Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

Topsy Turvey                                 Mark 9:30-37, Psalm 1

This very Gospel reading was used for Bible study by the Good Shepherd U.C.C. Search Committee last Monday night and they did a magnificent job of questioning the text, grappling with the text, and finally, submitting to the text.

By submitting, I mean that collectively and individually there was a sigh of..."aha....aha..this is about me, about us.  This is not about THEM, this is not about THEN, this is about now.  This is not about some foreign village;  this is about here in the Good Shepherd U.C.C. council room.

The way to begin is to begin with questions, admitting that there is far more beauty and wisdom in this bit of scripture than may be apparent at first.  Starting with questions: Who are these twelve? Why are they arguing?  How come that word "welcome" gets repeated 4 times in one sentence?

When you begin with questions, you begin as a disciple- one who has come to learn, on who isn't sure of all the facts, thank you Mam, one who is willing to be taught by the text and shaped by the text.  You start by becoming a 5 year old and by dropping your guard.

Who are the twelve?  Does it settle the question to say that these are the disciples?  Not really because the next question follows:  which disciples?  These twelve are poised to hear and see a teaching of the Master.  Who are these twelve?  Well, perhaps the original disciples that are named in Gospel, the names children used to memorize.  Perhaps those twelve;  but perhaps the teaching is directed to those disciples in Mark's era for whom Mark wrote down this account of the ministry of Jesus.  Perhaps those disciples.

Taking a giant step in time- I'd say the Gospel is dead if it's reach stops at the original disciples or the first audience- taking a giant step in time- Who are these twelve?  They is us!  And you'd better believe it!

One member of our Search Committee got that right away when the question came up- "What are they arguing about?"  Well, they are arguing about the same things a Search Committee might argue about-  Who is the greatest?  The bestest?  The rightest?  Who speaks the most often?  The loudest?  Who has got the right stuff to tell all the rest of us- "get in line behind ME!"?

And what's the response to this sort of egotistical quarrelling?  What interrupts the squabble?  What stops the heat of the argument?  Silence.  Silence.  Listening...listening with a humbled heart, not a grandiose self image.  Listening with a receptive mind, not rehearsing your arguments in your head.  Listening with an expectant heart that the word of Christ will come to you and reshape you and your attitude, your infernal attitude.  ( and mine, too; my very own argumentative, know-it-all Jersey attitude).

The Search Committee member got the gist of the whole text right away-  the movement from arguing to silence to welcome.  That could be the motto for any group of church folk:  the movement from arguing to silence to welcome.

For me that is a huge challenge- to be in the middle of an argument and not get sucked into the argument but rather to pull back to hold a space of silence, of listening, of prayerful awareness.

Because I was curious and because I have much to learn, I attended the town hall meetings held by our two U.S. Senators, Sen. Vitter and Sen. Landrieu.  I vowed to go only to listen, to learn and to hear what the Senators and citizens had to say about health care in our country.  The meetings were contentious, the meetings were argumentative.  Though I did not speak, I failed utterly at keeping a quiet mind.  My mind was leaping to counter argument and all the rest.  I need more practise at the holding of prayer space.  In our argument-crazed media, I need to cultivate a place to list to the words of the Master or I will succumb to the frenzy of the argument.

I want us to walk from the argument stage into the silence stage, so we are prepared to receive the wisdom of our Teacher.  Hear what Jesus speaks:  Whoever wants to be first must be last of all, servant of all.  Then Jesus illustrates by taking a child into his lap.  Do you see the child?  Don't see a pretty, well composed Norman Rockwell child if you want to really get the message.  Try instead to see a hard-to-love child.  One that is unpleasant in appearance, in behavior.  See a child that is annoying- maybe your own child or grandchild or neighbor's child at their worst.  Maybe in a temper tantrum...or whiney mode...that's the child that Jesus welcomes.  The child we gripe about who is misbehaving at a concert or a library or the grocery store.  Or perhaps one of us at our most devolved- I read a book title in that regard- it was named "Taming Your Inner Brat."

Jesus puts that child amidst them and welcomes that child and instructs disciples, you and me, to welcome that unpleasant, annoying little one as if we were welcoming Jesus himself, as if we were welcoming the Mighty One who created heaven and earth into our inner sanctum.  I do want to make this point- that the child herself is welcomed, not necessarily the poor behavior.  The person is always welcome, sometimes the behavior has got to go.  And there's the rub.  There's the challenge.  But the road map is unmistakable:  a movement from quarrel to silence to welcome.

Jesus says it repeatedly:  welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.  Say it with me: "Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome."  Welcome the person as you would welcome Christ.  Find the Christ in the person and relate to that expression of the identity of the person.

As  I worked with this text I became very tenderhearted because of the welcoming I have experienced at Good Shepherd and especially as I have watched the welcome provided to the Korean Methodist Church, which begins sharing our sanctuary and Sunday school rooms today.

The request came from Rev. Lee and Kurt Hwang, the secretary of the congregation, only two weeks ago and I felt their need, almost a plea, because we seem to be the perfect spot for them.  So I fast tracked the request for them rather than soft-peddling the request.  And when that request went out to Council members and church staff there was complete unanimity from the get-go: welcome them!  It's "win-win".  Go for it!  Mel stepped up to serve as contact person.  Jordy stepped up to invite any children to sing in our children's choir.  Michael Cook stepped up to check out Council approval.  Ms. June stepped up to check out any insurance implications.  Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

I know that our New Orleans culture is hospitable down to its toes.  And I know that our culture by it's very history welcomes immigrants- we are a port city that has seen the immigration of the Spanish, the French, the Caribbean, the German, Asian, Jewish and all the vitality that these immigrants brought to our city.

On the other hand, we must acknowledge that we are in a political time when immigration is a hot button topic.  And some of that might have been provoked and bubbled to the surface of our discussions.  It did not!

More than that, just like those original disciples, our congregation has gone through some fear inducing events and has been in survival mode for 4 years.  Just like the original disciples, we have endured controversy about leadership and destabilization by unhappy events.  So it would be entirely human of us to devolve into a squabble fest, like the disciples in Mark's account.  We have been through some squabble time we must admit.

But that was then and this is now.  We can be done with fear based reactivity.  We can be done with quarrelling about who is the best, the right and all that fruitless return to squabbles of the past.

Again, this is not to say that there was no harm, because there was harm.  This is not to say that there was not misbehavior, there was misbehavior.  There were instances of temper tantrums and whiny disruptive behavior.

And this is also to say and lay claim to the realization that the time has come to let go of all that past history.  I think we have spent some time in quiet, in listening mode, in cultivating hospitality, in submission to the beauty and the wisdom of the word.

The evidence that I offer is the open welcome Good Shepherd has provided to the Korean Methodist Church.  Really, it could have been otherwise- and I have seen it be otherwise.  I have seen barrells full of objections dumped at the front door of the church which is asked to welcome a small middle school- which was rejected because maybe grape juice would be spilled on the new carpets.  I have seen AA groups rejected because of their filthy smoking remnants.  I have seen a Pentecostal Hispanic church rejected because, and I quote, "their children might write in our hymnals since they don't speak English and might not understand what the hymnals are for..."  Well, yes, their children might write in our hymnals and actually....OUR children sometimes write in our hymnals, so let's maybe find a way to welcome the children and work with the behavior!  I have seen churches make the process of deciding whether (or not) to welcome a new group- make the process so long, so daunting, so over-reviewed that the potential user goes elsewhere out of sheer exhaustion with completing the bureaucratic procedures.

So, while modesty is a virtue, I'd like you all to take a moment to hear these words, "Well done, good and faithful servants, for inasmuch as you have welcomed the little ones, you have welcomed me, and you have welcomed not me, but have welcomed the One who sent me."

Now I want each of you to turn to your right and gently pat the back of the person next to you....and now turn to your left and gently pat that back.

Remembering that "Amen" means "so be it", let the people say "Amen."