Saint Mark 9:30-27

The Mother of a five-year-old Daughter had just finished reading a book authored by a leading Woman Business Executive…

Still bubbling over with enthusiasm for the Author’s point of view, she asked the little girl, "What would you like to be when you grow up?" To which the child replied, "I want to have a lemonade stand." The Mother answered, "My dear child, you can do better than that. You can be a Nurse or a Teacher, or a great Surgeon or a famous Lawyer or a great Fashion Designer. Why you could even be President of the United States! You can be anything!"

A she pondered her Mother’s words, the little girl’s face began to grow with excitement. Clearly, a whole new world of possibilities was opening up to her. "Wow, I can be anything," she exclaimed. "Okay then, I’ll be a horse!"

Okay then, what will you be? What is your ultimate goal in life? More precisely on point, "What kind of person are you aiming to be?"

In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus and the Disciples journey to a house in the City of Capernaum. "What were you arguing about on the way?" Jesus asked the twelve. "But they were silent," Mark tells us, for on the way they had argued with one another 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" (Mark 9:33-35).

"You can be anything you want to be." To whatever extent that statement may be true, it sounds like good news to a College Graduate in the process of making a career choice. But, for all who follow the Lord Jesus Christ – for you and for me who gather together in Jesus’ name – the ultimate in good news is Jesus’ invitation to become the kind of persons God wants us to be.

Again, in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus invites us to His life of greatness saying, "Whoever wants to be first must be lat of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35).

On the morning of July fourth, Nineteen Fifty-two, the California Coast was blanketed in a heavy fog …

Twenty miles to the West, on Catalina Island, a thirty-four-year-old woman waded into the water and began swimming to California. Her name was Florence Chadwick. She had already become the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions and she was determined to be the first woman ever to swim the twenty-one-mile Strait between Catalina and California.

The Fog was so thick that Chadwick could barely see the boats in her own party. But as the hours ticked by, she swam on through the cold waters. The bone-chilling water became a problem, but she was never threatened by fatigue. Her biggest problem was the dense fog.

After more than fifteen-hours, her body numbed with the cold, the swimmer asked to be taken out of the water.

Later, she learned that when she gave up, she was only a relatively short distance from shore. "I’m not excusing myself," she said, "but I know that if I could have seen the shore I might have made it."

Florence Chadwick was defeated not by the Sea or even the cold, but by the Fog. The Fog had obscured her vision. The Fog had obscured her goal.

And that is precisely what Jesus is talking about throughout the Gospels. That is precisely what Jesus is talking about when He tells us that "Everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled." To exalt yourself means that you are losing sight of your true goal in life. It means that you are taking your eyes off God. It means that your number one primary focus is on something or someone other than God. It means that God is no longer number one in your life. It means that whatever it is you want to be in life or do in life, you will be or do on your own terms. It means that you will rely on your own resources, or more simply put, "I’ll do it my way!"

When you exalt yourself in this way, when you take that attitude and approach to life, you will be humbled, Jesus tells us. You will be traveling the low road through life where all is of yourself, by yourself, and for yourself. Consequently, instead of drawing closer and closer to God – your true goal in life – you will be drawing closer and closer to Spiritual and Emotional disaster.

On the other hand, Jesus teaches us that who humbles themselves will be exalted. We must live in complete dependence on God, acknowledging God not only as the Source of Life but also the Source of our Way of life.

In the process of becoming whatever we want to be, and in the process of doing whatever we want to do, our primary focus must be on the God-given purpose for our lives. Our heart must sing not, "I’ll do it my way," but "I’ll do it God’s way."

At one point in the "Alice in Wonderland" story, Alice asks the Cheshire cat "Would you tell me, please, which way I have to go from here?" The cat replies, "That depends a great deal on where you want to go." Alice says, I don’t care much where." And the Cheshire cat answers, "Then it doesn’t matter which way you go."

We are together here today because we very much care where we want to go.

We are together here today because we want to get closer to God.

We are together here today because we want to go not "our way" but "Jesus’ way.

We are gathered here today to embrace for our lives Jesus’ way of achieving true greatness:

According to a study made at an Agricultural School in Iowa, the production of one hundred baskets of corn on one acre of land requires:

• Four million pounds of water,
• Sixty-eight hundred pounds of oxygen,
• Fifty-two hundred pounds of carbon,
• One hundred-sixty pounds of nitrogen,
• One hundred twenty-five pounds of potassium,
• Seventy-five pounds of yellow sulphur and quantities of other elements to numerous to mention.

In addition to those ingredients, sunshine is required, as many hours of the Farmer’s Labor. However, it was estimated that a mere five percent of farm produce can be attributed to human effort. The rest is in God’s hands.

And that is something worth remembering when you ponder your ultimate goal in life.

"Everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, and they who humble themselves will be exalted," says the Lord.

"Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all," says the Lord.

What do you want to be?

Thanks be to God!!!!! Amen!!!