The
Savior We Follow, The Life We Lead:
What Do I DO?
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
September 24, 2006
Scripture:
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
Each
Sunday in this 9:00 service, we sing the children up here to the chancel
steps for a special time with them. We sing: “This is where
children belong, welcomed as part of the worshiping throng; Water,
God’s Word, bread and cup, prayer and song; this is where children
belong.” Welcomed as part of the worshiping throng….
I
believe that as a congregation we are continuing to grow in welcoming
our children as fellow-worshipers, as equals in the sight of God,
as together, young and old, short and tall, little and big, together
we worship God. Oh, I know the children are cute and they often say
funny things that make us laugh. But more and more, in the ways we
worship together, we’re shifting from seeing them as entertainment
for us to welcoming them as a true part of the worshiping congregation.
In
our worship, more and more, we’re doing what Jesus demonstrates
to his first disciples in Mark’s gospel, we’re welcoming
children in his name, and in so doing, we’re welcoming him.
Those
of you who were in worship last Sunday heard the children read Scripture.
Many of you remarked on how powerful that was. And I have a feeling
that the Word of God came alive for you in new ways as you heard them
read. Because it was obvious that it came from their hearts and from
their faith in God.
As
we go forward, we will be including our children and youth more and
more often as Lay Lectors. This requires advance preparation, to be
sure, training and practice. And it all grows out of the Worship Renewal
work we’ve been engaged in which we kicked off a year ago today
with our first Worship Renewal Weekend and Celebration Sunday. As
this year goes on, more and more of the fruits of that renewal work
will become manifest among us as together we worship the living God.
(continued...)
"What
Do I DO?" by Rev. Patricia Farris, September 24, 2006
Over
the course of the next few weeks, we’re going to be lifting
up the situation of children in our community and in our world as
we observe Children’s Sabbath on October 8 and as our Lay Leader,
Ron Theile, speaks on Laity Sunday, the following week. But today,
I want to focus on a different aspect of Jesus’ teaching about
children, the purely spiritual aspect. For it should be clear from
his word to us this morning that for Jesus, welcoming children is
a key to our spiritual health and growth.
Remember
the setting. Jesus’ ministry is progressing. And all along the
way, as he travels with his disciples from town to town, teaching
and preaching and healing, he is working with his disciples to help
them understand what he’s about, and most importantly, what
this kingdom is that he so often speaks about. On this occasion he
had again spoken with them about what was going to happen and all
and again, they clearly didn’t want to hear it. He talks with
them about how he will be betrayed and killed and on the third day,
how he will rise again. Mark says they didn’t understand what
he was saying and that they were even afraid to ask him about it and
so they changed the subject.
We
can relate. It’s just like when we’re watching TV and
a serious documentary comes on about some really tough situation in
the world and we hit the remote! Give me a sitcom or sports, please!
I don’t want to deal with that heavy stuff right now.
But
it’s even a bit worse for the disciples this day because Jesus
overheard what they were arguing about and he asked them about it.
Too embarrassed to tell him, they go quiet on him, no one daring to
tell him that they’d argued about who among them was the greatest.
How awkward and uncomfortable that moment must have been as they sat
there in silence, ashamed of themselves, heads bowed, eyes cast down,
hearts heavy with remorse.
Jesus
shows such incredible compassion in that moment. He could have just
shaken his head and walked away in disgust. He could have acted like
a Marine sergeant and chewed them up one side and down the other.
He could have called them on the carpet one at a time and embarrassed
them in front of all the others. He could have done a lot of things—that
he didn’t do. Instead, he had compassion on them just as he
has compassion on us, over and over and over again, when we veer from
his path, his Way, his truth and his life, and put our own needs for
recognition and status ahead of everything else.
He
reminded them of the key to it all, his identity and ours as well:
whosoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.
A teaching so simple and so very hard. And then, to show them how
to do it, he took a child and put it among them and took it in his
arms and said: whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes
me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Again,
in our child-obsessed culture, we probably forget just how shocking
this act would have seemed to those first disciples. At that time,
children were pretty much the lowest of the low in terms of their
social standing, the last and the least. So for him to say: welcome
one such as this! would have turned their world upside down. (continued...)
"What
Do I DO?" by Rev. Patricia Farris, September 24, 2006
But
even from our perspective, we, too, can get inside the kind of spirituality
and faith he’s showing us here. Imagine…. To welcome
a child, you have to bend down. You can feel out of balance and
a bit awkward. And children wiggle and squirm. They can be sticky
and messy. The little ones are likely to reach up and pull at your
glasses or your earrings. They ask you embarrassing questions. And
often they could care less about what you have to say. Welcoming
a child gets us out of our comfort zone and into the mindset we
need to be in to “get” the counter-intuitive lesson
Jesus is teaching us here: whosover wants to be first must be last
of all and servant of all.
There’s
a story told about a young rabbinical student who asked the old
rabbi: “Rabbi, why don’t people see God today as they
did in the olden days?” The wise rabbi reflected for a moment
and then said: “The answer, my son, is because no one is willing
to stoop so low.”
[Welcoming
children puts us bigger people into a posture of receiving, of setting
aside any puffed-upness we may be harboring and opening ourselves
to receive God in Christ in life giving ways. In this spiritual
work, we can join our Jewish brothers and sisters on this weekend
of Rosh Hashana and the days of reflection leading to Yom Kippur
as we welcome the Sha’arei-Am Synagogue into our house of
worship for these high holy days. For this is the Jewish celebration
of the new year, of new beginnings with God, of the possibility
of a new and restored relationship with God. And that promise of
newness speaks to us Christians as well. With them, let us pray
for a new heart, a new posture towards God, a new welcoming spirit
towards one another and all God’s children.]
In
SH today, during Coffee Hour, look for some recent photos we have
received from our partner church in New Orleans, Bethany UMC. Might
not look like much to you—children playing on grass—unless
you know the story behind the photo.
By
now you’ve probably heard the stories our work teams are telling
about the devastation they experience even still all through New
Orleans. How everything looks brown and dirty because so many lawns
and trees were wiped out in the flood waters and just beginning
now to come back here and there. When our first team was in the
planning stages last February, Pastor Edwards invited them to come
and work on the landscaping around the church. I was in Brazil at
the time at the World Council of Churches and I kept emails from
our folks wondering if it was really worth all our time and effort
to get our Team to New Orleans to plant a few plants, or so it seemed.
We wanted to do grand things, worthy of our time, skill and financial
investment—and putting down sod just didn’t seem to
be quite it. (continued...)
"What
Do I DO?" by Rev. Patricia Farris, September 24, 2006
I
just kept advising them to talk with Pastor Edwards. Find out
WHY he needs us to come do this. Find out why it’s so important
right now. And of course, we all soon learned that the presence
of green living beauty around that church was part of their plan
to rebuild. That green growing grass and plants and flowers were
all part of their strategy to show the community that life could
go on, even in that place of devastation. They knew that grass
would be a powerful way of showing that the church was resurrected,
that it was alive and well. That growing green grass was to be
a beacon of hope, a statement of faith and a testimony to the
power of God.
And
now, what we can see in the photos, is that that very grass that
our team put in is now that testimony of faith. It is an oasis
of beauty and life, welcoming children back home to the house
of God. You’ll see it on their faces and in their smiles.
Our grass says: “Welcome home, children! This is a place
for laughter, for play, for joy, for hope and for great faith.”
You
see, maybe stooping low to put down sod wasn’t such a lowly
task after all. Maybe, in God’s eyes, it was the most important
thing anybody could have done. For whosoever wants to be first
must be last of all and servant of all.
Thanks
be to God for the upside down kingdom of Jesus Christ, who stooped
down to open his arms and welcome a child, whose compassionate
love bends us low and in so doing, lifts us higher than we could
ever have imagined, showing us the way to the fullness of life.
Amen
©Patricia
Farris , 2006. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
|
