The Eucharist was offered to unwanted children everywhere.
Last Sunday, I invited the Vestry and other leaders in the parish to
come forward for a special commissioning service. A lot of the usual suspects came forward
including those who have served on the Vestry many times before. We also saw some new faces in the group,
those who are relatively new to the church and leadership in the church.
But we also had an
uninvited guest join the circle. He had
curly blonde hair and wore trendy round rimmed eye glasses. And I’m pretty sure he was missing a lens or
two. His church attire included a pair
of shorts and a t-shirt. He certainly
didn’t look the part of a church leader.
I almost missed seeing the young man who was about three feet tall
weighing almost 40 pounds. He looked to
be about two and half years old and his name was Hatch Bearden.
When I noticed Hatch,
I smiled and recalled the same piece of scripture that we read about today and
I said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in Christ’s name welcomes Christ
himself.” I laid my hands on Hatch’s
head and everyone giggled a little bit because it was cute. And then we all said, “Amen.”
The passage of
scripture that I recalled last Sunday is said by Jesus after Jesus sees the
disciples arguing about who is going to be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. While I don’t believe the Vestry members and
other leaders of the parish rushed up to the front of the church fighting over
who was the greatest among all leaders at St. Paul’s, I do believe the Spirit
called Hatch forward to put things into perspective.
In the Church, we spend a lot of time trying to find
the best and most qualified people to be leaders in the Church. While this is all well and good, we must not
lose sight of how God himself calls people into ministry. If we look at the entire narrative of
scripture, we see God calling a lot of under-qualified people into
ministry.
God calls Abram and Sarai to be the parents of many
nations when they are well beyond retirement years. God calls Moses to be a prophet when Moses has
a terrible speech impediment. God calls
Jeremiah, who is only a boy, to be a prophet in a land that is dominated
nepotism. And finally, the Savior of the
world was born in a place like Minter, Alabama to lowly parents and rose up to
become the King of kings and Lord of lords.
This King of kings also calls the under-qualified in
the calling of his disciples. The same
people who failed out of Rabbi School start arguing along the way about who was
going to be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom.
The same people whom Jesus rescues from a life of where they will never
amount to anything are arguing about who is going to be the most highly exalted
in Jesus’ court. Oh, the irony!
In order to further establish his point, Jesus puts a
child in front of the disciples. Jesus
is basically telling the disciples that he calls them not because of their
greatness or a least their perceived greatness.
Rather, Jesus calls these disciples because of their weakness. Jesus is saying that the kingdom of heaven
belongs to those who have no illusions that they are there because of their
greatness. As I am sure you have heard
before, God doesn’t call the qualified; God qualifies the called.
A couple
of months ago, I attended on the One Selma: Coming Home United in Faith
meetings when we discussed Return to Worship Week. A fairly long discussion ensued about how to
reach out or evangelize to those who aren’t going to church. As you might imagine, there were a lot of “best”
ideas being tossed around the room. Soon
the conversation devolved into a conversation about whose church had the
“greatest” evangelism skills.
I’ll admit there were times during the conversation
when I knew that the Episcopal Church had the greatest evangelism tools but
like a good Episcopalian, I didn’t say anything. I sort of just prided myself in knowing that
we are the best. I hope you are picking
up on the irony and satire I am projecting.
Looking back at the meeting, I wish Jesus would have been there to put a
child in our midst and said, “evangelize to this little guy.”
And I am not talking about Jesus putting a Hatch
Bearden in the room—that would have been way too cute. Rather, I am talking about Jesus putting a
child who had nothing in the room, a child who doesn’t have round rimmed
sunglasses, a child with shorts that were too small and a shirt that was too
big, a child who hadn’t bathed in days, a child who was hungry for food, a
child whose parents, for whatever reasons, cannot be fully present, a child who
was hungry to be loved. I say this
because this is the kind of child that Jesus put before the disciples—a child
that nobody wanted.
I wonder how the conversation might have been
different if this sort of thing happened.
And you know as well as I do that we don’t have to go very far to find
this child. I imagine some of you see
this child every day in your work or in your daily lives. I imagine that this child sometimes shows up
at the food pantry or in our schools.
I’ve even seen this child walking around the streets of Selma at times
and places where nobody needs to be walking around by themselves.
Brothers and sisters, God has put an unwanted child in
our midst and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes
me.” How will we respond? How will we reach out to this child? How will we welcome this child in the name of
Christ?
I want to take a minute to reflect on how St. Paul’s
has already responded. Clara Weaver
Parrish designed the Upper Hall, now Parker Hall, with a stage in hopes that
children would have a space to dance and perform. Every Sunday, we see a few children dance and
run around on the stage. A couple of
times a year we see the children of Little Friends put on a show for Christmas
or Graduation. I wonder what else is
possible.**(see footnote)**
Every Thursday, members of this parish work hard to
feed the hungry in our community. Many
of these hungry take food back to their homes and cook for their hungry
children. Every day teachers in our
parish go to school and teach children who are hungry for knowledge and hungry
for love and these teachers feed them with knowledge and love. Thanks be to God!
Some of you see this child at the Mental Health Center
who has been referred to counseling by our schools. You hear the stories of how this child has
learned to survive, stories that are simply unimaginable to most of us. You do your best to help this child find
another way to live but you know there is only so much you can do, you know
there is really nothing you can do.
Lord, have mercy upon us all.
I know there are plenty of other places where you see
the child Christ has put in our midst.
And I’d like to hear from you.
Where is this child? What is this
child’s name? What does this child
need? How can St. Paul’s share the love
of God with this child, who like us, can only be saved by the unconditional
love of God in Christ?
I’ve already talked a lot about how we use our time
and talent to share the love of Christ with this child. I want to now spend some time talking about
how we use our money and resources to share the love of Christ with this child. After church you will receive a pledge card
where you will commit a certain amount of money to St. Paul’s for 2016.
Like me, you will undoubtedly consider how much of
your pledge will go toward salaries and building maintenance and programs and
all the other things that it takes to keep a church running. This is certainly an important factor in
considering what your pledge will be. But
God isn’t inviting you to put your money into another volunteer organization
that simply does “good work” for the community.
God is inviting you to invest in something that is much more than just
an earthly institution.
You are invited to invest in the kingdom of heaven on
earth where God has put a child in your midst.
You are investing in an organization that prayerful considers how to
serve this child of God who by now you have figured out is Jesus, God’s Son, a
child who became lower than low, a child who humbled himself to the point of
death, a child who became least of all and whom God ultimately made greatest of
all.
So ultimately, I can’t believe I am going to say this,
you aren’t invited to invest in St. Paul’s because of all the great things we
do in Selma and beyond. Instead, you are
invited to invest in St. Paul’s because God believes that his light can shine
through the Church, an institution that is often plagued by conflict and
failure, an institution that often misses the child in our midst, an
institution that is ultimately unqualified to be bearers of the good news.
But this is how our God works. God is saying to the Church, which tries to
convince herself she is greatest of all, to consider being least of all. And in our consideration of what it means to
be the least of all God puts an unwanted child into our midst. At the sight of this child of God, we are
humbled to the point where there is nothing else to do but to give up our life
for the sake of this unwanted child.
Only when the Church notices this poor and lowly
child, can the Church truly understand what her mission is and her ultimate
mission is to lift this child up and make this child known to the whole
world. Our mission is to pour all that
we have and all that we are into creating a space where this child can be
loved, where this child can be worshiped.
This space certainly includes our worship space and
what a beautiful place to life up God’s only Son. The space includes our facilities where
people gather to pray and study and cry and eat and laugh so that they may be
nourished to be people of God in their daily lives—at work, at home, in the
community.
This space includes places outside the church building
where we are equipped to welcome and serve the child that would never come
through our front door. The Church is
more than a building or institution.
Because of Jesus Christ, God has put the mission of the Church in our
hearts so wherever child of Christ goes we will be there too.
As a prayer attributed to St. Francis, it is in giving
that we receive. Specifically it is in
the giving of our greatest earthly treasures (time, talent, and money) where we
receive the greatest gift of all—God’s only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And when we receive Jesus Christ God’s Son,
there is only one thing that there is left to give and that is to welcome and
make this child known.
St. Paul’s—God has chosen you to
share the knowledge of light and salvation that we gain from receiving this child into our midst.
God has chosen you to lift this child up and make him known. May we have the grace to give up the illusion
of trying to become great. May we have
the grace to lay down our greatest treasures at the feet of this child and
receive the greatest gift of all—to know that we too are welcomed by our heavenly Father who calls us all beloved sons and daughters. Amen.
**footnote**
I was approached by Professor William Maxwell who like, Abraham, was called despite his age and health to be the genius of something miraculous for the city of Selma. A life long educator and learner of child psychology, Professor Maxwell dreams of starting an orchestra school for children in Selma and his dream has even caught the attention of Julliard School in New York. In the beginning, the children will be selected from a few churches around Selma including St. Paul's. One of the hopes is for these children to go around to different churches to sing and dramatize the gospel in ways that will touch and move people to grow in the knowledge and love of God. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting possibility.
**footnote**
I was approached by Professor William Maxwell who like, Abraham, was called despite his age and health to be the genius of something miraculous for the city of Selma. A life long educator and learner of child psychology, Professor Maxwell dreams of starting an orchestra school for children in Selma and his dream has even caught the attention of Julliard School in New York. In the beginning, the children will be selected from a few churches around Selma including St. Paul's. One of the hopes is for these children to go around to different churches to sing and dramatize the gospel in ways that will touch and move people to grow in the knowledge and love of God. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting possibility.
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