Striving for last place

Mark 9:33-37

          Just the other day I was returning home  rom the state capital on business. I was certainly not the last car to arrive for the ferry home to our delightful island paradise but in directig my car I realized that how they positioned me meant I would certainly be the last one off the boat.  I was not extremely happy about it either.  It was however a safe journey, I did in fact get off the boat and arrived home just fine.

          How many of us strive to be last? If I am taking this reading correctly, we should want to be last. There are others who are in need. Even aside from need,must we be at the front of the line for everything?  As much as this island is a paradise to me, it is in fact an incredibly wealthy area. Part of reason it is fertile ground for preachers is so many need to be repent from the rat race of the me first, the bigger than the Jones attitude and the seemingly constant one upsmanship.  It is a challenge for many people to step back and be happy with what they have been graced with. Instead of having what you want all the time, simply be happy wanting what you already have.

              The idea of letting others be first and putting yourself last and at the service of others seems the antithesis of today's philosophy. From the food store line to the best spot on the expressway, many people clearly feel the need to be first. After reading this passage, where would you be on the spectrum of putting yourself last and at the service of others? When I think of behaving like children as it mentions in this passage, have we learned the simple kindergarten lesson of sharing and not being selfish. Just a thought for today.

               

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said 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.’