Sunday, September 22, 18th Sunday after Pentecost
“How to be the G.O.A.T.”
Sunday School/Christian Education Sunday
Psalm 78:1-6; Deuteronomy 4:5-9; Ephesians 6:1-4; Mark 9:30-37
Hymns: #688 “Come Follow Me, the Savior Spake”; #861 “Christ Be My Leader”; #862 “Oh, Blest the House”; #711“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Greatness, in the eyes of this world, has always been seen in being better than everyone else at whatever it is you do. Those who are seen as “great” are the ones who acquire accolades, fame, and notoriety, and the wealth and power that go along with them. But as we’ll see in our Gospel, our Lord measures greatness in a different way.
We’re celebrating “Sunday School and Christian Education Sunday” on this day, to shine a light on our Sunday School program, and to bless our teachers and pray for them. I did the word geek thing again this week and looked up the word “education,” to see what it means and where it comes from. The word comes to us from the Latin ex ducere, which means “to lead out” or “to lead forth.” So to be an educator is to be a leader. St. Paul says whoever wants to be a leader and a teacher in God’s Church “desires a noble and difficult task.” God bless our Sunday School teachers!
Did you know that the reason we’re called to teach our children is because of original sin? Every human being is conceived in sin and born a sinner. Selfishness is the root of all sin. Our default setting as human beings is to be self-centered and selfish. Every newborn baby thinks they’re the center of the universe. The good things opposite of selfishness – love, compassion, and concern for others – don’t come naturally to us; those things have to be taught. A child who isn’t taught that it’s wrong to be selfish will grow up to be a selfish adult. Our job as parents, grandparents, and teachers is to see that doesn’t happen.
My Grandpa, an old schoolteacher himself, used to say that teaching isn’t so much a matter of teaching new things, as it is unteaching your students things that just aren’t true. Someone asked Michelangelo once how he managed to turn a block of marble into a beautiful work of art; and he said it was as simple as removing everything from the block of marble that didn’t belong. I think that’s what my Grandpa meant.
We’re up against it in this world, folks. It’s hard to believe the internet is only 25 years old. Has it given us the better world we were promised, or has it only opened the floodgates to a whole world of filth and garbage that our children would have been better off not seeing? One of Karl Marx’s principles for gaining control of society was, “Let me separate the children from their parents for one generation, and I will change the world forever.”
The goal of Christian education, if we’re doing it right, should be the preservation of the knowledge, moral codes, and shared values that have been passed down to us, and to pass the knowledge of Christ down to our children, and to perpetuate the classic principles of Christian behavior and values that have been ours for thousands of years – those things that have always been the glue that held society together. Prophet Jeremiah says, “Look to the Rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”
“We’ll let them decide for themselves about religion when they’re old enough,” is the biggest mistake a parent can make. By the time they’re old enough (whenever that is) it will be too late. Whoever came up with that idea, it’s a lie from hell. We wouldn’t let a child decide “until they’re old enough” whether or not they want to learn to read and write, or learn math and science, would we? So why would we do that with the Commandments, the Creeds, and the Lord’s Prayer? If we don’t teach them our values, the world and the devil will teach them theirs.
When you attempt to teach a child, “This is right” or “this is wrong,” what do you answer when they ask, “But why?” or “Who says so?” Is “Because I said so” good enough? We need something bigger than ourselves that we can point to. We need the foundation of God’s Word, and to be able to say, “Because this is what the Lord says.” If right and wrong becomes ambiguous, nebulous, or changeable, if everyone can choose for themselves what right and wrong and truth is, then there’s no right or wrong or truth at all; and that’s why the world is in the mess it is today.
If you’re blessed with an opportunity to have a conversation with someone about church, or religion, or Jesus, here’s something to keep in mind and be aware of. If I get into a “discussion” (never an argument) about religious things, my starting point will always be the assumption that the Bible is God’s Word, holy and true. Anything I have to say about good or bad, right or wrong, will be based on that assumption. If the person you’re talking to doesn’t hold that to be true; if they’re convinced or have been taught that the Bible is just some ancient history book with no relevance to the modern world - that’s a terrible gap to try to get over, one that’s sometimes very difficult to cross. We’re coming from a different worldview, a different mindset, a different starting point, like we’re living in different worlds altogether. As Luther once said to one of his opponents, “We have a different spirit.”
So when it comes to raising our children, the correct mindset, the Christian worldview, the Biblical teaching on right and wrong, has to be taught from an early age, or the enemy will win by default. Moses tells the children of Israel, in our reading from Deuteronomy 4: “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
Every parent wants their child to grow up to be great at something, and to achieve great things in the world. Who wouldn’t want their child to be the GOAT – the “greatest of all time”? The trouble is, our Lord and the world around us have vary different ideas about just what “greatness” is. My six-year-old little leaguer might grow up to play big-league ball one day. My little girl might be a mathematical genius. My child might make the Olympic team and set a world record. Surely my child is going to be the GOAT – the best there ever was at whatever they choose to do. So we start them when they’re young on an endless round of try-outs and practices, week-end tournaments and dance competitions, so they can achieve “all the things I never had a chance to do.” (That’s called living your dreams vicariously through your children).
And the casualty of all the big dreams we have for our children is often the things they needed most of all. All those sports and activities and such take the place of Church on Sunday mornings and Sunday school, and of giving them a foundation in faith, and something bigger than themselves to believe in. (Remember when our schools used to honor the Sabbath Day, and give us Wednesday nights for religion classes? Now they schedule games and practices all week long, and even hold games and tournaments and events on Sunday mornings). So many of our teenagers and children are depressed. The suicide rate among teens and even younger children has gone through the roof, a terrible epidemic. So many of those instant internet celebrities and Tik-Tok influencers and pop-music millionaires are dying so young, without a clue about Jesus or hope or the God who can save them. All that chasing greatness of the wrong kind leads to nowhere. It’s a house built on sand.
Jesus, the Teacher of all teachers, tells us in our Gospel today how to be great, and what true greatness is, and what kind of greatness we should be teaching our children to reach for. Our Gospel begins, “They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because He was teaching His disciples.” The disciples were still… disciples. They were students, learners, young skulls full of mush, even though they were grown men. Lest we think Sunday school and Christian education is only for children, the fact is, we’re all still disciples and we always will be. (Unless you think you already know everything God wants you to know and you have nothing more to learn, in which case we need to have a talk!)
If you remember last week’s Gospel, Jesus’ disciples had tried to heal a demon-possessed boy who’d been brought to them, and they’d failed miserably, and only embarrassed themselves in front of a crowd. Jesus, good Teacher that He is, knows that failure is part of the learning process, and your students have much to learn from their mistakes. So their lessons continued, Jesus patiently continuing to teach them as they walked along the road.
What they didn’t understand yet, and what they were ultimately only going to learn by seeing it, is where that road they were walking was taking Jesus, and where it was taking them. This wasn’t the first time Jesus had told them He was going to be “betrayed into the hands of men and killed, and after three days rise up from the dead.” Grasping the meaning of that particular lesson was still beyond them, and understandably so. So, “they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it.” What were they afraid of? Were they afraid of the answer they might get to their questions? We said a lot as Seminary students: “Gee, I wish they hadn’t told me that.” There are some things a student might rather not know.
What Jesus was trying to teach them would change their lives completely. There’d be no going back to the lives they lived before. Seeing Jesus nailed to a cross and brutally, horribly put to death, and then having the Resurrection Day proof that He’d been raised up and was alive again, just as He promised He would be - would change their mindset and their worldview forever, even to the point they were willing to die rather than deny what they’d seen or fall away from it. That’s where their teacher was leading them.
On this day in our Gospel, though, they still had a long way to go. Our Gospel says they came to Capernaum, which was home for them at the time. And when they sat down in the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” They were embarrassed to answer, maybe a little ashamed He’d been listening, because their argument was about which of them was the greatest in their little group. Who was most important, who should be in charge, who should be the chairman? Was it Peter, who Jesus called the Rock, or John, who was called “the disciple Jesus loved,” or Judas, who was the group treasurer and keeper of the moneybag? They still had the world’s view of greatness in their heads. Who’s the biggest or the strongest or the smartest? In this world we live in, power belongs to those who are strong enough to take it, and greatest is measured by what you achieve and how famous you can become and how much money you can accumulate. Even in a group of disciples with only 12 people in it, they were still fighting over who gets to be first. Jesus, teach us to be better than that.
What Jesus teaches His disciples here is what we need to learn for ourselves, and what we need to teach and pass on to every new generation that comes along, if we’re going to have happy homes and peaceful communities and a decent world to live in. It is, in fact, the antidote to original sin and our human tendency toward selfishness. It's the first table of the Ten Commandments, where we learn to trust God above all things, and to praise His name above all things, and to make worshiping Him our life priority. And it’s the second table, the other seven Commandments, where we learn to love others more than ourselves.
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." That’s this old world’s way of doing things turned upside down. That’s the idea that life is a game of “king of the hill” just blown to pieces. That’s what the world has taught us about “I, me, me, mine” turned on its head. Jesus changes all that to, “God comes first, the people God has put around me come next, and my own wants and needs and ambitions are third or fourth of fifth, when I think about them at all.” (That’s called the JOY formula sometimes: first Jesus, then Others, then You).
To emphasize His point, Jesus resorts to a poignant and powerful object lesson. (Good teachers do that). “He took a little child and had him stand among them.” In the Greek language, the little child here is a paidion, a very small child, a toddler, a little one under five years old. Children that age are total dependents, not yet capable of caring for themselves, totally reliant on someone else for their care. Not really capable of reasoning or deep thinking yet, still naïve and trusting and willing to believe whatever the grown-ups in their lives should tell them. Before the age of cynicism. Before the world has done its best to turn them.
He took the little one in His arms and said to them… "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the one who sent Me." What Jesus asks of His disciples here, and of His Church in the world, and of you and me who carry the torch of God’s truth these days, is that we make the little ones are priority. It’s up to parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, pastors and teachers and Sunday School teachers, to pass on the truth that’s come down to us from a long, long time ago.
I came across a line by C.S. Lewis this week. He wrote, “It’s good to talk to your children about Jesus; but it’s better still to talk to Jesus about your children.” Pray for them while they’re little. Pray for them even before they’re born, that they’ll be baptized and faithful and live all their lives close to God. Read them the Bible before they can walk. Bring them to Church even if they wiggle, squawk, and squeal a little. (We don’t mind!) Bring them to Sunday school. Give them a Bible of their own. Do that, welcome the little ones in His name, and you will be the GOAT, the ‘greatest of all time” in the eyes of God. And you’ll raise good children, and all of us will be blessed. In Jesus’ name; Amen.