“Christian Faith Is About Receiving”
Mark 9:30-37
INI
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. “Faith like a child”…you’ve all probably heard that expression from the pages of Scripture. Our culture loves children, doesn’t it? Our culture even has a habit of making children into stars! Just think of all of the “child stars” that have come and gone, starring in television programs and singing on stages. There’s commercials…little Mikey eating his bowl of Life cereal. Kids singing “B-O-L-O-G-N-A.” When the pro-life groups want to get attention of people on a billboard, they put a picture of a cute little kid on it! One of the best arguments against abortion is those pictures of beautiful babies smiling and giggling for the camera. And I honestly believe that my leash is a bit longer as a pastor because I’ve got three of the cutest kids in the world. (I know I’m biased, but I think you’ll all agree with me!) I’ve shared this story with some of you before, but when our family moved to Garrison, Heather and I were a little bit nervous about how the congregation here at Shepherd of the Lake would receive our children. You see, while we were in seminary, we attended this church out in the corn fields in rural St. Charles, Missouri…the floors were wooden…the pews were uncushioned…all the women wore dresses on Sunday and all the farmers put on their suits…and they gave you kind of a “look” if you disrupted the silence of the service. Little children tend to do that. But here, there’s always been this great attitude towards children. We love having them in our service…we enjoy their words…their off-the-cuff remarks…their innocence and joy.
2. Now some of you may have heard me say this in Bible study before, but it bears repeating this morning: our culture’s view of children is completely different that the one that existed in the Bible. The beautiful artwork on the cover of the bulletin depicts a little child standing innocently and cutely…staring up in admiration at the adults. But on the social ladder of the first century, children were down at the bottom with Gentiles, lepers, and prostitutes. Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Well, let’s talk about children for a minute—and keep in mind that I say this as a father who absolutely gushes with love for his children! Children are needy! They are in constant demand of someone’s attention to supervise them…feed them…discipline them. Children are selfish! Especially babies! Think about it…all a baby knows how to do is think about itself! “I’m hungry! I’m tired! My diaper’s dirty! Me! Me! Me!” Back in those Biblical times, when hard work was valued more than ever, children were useless until they could help out with the jobs that needed to be done. Now before I go on, make sure that we take note that children are most definitely a gift from God and should be regarded as such. But to understand Jesus’ example of a child, then we need to talk about children the way they were viewed in that day.
3. Children, in essence, are capable of doing really only one thing—receiving what they are given from other people. In fact, children expect to receive just by means of their own instincts. From the day they are born, every child expects to receive nourishment from its mother…it learns to receive comfort from its parents…it learns eventually to look to its father to receive leadership…it goes to school to receive education…all so that one day a child can grow up and be the one who gives these things to his or her own children. Children understand what many of us have a hard time with…that when you are incapable of caring for yourself, all you can do is receive from others.
4. Taking a child and putting him in front of the disciples, Jesus said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” In God’s kingdom, it matters not how much you own, how much you give, or how much you can do. The disciples of Jesus are to look to the children…because the children get it! Children are receivers…and this is what the Christian faith is built on…receiving Jesus. If you want to learn what Christian living is all about, look to a child…not because the child is so innocent…and believes everything so blindly…the child receives…because the child doesn’t know how to do anything else! The child looks to the parent because the child knows that he or she has nowhere else to go and that all help is found from the one God has given to care for him or her.
5. Doesn’t that sound exactly like you and me as God’s children? Perhaps the Bible says we are his children for a reason. Yes, it’s because God is our Father, Christ is our Brother and together they love us with the love of flesh and blood. And yet, we are also God’s children because where else do you and I have to turn? When guilt is closing around you on every side, where are you going to turn? To your truck? To your fishing boat? To your credit card? No, you will turn to God because his Son is the only answer to guilt that drives us to despair. When Satan is trying to convince you that you’re a fraud of a Christian…that you have no right to claim the name of Christ, where are you going to turn? Are you going to say, “But…but…I volunteer at the food shelf…and I give ten percent in the plate every week!” Nice try. You will turn to Christ because you need to receive his works in place of your sins. When cancer attacks you or someone you love and death is closing in, what will you do? Will you place all your hope in doctors and drugs? Will you place your eternal rest in a “pretty good life?” Or will you become like a child…and receive Jesus?
6. Our Christian life is a constant life of receiving what Jesus has to give. It all starts in the waters of our Baptism, where you and I receive Jesus’ death and Jesus’ resurrection, and they become our death and our resurrection. It continues as you and I raised in the Holy Scriptures and you and I learn that in these words you and I receive Jesus who makes his Gospel of salvation known to each and every one of us. It leads us to the Table of our Lord Jesus Christ, where you and I receive the given Body and shed Blood for the forgiveness of sins. Our Absolution is the receiving of forgiveness from Jesus Christ himself. This is the Christian life that repeats itself over and over throughout our lives. It is this that truly makes us…like children.
7. “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Jesus used this line to convict disciples who argued who among them was the greatest. It ought to convict us too, because you and I do the same thing. You and I love nothing more than to compare ourselves to others and think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Pastors love to see how they stack up against other pastors…parents often turn up their noses at the mother who’s driving down the street, blowing cigarette smoke out the window while her toddler is strapped into a car seat in the back. Christians love to compare themselves to other Christians. “Oh, I give more than that person.” “I’m here more than that other person.” “I give myself to this church much more than so-and-so.” That’s not the Christian life you and I are called to live.
8. Instead, you and I look to the children…because the children are the least of all. But it’s the children who become our teacher. They teach us the life of receiving. This sanctuary is not a smattering of good givers, medium givers, and cheapskates. It’s not a hodge-podge of serious Christians, lukewarm Christians, deadbeats. It’s not a potpourri of holy people, semi-good people, and heathens. This is a place filled with spiritual children…this is the place where the first become last, as our sin is laid before the cross of Jesus and you and I can do nothing but receive.
9. As you and I are now into the NFL season…and the Vikings are 1-0 and obviously the eventual Super Bowl Champions…I can’t help but think of the receivers in professional football. If you pay any attention to professional football, then you know that wide receivers are some of the most arrogant, full-of-themselves people on the face of the planet. They are the first person to make some kind of ridiculous self-serving comment…they are the ones most likely to draw attention to themselves…they are, quite simply, male divas. But every wide receiver would be prudent to remember that in order to be a receiver…you need an adequate giver. If that prima donna wide receiver doesn’t have a quarterback who can get the football to him, then he is pretty much useless.
10. Sometimes you and I can turn into “prima donna” Christians. You and I like to focus on what you and I can do. You and I like to emphasize what we have accomplished…what we possess…what we can give. But every Christian is really a receiver…a child who do nothing but receive what is being given to them in the first place. This past week, as I did my sermon study, I reflected on the fact that in the Greek language, the same word is often used to mean both take and receive. And sure enough, the word that you and I hear in the Words of Institution (“Take, eat, this is my body…”) could just as easily be translated, “Receive, eat, this is my body given for you.” In a way, I kind of like that word better…taking sounds like it places the emphasis on us. Receiving sounds like it places the emphasis on God our Father and his Son Jesus. Today, as those of you who commune come forward to the rail to receive Christ’s body and blood given into death for your sins…think of it as receiving…and think of yourself as God’s little child who really can do nothing else! In Jesus’ name…Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
