CAN YOU SEE ME?

Dr. Richard J. Henderson September 21, 2003

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Psalm 1
Mark 9: 30-37

Introduction

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you - nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! They'd advertise - you know!

That is, of course, part of one of Emily Dickinson's most famous poems. I think it has been so popular for so long because it speaks to a feeling - and a fear - that we all have. I'm nobody.

I

We struggle against being a nobody. Everybody wants to be somebody - at least to someone. We work hard for recognition. So, the new worker at the company stays late, working hard so that those who are above him will notice him. People climb the corporate ladder, so they will be recognized by their peers.

Wealthy people donate buildings - expecting their name to be on the building - so that people will recognize them. Kids will act out, because they realize that bad attention is better than no attention at all. Being yelled at or even punished is seen as better than being invisible.

People will do the stupidest things just to be seen on TV. It shouts, "Notice me! See me! Recognize me!"

Several years ago there used to be an old building on Novi Road, between Grand River and the expressway. One day someone painted on the side of this abandoned building the words, "I was somebody here." It was a cry really; a cry each one of us makes.

II

Jesus' disciples want to be somebody too. They want to be recognized. They want to stand out from the rest of the crowd. As Jesus and his disciples are traveling from Galilee, Jesus begins once again, to talk with them about what is going to happen to him. He talks openly about his coming betrayal, suffering, and death.

Shortly after Jesus is finished - and when he is out of earshot - the disciples strike up a conversation about which of them is the greatest. It turns into an argument, with some claiming higher status among the group than others. No doubt feelings are hurt as these claims are made, and others try to explain why they are more important.

Sometimes when you read the Bible the irony just screams at you. Here is Jesus telling about the suffering, agony, and death that he is going to have to face, and two minutes later the disciples are arguing over which of them is the greatest. The contrast is overwhelming. With friends like that...

And then, just in case you didn't get the idea, Jesus picks up a little child and puts it in the midst of them, and says, Be like this.

III

In Jesus' day a child was the essence of a powerless person. They were the epitome of being nobody. In the last century people used to say, "Children should be seen and not heard." In Jesus' time that would have been considered a very generous statement. They didn't want children to be seen or heard! Children were socially invisible.

One of the astounding things about the parable of the Prodigal Son is that the father gets up and runs out to meet his wayward son. No father would ever get up to go meet a child. No father would think of running out to greet a child. The children always came to him, humbly and with respect. In Jesus' time children were some of the least powerful people in the world.

Jesus picks up a little child and says, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

IV

Jesus says to respond to the "nobody" is to respond to Christ and to God. The disciples are arguing over who is the greatest and Jesus stands up a little child - one of the invisible people - and says become like this. The invisible people around us are important.

Anne Tyler, in her novel Ladder of Years, tells of a mom who one day just walks off from her family. They are all on a picnic, and she just walks away, and keeps on walking. It's several days before she is reported missing, and even then the details are a little sketchy. The newspaper reports the family's description of her as having "fair or light brown hair...her eyes are blue or grey or perhaps green."¹ This is their wife and mother!!

No wonder the woman had walked away - she had become invisible to her own family.

Your world and mine are filled with invisible people. What the world generally considers the "nobodies." A few years back actor Robert Duvall wrote, directed, and starred in a film called Apostle. It was about a small-time preacher who got in trouble and kept moving to avoid arrest. He was a nobody.

In an interview Duvall said part of the motivation for writing the script was because he was tired of the arrogance of people on the east and west coast. He said he was once in a meeting where the people who live in the heartland of America were referred to as "flyovers," They are called "flyovers" because they mean nothing; you just fly over them on your way to the other coast.

V

Jesus tells us these "nobodies" really matter. How you treat the invisible people makes an enormous difference. In fact, how you respond to the nobodies affects how you respond to Christ and to God. That makes them very important people.

The great Christian, C. S. Lewis, said that people are most important, because governments and institutions will all fall away and die, but God's people will live on forever. He went out of his way to talk with the maids in the hotels when he was traveling. He responded to every letter from every person who wrote to him. He didn't care if you were Prime Minister or doorman, student or an executive, he responded to you. He set aside time each morning to responds to mail he had received. Obviously, Lewis had read his Bible.

VI

Jesus' word is that it is important how we respond to the people around us - especially those who tend to be invisible. It may be the difference between welcoming God or not. Part of this is saying that it's not just when everybody is watching that's important, but how we treat everyday people everyday.

One of the most tragic experiences I know of was a woman who was a member of this church several years ago. Her son was sick and she took him to the hospital. The doctor couldn't diagnose his problem so re referred her to a children's hospital. They kept him and did more tests. Finally they determined the problem. It was a degenerative disease, which would eventually result in the child's early death.

The doctor told this young mom about her son's disease by meeting her in the hallway of the hospital and handing her a sheet of paper and said, "This is what your son has." That piece of paper described in detail what the disease was and what its result would be. He handed her the paper and walked away. Here is this young mother standing in a stark hallway, alone, reading what will happen to her son and crying uncontrollably!

He was a doctor - a specialist - a very important person. She was just a young mom. How we treat the "nobodies" - how we treat the invisible people of the world - may determine how well we see God.

Conclusion

Clayton Schmidt was a young student in seminary when he got word of his uncle's death in a plane crash. Since he was a seminarian and nearby he was sent by the family to support his aunt in her grief.

As he drove to her house he was trying to review some of the things he had learned in his pastoral counseling class. His aunt had a mentally challenged son who was ten years old at the time. His name was Joey.

Joey couldn't completely understand what had happened to his father, but he saw his mother crying, so he took his crayons and paper and made a picture for her. It wasn't very well done, but you could make out what it was. He drew an airplane, a rainbow, and a cross. He took it to his mother and gave it to her. "Here Mama, I made this for you." Then he went to his room.

Schmidt says even though he was inexperienced, he had the good sense not to try to say anything theological at the time. Joey had said what needed to be said in his drawing.

God doesn't value us by human standards, but by God's standards.

Watch for the invisible people - of God.

Amen.

Footnotes:
1. Tyler, Anne, The Ladder of Years. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1995. P 100.

©Richard J. Henderson 2003