September 23, 2018 – James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
Welcoming the Child
Lectionary 25 – September 23, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We’ve been following the story of Jesus and the disciples in Mark for a while now.
Jesus has figured out his identity as one who serves all people,
regardless of their gender, income, social status, ethnicity, or religion.
It’s been quite a journey – and today they finally get back to home base, Capernaum.
He has twice told the disciples what kind of Messiah – what kind of king – he will be.
He will serve, he will suffer, he will die.
And, he said last week, if any want to be my disciple let them, too,
take up their cross and follow me.
Now that is not what they are expecting and that is certainly not what they want.
So they just choose not to hear him.
They argue on the way who among them will be the greatest –
and we wince at their stupidity yet again! Blockheads!
So he sits them down and tries to drill it into their thick skulls once again:
the greatest among you is the one who serves!
To illustrate, he takes a child in his arms and says:
Whoever welcome a child like this, like I am showing you, welcomes me,
and not only welcomes me, but the one who sent me.
That is what you are to be about.
Children in the ancient world – as today – are among the least respected,
most vulnerable, most exploited people on the planet.
In the ancient world, children had no status and no rights.
And, in an honour shame culture, they were considered to have no honour,
and hence could not help you accumulate more: children were of no value to you.
If they grew up – and it was a big if – then they might be of use.
But in themselves, they were, essentially, useless and valueless.
I think, here, they stand in for all the vulnerable exploited people of Jesus’ day – and ours.
Jesus is saying, in effect, whoever welcomes and cares for the most vulnerable people in society,
welcomes me and the one who sent me.
Jesus and his heavenly parent so closely identify with the vulnerable, suffering and
marginalized that when we welcome these people, we are welcoming them.
These, Jesus is saying, are the greatest among us: so welcome them, and serve them.
God has a special concern for the vulnerable – this is fundamental to the biblical story.
And God’s concern is that they be welcomed and valued in community.
Perhaps one measure of a community’s health is how well children are valued.
It’s why our governments have, with varying degrees of success,
attempted to eradicate child poverty.
We all know that children suffer disproportionately from poverty and hunger,
from natural disasters and unnatural wars, from neglect and domestic abuse.
That’s why we are so so grateful for the care and nurture of parents and teachers.
Because when that care and nurture are absent the consequences can be devastating.
At the Youth Gathering in Thunder Bay this year, we had ample opportunity to
hear from those among us who were affected by the legacy of residential schools.
For much of the gathering, our ministry to these people was simply to listen to them,
to hear how the government of our country did not welcome and respect
the children it was called to serve.
Children were taken from their homes and families and made to feel ashamed of
their culture and language and identity – made to feel ashamed of their very selves.
I think, for me, the biggest impact of the recent gathering was simply hearing person
after person describe the consequences of being made to feel ashamed –
and how long it took them to reclaim their identity and feel proud of
who God made them to be.
Every Sunday for 18 years I have told the children,
“You are making this day special by just being you.”
It kills me to know that that is not the message many children of our country were receiving.
But it is so so important.
As many of you know, I did not come up with that phrase myself.
I borrowed it from a Presbyterian minister who went by the name of Mister Rogers.
Mister Rogers, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church,
saw his television ministry as a ministry to children.
If ever there was someone who took seriously Jesus’ instruction to welcome children,
respect them, and love them – it was Fred Rogers.
Mister Rogers modelled for many what it truly means to welcome children.
To treat them with the dignity and respect all God’s children deserve.
A documentary about his television career came out this summer called, appropriately,
Won’t you be my Neighbor?
In the documentary you hear him say this:
“Won’t you be my neighbor is an invitation to help somebody know that
they’re loved and capable of loving.”
At First Lutheran we have taken the welcome of children seriously and we do a good job of it.
Children are taken seriously – and have been for a long, long time, I think.
They are welcomed and loved – just as they are.
And I think they know from the way they are treated by our community that
they are indeed making this day special by just being themselves.
We first started welcoming them to Jesus’ table a long time ago – over 15 years ago.
I think pretty much all our members were in favour of this welcome to Jesus’ table.
It was lovely, if different, to experience children running, literally running,
to have holy communion, feeling like they were included,
excited to feel like they really were part of the family.
But something changed when the children were welcomed to Holy Communion:
our sense of what it meant to be a Christian community changed – for the better.
One Sunday a year or so after we started welcoming the children to communion,
theycouldn’t be present with us – they were rehearsing for Christmas play, I think.
After worship, Martha Helgerson said to me,
“We weren’t a whole community today. It just didn’t feel like we were all there.”
And she was right.
We call ourselves the Body of Christ.
And we have come to see that we need everyone, everyone, in order to be whole,
in order to be the whole Body of Christ.
The children bring us gifts that make us whole.
We tell them they are making this special – and they do.
We tell them they have gifts to share – and they do.
Every Sunday they contribute to our worship.
Every week they contribute to our ministry.
5 year old Evelyn frequently fills up all your little communion cups – did you know that?
Children help usher and greet and collect and bring up the offering every Sunday.
Teenagers are acolytes and assisting ministers and readers and communion room workers and
Sunday School teachers and helpers.
And it is a teenage crew that is responsible for washing all the dishes at the
Wednesday community Meals week in and week out from September to June.
As Mister Rogers says, here the children have learned that they are loved, and capable of loving.
Here, the children are not only welcomed, but they are welcomed into a community of service.
As is each of us.
One of the great things about Mister Rogers, as the documentary points out,
Is his gentleness and kindness – as I frequently say,
not traits that are highly valued these days,
but that are nevertheless world transforming.
Works done with gentleness born of wisdom, as James says this morning.
For children, and all the vulnerable, need the gentleness born of wisdom that we bring.
And in the end, don’t we all?
And are we not, all of us, children . . . of God?
Are we not all, in some way, vulnerable?
For sure, some of us are more vulnerable than others,
but as I also never tire of saying on Ash Wednesday, life is fragile.
Each of us is fragile.
Each of us deserves the welcome of Jesus.
For the truth is, each of us bears Jesus to one another –
and when we welcome one another, we welcome Jesus.
Our community gathered is Jesus, and together does the work of Jesus.
When we welcome children, when we welcome the vulnerable, when we welcome each other,
we welcome God.
We welcome God among us to do God’s work of reconciling and healing and feeding.
On this day, let us be welcomed by Jesus at his table, let us welcome one another,
And let us together be the body of Jesus and do his work with gentleness born of wisdom.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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