Welcoming Children and Welcoming All: Mission and Ministry

A message based on Mark 9:30-37: [Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when Jesus was in the house he asked the disciples, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. Jesus sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then Jesus 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.”