Day 824 - A Hero Sandwich

A sermon based on devotional readings of the Urban Outreach Ministry, March 9, 2015,
Chattanooga, TN

Gospel Reading: Mark 9:30-10:16

In our Urban Outreach Ministry worship rather than listen to sermons in these two weeks preceding Palm Sunday, we are reading Jesus' approach to Jerusalem and his teachings on discipleship as accounted in the Gospel of Mark. This sermon is a reflection on our first text composed after letting it simmer on the stove for a few days. Next week we will read Mark 10:17-52. In this sermon I want to thank Paul Rader for reminding me of Mark's literary device called a "sandwich."

I think back on the years of my childhood with some nostalgia when I read these passages in Mark. They were a ubiquitous presence in our little Baptist Church in Rome, Georgia. We always sang, “Jesus loves me,” and there was an illustration on the wall of our Sunday school classroom with Jesus holding little children in his lap with the phrase placed below it, “Let the little children come unto me.” Of course as I grew up I continued to want to make this story in Mark about children.

In seminary we studied "Old" and New Testament history and read many commentaries on the Gospel. That, and my work in urban ministry has given me a different perspective on the message than I had from my childhood experience.

Mark has presented his Gospel in a very deliberate way. The entire segment we are passing through the last couple of weeks is a full lesson on discipleship aimed more at his disciples than the crowds that beset Jesus. At every step in this series from the end of chapter 8 to chapter 11 when Jesus enters Jerusalem, Jesus challenges the ordinary thinking of the disciples and us about what discipleship requires. He has told them about the cross in his future and following him risks comparable dangers.

Now, Jesus has returned home to Galilee, the place those in Jerusalem see as a backwater province full of rubes and uneducated people who talk in a distinctive colloquial voice. He has brought only his disciples and has intentionally avoided the crowds in the preceding verses in order to engage them in a teaching lesson.

When they reach the house where they are spending the night Jesus questions them about the argument they are having over who among them was the greatest, but they were afraid to tell Jesus. They still have sugarplums in their dreams after the transfiguration though Jesus warned them the Son of Man would go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt. They just don’t get it.

Six days earlier Peter rebuked Jesus for saying the same outrageous thing. Jesus had described the hardships that being a disciple will entail, but they could not perceive and understand the words they heard. Perhaps they were blinded by pride, status and jealousy of their “high connection” with the Messiah and heard only what they wanted Jesus to say.

Jesus does not force them to reveal the reason for arguing (he obviously knows), he simply lapses into a discussion about discipleship and children. First he takes an obvious slap at their argument about who is the greatest. 
       He says,  “If you want to be first (or the greatest) then you must be last as a servant to all.” Isn’t it obvious that Jesus is speaking with his own future in mind, and, as we readers know, his status as Lord of all as we sing in one of our earliest hymns?

But he doesn’t stop with this comment. He takes a child, perhaps picking a little one up in his arms or putting his hand on the shoulder or head of a child, and says, “Who ever welcomes a child like this welcomes me, and not only that, the person welcomes the one who sent me,”  -The Lord.

Why do you think he uses a child as his teaching tool? Is he just telling us to be nice to children because God loves them?

To answer these two questions, I want to diverge to talk about one of Mark's literary teaching devices. Mark uses a literary technique to make his points that seminarians often called a “sandwich.” Mark uses two events or teaching to introduce and conclude an intervening message that is intimately related to or illumines the faces of the sandwich. Though sometimes parabolically, the front and back and the intervening text magnify each other.

This "sandwich" describes the quality of a hero. Analogous to God's response to Job as a "mighty man." (The NRSV link translates the Hebrew word as "man" but the real meaning is "mighty man," "hero" or "warrior." You may enjoy reading the full chapter 40.), Jesus is describing the quality of the hero who aspires to the Kingdom of God. 

One face of this hero “sandwich” is the discussion about children and the first being last. The intervening verses, the innards of the sandwich, drive home the meaning of his use of the children. 
        In this case, the “guts “of the sandwich are layered. Jesus talks about the ways disciples may lead others (children?) astray. They place stumbling blocks in the path of the faithful. As a result they have millstones tied around their neck and will be thrown into the sea for it.

Jesus adds another layer to the heart of the sandwich after he left home and entered Judah on the way to Jerusalem. It isn't a comfortable teaching for many of us. A close pastor friend once remarked this as a "hard" teaching. Pharisees challenging Jesus about why divorce is permitted in the Law confront him. Jesus tells them the Lord gave them the option of divorce because of the hardness of heart of the people. 
        But Jesus turns it into another teaching lesson for the disciples (and us) about the sanctity, power and consequence of the union of male and female. One cannot escape the obvious fact that the consequence of most marriages is children. Jesus is placing high value on that marital relationship. (Remember the Lord also refers to his relationship with Israel as bride and groom. Jesus may also be taking a slap at the religious establishment that has turned away from the obligation of holiness, “You shall be holy for I am holy." Bear in mind the verses in this link to the Leviticus Holy Code are not wooden commands but natural characteristics of a holy person.)

And then having added the filling of this massive sandwich that puts Dagwood's sandwiches to shame, he adds the other face to complete it with his response to the disciples who still are trying to prevent the children on the street from coming to him. He tells them, " ‘It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.”

Most observant Jews then and now know their heritage as the children of Israel (aka Jacob). Jesus uses these two examples with children not only to take the disciples to task for trying to keep children away but also the temple establishment that puts stumbling blocks in the path of the children of Israel.

Jesus is reinterpreting his earlier teaching to the crowd and his disciples by saying following him requires approaching the world with the trust and innocence of children, not as power mongers. Jesus regularly prodded the temple leadership, and Rome as being stumbling blocks or worse to God’s children. Jesus is talking about children, but the way I see it, he is not just talking about Jewish children but everyone who thirsts for grace - and the stumbling blocks who confound them.

If we knew more about the plight of children in the time Mark was written it might add historical perspective to this passage. Unfortunately, the historical record is almost silent concerning non-elite children in the Roman era. Only the elite were subjects of documentation.

Roman society lived under the principle of paterfamilias. Children were property of the household, be they children of slaves, or the Roman wife and father. The father had the right to disown his children and to use the children of slaves or outcasts sexually. Upon birth, the baby would be placed on the ground for the father to view. If he picked the child up it was brought formally into the household. If not, it was “exposed” to the elements and died. We can also surmise that the plight of children was not at all good even in loving homes. The probability of a child living past 1.5 years was 25%, and 50% died before age 10.

We know in the early era of Judaic history infanticide was common. Several prophets condemn it. Who can forget Micah 6:7-8, “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

This hero sandwich suggests Jesus has in mind that we approach the world with childhood innocence, the beauty of a mind that has yet to learn to deceive, hurt and hate. As I said, it is a hard teaching.

You may recall the television commercials of Ally Bank that touted their claimed fair treatment of customers by capitalizing on how easy it is to deceive a trusting child. In one, two elementary school-aged girls sit at a table. The banker asked first one if she would like a pony. The girl smiles eagerly saying “yes,” and he pulls out a plastic pony and gives it to her. She smiles and happily begins playing with it. Then he turns to the second girl and asks if she would like a pony, naturally her reply is “Yes,” so he whistles and a real pony walks over to the excited girl. The first girl with a hurt look on her face says, “You didn’t tell me I could have a real pony.” The banker replies to the girl, “Well, you didn’t ask.” Disappointment and hurt paint the face of the girl.

There are worse examples such as the priest, pastor, elder, deacon or youth leader schooled in these texts who molest children.  Yet how many of us parents have cursed, argued or fought with our spouse in the presence of our children?

There is one other family inspired by Jesus that the years have tarnished. It is the family whose values were formed by these teachings within the early years of Christianity. We call it the congregation.

Hang onto that thought and wonder why is the average age of a Presbyterian over 60? Where have all the children (here, some many under 60) gone? Have we driven them out of our congregations with our thin, tarnished discipleship?

With this statistic in mind I began to worry about who are the stumbling blocks. I recalled the answers of college students at a student ministry house to my two questions, “Do you currently find comfort in a worshipping congregation? Whether "yes" or "no," can you share some reasons why?”

Here are a few of the answers:

“I have generally found that organized religion tends to be hypocritical, close-minded and unable to compromise with differing views, although I do not deny that open-minded groups could exist. Also I was not raised a Christian but in another religion.”

“I do not currently attend church or any place of worship. I used to when I was younger but no longer find myself gaining anything from attending, as I do not believe in organized religion.”

 “…I don’t attend a worship service because …(I) am struggling with my beliefs and faith. I don’t like hearing things about God (but) I like listening to Bible stories because there are a lot of life lessons that can be learned. I also feel people believe just because they were told to (and) don’t question anything or see the works of God themselves.”

“I hated going to church the few times I did growing up because I felt very judged. Anytime I went I felt unwelcomed. I feel that church is a place for people to go to make themselves feel better about being “Christian” yet when they leave they do not practice what they preach. I believe God is about love and acceptance and most places I’ve been do not give this vibe.”

 “I’ve been hopping around churches the past year now. I am looking for a church that moves in the Holy Spirit and us working and moving in the Full Gospel. I can’t really say why I haven’t been able to be consistent with a church yet, but I know the Lord will provide one in due time. I’m looking for a church that is very loving, welcoming and has a family feel.”

Perhaps each of us should seek with even more effort to lead by loving example by reaching more deeply into our heart and finding more grace and less authority of the paterfamilias? I challenge you to make, to seek out and invite into our temporary home, our congregation, to welcome the children of the world who are seeking and hoping for a path to the true home, because Jesus loves us all. I think that is the expectation Jesus has of us, his disciples.

AMEN.