Mark 9:30-37 (NRSV)
Read Mark 9:30-37 on biblegateway.com
Verse 33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"
Verse 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
Verse 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
Verse 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,
Verse 37"Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Devotion
For today, I want to focus where our gospel reading ends: with welcoming, partially because I've been quite dire so far this week. I've read a number of things lately about being welcoming or being nice—and, despite popular conceptions, that this is not what we as a church are about. So often, we hear the conclusion of this reading, and think about how nice it is to hold the little child, or to show off the children (if we have them in our church community) for a children’s sermon or children’s program; we end at the first part of the linear progression of Jesus' logic: it's good to welcome children. But we need to get to the end: "Whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me" (v. 37). And welcoming Jesus is welcoming those whom he welcomes—all of the undesirables. Indeed, welcoming God is welcoming the radicalness, the awesomeness, the holiness of God. It is not a "cute" or "nice" welcome of which Jesus speaks, but a radical hospitality. We are called as a community not to "niceness," but to radical God-hospitality.
Prayer
Welcoming God, help our welcome to be patterned upon your own. As Jesus gathered to himself the undesirable and the unwelcome (including children), help us to show forth that Christ-centered radical hospitality. Help us to keep you always in front of us—guiding us, showing us the way. Hold us forever in your loving embrace, in Christ's name. Amen.