the wrong thing and

they're also coming off of this

experience in last week's Gospel reading

where they weren't able to cast this

demon out of the young boy and they

needed Jesus to step in and do it so I

think it's fair to speculate that the

disciples might have been feeling a

little self conscious at this point

about their own abilities their own

knowledge but we find out in the

following verses that instead of asking

Jesus what he meant when they didn't

understand it the disciples were instead

arguing with each other about who's the

greatest and it seems like they're

responding to this self-consciousness

this apprehension that they're all

Feeling by instead trying to jockey for

position maybe saying well at least I'm

not as bad as those guys like at least

I'm not Peter the one who got called out

by

Jesus but notice with me here the stark

contrast between Jesus and his

disciples Jesus is describing how he

will give his life and suffer on behalf

of others meanwhile the disciples are

arguing about who's the

greatest no wonder the disciples were

silent when Jesus then asks them when

they arrive what were you all talking

about on the road as we were on our way

here

the disciples are concerned with upward

Mobility status and

honor and Jesus is on the road to the

bottom there's no Honor on the cross

only

humiliation there's no feeling of

greatness on the cross only weakness and

defeat and yet we know that the cross

became the sight of Jes Jesus's ultimate

victory over sin death and the devil

that's why Jesus tells his disciples if

anyone would be first he must be last of

all and servant of

all Christians shouldn't be playing the

games that the world plays for status

and honor in the kingdom of God the way

to become great is to become the

least our reading from James describes

this same dynamic

in chapter 4 James is talking about

quarrels between Believers which is what

we see happening with the disciples as

they're arguing on the road about who's

the

greatest and James says that these

quarrels are caused because your

passions are at War within you you're

not clear about what's most important to

you James goes on to say in verse 4 do

you not know that friendship with the

world is enmity with God therefore

whoever wishes to be a friend of the

world makes himself an enemy of

God what James is describing here is an

idea that's prominent in the writings of

St

Augustine and it's the idea that we all

love many different things I love God I

love my wife I love this church I love

pizza but obviously all of those loves

cannot be equal to one another if I love

pizza more than I love my wife I'm going

to have some serious problems in my

marriage so we need to put all of these

loves in the proper order we all have a

hierarchy of loves and whatever is at

the top whatever we love the most is

going to shape the way that we love all

of these other things and so what James

is saying here is that our love of God

needs to be at the top anything else as

our greatest love will inevitably lead

to sin putting anything else above God

means we're setting ourselves in

opposition to God and His

Commandments we can't say well God is

still number two but this is really

important right now and I'll get back to

God after that our love of God needs to

be at the top of the hierarchy needs to

be the greatest love that orders all the

rest of our

loves otherwise James tells us what

happens uh in verse 16 of chapter 3

where jealousy and selfish ambition

exist there will be disorder in every

vile

practice when our selfish Ambitions

overtake our love of God and our love of

our

neighbor we sin against each other and

against God to get what we want but

James is saying that the problem the

heart of this isn't the actions it's the

desires behind the actions the outward

action emerg from a heart that's set on

obtaining and achieving as much as I can

for myself rather than giving myself

fully to

God that's why it's so important that we

get our desires in order we see this

Illustrated very well in the story of

Cain and Abel in uh Genesis chapter

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

4 after his brother Abel's offering is

accepted by God but Cain's offering is

not Cain gets angry and God tells him

them why are you angry why has your face

Fallen if you do well will you not be

accepted and if you do not do well sin

is crouching at the door its desire is

contrary to you but you must rule over

it in Cain's anger at his brother sin is

crouching at the door ready to overtake

him and Cain has a choice whether to

give into this temptation or to resist

it

unfortunately Cain allows his anger to

grow and he ends up murdering his

brother

Abel but James is teaching us here that

we need to deal with these sinful

desires before they grow and one of the

ways we do this is to think about which

desires are you feeding and indulging on

a daily basis are you feeding your

desire for God by saturating yourself in

biblical truth or are you feed ing

jealousy and selfish

ambition it's easy to do the latter when

our culture is so dominated by selfish

ambition being in an election year we

all know that our politics is full of

selfish

ambition on all sides and our media is

the same way our movies our TV shows the

advertising that's coming at us from

every direction is all about telling us

to indulge what whatever we desire and

to pursue our own

greatness but James tells us that the

opposite of this is humility he writes

in verse 6 God opposes the proud but

gives grace to the humble God opposes

the proud but gives grace to the

humble so how do we grow in

humility I want to return now to Our

Gospel reading because Jesus gives his

disciples the antidote to their

pride Jesus knows that his disciples

were arguing on the road about who's the

greatest but he doesn't just berate them

in that moment and let tell them you

guys all need to be more humble you're

really messing up here instead Jesus

teaches them the way to grow in

humility he begins by telling them if

anyone would be first he must be last of

all and servant of

then jesus takes up a child and puts

this child in the middle of the

disciples presumably to get their

attention or something and then he picks

up the child in his arms and tells his

disciples whoever receives one such

child in my name receives me and whoever

receives me receives not me but him who

sent

me we have to understand that children

in the ancient world were some of the

lowest status people they're weak

they're vulnerable they can be difficult

to deal

with when Jesus tells his disciples that

they should be receiving children in

other words that they should be serving

and honoring

children what he's telling them is go

find the people at the bottom of the

status hierarchy and then put yourself

below

them remember if anyone would be first

he must be last of all and servant of

all Jesus is teaching his disciples that

the antidote to their pride and their

quest for greatness is to serve the weak

the

vulnerable the low status the people who

are difficult to deal

with and this point about children is so

important to Jesus that children are all

over this section of Mark we'll just go

over a few of them so first we have last

week's Gospel reading where Jesus casts

out a demon from a young boy then we

have today's reading where Jesus brings

this child in and tells his disciples

anyone who receives a child in my name

receives me then later in this chapter

Jesus has harsh words for anyone who

would cause a child to sin then in

chapter 10 people start bringing

children to Jesus for Jesus to bless

them and the disciples stop them but

Jesus then rebukes his disciples Les and

tells them let the children come to me

so this idea of serving and honoring and

caring for children is of great

importance to

Jesus this isn't just a little side

tangent where he's telling them like hey

go do your duty of your week down in

children's ministry and then you can

come back up to the real meat of the

faith Jesus is telling his disciples to

serve children because he's teaching

them to be like him him to be last of

all and servant of

all remember before this Jesus has just

reminded his disciples that he's on his

way to the Cross to give his life for

the sake of others and throughout his

ministry on this path to the Cross we

see Jesus constantly serving the weak

the vulnerable the difficult the low

status

people the church should be a place

where children are welcomed and served

and honored and not just literal

children but also anyone who is weak and

vulnerable and low

status and maybe a little difficult to

deal

with I love preaching but one of the

hardest things about preaching for me is

that God is always working his word in

me as he's preparing me to preach it it

feels like every time I preach God is

convicting me of sin and giving me

opportunities to repent and live out

whatever he's preparing me to preach on

and sure enough this week at work I had

to deal with a very difficult

person and for a few days I was able to

just get through the interactions that I

needed to have with this person and just

move on but my frustration was building

as these interactions kept happening and

at some point around the middle of this

week this person started pushing back on

some point that I had already explained

and they were saying that I was wrong

about something I actually knew more of

the information

about and initially I was ready to

respond in anger but I was quickly

convicted and was reminded that I'd be

preaching this week about humbling

ourselves and serving

children and I'm grateful in that moment

that God enabled me to respond gracious

iously to this person it ended up

totally changing the interaction and it

was much easier after

that if you want to follow Jesus in his

way of humility then ask God to open

your eyes to the children around

you ask God to show you opportunities to

humble yourself in Christlike

service but I need to warn you that this

is a dangerous prayer to pray because

you have to be ready for God to to

answer

it and when those opportunities come

none of us in our own strength will be

able to choose the path of humility we

need the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts

from selfish ambition into self-giving

love the self-giving love of Christ who

had everything in his divine nature but

emptied himself to become a human being

and to die on the cross for our sins

in a few minutes we're going to prepare

to receive the Eucharist and one of the

reasons we do this every week is that in

the sacraments we are united with

Christ in the prayer of consecration

Father Brian will pray sanctify us also

that we may worthily receive this holy

sacrament and be made one body with him

that he may dwell in us and we in him

it's only in Union with Christ that we

can offer others his self-giving

love the answer to the world's struggle

for greatness isn't to say I need to try

harder I need to serve more people the

answer is to Humble ourselves before God

to confess our selfishness to allow his

Spirit to make us more like Christ the

one who who is truly servant of

all in the name of the father and the

son and the holy spirit amen