This church has a number a rather sentimental memorials to children who died as infants in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Four are memorialized in the glass ceiling in the south aisle; another is memorialized in the little window in the transept porch and the Font is given in memory of Mabel and Theodora who died during the Civil War. The windows especially show the children in angelic pose with angel's wings sprouting from their shoulders. The one in the transept porch of Clarence Pell who died at three years of age is the most confronting. The Victorians were very sentimental about children and especially in thinking of their deaths. The assumption was of perfect, angelic like innocence.

I suspect modern child psychology has dealt a blow to that sentimental approach to childhood. Children like adults are complex creatures and may have both the angels and the demons present in their makeup. While we may not be sentimental about children in the way the Victorians were we do take our children seriously and allow them every opportunity to grow and develop. In thinking about how we treat children and how ideas have changed I reflect on how in my own lifetime we have changed our views and practices with regard to children and church. In my childhood church and especially Holy Communion was an adult activity at which children could be present but only if they were quiet and attentive. They were certainly not participants. Sunday School in my experience was “children's church” complete with its own worship. I recall the vigorous debates over children receiving communion in our conventions back in the early 70s. I well remember a priest winning my vote when he said memorably “we invite children to the table by baptizing them but then we deny them food. What sort of message does that give them?” I also have a painful memory of not being allowed to attend my beloved grandmother's funeral. I was thought too young at 8 years of age! I always advise families in arranging funerals to let young children attend if they wish. We talk these days of children's rights; children are protected by law in ways which were not thought of 100 years ago.

But the world of children in the time of Jesus was totally different from either the sentimentality of the Victorian era or today's treatment of children as young adults. For the fact of the matter is that outside the family circle children had no standing or rights whatsoever. They were basically non persons until they grew up. That is very difficult for us to appreciate today when children are given every standing and respect that is possible. But to appreciate the radicality of Jesus' action and words we need to recognize how much things have changed. Here Jesus is challenging the disciples with both prophetic action and words.

After all the disciples had been discussing their status in the kingdom of God. You can just hear them heatedly arguing who was more senior or who had been a disciple longer or who had worked hardest or what Jesus had purportedly promised or said to them. When I was Precentor at Melbourne Cathedral in the mid 70s the rule still prevailed about clergy processions. The rule was the most junior go first and the most senior last. I used to hate the unseemly performance as clergy jockeyed for what they took to be their rightful position in the procession especially on big diocesan occasions. There was nothing about humility or service as taught by Jesus in those moments. But those disciples long ago were behaving according to the customs of the times. In those days standing in the community was all about position and power and where you stood in relation to it. It is not all that different today except women and children do get a look in.

At least according to Mark the disciples were somewhat ashamed at what they had been discussing. Not only does Mark reiterate that the disciples did not understand but that when asked by Jesus what they were discussing “they were silent”. You will remember the context of this incident. Last week I introduced this whole section of Mark's gospel which begins with Peter's recognition of Jesus as Messiah at Caesarea Philippi and ends with his entry into Jerusalem. This section of the gospel is shaped around Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. The text keeps referring to Jesus and the disciples being “on the way.” “The Way” is both the Way of the Cross as well as the journey of discipleship. It is in this section Jesus teaches the disciples and us, the readers, about what it is to be one of his disciples. In last week's gospel he taught about “taking up one's cross and following me” and about “losing one's life in order to gain it.” Today he follows the second prediction of his Passion with the familiar saying “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” and then by the acted parable of taking the child in his arms and saying “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” and so forth.

What Jesus does here is to turn human custom and practice of precedent and standing on its head. Like Jesus' response to Peter's rebuke “You are setting your mind not on divine things but human things”. Once again in today's incident the disciples are slow learners.

We know like the disciples that Jesus' words are unsettling because they are so counter cultural. As human beings we love, we yearn for recognition, for status, for power and position. It is amazing how so easily we feel slighted when someone ignores us or forgets our name or we are passed over for some job which we thought was ours. And so the list goes on. I well remember years ago getting all upset over missing a parish appointment I thought had my name on it. I felt slighted and hurt. God had other plans for me but I could not see that at the time.

But reflecting on Jesus' words about the first being last and the last first and about when we welcome a child or a person of no standing that we in fact welcome Christ and indeed God himself. How do we express that in our church life? How does that influence our life in this Christian community at Transfiguration? These two sayings are fundamental to our welcome and our hospitality as a congregation. You have heard me on these topics before but I believe we need constant reminder of them because they are so central to our identity as a Christian faith community. We know how easy it is to fall back into the way of the world and to forget the radical hospitality that Jesus preaches. We know churches like other human groups can become clubby and proprietorial and unfriendly. Many of us have had the experience of being new in a congregation and being studiously ignored. Or even worse of attending for some time and still not being recognized! I am sure none of us are unfriendly people but it is easy to become preoccupied with particular tasks or people and to forget the stranger and visitor in our midst and the words of Jesus that in welcoming the stranger we welcome him.

But Jesus' words include that word “serve”: “whoever wants to be first of all must be last of all and servant of all.” Jesus uses the Greek word “diaconos”, the word from which we derive the word deacon. That model of service is reiterated at the end of this section of Mark's gospel: “For the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus is the very model for the servant ministry to which we are all called; a ministry which embodies “loving our neighbor as our self”.