25th Sunday of Ordinary Time -Sep 18, 2021

25^th Sunday Ordinary Time Year B Sept 18, 2021

First, if you would be so kind, I would like to share a little biblical research with you so that we can all understand just a little bit more about this pericope and its impact in our lives.  There is a key, buried in this passage and we can easily miss it.
We all know Sacred Scripture is a post resurrection experience.  The stories of Jesus and in fact all the stories of our text were told, in oral form for many years before they ever became written down.  It is one reason we shun the idea of a literal translation of scripture.  Every story is received by a person within the context of their own lives, and is retold with the meaning that the person gives to the story.  Every author will tell you, they wrote something and someone else walked away from their writing with something that they never intended.
Our pericope tonight is two distinct stories, not one elongated experience as we could easily mistake.
Mark 9: 30-32 is one story
Mark 9:33-37 another story
Both with the same underlying message, both with the same gift that we can tap into.
Lets look at the second story first.
I think we can all agree, there is something that an infant or a small child touches deep in us all. 
You can have a room full of hardened criminals, and bring a baby into that environment and the tattoos and gang affiliation disappear, the tough guy or tough gal melt away and a smile comes across everyone’s face. 
What is it?  It is power!  In Sacred Scripture there are three words for power, one means domination, the other means explosion, and the other, used in reference to Jesus every time, is exousia…the power of vulnerability.
The story of Jesus placing a child in the midst of the crowd is his trying to teach us, I believe, of the truest, most influential power of the human race….the power of vulnerability.
Now lets look at the first story.
Whenever leaders gather, there is always the danger of tapping into those first two forms of power….domination or explosion, why…because they are the cheapest forms of power.  They cost the one exherting it, almost nothing.  It seems as if Jesus knew that from reflecting on his own life.  He understood that he could access domination and he could access explosion, but that is not what he wanted to teach the disciples about the journey of faith. 
He wanted to teach them the ultimate power is the one that costs us the most…the power of vulnerability.  Jesus knew the inclination of the human spirit…to access domination or explosion…it is as if he knew that the disciples would try to figure out a way to share the Gospel in the way they believed would be best.  And so he asks…..so what were you discussing?
Good questions, really good questions like Jesus asked the disciples, drill down to our core.  Good questions touch the Divine in each of us and cause us to stop and to ponder.
It is as if Jesus knew that “Religion” had brought about a fundamental misunderstanding of God and a fundamental misunderstanding of the human person as well.  It seems to be precisely why he railed against “Religious practices” that as he put it….”loads others with unbearable burdens”.
Jesus saw that more often than not… “Religion” was causing people to believe that they were never enough.  They were never good enough, they were never strong enough, they were never holy enough, they were never wise enough, they were never enough. 
Yet Jesus knew…we are all enough…that is the way we were created…wholely imperfectly perfect.  Just the way we are created to be.  It is why he could say to the woman who touched his garment in the crowd….”Your faith has made you whole”  it is why he could tell the lame one…”pick up your mat and go home”….you are enough.
You see my friends Jesus knew that Shame has no place in the journey of faith.  And Shame would have us believe, that we are never enough.  Shame has us believe that we can not be vulnerable, because if we are, we fear not being loved.  But Jesus reminds us, over and over, and over again…we are loved, we are enough, and nothing we do or do not do can exclude us from God’s love.  Nothing, St. Paul reminds us….Nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, no hieight, nor depth, no angels or principalities, nothing in the past or the future, nothing can separate us from the love of God shown us in Christ Jesus….we are enough!