2021.09.26 | THE GREATEST
“The Greatest”
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 9:38-50 (NRSV)
Today’s gospel reading calls to mind a song written by British lyricist Johnny Wakelin about Muhahmid Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The song was titled “Black Superman.” It was released in 1974, rose to #7 on the pop music charts in Australia and the United Kingdom, and number 1 in Canada. It also spent six months on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1975 in the US.
The most memorable lines in Wakelin’s song echo Muhahmid Ali’s poetic and self-aggrandizing style. Perhaps you remember these lyrics:
….
Muhammad, was known to have said
You watch me shuffle and I'll jab off your head
He moves like the black superman
And calls to the other guy I'm Ali catch me if you can
He says I'm the greatest the worlds ever seen
The heavyweight champion who came back again
My face is so pretty you don't see a scar
Which proves I'm the king of the ring by far…
I’ve never been much of a boxing fan. I don’t care for sports in which the primary objective is to injure your opponent, but I was always impressed by Ali’s ability to defend himself with his fists in the ring and his mouth in an interview.
I have also been impressed by the fact that Ali wasn’t all “blow” and no “show.” Muhahmid Ali backed up his “smack” with win after win, even when he was out- sized by guys like George Foreman.
Given his athletic success and the length of his career, it’s not surprising that Sports Illustrated named Muhammad Ali the Sportsman of the Century in 1999 or that he began and ended his public career at two Olympic appearances.
Old timers may remember the 1960 Olympics in Rome where Ali won a gold medal in boxing. Younger ones among us may recall the 1996 Olympics which were held in Atlanta. Ali was invited to light the olympic torch, even though it took all the strength in his body to manage the torch in his right hand as his left hand and side trembled vigorously, a sign of how Parkinson’s disease had ravaged his body.
II
Muhammad Ali’s boxing career was truly stunning. One for the record books and well deserved. Despite his tremendous success in the ring, I find his life outside the ring far more compelling and worthy of emulation.
Muhammad Ali was an indefatigable spokesperson and advocate for African American civil rights, beginning in his youth.
As a young adult he risked jail time and sacrificed four years of his life defending his conscientious objector status during the Vietnam Conflict.
Ali also rattled a lot of cages when he converted from Christianity to Islam, first joining Nation of Islam, a Black seperatist group, and later affiliating with the more moderate and mainstream Muslim tradition known as Sunni Islam.
As a youth growing up in lily white rural Iowa at the peek of Ali’s boxing career, his conversion was the occasion for many people in my social location to begin to learn about Islam, and the many and varried traditions that are from that part of our saherd Abrahamic tradition.
Ali was a figure whose name, talent, sport, and success cut across many different culatures, and his out-front and formidable communication style provided a platform for many to engage the socio-culturalal issues of the day: African American Civil Rights, white racism, the Vientam war, the global peace movement, the plurality of islam, and the need for interfaith understanding and cooperation.
In his later life, Muhammad Ali was also a model philanthropic generosity. He didn’t make contributions to see his name on a building. He gave generously to causes that ameliorated poverty and addressed root causes of injustice. He traveled internationally and spoke passionately about the need for world peace. And, he spoke boldly and he gave generously--not to see his name in the headlines--but rather to express his Muslim faith.
In the final years of his life, Muhammad Ali also became a spokesperson and a model of courage for people living with Parkinson’s disease. When he was first diagnosed he cloistered himself away, but somehow by the time he could barely speak anymore, he found the strength to reveal his vulnerability and demonstrate his sheer will to persevere in spite of the paralysis that had robbed him of his ability to speak and inhibited his ability to swallow.
This is why I believe that if Jesus were alive and walking the earth in the late 20th Century with his disciples, he would have pointed to people like Muhammad Ali, a Christian convert to Islam, and he would have said to his disciples, “Boys, whoever is not against me is for me.”
III
Can you imagine what a jaw-dropping, mic-dropping moment that would have been for his people? Can you imagine the headlines that Muhamid Ali would have gotten on six o’clock news with Jesus’ endorsement? The shock value is palpable.
News flash everyone: Jesus did not define his “in crowd” by how long they had followed him around or claimed that he was the Christ. No, instead, Jesus demonstrated with his words and his deeds that his people were those who affiliated with the least, the last, and the lost.
Jesus didn’t just make this claim with his words. He gave the disciples an object lesson. He spotted a child in their vicinity, he walked up to her, and wrapped his arms around her, saying: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
St. Francis of Assisi (whose feast day is Oct 4, 2021) famously said, “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”
This is what Jesus was doing in Mark 9:36 when he took the child into his arms. He was providing his disciples with an object lesson. He was showing them--not just telling them--that if they wanted to be greatest in God’s kindom, they had to welcome the least, the last, and the lost.
In ancient near eastern cultures, children were considered communal property. They belonged to their parents, their ethnic group, and their community. They were expected to listen to their superiors, and do what they were told. They were not their own people. They held the lowest rank in society. In Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke), the term for “child” was the same as the term used for “servant” and “slave.” [Megan McKenna, Not Counting Women and Children: Neglected Stories from the Bible. (New York: Orbis Books,1994), p. 66.]
So if we would like to be the greatest in Jesus’ eyes, we must let go of our obsession with privilege, and align ourselves with those who hold the lowest status. This would not make us popular, but it would make us faithful. Amen.