Mark 10:14-16: Hebrews 2:5-7

Surprise VIP’S

Daniel and I went to Europe together when he was sixteen.  It was one of those 747’s from United. They don’t use them much these days.  And they told us the plane was full and we were being upgraded to First Class.  Wow.  Up in the top cabin.  Daniel got used to all the comforts in a real hurry, but I felt like an intruder.  I was sitting next to this really suave young executive whom all the flight attendants knew by name.  First time in first class. Probably last.  We were surprise VIP’s.

Friends, we feel like VIP’s when we are treated in a more special way than others.  Hebrews tells us that is the case with humans.  God made us so high that we are just below the angels and we can only assume that is very high.

The author of Hebrews remembers the Old Testament where it is written: what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  That is the other side of the coin.  We are really not VIP’s and we are constantly reminded of that, but God makes us VIP’s.  We are granted stature.  Now there is a little voice inside of us that tells us we should be VIP’S, that we should be treated well, but that is not how we feel about others.   We know we should treat children well, because they are vulnerable and easily hurt and a child’s hurt tends to stay with them for very long.  But making them VIP’s, now that’s stretching things a bit isn’t.   What would happen if children ran the world? Sure, the world would be a lot more fun.  There would be more fast food places. There would be candy for dinner.  The top five companies in the world would be video game corporations.  Rules for organizations would be very fluid and constantly changing. A Presbyterian form of government would go out the door.  Oh, and the most popular kid would always be in charge. Worship would also be different. It would be a lot more playful.  All adults would be jealous, wouldn’t they? They would say:” I didn’t get to do that when I was a kid! So why should they?

Now of course Jesus in Mark is telling His audience that he wants children to rule the world.  He wants them to have access to Him.  But there is another thing here and that is “everyone must receive the Kingdom of God as a child.”  We have talked about that already.

Friends, why don’t we take these three messages in the passages as a mathematical formula?  Let’s add them together and make them inseparable.  1. The human being as mortal who shouldn’t be cared about because he/ she behaves so appallingly plus 2. The human being as a being of supreme stature, as VIP plus 3. The human being as eternal child who doesn’t know how to do math yet.  Those are all in our lectionary reading. We should take them all seriously then.  We really should.

This means that we must first reach a point of humility when we look at ourselves in the mirror and come face to face with our flaws:  look at what we done and said lately that we think we should have said differently or things that we should take back.   But then self loathing is not a formula by itself. That’s way too common.  No we should also we supremely grateful who we are to God and how loved we are, loved beyond compare.  Now before we get all arrogant about what hot shots we are in the eyes of God, we must go back and simplify our mindset. We must receive  God’s message as a child: full of wonder, not cynicism,  full of amazement, not crankiness, full of resilience and flexibility, not rigidness and self-righteousness, full of vulnerability, not self protection, full of love, not of reservation. May we see God’s blessings.