Do Not Stop Them

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Matthew 19:13-15:

As I’ve mentioned before, in our staff meeting each week, we read and talk about the scripture passage that is being preached on for that week. As we looked at this week, someone wondered if we were sort of getting a mention of an ordinary activity that has totally lost its context for us. I mean we’re certainly used to people coming to Jesus to seek healings, or to question him, or sometimes to challenge him, but in today’s passage we have something unique. We have people, presumably parents, bringing children to him so that, as it says “he might lay his hands on them and pray.” It seems like perhaps this is as an act of blessing, although that is not specifically stated. Now the laying on of hands is found throughout scripture, and there is a special meaning and purpose, and the person who does the laying on of hands is a person of significance. But it’s not done with children, but here it is. So, was there a tradition of bringing children to teachers or rabbis to receive special blessings? Perhaps. And again, that might be what we’re seeing and it was just sort of so ordinary that it’s not explained as to what’s happening, and so we’re not sure exactly what’s taking place. But, it is clear that the disciples seem to understand what’s going on, because they try to stop it, and speak “sternly” to those who are bringing the children.

I always imagine the disciples that Jesus doesn’t have the time to be wasting to do these blessings, he’s way too important for something so mundane, so please go away and leave him alone to focus on the critical things that occupy his time. And one more piece of information may be helpful to thinking about what’s taking place here, and that is the involvement of children in ancient Judaism, and that is there wasn’t much, if any. Our knowledge about what happened in first century synagogues is extremely limited, much more so than you might think. While we do know that there was some involvement of adult women in worship, boys did not participate in synagogue until after age 12 and girls and young women didn’t participate at all. And so,  with that in mind, perhaps the disciple’s response isn’t all that surprising, but Jesus’ response definitely is.

And so, the not we look at today is not one most people think about when it comes to injunctions from Jesus, but it’s an important one. So far, we have looked at the commands not to doubt, not to fear, not to judge, not to worry and not to sin, and today it is not to stop them from coming. and again, it’s not really a shocking thing, or not as shocking, as it was when this was originally happened that the Kingdom of heaven would include children in it, and perhaps by some extension that the church then should also include children. When no one saw or conceived of such a thing, then this has to be pretty radical. And it’s not like this was totally new, at least according to Matthew, because in chapter 18, the disciples come to Jesus asking who is the greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus calls a child to him, maybe saying that children were often around and just not noticed of mentioned, unknown speculation, but he says to the disciples “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

And so here we have Jesus saying to things. The first is to become like children, perhaps in humbleness, or simpleness, or maybe in naivety is the best understanding of that word, in order to enter into the kingdom. As we think about children, one of the complaints I will sometimes hear, although I have never heard it in this congregation, is about children taking communion and I will be told that children shouldn’t receive because they don’t understand. My first question in response is for them to explain what happens, and second, it’s to tell them that children understand magic and mystery much better and more than adults do. Just think of what children believe that we lose as adults, and then really consider if we are better off for it or not? Mystery, magic, mystical things, children get it, we don’t, or we have to work at it. And then the second is the claim that to welcome a child is to welcome Jesus himself. Just like later in chapter 25 of Matthew when Jesus will say that just as you do it to the least of these, so you do it to me, so the same is true of welcoming children. And so, Jesus is being hugely exclusive in saying that children are to be included in the church and are just as welcome in coming to him as anyone else is, and we should do nothing to stand in their way. And he then lays hands on the children and then goes on his way.

Very short passage, but with so much information about a radical change in understanding the Kingdom of God, and people’s place in it, and then even more if we think that this was also be applied to the church and even to participation in worship. But, what if we don’t think of children here as being literal, although that has to be a portion of it, but also thinking metaphorically and asking the question who is being kept away from Jesus? Who do some people, who does the church, rebuke and say that you can’t come here? You aren’t welcome here? That the kingdom of God isn’t for you? That our vision our dreams our mission our church doesn’t have you in it? Now the reality is that few would actually say it, but the reality of how they live and work and operate makes it very clear whom is welcome and whom is not? Right? The United Methodist Church is in the midst of a break-up, and while  there are lots of things we say this is about, it’s not really about any of those actual things. It’s about money, I can guarantee you that. It’s about power, and a whole lot of that.  It’s about whether we are actually going to be welcoming or not, because while churches might say everyone is welcome, there are two ways that actually plays out. One is that you are welcome as long as you conform to who that church is and what they believe, and you better do it quickly because otherwise you will find out where the door is. And let’s be honest there are lots of churches like this all across the spectrum. And I will note that the bishop did point out that the churches who are disaffiliating from the UMC are average 97% white in their congregations. The other type is a church that says that all are welcome and also lives that so that people are genuinely able to embody the unique image that God created them to be. And of the two, the second is much harder to do. The first is really easy. To exclude is easy. To chastise is easy. To make insiders and outsiders is easy. But to truly welcome is hard. To love everyone is hard. To make a home for everyone is hard. But that’s the witness we have shown for us and the reason why I paired the passage of Jesus welcoming the children, whom the disciples try and push away, with the story of Pentecost that we also heard today.

Think about what that story is really showing us. The disciples, which are not a really diverse group, at least not ethnically or nationally, encounter the exact opposite of that. Although I should note that they are diverse in spectrum in having a tax collector and a zealot both involved. But they are locked up together waiting for the Spirit to come, and they already know that they are going to be called to do some hard things. Because Jesus tells them that when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, what will they receive? Power. And he says, when they get this power, that they will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And so, let’s start with the first of those locations. They will be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem. And where are they on the day of Pentecost? Jerusalem. So, they will be witnesses right where they are, but in a way that no one expected, because the Spirit comes upon them and they have to leave because they can no longer speak to each other. they’re all speaking different languages. God doesn’t give them a choice except to go out into the world and encounter people who are not like them. People who don’t look like them, who don’t speak their normal language, who don’t think like them, who don’t have the same occupations, who certainly believe some different things then they do. O my God, can you imagine? How horrible it must have been for them? And although it’s not covered in today’s passage, because of their preaching, because of their outreach to people who had not been included before, 3000 new converts came into the church that day. We are told in the first chapter of Acts that there were around 120 people before Pentecost. So, the church goes from 120 to more than 3000 in a day. Talk about some explosive growth. And you know what? Those people are going to want to sing some new songs, and do liturgy differently, and they eat weird things, and where are they going to sit? They’re not going to sit in my seat, are they? They better not sit in my seat!

Do not stop them from coming Jesus says. And so, are you beginning to see the application for this and how radical this do not is? Do not stop them from coming, and not only don’t stop them. Go out to them for you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Jesus says, where you are, which they do on Pentecost and to a much larger and bigger and different group then they could have probably ever possibly imagined. And then he says you will be my witnesses in Judea, which is where some are from, but where they spent a lot of time, and through which they will need to travel if they go back to Galilee. And so, this, as I hear it, is you will be my witnesses amongst your own people, in the culture you know, in the places you call home and where you feel comfortable. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and then the hard one, you will be my witnesses in Samaria. Do you know what the problem with Samaria is? It’s full of Samaritans. For programming night, the adult classes were looking at the prophet Jonah and his lack of desire to go to Nineveh to preach, and why? Because he hated those people. They were his enemies, and he wanted nothing to do with them, and certainly did not want to proclaim God’s love and repentance to them. Let them all die. That’s Samaria as well. It’s all the people that people don’t want to be involved in church, all the people that we dislike or even hate, and therefore God must hate them as well, right? Do not stop them, Jesus says. You will be my witnesses amongst them, and then, just to be totally clear, you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. You will do these things, and how, through the Spirit because when the Spirit comes upon us we receive what? Power!

Do not stop them. Let the children come to me, Jesus says. Let God’s children come to me. All God’s children. So, on this Pentecost Sunday, let us ask in what ways we might be stopping the children of God from coming. what is keeping people away from the church, and how are we participating or perpetuating those things? What barriers do we need to break down in ourselves to be God’s witness to all people? What fears do we need to let go of? What worries do we need to let go of? What doubts do we need to let go of? What judgments do we need to let go of? What preferences do we need to let go of? What prejudices do we need to let go of? What preconceptions do we need to let go of? What levels of comfort do we need to let go of? What ideas do we need to let go of? What language expectations do we need to let go of? What learning styles do we need to let go of? What favorite things do we need to let go of? What pasts do we need to let go of? What visions for the future do we need to let go of? What level of influence do we need to let go of?  And I ask these questions not flippantly, but for a deep level of reflection, because these could all be things that we are doing that are stopping people from coming to Christ. Ways in which we are being witnesses, but not in the way that Christ calls for us. And let’s be honest that we all have these things. I have them. The church has them. This community has them. Right? And the disciples didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. They actually thought they were doing the right thing. They were doing what Jesus wanted them to do. But Jesus says, do not stop them, let them come to me, because it is to such as these the Kingdom of heaven belongs. It is to us and to them, for all God’s children, so may we on this Pentecost Sunday, and every day, hear Jesus call to let all the children come and for us, empowered by the Spirit, allow God to work in us and through us, and go forth to be witnesses, bearers of the good news, to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the very ends of the earth. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.