Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Today. Our guest reader is Fr. Bur Bert Gome, a senior priest from.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: The diocese of Saginaw in Michigan.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Father Burt was a priest in the diocese when Bishop Ken was its shepherdess.
[00:00:33] Speaker C: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark.
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began to journey through Galilee. But he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them, the son of man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him. And three days after his death, the son of man will rise.
But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.
They came to capernaum, and once inside the house, he began to ask them, what were you arguing about on the way?
But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but the one who sent me.
The gospel of the Lord.
In this gospel passage, Jesus points to a child and 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, how do we treat insignificant people?
There are a lot of insignificant people who cross our paths 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've come to believe that when we die, 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, deep down, 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 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 wrote, 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 back here since.
I think he'll make it, she closes with and this is the part I like the 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.
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 securely in God's love.
And when we do this, then we begin to treat others, especially the insignificant people, differently, because we are made in the image and likeness of this goddess.
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