“He took a little child,” “He called a little child to him,” “Jesus called the children to him,” “He took the children in his arms…” these are fragments from Matthew, Mark and Luke when Jesus gathered to himself those he called “little ones.” When his disciples were arguing about who among them was the greatest or when they were shooing children away, Jesus scolded them and called the children to himself. He said the kingdom of heaven is like children.
Jesus’ Way is a way of welcome to vulnerability, spontaneity, quickness to forgive, playfulness, openness to the beauty of the world–these qualities in children display the qualities of the kingdom he envisioned. And his severe warning against harming those little ones who follow the Way is prophetic at a time like ours when we have before us the image of babies and young children separated from parents and housed in cages. The nation that does such things has come far from Jesus indeed.
Today’s word from Mark 9* shows Jesus uncharacteristically harsh as he gives his remedy for rooting out of ourselves the darkness that wants to divide, dominate, and shame the vulnerable ones among us. “Cut it out! Lop it off!” he says. His word is not there to send us off on another war, or to take his words literally and harm our bodies, but counsels us that we are living in a perilous setting, and invites us to come closer to essential Being, where everything belongs.
The vision of God for us is so full of welcome and whole-hearted inclusion – the parables of the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, the joy in the being of children, the kindness to people left out of the community, respect for the dignity of women, the open-handed sharing of all things with a community that loves every member. There are still communities around the world attempting to embody that vision even in a world that seems to have lost its way. But there are others who have given up on God’s simplicity and turned to a belief in power, racism and wealth.
John Phillip Newell speaks to those old deceptive beliefs: “Jesus taught the strength of humility, of being close to the humus, close to the Ground from which we and all things come. The humblest, says Jesus, are ‘the greatest.’
We have a certain distrust of humility these days. The exclusion and oppression of the humblest has been so extensive and embedded in institutions we once had faith in, that now they seem to us unhealthy guides, leading their followers into self-loathing and shame, “I must arrange my life so that I am the lowest and most despised of men,” for example, is cringe-inducing and far from Jesus’ solidarity with the humblest.
There is a great gulf between shame and humility. Shame demeans and tears down any sense of the goodness of one’s self. It is always eating away at one’s dignity. Humility brings one to a solid footing in reality. It enables me to ask for forgiveness of those I’ve harmed, a true strength.
I want to offer these challenges from John Phillip Newell as implicit in following Jesus’ humble path:
- how to love our neighbor as we love ourselves
- how to honor the heart of another nation as we honor our own homeland
- how to revere the truths of another wisdom tradition as we cherish our own inheritance
- how to protect the life of other species as we guard the sanctity of our own life-form.
*Mark 9:38-50
Questions:
- How do I root myself in the Ground from which we and all things come?
- What have you learned from children?
- How do you inhabit your vulnerability?
-Carol Martin, Bread of Life Church
