O God, our teacher and guide, you draw us to yourself and welcome us as beloved children. Help us to lay aside all envy and selfish ambition, that we may walk in your ways of wisdom and understanding as servants of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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Mark 9:30-37
 30They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31for 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." 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"
34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
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Reflection
This lesson begins with the second of three predictions by Jesus of the passion. There is a pattern in all three predictions (8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). There is evidence of misunderstanding and avoidance on the part of the disciples after each prediction (8:22-23; 9:33-34; a0:35-41). This is followed by teaching on the nature of discipleship (8:34-38; 9:35-37; 10:42-45). It was difficult for the disciples to understand Jesus fate, and therefore difficult to understand what following Jesus meant.
Jesus must prepare his disciples for the future that awaits him and them. The preparation takes the form of telling them exactly what to expect once they reach Jerusalem. The disciples obviously don't get it. They are afraid to ask, and somehow jump to a debate among themselves as to who is the greatest. They may have heard the resurrection part and assumed a happy ending. They anticipated the beginning of the reign of Jesus and imagined their roles in the new age.
It is impossible to understand the resurrection and the reign of God prior to the crucifixion. Resurrection without crucifixion is nonsensical, because without death there is nothing from which to resurrect. In the Upstate New York Synod we have claimed to be resurrection people. What are the deaths, the endings from which we have risen?
In order to teach the disciples and us about greatness Jesus brings a child among them (In those days children were unimportant and were not to be seen or heard). By introducing the child and telling the disciples that when they welcome the child they welcome him. Jesus is saying, "Take the insignificant, the seemingly unimportant and here you will discover me. In this child you can find God. Quit looking for God in the great things, or looking to please God with your great feats. You won't find God there. God is in the small, the insignificant. God is in the pain and the suffering. The disciples may have wanted to skip to the resurrection, the great ending. But we truly come to know God through the death, the suffering followed by the resurrection. There can be no resurrection without the crucifixion.
"Just as Jesus enacts his words about greatness by embracing one who is least, so he will enact his words about the cross by embracing that as well. Jesus himself thus becomes the enactment of the stance he desires from his disciples: A stance of willingly giving oneself in the service of those who need it most, a stance of serving rather than being served, a stance of giving rather than getting." (Paul Achtmeier, Lectionary Homelitics - September 1991)
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