Wisdom 2:12, 17- 20
The book of Wisdom was addressed to a group of Jews who lived in the pagan city of Alexandria, Egypt, and who were being tempted to abandon their religious beliefs and practices. In today's passage the wicked plot against an unidentified person, referred to as the "just one." Although the book of Wisdom was written about 50 years before Christ, early Christians thought this person sounded a lot like Jesus.
James 3:16-4:3
Today we continue a series of successive readings from the letter of James. This part of the letter deals with sins that threaten harmony in a Christian community. It reads almost like a brief homily on the spirit of the beatitudes.
Mark 9:30-37
Bishop Untener's Homily
When, in this Gospel passage, Jesus takes a child and has him stand in front of the disciples, we might have expected Jesus to say that we must humble ourselves and become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of God.But Jesus says that in another passage. Here Jesus says, "whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me."
At that time and in that culture, children had no rights. They were the property of their father, totally his, and he could deal with them like property. In this passage, Jesus places a child before the disciples as a "visual aid" for insignificant people. The question he places before the disciples is this: How do we treat insignificant people?
There are a lot of "insignificant people" who cross the path of our lives every day. It may be the clerk in a store, or people we work with who aren't important to us. We can all think of different kinds of people who are "insignificant."
I have come to believe that, when we die, just about the only thing that will matter is how we treated other people, including "insignificant people." There will be other things that will matter too, but I have come to think that this will be most important of all: How did we treat other people, including those who are insignificant?
But there is something more here. The truth is, most of us down deep feel that we are insignificant. No matter what others think of us, we each know our own weaknesses and failures and we feel that, if the truth be told, we're not worth very much.
When Jesus talks about how we should act toward others, he gives us a clue about what God is like, and how God acts toward us. Remember, we are made in the image and likeness of God, and that's why we are to act this way. God, the almighty, cares for... forgives... loves even the most insignificant people. Like us.
Some years ago I received a letter from someone that illustrates this in a most interesting way. She described how she saw a little sparrow on her patio feeding on seeds that had fallen to the ground from the finch feeder. She says:
It was hurt - its left leg and foot were hurt - and it could pick up seeds only slowly with the side of its beak. It could hardly hop and would eat a few seeds and then rest.
She went on to say that it came back the next day and the next, and she began to watch for it and make sure there were extra seeds on the ground. She goes on:
I prayed for it and said, "God, it wouldn't lessen your worth or your concern for important things to be concerned also for this insignificant little hurt sparrow that is trying so hard to make it." And sometimes when I prayed, I cried a little.Then one day two other sparrows came and this little bird, still hurt, tried to hop when they hopped. And when they flew away, he flew with them. He hasn't been here since. I think he'll make it.
She closes with (and this is the part I like best):
I'm telling you this because I trust you and I trust you won't laugh. I never asked that bird to come and all I did was provide a little bit for him so that God could do some healing. And it hasn't hurt God's reputation for doing important things, to do a little thing like this, has it?
No, it didn't hurt God's "reputation" at all. Because that's who God is. That's what God is like. That's the kind of God we've got.
It was Jesus himself who said in another Gospel passage:
Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7)
We are, in God's eyes.
So take today's Gospel passage to heart. It's about God. It's about us.
When we take it to heart, believe it - really believe it - then we rest secure in God's love. And when we do that...then we begin to treat others, especially the insignificant people, differently. Because we are made in the image and likeness of this God.
Originally given on September 24, 2000