Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (25th in Ordinary)

There is a famous prayer: “Lord I am a simple man; make me simpler yet.”  Yet in modern living everything seems to militate against this.  We are encouraged to upgrade, develop our careers and seek out bigger opportunities for ourselves.  It was no different in Jesus’ day.  In the Bible passage for this week, the disciples were squabbling over who would have the best seat in the kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus takes them aside and tells them that they have got it all wrong.  Instead of always striving to get ahead in life, they should focus on serving others by humbling themselves.  Jesus goes on to use an illustration with children.  No doubt there were children close to him at the time.  He uses these children as an illustration by noting their attitude to life.  He tells his disciples to be child-like, not childish, by adopting an attitude of humble acceptance of being loved by their parents.  We too should abide in God’s love without striving to have a higher status in God’s kingdom.  In short, we should seek, if anything, to be more simple.