Snakes and Scorpions No More!
(Rutgers, October 18, 1998; 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C;
Children's Sabbath; Reception of New Members)
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (abbreviated lectionary, OT, pp.817-818);
Luke 11:9-13 (abbreviated from 17 Ord, NT, p. 74)
"Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish,
will give a snake instead. .. .?
Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?" (Luke 11:11-12)
Is there anyone who instead of giving a child something sustaining
and nurturing gives that child something threatening and harmful?
Now, Jesus seems to have just assumed that his original audience, in
Palestine around the year 30, could answer his questions by saying,
"Of course we don't give our children snakes and scorpions!
Of course we give them the things that will make them
healthy and happy!"
But sadly, were Jesus to come to our country, today, in the year 1998,
I believe he would not be able to make that same assumption.
For I believe that here and now, many of our children
are being given snakes and scorpions instead of fish and eggs.
Nor am I by any means alone in this belief,
which is why so many churches, along with mosques + synagogues,
are responding positively
to the initiative of the Children's Defense Fund
and are observing this weekend as Children's Sabbaths.
Shame on us as a society-that we permit millions of children
to go to bed hungry,
to be victims of violence,
and to go without health insurance and quality health care.
Shame on us as a society-that in our nation,
during just the brief span of my extra-short sermon this morning,
no fewer than 75 children will suffer physical abuse.
There's one being abused now. . . . . .
and another one now. . . . . . .
and still another one now.
So, if we are to offer our children
the safe start, the healthy start, the fair start, the moral start
that God's justice demands, then,
I believe, we must work to change our society drastically.
This year, on Children's Sabbaths,
churches, mosques + synagogues have been asked to focus primarily
on the needs of those who are (quote) "orphans of the daylight"-
that is, we've been asked to focus on the needs of preschoolers
whose parents need to work during the day
and on the needs of elementary school students who come
home in the afternoon to empty apartments and houses.
Join me for a moment in imagining that everyone in the whole, wide
tri-state area of metropolitan New York were suddenly to be
transformed into preschool-age children-all 13 million of us.
What a mind-boggling assembly of younger-than-5's that would be!
Yet that's just how many preschool-age children there are
in our nation who need to be provided with quality childcare
because they are orphans of the daylight,
because either their sole parent or both their parents
have to work during the day.
There are simply not enough childcare facilities in this country
to serve that many children.
In our national fervor to end "welfare as we've known it,"
we've overlooked the need to provide quality childcare,
and those few politicians who have written legislation
to establish childcare centers for poor children
have been faced in recent elections by opponents
who label them "anti-family."
Furthermore, much of the childcare that already exists
either is too expensive to be used by a low-income family
or is of too poor quality to provide helpful service to any family.
In families where both parents work full-time in minimum-wage jobs,
the gross income, before any deductions, is only $21,400 per year.
yet quality care for just one of their preschool children
can easily cost them $4,000-10,000 per year.
Yes, there's work to be done if our society is ever to offer the children
of families like these fish and eggs instead of snakes and scorpions.
Now, join me in a second exercise of imagination.
Imagine that every resident in those great metropolises of
Los Angeles and Chicago were suddenly to be
transformed into one of the elementary-school children
who every afternoon return to a home empty of adults.
What a mind-boggling assembly of unsupervised
orphans of the daylight that would be!
Yet such an image would suggest to you the size and scope
of our nation's need for additional after-school and homework
programs, for programs beyond the number already existing.
And such an image would suggest to you the size and scope
of the need we must meet if we are to offer our children
fish and eggs instead of snakes and scorpions.
I believe that in this morning's Second Lesson Jesus is challenging
churches to become persistent advocates for children-
advocates first in our prayers to God
and then, beyond that, in our actions within society.
I believe that the Risen Christ is challenging churches to be advocates
before our federal, state, and local legislatures for
making quality childcare and after-school programs available
to parents on a sliding scale of fees.
And I believe that the Risen Christ is also challenging churches to
explore whether we ourselves may have the resources necessary
to develop or sponsor such new programs for children.
The Session and Trustees of Rutgers have committed this church
to making the full physical resources of our building available
for new and creative church programming of various kinds.
We have done this by transferring the counseling center
and the offices of both Presbyterian Senior Services
and New York State Christian Endeavor
from our parish house to our office building and by
letting CATS's lease on our gymnasium expire next June.
And we have recently formed a Long- Range Planning Committee
to help chart our exciting development of just and loving service
into the 21st-century.
On this Children's Sabbath, I invite and urge you to share
any ideas you have for children's ministries
with me, with the officers and staff of the congregation,
and with the Long-Range Planning Committee,
whose chairperson is Dr. Vera Mowry Roberts.
I pray that Rutgers Church may be found in the vanguard
of those seeking to transform society ,
of those seeking to add fish and eggs to our nation's diet
so that our country will offer children
snakes and scorpions no more!
Let us pray.
O God, we pray for the well-being of our nation's children even as
we pledge ourselves to act on their behalf, both as individual citizens
and as a congregation. May we be instruments of Your love and
justice in the world. In the name of Christ Jesus, we ask it. Amen.
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