| It’s Homecoming Sunday-our time, after our summer schedules have scattered us, for gathering again to greet and welcome each other, to extend our hospitality to newcomers in the community, and to launch our congregation’s next program year!
How appropriate it is, therefore, that our worship service today has included the celebration of our sacrament of welcome and initiation, the sacrament that stands at the beginning of our Christian journeys-the Sacrament of Baptism. For in our lesson from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus clearly tells all of us who would follow him (18:5): “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me.” Now, the destiny of our baptisms, of our Christian journeys through life, is to grow in our love for both God and our fellow human beings, especially the simplest and humblest among us. And these two areas for growth along our journeys-coming to love God and our neighbor ever more fully-these are quite interconnected. For as we grow in our love for God, we grow in our capacity for loving the rest of God’s children, our neighbors. And as we grow in our love for the rest of God’s children, we grow in our capacity for loving God, our Parent. So the more fully we grow in our love for even so simple and humble a neighbor as a small infant, like Dylan, the more fully we grow in our capacity for loving Jesus. And vice versa, as well! The more fully we grow in our love for Jesus and in our welcoming of him into our lives the more fully we grow in our capacity for loving and welcoming and safeguarding the well-being of Dylan and all the other children of God in our world, whatever their age, or race, or ethnicity, or economic status, or creed. So to assist us in fulfilling the destiny of our baptisms, in pursuing the goal of our Christian journeys-the goal of our coming ever more fully to love God and the rest of humankind-let’s take a closer look at this morning’s gospel lesson. Jesus’s disciples do not get off to a very good start in this narrative. Well, each of them does have the grace, at least, to refrain from declaring, à la Muhammad Ali, “I am the greatest!” Each of them has the grace at least to express their aspirations to self-importance in the form of a question, as they ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”-each of them apparently hoping that their name will be the one Jesus gives in reply. Indeed, two other gospels suggest (Mark 9:33-37; Luke 9:46-48) that immediately before this episode the disciples have been arguing among themselves over which one of them would become Jesus's stand-in or representative if he actually does die the death he has been predicting. As Jesus considers how to respond to his disciples’ brash question, he catches sight of a group of children standing some distance away, and he calls out to one of them to come over to him. Now, you can be absolutely sure that no one else among the adults assembled there would ever have imagined that a child should receive the title “the one God deems to be ‘the greatest.’” For, sad to say, in the culture of Jesus’s time-that is, the first century-children were considered to be “non-persons,” and they were expected to stay invisible to the public eye. Indeed, in terms of status, infants and children were considered to be just about on the same level as slaves. How different that cultural world was from our own, in which children are regarded as having their own individuality and dignity, in which children are the apples of their parents' eyes, the virtual princes and princesses of the family. But not so way back when! The Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas lived long after the first century- to be exact, in the thirteenth century-but his evaluation of children's social status did not differ very much from that of Jesus’s contemporaries. For Thomas taught that in a raging fire a husband was obliged first to save his father, then his mother, next his wife, and last of all his young children. And in Thomas’s time, whenever famine came to a land, children were fed last, after all the adults. Well, as I said, in the first century the status of a child was no better than it was in Thomas's late middle ages. Now, in the scenario of today’s gospel lesson, some children have ventured outside their homes, presumably with their mothers, and they are “hanging out” around the edges of the place where Jesus, a renowned rabbi, is offering his followers public instruction. When the disciples ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” he lifts his gaze, spies these children, and calls to one of them to come over to him. As I imagine it, when the child arrives Jesus warmly embraces and hugs her and places her front and center. Yes, I did say “her.” Oh, the original Greek text of this verse allows for the possibility that it was either a boy or a girl, but, as I imagine it, if Jesus was going to choose someone of such low first-century status as a child in order to illustrate his point, wouldn’t it have been in character for Jesus to have chosen the very least among these least of the first century-namely, a girl rather than a boy, and, indeed, perhaps the youngest girl there? Anyway, when the child who has been summoned arrives, probably carried there by her mother, Jesus stands her front and center and tells his disciples that whoever welcomes her welcomes him. Thus, Jesus enacts a parable, a sign drama. But what does this drama mean? What is its point? Well, I believe that Jesus wants to highlight here not the child’s quality of naïveté or innocence or purity of heart or even trustfulness, but rather the child’s lowly social status, the child’s humbleness, the child’s cultural powerlessness. Here in Matthew, Jesus is foreshadowing the parable he will teach seven chapters later (25:31-46), the parable of the sheep and goats, in which the person who has performed an act of generosity and hospitality toward one who is hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison or a stranger has done it also toward Jesus himself. Whoever welcomes one such vulnerable person in my name, welcomes me. “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Well, not any one person, but many. For the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are all those who take upon themselves the humble status assigned a first-century child, a slave-all those who serve others without any thought for reward. It is such as these who throughout history have been the stand-ins for Jesus. In this morning’s gospel lesson, Jesus is directing his disciples to open themselves to welcoming and serving the powerless in society. For welcoming and serving the vulnerable and the weak-including children, but not limited to them-it is exactly this that Jesus’s ministry was all about, and that we as Jesus’s followers need to be about if we are to fulfill our baptismal destiny by growing in our love for God and for neighbor. Thus, dedicated ministry to those who are most vulnerable is a good measure of our growth in discipleship. So let me mention, shamefacedly, that two of our congregation’s ongoing ministries to the vulnerable are quite short of the number of volunteers they need if they are to continue to thrive. One of these programs is the Thursday-night meal we provide for forty-eight seniors, many of whom have very little money and almost all of whom feel isolated, and lonely, and in need of companionship. Volunteers are needed once a month, usually on a Monday evening, to prepare, cook, and freeze four week’s worth of entrees; and then every Thursday evening from about 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. additional volunteers are needed to prepare and serve the meal. Ulla Farmer is the devoted coordinator of this program. Ulla, will you please raise your hand so that people can identify you. Now, after this worship service, either at the door or at the coffee hour or at the homecoming luncheon upstairs, please speak to Ulla or to me if you are able to help us minister in the spirit of Christ to vulnerable persons by volunteering to assist on a cooking night or on one or two Thursday nights per month. And the other of our congregation’s ongoing ministries to the vulnerable that is short of the number of volunteers it needs to thrive is our Sunday-night-to-Monday-morning shelter for ten homeless men. Homelessness continues to be a desperate social ill of our society, with thousands upon thousands of families and individuals being unable to find a safe, comfortable bed in which to sleep each night. Over one hundred houses of worship in our city, including ours, participate in a network for assisting these persons, the network called Partnership for the Homeless. Under the auspices of the Partnership, persons are welcomed at special drop-in centers throughout the city, where they are offered social services and a shower, where they are screened for sobriety, and then assigned overnight accommodations at one of the shelters operated by a participating house of worship. Our gym, located beneath this sanctuary, is used as a shelter three nights a week. On Fridays, the guests are welcomed by hosts from the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church; on Saturdays, by hosts from our near neighbor, Christ And St. Stephen Episcopal Church; and on Sundays, by hosts from our own congregation. So we need to provide one or two volunteers each Sunday night to serve and minister in this way. The volunteers arrive around 6:00 p.m. and provide a meal for the men and help them relax for awhile in front of the TV set. And then as the men bed down in the gym, the volunteers retire for the night to beds in the Blue Room, adjacent to the gym. Monday morning involves getting up early, around 5:45 a.m., helping the men with breakfast, and then getting them sent away on the van that picks them up around 6:30 a.m. Our Facilities Manager, the one and only Dermonte Alleyne, coordinates this program, and he needs several more volunteers able to give a Sunday-night-to-early-Monday-morning once a month or once every two months. After this worship service, at the door or at the coffee hour or at the homecoming luncheon upstairs, please speak to Dermonte or to me if you are able to help us minister in the spirit of Christ to these vulnerable persons by volunteering to work in our shelter. “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Well, not any one person, but many. For the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are all those who take upon themselves the humble status assigned a first-century child, a slave-all those who serve others without any thought for reward. It is such as these who throughout history have been the hands of Jesus for the present day. I pray that today all of us will heed, in one way or another, God’s call to fulfill our baptismal destiny, to pursue our Christian journey of growing in love for God and neighbor, by humbly taking upon ourselves Jesus’s role as servant to the most vulnerable. Let us pray: O God, help us to grow in our love for You and in our commitment to helping and nurturing those whom Jesus so especially loved and welcomed-those who, like children, are the most vulnerable of our world. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. |
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