Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar. This week began with the Second Sunday before Lent (23 February 2025), and Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).
Later today (25 February 2025), at the invitation of the Friends of Stony Stratford Library, I am giving a lecture in the library on ‘Swinfen Harris in Stony Stratford and further afield’. This illustrated presentation on this celebrated and prolific architect is at 7 pm in Stony Stratford Library.
Before putting the final touches to my presentation, and before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 9: 30-37 (NRSVA):
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31 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.’ 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36 Then 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.’
Today’s Reflection:
In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 9: 30-37), Christ tells the disciples he is going to be betrayed and killed, and that he will rise again.
They do not understand what he is saying – how could they, they cannot yet expect the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Both these future events are beyond their understanding and they are afraid to ask Jesus what he is talking about, either because they do not want to show their ignorance or because they are afraid that they too may become innocent victims and suffer the consequences of being followers of Christ.
The disciples are shamed into silence when they realise Jesus overhears what they say. He chides them, telling them being a disciple is not about rank or power, position or prestige, but is about service. He tells them: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all’ (verse 35).
To illustrate his point, he takes a little child and places him or her among them. The word here (παιδίον, paidíon) means a little child, but it could mean a young servant or even a child slave (verse 36).
He takes the child in his arms and says 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’ (verse 37).
We are not told whether this child is a boy or girl, free or slave, Jew or Samaritan, Greek or Roman, a street urchin or the child of one the Disciples.
Perhaps the Disciples never even noticed, because at that time a child was of no economic value and a burden on families until the child could earn his or her own way, or until the child had the potential of being the equivalent of a pension scheme for parents.
But when someone welcomed a child slave or servant sent on an errand or with a message, they welcomed or received the master. Jesus reminds the disciples that whoever receives the servant receives the master, whoever receives a child receives Christ, whoever receives Christ receives God the Father, who sent him.
How can we relate the first part of this Gospel reading (verses 30-32), when Jesus talks about his own impending betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection, with the second part of the Gospel reading (verses 33-37), when Jesus takes an innocent, small child and makes him or her an example of how we should behave with Kingdom values?
Sometimes, I fear, we make it too difficult to talk about the Crucifixion, and so we make it too difficult to talk about the Resurrection, unless we are talking about them in the context of Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter.
But sometimes too, I fear, we make it too easy to talk about children because we romanticise childhood in our comfortable settings. Quite often, even in stained-glass windows in churches, we romanticise this little child, thinking of a well-dressed, well-fed, well-loved child from our own families or own parishes.
Yet, it is a paradox that we also find it too difficult to talk about children because so often we have to turn away, mentally and emotionally, when we see the suffering of children in the world today.
All of us have been disturbed for some years now about the terrors that are rained down on children in the world today. I say ‘children’ and not ‘innocent children,’ because there is no such being as a guilty child – there are only innocent children.
The suffering and plight of children is all the more distressing when it is caused by the calculations of adults who dismiss this suffering as merely collateral damage brought about by political decisions or by war.
For Christians, this distress must always be acute, must always demand our compassion, must always call for our response.
In Saint Matthew’s version of this episode (Matthew 18: 1-14), Christ tells us: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost’ (verses 10-14).
It cannot matter to us what label is placed on these children:
• whether the suffering Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are Christians or Muslims;
• whether the dead children whose bodies were returned after being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were from secular or religious Jewish families;
• whether the frightened child fleeing in her mother’s arms, cramped into a tiny boat in the Mediterranean, is a Christian or a Muslim;
• whether the children targeted by Saudi fighter bombers in Yemen are Shia or Sunni, going to a school or a wedding;
• whether the sobbing and distressed child separated forcibly from his parents on the border between Texas and Mexico speaks Spanish or English;
• whether the homeless children who sleep in cramped hotel rooms with their mothers tonight, not knowing where they are going to sleep tomorrow night, are from here or were born outside the country.
It seems these are last in the world’s priorities today. Yet Christ says ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last … Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ (Mark 9: 35, 37).
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 25 February 2025):
This week marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Grain of Wheat.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Revd Dr Nevsky Everett, chaplain of the Church of the Resurrection, Bucharest, Romania.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 25 February 2025) invites us to pray:
God, we pray for all the aid workers and organisations supporting Ukrainian refugees – especially our partners at the Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest. Grant them strength, resources, and wisdom as they work tirelessly to provide care, shelter, and support to those in need.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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