Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, 24^th March 2013

Isa 50:4-9a

Phil 2:5-11

Mark 14 & 15 (dramatic reading)

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our services on Palm Sunday are rather different from what we are used to on most Sundays throughout the year. To begin with they are actually two interlinked services, the Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion. We begin with a short gathering up the road at St Mark’s where we remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The triumphant crowd lining the streets as Jesus rides through them on a donkey to shouts of “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. At last, finally the people have come to realise the greatness of who Jesus really is ………..or have they?

As our procession through the streets of Kemptown arrives at St George’s we begin our second service to the familiar words of the hymn “Ride on, ride on in majesty”. As we sing the words of that hymn we get our first glimpse that perhaps that triumphant entry into Jerusalem wasn’t all that it seemed.

“Ride on, ride on in majesty!

In lowly pomp ride on to die;

Bow thy meek head to mortal pain,

Then take, O God, thy power, and reign.”

 

I don’t for a moment imagine that the crowds on that first Palm Sunday, who were actually in town for the great Passover celebration, thought they were cheering Jesus on towards his death. Many of them quite probably just got caught up in the excitement of the day. Yet, as we know all too well, events and circumstances can so quickly and tragically change. The adulation of the crowd was not to last!

We come together today at what is a week of great contrasts. From the ecstatic reaction of the crowd at the beginning of the week, right through to his betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter. We see Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane agonising at what he knows is to come, about to endure the bleakest possible circumstances, while those closest to him slept! In a very human way, as he prays, he pleads to be spared what lies ahead……the torture, the humiliation, the death! Though ultimately he knew that it was not all about him, but rather about the purpose of the one who sent him. He remained focused upon the purpose for which he was sent. If only the disciples around him were able to do the same at a time when he needed their watchfulness and support like never before.

The whole period leading up to Holy Week and Easter has become very sanitised in a similar way to Christmas, with the emphasis very often upon even more consumption of chocolate eggs and the appearance of the Easter Bunny. Yet the reality is in complete contrast to that, a picture of a bleak and forlorn Jesus who at times felt completely abandoned, not only by his friends, but even at one point, by God Himself!

 This Holy Week we are called to look beyond the Easter Egg displays, to focus on something other than how we might plan to spend next weeks Bank Holiday. We are called to walk alongside Jesus not only in the brief excitement of Palm Sunday but also in the days that lie ahead. We are invited to partake of his Last Supper with the disciples.  We are called to keep watch with him in the garden on the night of his betrayal, and the following day to stand with him at the foot of his cross.

Even if time and circumstances make it difficult to come to the services in the next few days (and each of us do come with plenty of other demands on our daily lives), make a point to set aside a short period each day when you are able to focus upon the journey which Jesus makes this week. Take time to reflect, pray and sit with him, whether it is here at church or at home, as the one who rode into Jerusalem in triumph prepares to lay down his life for those who only days before had laid palms down at his feet.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

The Temptation of Jesus (Lent I)

The Temptation of Jesus

Chapel Royal, Brighton 17^th February 2013

Deut 26:1-11

Rom 10:8b-13

Luke 4:1-13

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

I would like to begin by thanking Fr David for inviting me to share Mass with you this morning.

We are now of course in the season of Lent! It is only a few short weeks since we ended the Christmas season with Candlemas and we now find ourselves entering a more reflective period of time over the next 40 days. Many of us would have received the ashes on Wednesday that help to remind us of our own mortality and are an outward sign of our repentance.

My own background is not one that particularly gave much emphasis to the liturgical year, other than Christmas, Easter and perhaps Harvest! It wasn’t until I came into the Church of England that I came to appreciate something of the richness of the changing seasons. One month we can be celebrating the excitement of Christmas and the incarnation of Christ into our world…….only a few weeks later the mood changes and we come face to face with our own humanity, and it’s not always a pretty sight.

Our gospel reading this morning sees Jesus coming face to face with a very real aspect of his own (and our) humanity. It follows on from the account of his baptism where he had become full of the Holy Spirit. He heads out into the wilderness…..into the middle of nowhere, and we are told that while there for 40 days he fasted. Although it’s not actually spelled out to us, presumably he also prayed. I suppose in today’s understanding he went on a sort of retreat, a time of prayer and reflection as he looks ahead to his future ministry.

You may be familiar yourself with the experience of going away on retreat or perhaps a Quiet Day. Taking time to get away from the distractions that are constantly all around, each of them trying to get our undivided attention. Now multiply that Quiet Day by 40, hold it in the middle of the desert away from anybody else, fast for the entire time………and we begin to get some idea of what it might have been like for Jesus.

 Forty days with no food would be a huge struggle for most of us and Jesus was no exception. At the end of that time he was famished and desperate to eat. He is faced with his own mortality…….ultimately if you don’t eat you will die! A very human and understandable reaction to the situation in which he found himself!

 While there alone in the desert he faced we are told, great temptation. Imagine for a moment standing there, starving hungry in that desolate place, you have maybe had small amounts of water to get you through each day, but no more than that. This was surely the perfect opportunity for Jesus to perform a quick miracle……or two…….or three! No-one need ever know!

Faced with the prospect of somehow “proving” that he was the Son of God by putting God to the test and serving himself or staying faithful to his mission and putting his trust in God, he chooses the latter.

He is offered instant prestige, power and authority over everything if only he will bow down and worship that which is not God. It’s easy perhaps to see everywhere we look how quickly people can often put a false value on power and prestige. How readily some can take to standing on a pedestal basking in the admiration of others. We live in a world that is obsessed by the idea of celebrity. Where very often people seem to have some kind of power and hold over others for no obvious reason except that they are famous. How easy it would be for Jesus to just accept all the adulation that was apparently on offer!

 Earlier this week we heard the news that Pope Benedict was stepping down from his duties and would retire instead to a former monastery to devote the rest of his life to prayer. Surrounded by the immense wealth of the Vatican and looked up to by billions of Roman Catholics for spiritual guidance he chose to set all that grandeur and opulence aside to return to the simple life of a priest.

Our own former Archbishop Rowan chose to step down much earlier than he needed to from his role leading the Anglican Communion to return to the life of an academic. And despite the many issues facing the church many would have seen his role as a powerful and influential one. Yet, it was a role that he willingly laid down.

Not for either of these men the outward trappings of power. Each for their own reasons was able to walk away from them. I wonder how many of us could do so, or would we perhaps have become so attached to the external glitter and gold.

Probably most of us don’t literally bow down to false gods, but how easy is it sometimes for us to give in to the temptation of jumping up onto the pedestal and putting ourselves first. In a world where self-denial is often mistaken for weakness and humility can sometimes be seen as a cop-out we are called to look to Jesus for our example.

 He came and shared in our humanity, and he invites us through the Eucharist in a few moments to share in his divinity. He, like us was tempted……yet unlike us, was without sin. We will continue to sin and give in to temptation, its part of what it is to be human! Yet in him we are offered grace and forgiveness, whoever we are.

Let’s use these weeks of Lent to reflect upon our own faith journey, where we have been and perhaps where we are going. As we can sometimes feel that journey is going through a kind of wilderness, may we know that Christ is right there with us, walking alongside us and very often carrying us.

May we each have a Holy and Blessed Lent.

AMEN

 

 

 

Christingle and the Runaway 12 Year Old!

 

 

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

One of the highlights for me of the many services that we have had over the last few weeks (and this may surprise a few of you) was the Christingle Service on Christmas Eve. Unlike many of those who came it was my first time! This church was literally packed full with more than 500 children, parents, grandparents, relatives and friends. Every seat out there was taken, most of the seats in the balcony were taken, and there were even some sitting at the very top, way back in the “fisherman’s gallery”!

I remember asking Fr Andrew where on earth all these people had come from while we were sat in the office listening to the growing, and expectant crowd just beyond the door. Families travel from within the parish and beyond every year to come to the Christingle Service. For them it is very much a vital part of their Christmas celebrations. In a way I suppose it is almost like making an annual pilgrimage. It may be the only time that many of them come to church, but for that one brief hour or so they come, not out of a sense of duty, but because they want to be here and hear something of the Christmas story.

After the service I asked one young lad, probably about 11 or 12 if he had enjoyed the service, and he replied “It was great, we come every year”!

In today’s gospel reading we hear of another 12 year old who has travelled with his family to take part in a great annual community and religious festival. Jesus has made the pilgrimage with his parents to Jerusalem. It was quite probably something they did every year!

 Having celebrated the Passover the family and their group begin to make their way home, and it takes them a whole day for them to realise that someone is missing, yes; Jesus has somehow been left behind! I’m sure parents and grandparents in particular here can understand what would have been going through the minds of Mary and Joseph as they realised that Jesus was missing. Today in a world of 24 hour news and Twitter, search parties would be sent out, the authorities would be informed and Jesus’s face would probably be beamed into our front rooms on the TV.

Mary and Joseph of course had none of the advantages of today’s technology. Probably going frantic with worry they return to Jerusalem and it takes them a further three days before they finally track down their runaway son. I’m sure some of you whether recently or in years gone by have had experience of stroppy and rebellious teenagers or pre-teenagers. And I’m sure also that many of us here in our time were stroppy headstrong teenagers ourselves!

And the response of Jesus when his parents finally find him? “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He doesn’t seem to be at all concerned about the stress and worry that he has just put his parents through, perhaps a typical 12 year old trait, again, one that I’m sure some here might understand!

And they find him, not running about the streets or causing trouble, but sat in the Temple, listening and learning from the teachers there. Given that it took them so long to track him down, it probably wasn’t the first place they expected to find him!

 In his comments we see the first record in the gospels of the words of Jesus, completely unlike what you might expect to come from someone so young. We see Jesus lay claim to a unique relationship with God, that of God as “Father”, something which of course he goes on to develop over the course of his ministry, and in which we share today when we recall together the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

There is something extraordinary about the certainty and “matter of fact-ness” of Jesus in his response, as though it all made complete sense to him and he couldn’t see what the problem was. There was something within him which drew him to that place and nothing would prevent him from being there!

And it got me thinking about that 12 year old lad who keeps coming every year to Christingle as well as the 500 other people, children and adults who filled this place to the rafters last Monday afternoon. A few hours later of course we celebrated Midnight Mass to another full church, certainly downstairs. And it’s tempting perhaps on occasions like this to think, “Well, where are they the rest of the year?” Yet, even if it is only for that one day of the year there is something that draws them into St George’s and makes them very much a part of our community.

Maybe what draws people in is on the surface, the external things, the orange’s, the sweets, the story of the crib. And at Midnight people come for the music or the atmosphere. But on a deeper level  there is surely a prompting of the Spirit that somehow resonates inside them. It isn’t easy always to put into words what it is that causes people to come to church, yet the doors are open as we welcome our wider community to join with us in our great celebration.

 And so, seeds are sown. Something of the Good News of Christ is heard, and hopefully our 12 year old (as well as everybody else) goes home at least knowing a little more about God’s love for all. And maybe it will take years before anything becomes apparent, if it does.  Not entirely dissimilar to the headstrong 12 year old in the gospel reading, quite certain of himself, yet it’s another 18 years or so before we begin to realise the significance of the seeds that were sown at a young age, and he begins his public ministry.

May we offer a welcome to, and have open hearts and doors to all who come to this place, as like Jesus they enter into the “Father’s House”.

AMEN

 

 

 

Preparing for the Journey: Advent II, The Prophets

Advent 2012 (The Prophets)

Baruch 5:1-9

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s Christmas time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when, wherever you turn, you simply can’t escape the fact that it’s Christmas. Those lovely twinkling lights that are all around town at the moment. Seasonal window displays enticing us to part with our cash or maybe just put it on the credit card and pay it off later. The adverts on the TV helpfully reminding us to go to this store or the other to buy the latest “must have” presents. And of course the annual treat of turning the radio on and hearing Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’s all a wonderful reminder that we are in the Christmas season!

Except of course that we are not. Not yet! We may be forgiven for thinking that we are, given that everywhere we turn we see images or hear sounds that tell us otherwise. In the church’s calendar, this second week of Advent (not Christmas) focuses on the prophets. Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, so perhaps to go mad with excitement just now is a bit premature. I know where I work at Sainsbury’s we have been in Christmas mode for some time now, and the looks I get from people when I try to explain that there is actually a distinction between Christmas and Advent are usually quite blank. The only Advent connection that many people make is opening the window on a usually very non-religious Advent calendar and devouring the enclosed chocolate.

 So, on to the prophets! Those giants of the Old Testament often perhaps seem so stern and foreboding! The popular image of the prophet is often that of a crazy eyed religious zealot making stern pronouncements in the name of a God who seems to be continually mad at the way people have moved away from him. There is the reputation that prophets sometimes have as a sort of divine fortune teller, a divinely inspired Russell Grant, yet to reduce their role to something not far removed from the astrology column of a newspaper does a great disservice to their real significance.

Today’s gospel reading speaks of “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Those words initially taken from Isaiah are speaking of course about John the Baptist whose role it was to declare the coming of Christ and get the people ready for the one who was to come.

Now I’m certainly no building engineer or architect but I’m pretty sure that this wonderful building we worship in today didn’t just appear overnight. Plans were drawn up, the land was made ready and foundations were dug. Each step in the process took time, and if any part of that process had been skipped over the actual building just would not have been able to take place. To just hastily erect a church (or any building) without a very thorough period of preparation would have simply been a recipe for disaster. This church and its community didn’t just come out of nowhere. Just as the church building required much preparation and work, so too did the community which meets here, which today is us.

  Generations of people have gone before us in this place and prepared the way. Their prayers and worship have filled this place. They have been baptised, married and buried from here. And we do the same today, but we could not do so in the same way if they had not already prepared the way before us.

What if Jesus had just suddenly appeared completely out of the blue? What if the Bible we have today consisted solely of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and nothing else? No historical context, no back-story, simply the sudden appearance of a baby in a manger who turns out to be the Son of God! How very different our story would look then. Sometimes that seems to be the way the whole Christmas story is presented to us, as a great spectacular event that seems to come out of nowhere. Yet the whole of the Bible in its many different ways prepares for, and leads up to, the coming of the one who, in the Incarnation, brings God into the messiness of our world.

Over generations the ground was laid and made ready until the time was right for the event that was to change the whole of creation.

I have to confess, I’m not the greatest in the world at waiting for things. There are times like going on holiday, my birthday yesterday.....and yes, even Christmas when I’m like a big kid and just want it to happen now! Occasions like these are among the few times that even now I actually bounce out of bed in the morning at stupid o’clock full of excitement and wanting it to happen now. Loathe sometimes as I may be to admit it, the build-up, preparation and anticipation is all part of what makes these times so special. They don’t just suddenly appear as isolated moments in our life.

Here in this Second Week of Advent we come together not simply as a group of individuals, but as a community. A community on a shared journey of wonder and discovery as we gradually get closer to the moment when God came and dwelt amongst us, sharing our humanity and inviting us to be partakers of his divinity, something we will shortly experience a we meet with Him in the Eucharist.

 Let us not rush that journey. When all around us seem to be frantically looking for instant satisfaction, let us take a moment to slow down and savour this time of waiting. Step away, even if it is only for a few minutes each day from the busyness of our everyday life and be still with our Lord.

 A time of reflection, of anticipation. A time of joy.....and yes, of gradual excitement. Events such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar on Hove sea-front over the next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to present the Advent story as one of looking forward with hope to our Lord’s coming. May those who visit the beach huts come away with a sense of wonder at the message they hear.

As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ so let us also prepare ourselves. Let us prepare ourselves to welcome the one who comes to be part of our world and our lives in all its messiness. The crib has gone up and we await His arrival.

If you are visiting us today we invite you to join us over the next few weeks (and maybe beyond) as we make that journey through Advent and towards Christmas together.

May we all in these coming weeks have that sense of awe and wonder as God reaches out and invites us ALL to see and partake of his salvation.

+ In the name of God, Father and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

Superhero's and Saints

Superhero’s and Saints

To help us celebrate All Saints Day (even though we are a few days late) some of the children have dressed up as their favourite saints. (Ask children to come to the front so that the grown ups can see their fantastic costumes). What saints have they come as?

When I was thinking about what to say today it came to me that in a way the saints are actually quite similar to Superhero’s. I’m sure that when they were younger lots of the grown-ups here had a favourite Superhero, maybe that they read about in a comic or watched on TV or at the cinema.

 Superhero’s can usually do some pretty amazing things, some can fly, or jump over huge walls, or see through solid objects, or are incredibly strong. But what they all have in common is that they have these amazing powers so that they can protect people from bad things and keep everybody safe.

Can you think of any Superhero’s? Maybe Batman, Spiderman, Superman or even Wonder-Woman? It might actually be somebody completely different altogether! What is it that you like or admire about them? Saturday morning TV used to be great fun watching the good guys always winning over the bad guys.

 A hero is someone we can look up to and admire because they have done something really good and special. And we admire them because we would like to be like them in some way. We all have people who we look up to and admire. Sometimes it might be a pop star or a favourite footballer or even a teacher at school.

We remember today those people who in all the history of the church have sometimes done some really amazing things, and these are the Saints. Sometimes they were put in prison or even tortured for what they believed. A lot of them have stories of miracles that happened because of their faith in God. And these Saints are a bit like the Superhero’s of the church! They are often looked up to and admired because they are seen to be especially holy and close to God.

But the interesting thing about All Saints Day is that is a day for ALL the saints and not just the well-known ones like St George. Even those saints who have been long forgotten or who maybe people don’t think are as important as the more famous ones are remembered today. It’s easy to remember the ones that we all know, but they all have something which we can learn from and help us in our journey with God.

The church also teaches that ALL Christians are saints in some way. That’s you and me, from the very youngest to the oldest! Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t very often feel like a saint, and those who know me best would say that I don’t always act like a saint.

But I do try my best even if I don’t always manage it. And that’s all any of us can do really, try our best to follow the example of the Saints who have lived and died before us. Probably most of us won’t make it to being a Superhero saint, but we are all part of the same family of God and we are all loved and cared for in just the same way as they are.

So in that sense today is a day for all of us too, as we join together with our brother and sister saints and remember that we all play a part in the family of God. So let us go out from here today with a real sense of our calling as saints in the church of God.

AMEN

The Gospel of Servanthood

The Gospel of Servanthood (21^st October 2012)

Isaiah 53:4-12

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:35-45

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I wonder how many of you have been making a regular date these last few Sunday evenings with Downton Abbey. I suspect quite a few. We are still making our way through the DVD of series two, but have faithfully set the record button to make sure we don’t miss any of the current episodes. There is an appetite for period dramas that tell us something about what life may have been like for the rich and powerful, as well as for those who served them and catered for their every need. Of course it is all made in a very entertaining, stylised way for the TV, so there is bound to be some artistic licence taken with the exact details of life both “Upstairs and Downstairs”.

In a society that still operated very much under a relatively well defined social and class structure there was a fairly recognisable distinction between the so-called “ruling class” and those who served them. A well-ordered society depended upon the observance of an often complex series of social rules and etiquette, where everyone knew their place and stayed there. Mustn’t upset the order of things!

Well, as I’m sure we all know by now, Jesus wasn’t one for sticking strictly to the way things were “meant” to be. A read through the gospels show him taking the expectations that were placed upon him by society and turning them completely upside down. Conforming to the “norm” wasn’t exactly his strong suit!

 I preached a few weeks ago on ambition and greatness, and how true greatness lay not in a self-regarding race to the top, trying constantly to be better or more successful. But rather it is in following the example of Jesus, and in some sense allowing Jesus to be shown though us…….what we say and what we do. And, what we see in our gospel reading this morning is an excellent example of this.

We have James and John, two of his closest confidantes, approaching Jesus and almost treating him as a kind of genie of the lamp, ready to grant their wishes with his great benevolence.  “Just say the word Jesus and one of us will sit at your right hand and the other at your left……..we want to share your glory with you”.

 Their eagerness to receive such prominence shows how very little they knew or understood what discipleship was really all about. The contrast between being served and being a servant is quite remarkable, and at this moment in time they seem all too keen to lap up the honour and prestige that they thought was their due reward.

The path of discipleship which lay ahead of them was not one of ambition or personal gain. As Jesus replies to them, they really didn’t have a clue what it is they were asking! “The cup that I drink you will drink and the baptism with which I am baptised, you will also be baptised; but to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mk 10:39-40). He uses the two images of a cup and baptism as metaphors for the suffering and death he will one day face, and we hear James and John eagerly replying to him “oh yes, we can do that”. Yet we know that when the time came they, along with the rest of the disciples would flee and abandon him……so much then for their promise to stand alongside him in his moment of need!

And in fact we see later in Mark’s gospel, during the moment of his crucifixion, a point seems to be made about the two criminals executed with him……..one on his right and one on his left, to whom Jesus promised would join him in paradise. Even in death Jesus came alongside those who society despised, not perhaps the ones who thought they deserved a place with him, but those who knew they didn’t!

 We get a powerful reminder of what being a servant actually meant for Jesus in our reading from Isaiah in what is often called “The Song of the Suffering Servant”, and which is traditionally believed to portray Jesus not as some great all-conquering warrior king, but instead as one who became despised and broken just as many of those he came to serve were each in their own way despised and broken.

 This was the path he was offering James and John when they had their eyes fixed so firmly upon their own glory. They had this idea that greatness was somehow all about having power and authority over others, while the greatness which Jesus spoke of came from being a servant to others. The path that he trod was one which they too had to journey down if they were to truly know what it was to be his disciples. There was to be no easy route or VIP pass that would somehow get them ahead of all the others.

 And we see such sacrificial self-giving service in the name of Jesus in many contemporary saints and heroes of the faith. In Mother Theresa carrying out her work among the destitute, even when she herself doubted her own faith. In Maximillian Kolbe as he offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner about to be executed in a Nazi concentration camp. In Corrie ten Boom who sheltered and protected Jews during the war with no regard for her own safety. Their service came not from a sense of duty, but out of a deep sense of love for God and love for their fellow human beings.

And ok most of us may not be placed in such extreme situations during our lifetime, but we are each of us called to serve with the same kind of attitude. We are called to serve not just as individuals to other individuals (though that is of course important in itself), but we are called as the church to serve the community in which we find ourselves.

The call in this instance is not a call to go out and convert it is simply a call to go out and serve. And it’s not always easy, and it does sometimes feel awkward and difficult……..yet we are called to do it anyway. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve ALL who came to him, without exception or discrimination. And we as the church, as his body here on earth are called to do likewise.

 As we sang a few moments ago during the gospel hymn:

“So let us learn how to serve, and in our lives enthrone him. Each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving”.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN

 

 

Ambition and True Greatness

Jeremiah  11:18-20

James 3:13-4:3 & 7-8a

Mark 9:30-37

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ambition!

It’s something which we all probably experienced at some stage in our lives. Most of us would quite likely have harboured childhood ambitions in our younger days……..some more realistic and attainable than others I’m sure! The days are long gone when little boys wanted nothing more to be an engine driver or a footballer and little girls had dreams of becoming a nurse or some kind of fairy-tale princess (if those days ever really existed in the first place).

I loved books as a child (I still do), and most evenings after school would see me heading to my local library where I would frequently stay until it closed. Thus were the seeds sown for my own childhood ambition to become a librarian. Ok, perhaps not the most glamorous or exciting thing in the world and in the end it wasn’t to happen, but at that time it was all I really wanted to be.

 I imagine if we went round this congregation and each of us shared our ambitions, our hopes and our dreams, we would all have our own particular tale to tell. Of goals that have been reached, or fallen by the wayside, or perhaps that we are still striving towards. Sometimes it seems that the greatest ambition for many is to be “famous”. Reality TV has tapped into and nurtured a desire for many to be famous for no other reason than its own sake. People avidly follow those on social networks who are famous for being famous. The infamous Andy Warhol quote about everybody being famous for fifteen minutes is one that many seem to aspire to at times.

Our gospel reading this morning sees the disciples behaving in a way that I’m sure is unfortunately familiar to many of us, fighting and bickering amongst themselves as they jostle for the number one spot! Their own ambition seems to be pretty clear at this point, who amongst them was the greatest?

 They had just been standing alongside Jesus as he experienced the transfiguration, that moment when Jesus was briefly revealed to them in all his glory as the Son of God. They had seen him heal a young boy apparently possessed by an evil spirit and witnessed many other miracles, and after all this all that they could think of was who was the greatest! It’s almost as though they are caught up in some kind of First Century reality TV show, each of them vying with the others in the popularity stakes……….keeping one eye on Jesus and the other on their own prospects, their own personal ambition.

These were the twelve, who spent the most time with Jesus, living, walking, talking, working with him for three years, and one day, as they’re walking along with Jesus, they indulge in this kind of Christian of the Year award. Arguing with one another about who was the greatest. Not the greatest mathematician, or the greatest footballer, but who is the “greatest” disciple!

You can just imagine them walking along, Jesus out in front leading his disciples towards Capernaum (and ultimately on his way to Jerusalem), and the disciples ‘discussing’ amongst themselves, trying to show how they are greater than each other. Each convinced that they are somehow a better disciple than the one next to them. Jesus, having to listen to all this must have shaken his head in despair. How could they have got it all so wrong? How could their priorities have moved so far from the one who they followed?

It’s not too difficult I guess for us to understand perhaps a little of where they were coming from. Throughout life we are told we should constantly aim to be the “best”, never mind if that means sometimes stepping on other people or shoving them out of the way to get to where we think we ought to be. We will somehow get to the top in whatever area of life we happen to choose, perhaps in our career or in our personal life, and if other people lose out or get left behind………well that’s a shame, can’t be helped!

And yet, the path to greatness lay not in their self-praise or their elbowing one another out of the way in their quest to be top dog. True greatness lay in emulating and following the example of the one who they had already recognised as the Son of God. Greatness is in the laying down of self and personal ambition. We hear one of Jesus’s occasionally puzzling and seemingly contradictory statements as he says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35). On the face of it, just another of his cryptic sayings, yet it was a lesson that was so vital for the disciples to understand.

 So much of what Jesus stood for seemed to contradict and fly in the face of what was the prevailing attitude of the day. It is easy to forget sometimes in our often comfortable established church just how radically different the message he brought was to those who were hearing it for the first time. And indeed how radically different it is to the experiences of many today, both inside and outside the church.

He came, not as some great all conquering hero, but as the one who washed the feet of his disciples. He may have been the Son of God, but he was also the servant of all who came to him. For Jesus it was not about being put on some kind of unreachable pedestal where he could keep a distance from those whom society deemed unworthy. It was about being in the middle of an often messy humanity, loving, sharing with and serving people whoever they were in their situations.

 There is a vulnerability in being a servant. In opening up to others we open ourselves up to the possibility of being abused or taken advantage of, yet that should be no reason not to reach out to those in need. In many ways it is completely counter-cultural to the way we are conditioned to think about ourselves today. To put others ahead of ourselves and at their service…..this is the way of the cross! Jesus knew full well what it was that lay ahead of him as he said, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again” (Mark 5:31), and this is something that of course we see indicated also in our reading from Jeremiah.

 In his final words of our gospel passage Jesus talks of welcoming and serving even the smallest child. ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but him who sent me.’ There’s a lot of welcoming there, but basically whatever we do in Jesus’ name - whatever we do for him, all our acts of service, all our acts of welcome - when we serve others (like this child, like someone who needs our help, like anyone), it’s as if we’re serving Jesus himself - but it goes further than that, for in welcoming Jesus we welcome God himself.

So may we embrace the vulnerability of the cross and put aside our own ego and ambition as we seek to love God and love one another, and serve as he came to serve.

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN