This is the second of a sermon series on chapters 9 through 14 in the Gospel of Mark, and today’s reading is the familiar passage wherein Jesus rebukes the disciples who have just told some children to leave him alone. In Mark, especially, the disciples just don’t seem to get it, and this is one of those times when they don’t. Here Jesus invites the most vulnerable to himself, a model not only for the disciples but a model of God’s invitation to us when we are vulnerable and also an example for us to be invitational to the vulnerable around us.