To welcome the child

 

Mark 9: 30-37
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 22, 2024

Photo of a button colored light blue that reads "You are a CHILD of GOD I'll treat you that way".

First, I need to begin with a gentle reminder that when I use the word “we” in sermons, more often than not, I’m not talking about you and me or about us as a church but about humanity. It’s important to do this, to remind us that we do not exist apart from other people and their actions and behaviors. In another church I served, someone asked me when we pray a prayer of confession, why do we confess things we haven’t personally done? I asked her, doesn’t it grieve you when human beings behave in ways that harm one another and the earth? She said, “Yes, it does.” I replied, “That’s why.” If we truly are one race of people, if we are truly interconnected, interdependent, we share each other’s problems, each other’s woes as much as each other’s joys and triumphs, the messiness of what it means to be human. And the best way for us to solve our problems is together.



Second, today I am going to engage in the spiritual practice of lament and I invite you to join me. If church is the place we come to escape the world and its pain, we are not in church but a hiding place. As much as we would like to be able to cocoon ourselves from the world’s troubles, for those who follow the Jesus of the poor and marginalized, church is the place, the people where we bring our faith to bear on the world’s troubles. And when it comes to children, unfortunately there is a great deal to lament.



Earlier this week you may have heard the news story about Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old resident of the state of Georgia, who was one of two women who died because they were denied legal abortion and access to timely medical care. In July 2022 the state of Georgia made her necessary procedure a felony, including any doctor who performed what is called a D&C. Amber’s death was deemed preventable, leaving her 6-year-old son without a mother. I am left wondering if legislators in the 22 states that have banned or restricted abortion in the last two years, have they considered the children who would be left behind when their mothers would be denied the care that would save their lives?



I am also lamenting, my heart is broken from the recently published 649-page document from the Ministry of Health in Gaza that lists the name, age, gender, and ID number of every Palestinian killed in Gaza from October 7 to August 31 that they have data for. The first 14 pages the age is listed as 0, meaning 1 year old or younger, estimated to be about 700 infants. The total known number of children under 18 is over 11,000. Not to mention the Israeli children who were killed on October 7, the number of which I have not yet been able to find, which is disturbing in and of itself.



I know this is hard but please continue to hear me out. Since the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, more than 383,000 school-age children have experienced gun violence at their school. Not to mention the active shooter training that is now required. The most recent shooting took place on Sept. 6 in Joppa, MD. Incredibly, the federal government does not track school shootings. Even though we have raised a generation of children for whom gun violence has been essentially normalized.



Not only that, we also cannot seem to provide a federally funded universal free meal program, except in the case of a global pandemic. For two years, every child received a waiver for free breakfast and lunch regardless of family income. Plus, the reimbursement rate for each meal increased by 20%, giving schools more resources to feed children. Participation in daily lunch increased by 1.4 million, reducing child hunger by 95%. It also had a measurable effect on academic success. When the program ended in June 2022, rather finding a way to continue this achievement, lawmakers affirmed that the norm should be that aid is targeted and temporary.



Like slavery and abortion rights, this is also something we leave up to the states. One school district in Pennsylvania sent letters to 40 families with school lunch debt saying that if they did not pay off the debt, the school district would recommend that their child be placed in foster care. In his episode on school lunch debt, from which I gathered much of this data, John Oliver said of the program in Minnesota, “That’s thousands of kids who aren’t going to class feeling hungry, shamed, or excluded. That should be the standard in all 50 states. [During the pandemic], in this one particular area, Americans got to experience what it was like to have the federal government be responsive to the needs of the vulnerable…you kind of can’t un-ring that bell.”



I bring all of this before us today because in Mark’s gospel we read that Jesus tells his disciples that he will be betrayed into human hands and be killed. Not a day goes by that I don’t open Twitter and read about the suffering of children, teens, and young adults. While politicians argue who is greatest amongst them, Jesus would have us be responsive to the needs of the vulnerable.



In this passage from Mark, Jesus plays out what would be a familiar scene from the pages of empire. In a Roman household it was the oldest living male, considered the greatest member, who welcomed the newest child into the family. The midwife would place the newborn at his feet and if he picked it up and embraced it, only then would it become a formal part of the family. Otherwise, he could disown his children and even sell them into slavery if he wished. And of course, male children were more desired than female children so that the eldest son could take his father’s place.

Instead, Jesus takes one of the children in the home where they are guests and puts it among the disciples, then takes it into his arms and says that whoever welcomes one such child welcomes him. He tells them that whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.



Is there one vulnerable child or teen or young adult you can think of who needs your welcome, your acceptance, your imperfect yet unmerited, unlimited, unconditional love? Is there a parent of such a child you know who needs the same? Mentoring programs at local schools are ramping up again and are always looking for folks who can give an hour or so a week.



One of you posted on social media last night, “The Church should be a community where messed-up people are welcome, outcasts are loved, underdogs find a champion, the hopeless find hope, and the friendless find a friend.” One very important thing about this spiritual practice of lament as a church is that it reminds us we were all children once, and that as children we have all felt pain and been hurt. I think one of the purposes of Church is to interrupt that cycle of pain and hurt with connection, belonging, to choose one another as Jesus welcomed that child, and then serve others with that same love. Others who are vulnerable, who have no power or ability to give back. When we liberate children, we liberate all of us.

Navy blue poster with white letters: "The Church should be a community where messed-up people are welcome, outcasts are loved, underdogs find a champion,, the hopeless find hope, and the friendless find a friend."

The miracle is, despite the often-alarming reality they grew up in, this current young generation is one of the most compassionate, accepting, civically engaged group of people that has ever lived. Because they have chosen themselves and each other. When I think of the twenty-somethings that grew up in this church and how many of them have gone or will go into a helping profession of some kind or a science that just might change the world, I am thankful that this church was part of their nurturing.



Beloveds, when we sing our last hymn, when we sing the words, “Won’t you let me be your servant?”, look at the faces around the room, the Zoom room, listen to the voices singing those words, and let us remember we are singing to somebody’s child, and they are singing to us, a child of God, all of us who still need that welcome. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


Child God Awaits Liberation!
Go Forth
Honoring Their Worth
Meeting Their needs
Ensuring Their safety
Protecting Their joy