Jesus Loves the Little Children
This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church on Sunday, 9/20. The text is Mark 9:30-37. "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." Don't we get all mushy gushy when we read of Jesus' interaction with little ones? They're so cute and innocent. How we wish we had more of them here at church. Today, our gospel is about the second of Jesus' three predictions about his approaching suffering and death. There is an identical pattern in each of the three predictions. First, Jesus teaches that he will suffer and die. Second, the disciples are confused and misunderstand Jesus' meaning. Third, Jesus spends more time teaching his disciples. In today's gospel, the whole point of the secrecy about Jesus and the disciples passing through Galilee until they got to Capernaum...