The Truth: Last Sunday's Sermon

The readings

The Epistle

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


Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

The Gospel

Mark 9:30-37


Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “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.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” 

The Sermon

This Gospel reading is very straight forward. Jesus tells his disciples in plain terms what is about to happen. He will be betrayed. He will die. He will come back from the dead after three days. They claim to not understand but maybe it just was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted a savior who would liberate them from the Roman occupation. Jesus offered them a different kind of salvation. He was saving their souls. He was saving them from themselves. His kingdom was much greater. It was spiritual not physical.

None of us wants to hear or discover that someone we love has died. Especially in a violent way as Jesus foretold. Jesus made it clear to his disciples that physical death was not the end. In our lives today we are mourning the death of our sister Julie. She was with us one day sharing communion and then …. gone.

It is an emotional shock and we cannot be expected to recover quickly. We can provide comfort to one another so that some healing can begin. It may seem trite to say that Julie is in a better place but I firmly believe there is a place in God's heavenly kingdom for her and she will continue to watch over those who loved her.

In the Gospel reading Jesus reprimands his disciples who had been arguing among themselves over who was the greatest. He said, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He then took a child in his arms and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Children in the first century were not paid much attention to. They were definitely in the category of 'to be seen and not heard'. Jesus was telling his disciples that even those with low status were to be loved.

Julie understood that. Giving of herself seemed to be something that came easily to her. Her death has made me reflect on my life and the lessons I can learn from how she lived.

We all know deep down how our lives should be lived. Last week I talked some about surrendering to God and James tells us as much in the reading today. He says submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Lets keep that message at the front of our thoughts this week and spend our time drawing nearer to God.

Amen