1/3 of Our Children
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
October 8, 2006

In our worship services this month, we join some 10,000 United Methodist congregations across the nation and a broad network of faith groups in the 16th national Children’s Sabbath, lifting up the needs of children and our shared commitment to work with and for them. Made all the more poignant this year by the recent rash of tragic school shootings in this country, Christians and Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Bahais are united throughout this weekend based on our common scriptural mandate to insure that the least among us, the most vulnerable ? our children ? live lives free of want, free of fear, lives that are rich and full and beautiful and full of promise.

The passages we’ve been hearing from Mark’s gospel over these last weeks lift up the ways in which children are at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. We asked Kyle and Madeleine to read those verses in our worship services this morning so that we might all better hear what Jesus intends by these words, when, as people were bringing children to him, he said: “Let the little children come to me, do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs.”

I addressed this theme two Sundays ago in describing the kind of spirituality and faith stance Jesus shows us by the very posture of stooping to embrace a child. It is a spirituality of openness, of vulnerability and tenderness, a style of faith characterized by compassion and love. And next week our Lay Leader, Ron Theile, will address the needs of children and the church’s response, as he speaks to us on Laity Sunday out of his vast experience as a teacher, scout leader, youth advisor and father.

The recent school shootings have horrified our nation and terrified parents and kids everywhere. Our hearts go out to all the schools and families touched by this awful violence and we are awakened again to the vulnerability of children. This morning, those tragedies serve as windows to the larger, even more disturbing picture of the state of children in our nation and world, for the chance of dying at school is still only 1 in 2 million, while every day, around the world, 30,000 children under the age of 5 die of preventable diseases. It is incumbent upon us to safeguard and protect all our children, wherever they live, wherever they’re going to school and wherever they’re trying to grow up. (continued...)

"1/3 of Our Children" by Rev. Patricia Farris, October 8, 2006

We need to know, and we want our children to know, that we are part of a church that is reaching out to serve the needs of children here and all around the world. When children in our congregations and families watch the news and look at the faces of children, they need to know and understand that there is a loving God who cares and never wanted such suffering to happen. And as growing disciples, they also need to understand that it is our shared responsibility as Christians to reach out to all families and children in need, with the hope and assurance that comes from knowing God and trusting in the love of Christ.

A delegation from The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries just returned last week from a week-long trip to Angola. They toured hospitals, clinics, orphanages, schools and churches to explore ways to prevent malaria and other communicable diseases by providing greater access to health care.

The wife of our United Methodist bishop in East Angola is herself a pediatric doctor who works part-time at the Malanje Provincial Hospital. She was personally leading that delegation on a tour of the hospital when she stopped to become part of a team fighting to save a young boy’s life. He had malaria and had been sick for several days before his parents brought him in for treatment. He was so tiny that the doctors could not start the blood transfusion in time. Asked what else might have helped save his life, Dr. Quipungo said softly “oxygen.” The hospital does not even have an oxygen tank.

She told the delegation: “The image of what you saw, a dying child, is very frequent here. It is our reality. Sometimes we have two or three children die on us the same day.” Later, a church leader said: “This child will not have died in vain if we can tell his story.”

That pledge reminded me of what our youth work team in New Orleans said when they came back, having seen all that they had seen. They said: “Our work isn’t done until we’ve told everyone.” That’s a big part of what Children’s Sabbath is about, what the work of the church is about, telling the story. Because we know that, when people of good faith hear and understand and feel a need, they will respond and they will respond generously. We’ve seen it over and over again. And so the Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Communications are already at work, telling the story, and raising money, and recruiting missionaries, including a pediatric surgeon, to go and serve with our church in Angola.

Several of you have wondered out loud with me about the meaning of the title of my sermon this morning, “1/3 of our Children.” The folks in the office thought it was a typo at first. It came from something that our Accounting Manager, Bill Prescott, said to me a few weeks ago, as we were talking in the office one day about our church’s great programs for children and youth. Bill mentioned the incredible statistic that 1/3 of the children living in the Los Angeles area live in poverty. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. One-third of our children live in poverty. I asked him to check his facts, to find the source, thinking that surely he’d gotten it wrong. What he found out was actually worse. That statistic was from 2 years ago and the number of kids living in poverty has only increased since. (continued...)